Hello all! I’m new to forums so please understand if I have placed this in a wrong location or don’t provide the correct information.
I have had a stand alone Win 10 (Home) desktop for several years now (intel i3-2120-T 2.60 hz, 12 gig mem, ssd boot drive) and have been having some buffering issues on some high def movies. Other shows play fine but some movies (Toy Story 2 as an example) will buffer after only playing for 3 to 5 minutes of play. I have both the plex machine and my Roku on the network not wifi. I have able connection speeds are 300 down and 14 or so up. I can change to fiber and get 300 up and down if that could be the issue. I think someone that is far more advanced with the use of Plex and streaming may simply confirm my thoughts that I need to simple update some hardware (CPU, Mother board, Memory etc).
If it is the hardware I’m looking at a intel build. I5-9600K, 16 gig mem, Msi Pro-B360-VH mother board and a ssd for the boot drive.
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!!
You could simply throw more hardware at it and for 1 client you would be ok with the build you have spec’d out.
However, you should probably try to understand why the Roku(Ultra/Premiere?) is asking the server to transcode the movie and the most likely culprit is Audio. Newer media comes with Lossless Audio as it’s default track and you need to select the lossy track or make sure you only save the lossy track.
Thank you so much! Ill check some settings on my Plex machine to see if that could be the issue. So as you described the Roku should do the transcoding not my HTPC on the high def/4k videos. No real need to spend $500.00 on new system if the one I have works fine with some tweeks.
It’s important to understand that the Server does all the transcoding and Plex Clients only stream the content. If the target device can not accept the Video + Audio + Subtitles then the Server Decodes and Re-Encodes the movie (audio +video+subtitles) to the lowest common denominator of 1080p + whatever the device can handle in audio and subtitle.
Ok. I was looking at the info you sent and the i5 chip may still be slower than what we need at times if I read it correctly. It said to decode one 4k stream they said to use an i7??? so confusing. So we watch one stream most of the time, no multi, but some of the baby’s movies are high def etc. so would it just be wise to up all the hardware and just deal with the money cost or tweak some settings in the plex? Thoughts?
If you don’t care that the 4k will be transcoded to 2k then Plex Pass(activates HW transcoding) and a new i5,7,9 would be the best choice.
Right now there is no perfect Client for playback that covers all Video + Audio + Subtitles that you may encounter without some hoops to jump through. The closest (but not perfect) you could manage would be an Nvidia Shield hooked into an AVR (DTS-Master/Dolby TrueHD) hooked to the TV.
Thank you again!!! looks like I’m going to order the new computer items upgrade my current HTPC and pay for the Plex Pass for now. May do the shield later. If I did go with the shield can I wire that into the network and have all tv’s feed from the shield or is it only dedicated to one tv? If it is dedicated to one tv what about a high end GPU with my build to help with the audio transcoding or again is that a big waist of money for what ill get (2K) only?
GPU’s can only process video, a single core of a CPU does audio hence the nudge to a processor with higher single core rating.
The Shield can be a Server and Client but aside from the newer GPU being able to handle 4k formats it isn’t much faster than your current machine and with a less flexible operating system.
Just before you go on a spending spree are you actually using 4K files?
I see @pl_5309 link to the rules of 4K etc… But i haven’t seen you mention once any files are 4K (2160p)
In your initial post you mention HD and that can simply be 720p and 1080p.
Edit. I did actually spot you mention 4K later on. Apologies.
I would add though that if you are planning on upgrading the CPU and getting a PlexPass any Intel KabyLake onwards will more than suffice. An i5 would be perfect.
There are newer versions of PMS in testing that will easily transcode 4 or 5 4K files without breaking a sweat in QuickSync.
The need for the highest CPU capability is a thing of the past.
