I’ve adopted Plex back when it was a fresh XBMC fork. For the past 9 years, I’ve been running it on a Early 2009 Mac Mini, and though it worked fine until a few years ago, lately it’s been getting unbearable to watch videos, since there’s usually more buffering than playback. My server is the Mini, and I usually (at the moment) watch via the web interface on my laptop via wi-fi. So it’s all local and technically shouldn’t be too slow.
My Mini has a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM. Has that become too little processing power for the PMS?
I’ve been thinking about a Raspberry Pi instead, but they tend to have less GHz & RAM, so I’m not sure if it would improve my situation…
Or is there possibly anything else I can do to improve performance?
with the media pre transcoded into an appropriate bitrate and size with a container that can be used natively … you can run plex media server on a HP calculator from the 80’s
my backup plex server is a really old socket 775 core duo e8400… and it can still transocde a bluray in realtime… just barely…
oh… and ditch the web player … get a plex client for you laptop… or openPHT if plex doesnt make one… the web interface sucks…
@dragonmel said:
with the media pre transcoded into an appropriate bitrate and size with a container that can be used natively … you can run plex media server on a HP calculator from the 80’s
my backup plex server is a really old socket 775 core duo e8400… and it can still transocde a bluray in realtime… just barely…
Pre-transcoding all my media would mean days and days of my server running hot, plus using up a lot of extra space for the transcoded files, I’m not really sure if that’s the best solution for me… I previously tried using pre-transcoded files, but it just took way too long to be viable.
Take @dragonmel 's advice and download a better Plex client for your laptop.
Start with PMP (available above under DOWNLOADS)
Although it looks by default like the web app, it plays almost anything without requiring transcoding on the server. That should improve things.
As long as you don’t update your server hardware, you should stay away from HEVC/H.265 downloads.
As @dragonmel mentions, ditch the web player. Use Plex Media Player for Windows or Mac.
The goal is to avoid transcoding as much as possible. PMP direct plays many more formats than the web browsers.
Example: Blu-ray rip of Bourne Ultimatum, VC-1 video, dts audio, MKV container.
Via Chrome on my PC, both video and audio transcode. With PMP on same PC, direct play.
Transcoding video is the CPU killer. Avoid that and you can get more life out of your server. Transcoding audio still hits the CPU, but not nearly as much as video. Same for Direct Streaming, where PMS re-muxes the audio & video. It is still a CPU hit, but nothing like transcoding video.
You need to be careful when picking clients, making sure they can handle the video you have in your library.
For example, the Amazon Fire TV can handle H264 & H265 video, but not dts audio. So, the audio would transcode for any media with dts audio.
The AppleTV doesn’t like MKV files. Any video in an MKV container would Direct Stream, not Direct Play, as the server would have to remux the file. You can avoid the CPU hit by re-muxing the file from an MKV to MP4 container (Of course, the audio/video would have to be in formats supported by a mp4 container and supported by the AppleTV).
Subtitles are a big cause of transcoding too. If the format (pgs/vobsub/text) is not supported by your client, PMS will have to burn them into the video, which will cause transcoding.
Thanks for your advice everyone! I will try using the PMP client and see if that improves my situation 
I don’t have a lot of HEVC files, but is there anything at all I can do with my mini (other than pre-transcoding them) to make them run smoothly?
@adastrame
you have to pay the piper sooner or later… but the piper has to get paid…
either transocode your files into something useable on weak hardware… or buy the hardware that can transcode your file in real time. taking into account the highest bitrate you are transcoding and how many streams you need running concurrently
further… most people make the mistake … largely becuase even Plex in its FAQ doesnt quite get it… that you need a passmark PER CORE… not just total…
if you have VC1 blu rays… they dont multithread… so if you want at 1.X or more transcode speed… you need a processor with a passmark over 1k PER CORE… not just total…
also keep in mind that memory comes into play and these days… even ubuntu server with no GUI (one of the leanest OS) you need more than 2gig to get much done.
there is no free lunch…
my 2008 macbook plays HEVC just fine… with PMP…
as stated… your mini… for full bitrate 1080 content is probably not up to the challange…
so you need clients that can play your content without transocding, pre transocode the file, or get a better server … really that simple
playing back HEVC is not intensive… encoding INTO h265 HEVC is expensive…
transocding h265 into h264 is supprisingly not cpu intensive either… at 1080… obviously with your hardware 4k is not an option… unless your client can play 4k native and even then its a crapshoot …
