- Downloaded from Plex
- Done (I had to claim the server to my account?)
- Yes
Outstanding.
Please go to Settings - Server - Help and click ‘Download Logs’.
It will give you a ZIP file.
Please drag & drop that ZIP file into the reply window, Let it upload (will show a URL when complete), then Post .
I’ll see what it didn’t find.
I had stopped the PMS service on the Synology bc I noticed it was continually trying to negotiate a 4GB 4K GoPro video that I put in the folder that the library linked to. So I deleted the video from the folder, and then restarted PMS. Not sure if the log will contain all the info you’re looking for… Let me know if not and I can redo all the tests I was just doing.
I see it. Hardware Acceleration didn’t enable. (TPU flag)
Jan 17, 2018 13:28:40.872 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session ABF527E0-5C1E-49F3-9B41-E428E99384F8 at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Jan 17, 2018 13:28:40.878 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Jan 17, 2018 13:28:40.879 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /volume1/video/2002-12 (Dec)-31/MS20070224234410-05.mpg
Jan 17, 2018 13:28:40.879 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support not present
Jan 17, 2018 13:28:40.879 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: vaapi
Restarting PMS will force it to enable because the server connects with Plex.tv which informs it of the new feature flag (TPU).
If you go to Settings - Server - Transcoder, the flag to enable Hardware Acceleration should now be checked.
In your log files, I also see where PMS is able to process video faster than realtime requirement (speed=1.4 = 1.4x real time. 1.0 == real-time)
Jan 17, 2018 13:36:02.321 [0x7f67d6511700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:49716 (Loopback)] PUT /video/:/transcode/session/F6F7A1FE-EE91-49E9-9D46-313E1E936124/fe07cb64-17f1-47a9-841d-79be1c07f805/progress?progress=57.1&size=-22&remaining=14&vdec_packets=845&vdec_sw_ok=842&speed=1.4&vdec_hw_status=0 (17 live) Signed-in Token (J_fo)
I also see where PMS is very busy making photo thumnails. Do you have a lot of photos being indexed ?
Everything I am seeing here tells me:
- PMS is using hardware assist
- It’s more than capable of playing back the video you selected
- The DS418play’s processor (the dual core) is overloaded in general by the demands of indexing all the media and photos while trying to play.
If you had the DS918+ you would have enough CPU to handle step 3 above. This is the limitation of a dual core.
I would like you to stop (cancel scanning) of the photo section(s) and play one of the 1080p videos to establish the baseline.
Funny, I deleted the photo library a while ago. How then do I stop the photo scanning process? And on which devices do you want me to play a 1080p video to establish the baseline?
Let’s do it this way.
Everything is done in the left pane.
- If any of the library sections listed show a spinning circle, hover over it to expose the ellipsis. Click it and ‘Cancel scanning’
- After everything is cancelled and quiescent, hover over
Librariesto expose that ellipsis. Click it. click "Optimize Database’ and let it finish - You can play the 1080p on any device, even your computer’s browser. We’re establishing that ‘dumb/limited’ baseline
Props to ChuckPA for the good explanations!
Just want to add my 2 cents to this thread because I went through all the same dilemmas before I finally decided on a (for my uses) usuable situation. What you need to be a happy Plexer totally depends on what you’re planning to do with Plex, if you want to stream stuff to your whole (extended) family it takes something else compared to just being able to watch stuff on the main TV at home.
My homesetup is a DS916+ NAS that runs Plex Media Server, with most of my media in mp4/x264 video and AAC audio (but I’m slowly moving over some stuff I’ve watched to HEVC to save space). Also, I have very little media with bitrates higher than 10mbps. My players consist of a bunch of Android devices, my laptop (I usually just use Plex Web), two Samsung TVs (an older one with Orca’s Plex App that runs basically EVERYTHING, and a newer one with Tizen that runs the official Plex App that, unfortunately, still have a few issues but works just good enough to use). I also have two Chromecasts, but I rarely use them for Plex stuff. Also, I bought a Raspberry Pi 3, and installed Kodi on it with the official Plex Plugin, and that little box also plays pretty much everything but is just bit too slow regarding user experience.
- I bought the DS916+, and I betted on Plex getting hardware accelerating going. If not, it would still be capable enough to transcode a 1080p stream to one of my devices if necessary (altough I aim to avoid transcoding when possible by having generally well supported file formats/codecs in my collection).
- I decided against having PMS run on a different system as the NAS. I know adding a dedicated machine with a more powerful CPU for running PMS is on the most flexible situation, but in the end of the day I didnt want to manage an additional system in my already gadget-ridden household (that would pretty much only be used to run PMS on), not to mention increasing the chain of elements I need to debug when things arent working.
The only thing I didn’t really consider in my setup was the use of 4K content; so maybe my setup might run into issues in that department if it needs transcoding that.
If I would buy a NAS today I would go for the DS918+. It’s CPU is a bit beefier than the one in the DS916+. It’s also a newer generation processor that should be capable of hardware-decoding 4K content. Still, in the end of the day, you’ll run into files that wont play like you want to and you’ll need to resort to probably re-encoding them with either a program like Handbrake, or view your content on that one client that does play it.
