You will probably be fine if you are only seeing 5-7 1080p transcodes simultaneously. I haven’t fully stress tested my setup, but I have been able to do 6 x 1080p transcodes and 2 x 4K HDR to 1080p transcodes simultaneously. I should note that I haven’t tested this since the tone mapping update dropped.
I appreciate the insight. Is tone mapping an optional setting?
I’m also interested to hear how tone mapping is working on the M1.
The M1 has lousy OpenCL scores compared to a modern Intel chip. Which isn’t surprising, considering Apple isn’t pushing OpenCL any more. (I bet THAT’s because they knew they would be dropping Intel!)
Does that mean we’re hoping Plex adds support for Metal, Apple’s general-purpose GPU acceleration API? I think it does.
Yes, it is. It is only applicable to 4K HDR being transcoded to SDR. Unless you have 1080p HDR content it shouldn’t be an issue.
As it stands right now, tone mapping isn’t hardware accelerated on the M1 (or at least it certainly doesn’t appear to be). Three transcodes with tone mapping enabled are the cap from what I can tell. Each 4K HDR->1080p SDR transcode chews up ~35% of the CPU.
Three, in software, under a translation layer. Wow.
Yep, that appears to be it. I haven’t tested the tone mapping feature on my Threadripper 3970x machine yet so I really have no basis for comparison if that is good, bad, or otherwise. All I know is that it is adequate for me.
https://youtu.be/wK3xVXAd6_o Only review I’ve been able to find
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Have a new MacMiniM1 and can confirm that encoding is really fast. Using VideoToolBox, a 1080p BR to H265 was getting 200+ fps. About to play around with Plex transcoding now.
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Quick update.
CalDigit TB3 to 10gbe installed, Plex updated to latest beta, Mac Updated to latest update, Yamaha firmware updates and everything set high. Here’s my take on the Mac mini m1.
For Plex, it’s an astonishing achievement. Nobody has ever done this much with so little. Not only the size, but the wattage. Nothing I have used has ever come close. I have been doing Plex since the Windows Home Server days and have used everything from an Intel 2105 i3 to Dell 720’s to E5-2690v4’s and modern Ryzen. The Plex server I was replacing was a Ryzen 3700X with 32gb of ram and either a P4000 or 2060 Super depending on the dates and it worked pretty well. When using a computer, iPad, iPhone, etc everything works amazingly with the Mac mini. I’ve tested mainly 4k HEVC files in the 70gb size range and a few 1080p remux as well. The only issue I seem to still have is with an Apple 4K. I’ve tried two different ones and they just seem to be showing their age. Every now and then I get a bit of green frames or pixelation. It gets a little better using Infuse instead of the factory Plex App (which I am using the TestFlight latest Beta of) but it’s still just not the best Plex streamer for 4k in 2020. I’m holding out for a new Apple TV in the next 6 months, if not I’ll have to buy a Shield or something but I really do not want to at all. Overall, Using a Mac mini M1 with a 10gb connection to a 10gbe server to run Plex has turned out much, much better than I even thought it would be. I will not be returning this little guy.
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Can someone point me to a good setup guide for running PMS on a Mac mini?
For a fresh install or restore from backup? Fresh install is literally just install the PMS from the official site, then set up the libraries etc. Make sure the storage is automounted if it’s not on the machine (I use the app automounter for my network share). Sleep settings is the only other setting and that is it.
Yes about that-- macOS doesn’t auto-restart to install OS updates, ever, right? Or at least, not if you disable it?
Also on sleeping: does Mac mini support wake on LAN? And does it actually work with Plex?
Hi All, really interested to hear about how the M1 chips are performing. So currently I am running my PMS on an unRAID system with intel 8900k CPU. Just keen to here where your content is stored and how your connecting this to your new Mac mini’s?
My M1 Mac mini is running great as a Plex server. Although, I have no need to transcode anything as every device I play on (local and remote) can direct play or direct stream.
I’ve been remote streaming 60-80mbps 4K HDR files no problem. Multiple 4K HDR streams locally as well.
Where do you store your content?
External USB 3.0 Hard Drives.
I use a Qnap NAS, 1Gbps lan on network share smb
Thanks, I am just thinking where i might store my content. Ive experimented with all of the above, thinking of going back to Synology.
… or maybe a DAS like the QNAP TL-D800C and just use a USB-C cable directly to the mac mini thought 10Gbps
