If there is anything anyone would like to see specifically let me know. I’ll do my best to accommodate as I have time (pesky job gets in the way of the fun sometimes).
My initial thoughts are that the M1 coupled with Rosetta is, frankly, astonishing. Having played with Windows on ARM with the Surface Pro X this MacBook Pro is on a whole other level. All of my PMS testing is via Rosetta. Upwards of six transcodes via brute force encoding through a translation layer is beyond impressive. With an universal binary the M1 could truly shine.
Not sure if there is really a standard metric, but can you tell how fast it creates video preview thumbnails compared to what you are use to. BTW, are you using NAS for your library or accessing over USB-C - or are you just using files copied to the SSD?
I am running a Synology DS3617xs over 10GbE to a 10GbE 10-port switch to an Amplifi Alien router. The MacBook Pro is communicating wholly over WiFi.
As for video preview metrics, well, all I can say is that it seems no different than my Ryzen 9 3900x that I use as my primary PMS. No quantitative information that I can provide.
I ran Handbrake and attempted a conversion of a BD from H.264 to x265 and am getting ~3.5fps on a single pass quality 22 encode. Keep in mind this is running on Rosetta so I can’t say I am surprised. The ideal situation would be to access the encoder on the M1 to allow full hardware encoding.
I can believe that. I really do think the wifi is holding me back. I will try using a USB-C Ethernet adapter and plug into my network next.
EDIT: Testing now with Ethernet adapter. So far, 2 x 4K > 1080p streams is working great.
EDIT: The Ethernet helped, but now I’m thinking I am running into issues with memory. My 8GB model is running 167% in PMS That’s with 4 streams. What is the guy on Facebook running?
EDIT: Nope… just turns out I am an idiot. Forgot that Plex doesn’t default to hardware acceleration upon install. Turned that on and I can get 5 4K > 1080p (10mbps) transcodes going. Still think memory may be an issue though.
I have a Mac mini M1 8GB to be my replacement Plex Media Server as my 2012 Mac mini cannot go on forever.
Unfortunately I just cannot get PMS to run. If I run it I can get the briefest flicker of the Plex chevron in the menu bar and then nothing. Not even an error message.
Thanks and Rosetta is only triggered when you try and open an Intel app and the macOS gives you the option of downloading Rosetta in order to continue. I was slightly surprised that Rosetta was not a default app - perhaps further encouragement to devs.
In my case something else is going on as I have found an error via console suggesting I have a Plex database corruption somewhere.
I’ll chase that down and report back but looks like a local issue rather than a wider Plex or Rosetta problem.
{Edit: Deleted and rebuilt the Plex database and all works perfectly]
From my own testing and supported by testing elsewhere 8GB looks to be a massive overkill - we probably need to un-learn what we have accepted as normal for Intel.
Put in perspective - I have way less memory pressure on my 8GB mini than my 32GB iMac Pro when running the same brace of demanding apps. Truly remarkable.
I’ll have to give the Handbrake beta a look. I’ll report back.
EDIT: Using the universal binary beta with the VideoToolbox H265 encoder I am seeing ~64fps with a 1080p BD -> H265 (CQ 42)
EDIT: For fun, I wanted to see how it would do strictly on battery… encoding speed dropped a hair to 60fps, but the battery life estimate in battery monitor is roughly 6 hours from a full battery.
Does it look like the M1 is also tone mapping from HDR to SDR on those 4K transcodes? I’ve done software transcodes in Plex before for 4K HDR to 1080p and the colors look totally washed out.
I think the amount of RAM needed is very dependent on how much transcoding you will need. Six 1080p and two 4K transcodes simultaneously saturates 8GB and some buffering comes into play sporadically.
That’s with 4 streams. What is the guy on Facebook running?
