QNAP Plex Server stuck buffering via web player. Transcode issue?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.20.1.3213
Player Version#: 4.34.4
NAS: QNAP TS-451DEU

Hi,

I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to understand why streaming from my Plex Media Server on my QNAP NAS works fine over LAN (WiFi) on my laptop via web player or on my Nvidia Shield Pro. But as soon as i’m at another location accessing through the web player the media is stuck buffering.

I’ve figures out that the issues relates to transcoding.

I’ve tried all server settings trying to disable transcoding completely, but whenever i enable “Disable video stream transcoding” then i get the error message: “This server is not powerful enough to convert video.”

Is there anything i’m missing to make it work properly?
I’ve read that QNAP have removed certain codecs, which could play a role? But should the client be responsible for decoding the raw stream optimally?

Thank you in advance!
JH

2

Sometimes the message is misleading.

Is there enough bandwidth (upload from and download to) to play the file remotely?

Which player/client are you using?
Plex’s players are all aware of what the device can play natively. PMS will convert, as required, to whatever is needed for that device. (transcoding).

3

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

I’m on 1/1gbps fiber.

The issue is only with the web player, and i can reproduce it on both LAN and on a remote location - tried on both mac and PC.

The native player on mac works like a charm (only tested locally so far).

The issue seems to dissapear when i choose original quality under playback settings. But some files (4k MKV it seems) always will transcode, and is thus impossible to play.

Any ideas on what i can do more?

Thanks!
JH

4

The TS-451 (any of the variants I have) are 2160p HW capable.

Please see this excerpt from the NAS Compatibility Guide –
The right three columns are 2160p SDR, 2160p HDR (UHD), and external GPU.

QNAP	TS-451	x64 (Celeron J1800) 2.4GHz 	Yes	Yes	Some	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	
QNAP	TS-451+	x64 (Celeron J1900) 2.0GHz 	Yes	Yes	Some	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	
QNAP	TS-451A	x64 (Celeron N3060) 1.6GHz	Yes	Yes	Some	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	
QNAP	TS-451U	x64 (Celeron J1800) 2.4GHz 	Yes	Yes	Some	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

PMS will fall back to SW transcoding in all cases when 2160p is played.

5

Thank you ChuckPa! I appreciate the input.

I’m just wondering why i can’t stream the video non-transcoded via the web player? It doesn’t seem to be an option for my 4k MKV. Or is this simply not supported?

Or is my only hope for 4k to use the dedicated application (for mac og PC) or e.g. an Nvidia Shield Pro?

I’d ideally like to avoid that the user experiences issues on the web-end, due to back-end transcoding issues.

Thank you!
JH

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