I am pretty new to Plex and was wondering what was the most optimized setup for my situation.
At home I have a NAS Synology on which I have installed the Plex Media Server application. I play the movies on my TV using my PS4 and the Plex application. BUT I often run into errors saying that Plex cannot play a given video because plex media server is not powerful enough.
I have been checking the forums and it seems that the server may be the source of issues but the player (on PS4) may be another.
So what would you recommend me ? I could install the Plex Media Server on a separate computer if more efficient, or I could install Plex Media Player on a small computer connected via HDMI to the TV.
In the later case, I believe there should be a way to install it on linux and make it boot directly on plex media player… i guess. Is there any tutorial?
@trumpy81 said:
The reason you get this message “plex media server is not powerful enough.” is because your files are not in the required format for the PS4 and your Synology NAS is unable to transcode them.
The easiest way around that is to re-encode the file to a supported format, such as MP4 H.264/AAC or AVC/AAC. You can do that using Handbrake (Mac) or Video To Video (PC) both are free and both do a good job of re-encoding video. There are a number of other programs you can use also, so simply choose one that you are comfortable with.
When you rip or download a video, make sure you choose a format that will play on the PS4 or any other device you wish to use. If you do that, then you will find that you only have to re-encode the odd file here and there.
Actually I do not agree that is the “easiest” way the get around the problem. It is the cheapest but it takes quite a bit of time even if you do it on a pretty powerful computer and with a quite large library it may be prohibitively time consuming. And it almost always will result if some loss even though that loss can be minimized. The only way to really get no loss would be to only change containers and that often would not be enough as the underlying video/audio format may not be compatible.
The easiest way to correct the problem is to get a more powerful computer be it another NAS or a regular computer and continue to use the current NAS for storage only or just move the drives to the new computer. That may not be the cheapest way and it may not be the most desirable but it would be easy and pretty painless.
Whatever you choose do NOT go for just fixing the current problem(s) but rather look to fix the problems that could occur down the road. Try to look at least three years into the future. That way it will be at least one and a half years before you need another upgrade.
A couple of years ago I bought a computer for my Plex server that was the best I could afford. That computer is still good enough for all my Plex needs and will be for another couple of years because I got lucky. With my current setup I avoided having to re-encode anything because Plex can transcode everything of mine or that I inherited a few years ago. Good hardware saves a LOT of time and effort.
It is best to not try to force old antiquated hardware to work with Plex and while re-encoding will work for a while it is not really a solution but rather it is a stop-gap kind of like putting a band-aid on a cut artery.
The final decision is up to each user but server hardware is the last place users should look for savings.
@Elijah_Baley
Could not agree more.
Invest in a good server box that is simple, robust, and powerful in it’s own right.
Implementing a NAS for a PMS can be Penny Wise but Pound Foolish (imho)
NAS The S = Storage (Even though it has a small computer running Linux. Main Utilization is storage)
PC The C = Computer. (What Plex needs to Operate and Transcode which is CPU Intensive)`
OK, thank you very much for your answers. So the bottleneck is the Plex Server… I’ll try using my small computer as Plex server and see what happens but it should be much more powerful than my NAS in terms of hardware.
@Vorko76 said:
OK, thank you very much for your answers. So the bottleneck is the Plex Server… I’ll try using my small computer as Plex server and see what happens but it should be much more powerful than my NAS in terms of hardware.
That “may” not be the best choice either. In general Plex servers do MUCH better if they have no other regular tasks. Plex is designed to coexist with other software BUT it is a complex system and it is easier than it should be to destabilize. Also Plex is processor intensive it can adversely impact other tasks on a computer and visa-versa.
Strongly agree with Elijah. The concept around Plex and the experience it offers (along with the ease it promises) hinges greatly on having PMS running on a computer powerful enough to do transcoding (to whatever degree of transcoding your situation requires). Only then do you get the ease and convenience of just dropping whatever file you have onto the server, regardless of format, and having it play seamlessly on any Plex client. Avoiding transcoding is not “easy”… it just allows you to cheap out on hardware, and in return you spend a LOT of time, effort and frustration trying to micro-manage every aspect, learn and use technical tools on a perpetual basis to pre-transcode everything, and struggle to get close to (but never actually reach) 100% avoidance of triggering a transcoding need.
