I have an HTPC running Windows Media Center, and it’s just not powerful enough for Plex. (AMD A6 APU) So I want to get a standalone Plex server so I can watch my 1080p movies without it pausing every 3-10 seconds!
My network is hardwired (albeit Cat5e but with all-gigabit hardware) and the Nvidia would be grabbing files from the HTPC’s hard drive.
Is this going to be a good smooth server? Can the Shield handle transcoding of Blu-Ray MKVs without constant buffering?
Thanks for your help.
Sounds like your PC is not powerful enough to play** your files**.
Not a Plex or server hardware issue but the media format !
Just for the hell of it recode your mkv to mp4 to around 3gb each or 3000bits p/m.
FYI I have 2 Shields and a Skull NUC i7 I use as servers
Only if you can find a Shield Pro, with the 500GB internal drive, which was recently discontinued by Nvidia.
The Shield is more than capable of transcoding 1080p video. However, the 16GB Shield does not have enough internal storage space for the PMS database, metadata, etc. Right now it is not possible to move the data to external storage. Plex and Nvidia are working on a solution, but there is no announced delivery date.
Check out systems with a 7th or 8th gen Intel processor, i3/5/7-7xxx & i3/5/7-8xxx (Kaby Lake & Coffee Lake). You can then take advantage of the iGPU and use hardware accelerated transcoding. The iGPU in the 7th & 8th gen systems can handle H265 in addition to H264. If you really want to dig into the details, see Datasheet, Volume 1, Processor Graphics section for each generation at Technical Resources: Intel® Core™ Processors.
Nvidia GPUs can also be used for hardware accelerated transcoding. Be aware that Nvidia limits their consumer GPUs to two simultaneous transcodes. I’ve no direct experience with AMD GPUs & iGPUs, so cannot speak to their transcoding capabilities.
On a more general note…
As long as media is Direct Played, Plex does not require much CPU power to stream a movie. The Celeron in my NAS can easily stream Blu-ray rips at 20 - 40 Mbps (i.e. rip Blu-ray to mkv file w/ MakeMKV).
Before buying a new PMS system, investigate why your media is transcoding (container not supported, audio/video codec not supported, media encoded at incompatible profile & level, etc.). Many clients show the transcode reason onscreen. You can also look at Status -> Now Playing via the PMS web interface.
Look for ways to avoid transcoding in PMS: remux from mkv to mp4; process media with Handbrake or similar; possibly change clients to one that supports more formats; etc.
It is not always possible to avoid transcoding. However, if you are transcoding everything, throwing more CPU cycles at the problem is not necessarily the best solution. Better to make transcoding the exception, not the rule.
@FordGuy61 said:
Only if you can find a Shield Pro, with the 500GB internal drive, which was recently discontinued by Nvidia.The Shield is more than capable of transcoding 1080p video. However, the 16GB Shield does not have enough internal storage space for the PMS database, metadata, etc. Right now it is not possible to move the data to external storage. Plex and Nvidia are working on a solution, but there is no announced delivery date.
I’d understood this is only a problem if you have a large library. I’ve no idea what qualifies as large, but I’m using a 2017 Shield (non-Pro) with a 1TB USB 3.0 drive configured as adoptive storage with around 200 items in my library and all is good.
@DavidAndAndrea said:
@FordGuy61 said:
Only if you can find a Shield Pro, with the 500GB internal drive, which was recently discontinued by Nvidia.The Shield is more than capable of transcoding 1080p video. However, the 16GB Shield does not have enough internal storage space for the PMS database, metadata, etc. Right now it is not possible to move the data to external storage. Plex and Nvidia are working on a solution, but there is no announced delivery date.
I’d understood this is only a problem if you have a large library. I’ve no idea what qualifies as large, but I’m using a 2017 Shield (non-Pro) with a 1TB USB 3.0 drive configured as adoptive storage with around 200 items in my library and all is good.
just to understand: in the USB drive configured as adoptive storage you have both metadata and multimedia content? (movies etc). I though this was not yet possibile.
I am asking because the PRO is not available and I was planning to buy the 16GB+USB Flashdrive for library and metadata+USB 3.0 HDD for actual content.
No. Metadata and database is still held on the internal storage.
Media is (as far as I’m aware) held on the adoptive storage.
@FordGuy61 said:
As long as media is Direct Played, Plex does not require much CPU power to stream a movie. The Celeron in my NAS can easily stream Blu-ray rips at 20 - 40 Mbps (i.e. rip Blu-ray to mkv file w/ MakeMKV).
Before buying a new PMS system, investigate why your media is transcoding (container not supported, audio/video codec not supported, media encoded at incompatible profile & level, etc.). Many clients show the transcode reason onscreen. You can also look at Status → Now Playing via the PMS web interface.
Look for ways to avoid transcoding in PMS: remux from mkv to mp4; process media with Handbrake or similar; possibly change clients to one that supports more formats; etc.
It is not always possible to avoid transcoding. However, if you are transcoding everything, throwing more CPU cycles at the problem is not necessarily the best solution. Better to make transcoding the exception, not the rule.
Most of my stuff are my Blu-Rays ripped using MakeMKV. So they’re big files, and when I watch on Xbox One, PS4, or Android->Chromecast, they’re pausing every few seconds so I assume it’s trying to transcode them.
What does your Plex Server say while playing the file from one of the devices. The below screenshots are a BluRay rip using MakeMKV that I then converted to HEVC or h265. My Shield is able to Direct Play just about everything I throw at it so there is no transcoding happening on the server.
My FireTV Stick is able to Direct Stream the same movie with very little converting occurring on the server, I see a Plex Transcoder process but it is running at 0% CPU.
The key to limit Transcoding on the server is really the clients being used and what they can handle playing without the need for transcoding. If your server has to transcode and is under powered you will run into issues with buffering as you have seen.
