Just subscribed to Plex Premium (Lifetime) for the purpose of syncing movies to an iPad for a long-haul flight.
I’ve kicked off a test on a really small movie (900mb) and it does nothing. In fact, the progress says MINUS 1% converted/optimised or whatever.
Firstly - can you just copy movies without the need for converting first?
Secondly - why so slow? This is a DS216:Play with nothing else currently running so the full CPU/RAM is up for grabs
If you already have a version of this movie optimized for playback on your mobile device, you might get lucky (as in not requiring to transcode the video). The transcoding is very taxing on the DS216play’s CPU – it might actually be underpowered for the job. https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373823-nas-devices-and-limitations/
Side note: the DS216play uses an ARM and Synology’s own apps have been optimized to make use of both the CPU and Graphics component when transcoding a video. Plex however can only use this HW transcoding in combination with an Intel CPU.
You might want to look into the DS Video app in the iOS App Store to check if that performs better in syncing your video to the iPad. If you want to dig deeper into syncing/transcoding, you might want to look for a stronger platform for your Plex Server.
Thanks for the really thorough answer, appreciated.
I was on the lookout for a 218+ so maybe that will answer my problems. I genuinely thought the 216:Play would be more than man enough to do this sort of work though