- None of my libraries shows a spinning circle
- Clicked Optimize, but couldn’t tell if it kept going or stopped or was done
test video 1080p gopro at 30fps - From my computer: (which took about 2 mins to start, and stopped for 2 mins about 3/4 of the way through the movie, afterwhich the thumbnail was no longer visible on my dashboard)
- From the TV (started right away and didnt stutter the whole way…it is wired to the LAN)
- From my iPhone 5s (which started really fast, but lost audio about 1/4 of the way in. I rewound it by 10 seconds and the audio started working again. It also stuttered along the way giving me an error message that my connection wasn’t fast enough, which could be true),
- From iPod (started in a couple of seconds and stuttered like the 5s…ended up cancelling halfway through)
As an FYI, I’m having issues with my WiFi not staying connected with my range extender. I’m going to upgrade to a Gigabit this weekend and forego the extender too. Not sure if it has any bearing on performance however.
Would you please hover over the GoPro104 clip you tried to play, Click the ellipsis and then click “Get Info”.
Please copy/paste that info here.
I am seeing forced transcoding (HW is enabled and active), I’m seeing it force limiting to 20 Mbps quality (you can change that in the player settings (set to Original or maximum
As for the iPad, 5 Ghz Wifi is a must if you want 20 Mbps to work right. 2.4 Ghz usually falls into the G band (56 Mbps max - of which you get 25-28 Mbps functional max. This does’t include the TCP and Plex overhead of 20%). On 2.4 Ghz, G-band Wifi, you are lucky to end up with 20 Mbps on a perfect connection.
Here’s the info from GoPro104:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<MediaContainer mediaTagVersion="1513172012" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" librarySectionUUID="0f30afc0-6c16-4bee-8aa6-b52163c335a6" librarySectionTitle="GoPro" librarySectionID="6" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" allowSync="1" size="1">
-<Video title="GOPR0104" librarySectionTitle="GoPro" librarySectionID="6" createdAtTZOffset="0" createdAtAccuracy="epoch,local" updatedAt="1516225611" addedAt="1514261658" originallyAvailableAt="2017-12-25" duration="336213" art="/library/metadata/103954/art/1516225611" thumb="/library/metadata/103954/thumb/1516225611" year="2017" lastViewedAt="1516224694" viewCount="3" viewOffset="180134" summary="" type="movie" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/6" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://6bc03b7b96ed38c19e816f24f6e4d25a4cde7be4?lang=xn" key="/library/metadata/103954" ratingKey="103954">
-<Media duration="336213" videoProfile="high" has64bitOffsets="0" audioProfile="lc" optimizedForStreaming="0" videoFrameRate="NTSC" container="mp4" videoCodec="h264" audioCodec="aac" audioChannels="2" aspectRatio="1.78" height="1080" width="1920" bitrate="30149" id="103164" videoResolution="1080">
-<Part size="1267079261" duration="336213" key="/library/parts/103164/1514261658/file.MP4" videoProfile="high" has64bitOffsets="0" audioProfile="lc" optimizedForStreaming="0" container="mp4" id="103164" file="/volume1/video/GoPro/GOPR0104.MP4" exists="1" accessible="1">
<Stream language="English" height="1080" width="1920" bitrate="29969" id="6953" streamIdentifier="1" refFrames="1" profile="high" level="41" hasScalingMatrix="0" frameRate="29.970" colorSpace="bt709" colorRange="pc" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" bitDepth="8" languageCode="eng" index="0" codec="h264" default="1" streamType="1"/>
<Stream language="English" bitrate="137" id="6954" streamIdentifier="2" profile="lc" languageCode="eng" index="1" codec="aac" default="1" streamType="2" samplingRate="48000" audioChannelLayout="stereo" channels="2" selected="1"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
**Moderator Edit: Applied ‘Code’ paragraph formatting to make visible in the forum 
Odd. That didn’t cut/paste correctly. I’ve attached in a notepad file.
@J_fo said:
- None of my libraries shows a spinning circle
- Clicked Optimize, but couldn’t tell if it kept going or stopped or was done
test video 1080p gopro at 30fps- From my computer: (which took about 2 mins to start, and stopped for 2 mins about 3/4 of the way through the movie, afterwhich the thumbnail was no longer visible on my dashboard)
- From the TV (started right away and didnt stutter the whole way…it is wired to the LAN)
- From my iPhone 5s (which started really fast, but lost audio about 1/4 of the way in. I rewound it by 10 seconds and the audio started working again. It also stuttered along the way giving me an error message that my connection wasn’t fast enough, which could be true),
- From iPod (started in a couple of seconds and stuttered like the 5s…ended up cancelling halfway through)
As an FYI, I’m having issues with my WiFi not staying connected with my range extender. I’m going to upgrade to a Gigabit this weekend and forego the extender too. Not sure if it has any bearing on performance however.
