I have asked a question about transcoding before a long long time ago. I didn’t 100% understand the answer but transcoding was not an issue at the time.
But I noticed this weekend there is a huge issue with it. I had one friend who I share my library with, he was watching something at his home off my server, which is my main PC, and I was trying to play a video game at the time. It seems while he was watching, it was causing my game to have massive frame rate drops. I mean to the point where the game was unplayable.
So I stopped him from accessing my server and then I noticed the frame rate in my game was back to normal.
Before I stopped his stream, I noticed that he was transcoding audio and video. So I’m assuming my CPU is hitting max load while this is happening. I can only imagine it’s much worse when there are 4-5 people streaming at the same time.
my PC specs are
i7 3770K OC @ 4.3GHz
GTX 980 Ti
32 GB DDR3 @ 1866 MHz
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
my question is, is, is transcoding the issue? If so, is there a way I can stop transcoding from happening with everyone who access my server from outside my network and force everything to do direct play? And will that stop the CPU performance issue?
Also Can I set it to do direct play from inside my own network and not transcode?
Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games when I’m streaming from inside my network AND when other I am sharing with are streaming from outside my network?
I could not find cohesive answers to these issues and I was not sure where to post them. If anyone can offer any suggestions, I’m open to any idea. Eventually I am going to build a separate server for plex but I am not read to do that yet.
Transcoding is defined by the client, its network speed and capabilities. You only control your server, not your clients. Ultimately if you are OCD about transcoding and can’t control everything server-to-client, you’re not going to have a good time with Plex. Really as with most servers, you want to be running them on dedicated hardware, not using the “server” for other desktop tasks (especially demanding ones like gaming).
@sremick said:
Transcoding is defined by the client, its network speed and capabilities. You only control your server, not your clients. Ultimately if you are OCD about transcoding and can’t control everything server-to-client, you’re not going to have a good time with Plex. Really as with most servers, you want to be running them on dedicated hardware, not using the “server” for other desktop tasks (especially demanding ones like gaming).
tl;dr: you’re doing it wrong.
well I know that, hence I’m building a separate server in the future. But is there anything I can do in the meantime to alleviate CPU stress?
What are the bitrates of the media your streaming to remote users, do you have enough upload bandwidth and do they have enough download bandwidth to support direct play?
If so have your remote user set their client to direct play the media. How to do that will very slightly depending upon the client used.
PMS might be transcoding because of the format of the video file is not compatible with the client side. I had a similar issue with transcoding and found out that my mkv videos would transcode but mp4 would direct play so I changed the container of the video files that were mkv to mp4 and now everything is running smoothly.
I find it weird that nobody ever seem to think about CPU priorities when answering these kinds of questions… the function exists for these very scenarios after all. It’s untrue that you can’t do anything else with your computer just because it streams movies every once in a while. That’s ridiculous.
The truth is, your game lags when he is transcoding from your server because Windows by default shares (more or less) equally the CPU between your game and his transcode process. I know this well (used to have same problem). Your CPU is good, but it would still disturb the game because of this.
So to answer your question “Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games” : yes there is. You can sacrifice your friends transcode speed by making sure Windows prioritizes your game instead. Right in the windows task manager you can do this. Works a charm with Plex, and on my server I couldn’t live without this. For specifics see my post here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1156851/#Comment_1156851
interesting. I have plenty of up bandwith as I have gigabit internet but I’m sure not all users have the down bandwith to do direct play. Also I’m sure some of the files do not support direct play. Hmm, I guess server it is. What’s a good CPU for a server? This will be used strictly for plex and nothing else.
@d2freak said:
I find it weird that nobody ever seem to think about CPU priorities when answering these kinds of questions… the function exists for these very scenarios after all. It’s untrue that you can’t do anything else with your computer just because it streams movies every once in a while. That’s ridiculous.
The truth is, your game lags when he is transcoding from your server because Windows by default shares (more or less) equally the CPU between your game and his transcode process. I know this well (used to have same problem). Your CPU is good, but it would still disturb the game because of this.
So to answer your question “Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games” : yes there is. You can sacrifice your friends transcode speed by making sure Windows prioritizes your game instead. Right in the windows task manager you can do this. Works a charm with Plex, and on my server I couldn’t live without this. For specifics see my post here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1156851/#Comment_1156851
@d2freak said:
I find it weird that nobody ever seem to think about CPU priorities when answering these kinds of questions… the function exists for these very scenarios after all. It’s untrue that you can’t do anything else with your computer just because it streams movies every once in a while. That’s ridiculous.
The truth is, your game lags when he is transcoding from your server because Windows by default shares (more or less) equally the CPU between your game and his transcode process. I know this well (used to have same problem). Your CPU is good, but it would still disturb the game because of this.
So to answer your question “Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games” : yes there is. You can sacrifice your friends transcode speed by making sure Windows prioritizes your game instead. Right in the windows task manager you can do this. Works a charm with Plex, and on my server I couldn’t live without this. For specifics see my post here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1156851/#Comment_1156851
real quick, how do you know which process is the plex transcoder? I see two plex options but no one is using it now so im not sure what process is the transcoding process? Will is flat out say “plextranscoding” or something like that?
Also do i need to restart my PC after? Or not? And if not, do I need to set this every time I restart my PC?
@Toph Bei Fong said:
interesting. I have plenty of up bandwith as I have gigabit internet but I’m sure not all users have the down bandwith to do direct play. Also I’m sure some of the files do not support direct play. Hmm, I guess server it is. What’s a good CPU for a server? This will be used strictly for plex and nothing else.
