Mac / Windows For Media Server

Dev Community Dev/API Corner
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I have been using Plex for a long time on a 2009 Mac Mini. In recent months, I noticed that my Mac Mini is struggling to keep up with my large media library and transcoding items when I watch via Roku in other rooms. I recently custom built a Windows 7 gaming PC with some very high end components.

 

I have considered moving my Plex Media Server to the Windows 7 machine and then streaming to Plex Media Player (on the Mac Mini) via a wired CAT6 Gigabit network I am currently building in my house.

 

My questions is, is the Windows Media Server software as fully featured as the Mac client and do future releases come out (including Plex Pass Previews) on Windows and Mac at the same time? My second question, is now since there is no streaming, I can fast forward and not have it skip/jump/load every time I need to fast forward? Will a CAT6 Gigabit network be able to direct play items and allow things like fast forwarding with out having additional load time or jumping/skipping? I am guessing since I going from Plex Media Server to Plex Media Player, I will be able to direct play everything instead of having to transcode like it has to do on the Roku.

 

Does anyone currently have a setup like this?

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Windows is as fully featured and gets releases at exactly the same time as OSX

I get no noticeable delay playing from a wired Mac Mini media server to a wireless Macbook so i can't see you having any additional delay using 2 GbE devices.

Your Mac Mini client will direct play without transcoding.

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Thank you for the info George. I will have to test it out once I have my network setup in my house. Hopefully taking the massive library load off my Mac Mini will help with my lagging issues.

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How many simultaneous clients/transcoding are you handling (at once)?  One should not be an issue (I think I have the same Mac mini), and I think I've done 2 at once too.  Library size should not be an issue, esp. if you turn off Library auto-scanning.

It helps a lot to tweak your settings (esp. if you're ripping your own files) to make sure you are NOT transcoding.  It took me a lot of experimenting to get the right rip settings and client settings, so good luck!

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