Are you saying your network is not Gigabit but rather 10/100? With the demands of today’s networks and the strains we put on them 10/100 is going to cut it. Furthermore “Rang extenders” where always bad performers, Extenders cut your speed by 50%. If your house is to large for a single unit to cover then please have a look at the new whole home WiFi mesh systems, The two best rite now are Netgear Orbi and Eero 2nd generation. If you live in a apartment or small home you can look at the Synology RT2600AC router that I have, It works great in covering my 1500 sqft home and yard.
Please play that file in your browser. Let’s see what it does over wire. (separation of wifi & wire)
It’s 29 Mbps (easy).
Set the player quality settings as I show them here.
ChuckPA and RayIT, I’m quickly noting that I have an issue with my home WiFi/networking solution. I’m headed to BestBuy or Microcenter to buy a new one tonight. RayIT, thanks for the recommendations on the Netgear Orbi. However I’m locating it in a very space-constrained area and the form factor won’t fit. I need something that lays flat, and preferably has 8 ports b/c I’ve got a bunch of crap to plug in, including the NAS. I checked out PCMag and saw a couple of newer ones that got higher ratings (https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398080,00.asp). Would any of those fit the bill?
As for making the configuration changes to the player, I’ve done so and played it in my browser on my computer (although I didn’t plug in my computer to the LAN…just used wireless). And the video quality is great! Just one stutter and a delayed start, which I attribute to the Wifi issues.
Good!
When you get the LAN and WiFi sorted out, you’ll have an infrastructure that will do what you need.
As you stroll down the aisles, remember “Gigabit” and “5 Ghz 802.11n/ac”
mickeldaelmans, thanks for the intel. I’m thinking I need to exchange my DS418play for the DS918+. I too don’t want to go down the dedicated computer just for PMS. I’ve already got enough stuff pile into my media shelf. Once I get these other configuration settings figured out over this forum and then move to trials with 4k, I’ll redo the NAS’s.
While I’m thinking about it. A nice feature of Synology:
- Backup your configuration (Control Panel - Backup & Restore
- WHen you plug the drives into the new NAS, it will automatically go into ‘Migrate’ mode.
- With the help of the Synology Assistant, you can install DSM for that model
- When complete, go back into Control Panel and Restore your previous configuration.
- The only thing remaining will be to reinstall the apps. Their configuration data (including PMS) will already be there
ChuckPA, did you see any red flags or other configuration settings that need changing in the last log I sent you? As for LAN/Wifi, I want to get that squared away tonight.
And thanks for the point on the Synology migration. I was just thinking about how much of a pain it would be to reload my 2TB of stuff!
@J_fo said:
ChuckPA and RayIT, I’m quickly noting that I have an issue with my home WiFi/networking solution. I’m headed to BestBuy or Microcenter to buy a new one tonight. RayIT, thanks for the recommendations on the Netgear Orbi. However I’m locating it in a very space-constrained area and the form factor won’t fit. I need something that lays flat, and preferably has 8 ports b/c I’ve got a bunch of crap to plug in, including the NAS. I checked out PCMag and saw a couple of newer ones that got higher ratings (The Best Wi-Fi Routers for 2023 | PCMag). Would any of those fit the bill?As for making the configuration changes to the player, I’ve done so and played it in my browser on my computer (although I didn’t plug in my computer to the LAN…just used wireless). And the video quality is great! Just one stutter and a delayed start, which I attribute to the Wifi issues.
Most of the wireless routers still only have max 4 ports, I know there is an Asus AC3100 that has 8 ports and got great reviews, I used Asus wireless routers for years and was very happy with them. I know use the Synology RT2600AC router and I am extremely happy with it as well but it only has 4 ports. Check out the links below.
amazon.com/Wireless-RT-AC88U-802-11ac-Beamforming-Optimization/dp/B016EWKQAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516230947&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+8+port+router
synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac
This space your talking about is it central (middle) of your home? How many sqft is your home??
No, I didn’t .
Summing up the composite solution:
- DS918+. (We’ll address adding the extra memory stick(s) AFTER you’re stable. It’s that easy)
- Gigabit switch (capable of port trunking / LACP if you feel like the few extra $$$ for future expansion and high-speed backup at up to 400 MBps / 4 Gbps). This would be a managed switch like my HPE 1820 or better.
- Wifi with 5 Ghz and 802.11 n & ac capbility. (you’ll plug that into the switch)
Regarding the Wifi, I have an Apple Airport Extreme base station. The key point here is I turned off ALL the routing functions (what’s known as ‘bridge mode’). In this configuration , it behaves as a pure Wifi -> Wired converter. That’s all you want. High speed wireless <-> wire conversion. If you find a fancy wifi / router, make certain you can turn off the routing functions… “Dumb it down” to wifi AP (Access Point) only.
In my configuration, I can push around five 4K streams and be running a full backups of both my computers (also at 1 Gbps) and nobody even notices. Some are wired and some are wireless. The LAN topology is ‘flat’ Everything in the same addressing block. This is optimal.
Followup: The Wifi gets 1 thing plugged into it: the wire connecting it to the main LAN switch. Everything else is plugged into the main switch. Let the switch do its job and push traffic where it needs to go and the wifi handle what it does. Don’t ask it to play wifi and router.