Don’t know how big your library is but you can do what I and many other have done and that is create versions of your files that will direct play within reasonable bitrates. You can do this with the scripts listed in my thread (see sig) or use the new Media Optimizer built into Plex.
@Toph Bei Fong said:
interesting. I have plenty of up bandwith as I have gigabit internet but I’m sure not all users have the down bandwith to do direct play. Also I’m sure some of the files do not support direct play. Hmm, I guess server it is. What’s a good CPU for a server? This will be used strictly for plex and nothing else.
Don’t know how big your library is but you can do what I and many other have done and that is create versions of your files that will direct play within reasonable bitrates. You can do this with the scripts listed in my thread (see sig) or use the new Media Optimizer built into Plex.
my library is much too large to try to go back and create all of those files. I’ll just see if changing the CPU priority works and then I will go on and accumulate parts over the next few months to build a server.
@d2freak said:
I find it weird that nobody ever seem to think about CPU priorities when answering these kinds of questions… the function exists for these very scenarios after all. It’s untrue that you can’t do anything else with your computer just because it streams movies every once in a while. That’s ridiculous.
The truth is, your game lags when he is transcoding from your server because Windows by default shares (more or less) equally the CPU between your game and his transcode process. I know this well (used to have same problem). Your CPU is good, but it would still disturb the game because of this.
So to answer your question “Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games” : yes there is. You can sacrifice your friends transcode speed by making sure Windows prioritizes your game instead. Right in the windows task manager you can do this. Works a charm with Plex, and on my server I couldn’t live without this. For specifics see my post here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1156851/#Comment_1156851
real quick, how do you know which process is the plex transcoder? I see two plex options but no one is using it now so im not sure what process is the transcoding process? Will is flat out say “plextranscoding” or something like that?
Also do i need to restart my PC after? Or not? And if not, do I need to set this every time I restart my PC?
Start transcoding one of your own files (just go to plex web and put any quality setting other than “original”) and you will see the correct process. The name of the process is “PlexNewTranscoder.exe” but you will have to see it in the list yourself to be able to right click it and change it’s priority. Do note that Plex has other processes which consumes CPU sometimes (and therefore could lag the game) they all are named like this:
Plex Media Server.exe (main process, consumes slight CPU during maintenance hours)
PlexScriptHost.exe (consumes slight CPU during metadata fetch it seems)
Plex Media Scanner.exe (consumes CPU during media scan, only exists when you actually scan your library so to see it, rescan library then open the task manager whilst it scans)
PlexNewTranscoder (consumes heavy CPU during transcoding and preview picture generation, only exists when anything is actually being transcoded)
So you could do like me and just put all of these to “low” priority. This solves all further gaming problems. Or you could put your games process to “high” priority. The result should be the same, but then you’d have to do this to every game. You get the point.
Do note that Windows will always reset the priority to “normal” once the process is closed and reopened. I use the free app called “Prio” (http://www.prnwatch.com/prio/) to solve that. Just install that, reboot, and then you pick your priorities as usual in the task manager. And now they forever stick to what you select, even if you reboot.
And no, after this you don’t need to reboot to change priority or anything.
@d2freak said:
I find it weird that nobody ever seem to think about CPU priorities when answering these kinds of questions… the function exists for these very scenarios after all. It’s untrue that you can’t do anything else with your computer just because it streams movies every once in a while. That’s ridiculous.
The truth is, your game lags when he is transcoding from your server because Windows by default shares (more or less) equally the CPU between your game and his transcode process. I know this well (used to have same problem). Your CPU is good, but it would still disturb the game because of this.
So to answer your question “Is there also a way for plex not to use so much of my CPU so I don’t have performance issues with my games” : yes there is. You can sacrifice your friends transcode speed by making sure Windows prioritizes your game instead. Right in the windows task manager you can do this. Works a charm with Plex, and on my server I couldn’t live without this. For specifics see my post here: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1156851/#Comment_1156851
real quick, how do you know which process is the plex transcoder? I see two plex options but no one is using it now so im not sure what process is the transcoding process? Will is flat out say “plextranscoding” or something like that?
Also do i need to restart my PC after? Or not? And if not, do I need to set this every time I restart my PC?
Start transcoding one of your own files (just go to plex web and put any quality setting other than “original”) and you will see the correct process. The name of the process is “PlexNewTranscoder.exe” but you will have to see it in the list yourself to be able to right click it and change it’s priority. Do note that Plex has other processes which consumes CPU sometimes (and therefore could lag the game) they all are named like this:
Plex Media Server.exe (main process, consumes slight CPU during maintenance hours)
PlexScriptHost.exe (consumes slight CPU during metadata fetch it seems)
Plex Media Scanner.exe (consumes CPU during media scan, only exists when you actually scan your library so to see it, rescan library then open the task manager whilst it scans)
PlexNewTranscoder (consumes heavy CPU during transcoding and preview picture generation, only exists when anything is actually being transcoded)
So you could do like me and just put all of these to “low” priority. This solves all further gaming problems. Or you could put your games process to “high” priority. The result should be the same, but then you’d have to do this to every game. You get the point.
Do note that Windows will always reset the priority to “normal” once the process is closed and reopened. I use the free app called “Prio” (Prio - Process Priority Saver. | O&K Print Watch) to solve that. Just install that, reboot, and then you pick your priorities as usual in the task manager. And now they forever stick to what you select, even if you reboot.
And no, after this you don’t need to reboot to change priority or anything.
perfect man, thanks. this helps a BUNCH. I mean the difference is astronomical.
one last question, I run a game like Wolfenstein for instance, i can change the priority to high then tab back into the game and then tab back out and the priority will change back to normal. it works for the transcoder but not for the game.
