Server not powerful enough - high end desktop pc

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 4.76.1
Player Version#: Latest AppleTV 4K

Hello, I’m struggling to understand how it’s not possible to transcode on the fly a single movie (error about server not powerful enough). At the time of the stream, only the plex server (windws 32bit version) was running, no other programs and no other transcoding activities or stream.

Can you advice on how to properly setup? It feels weird that with my specs I’m unable to even transcode 1 video at a time.

Here are my specs:

  • CPU: AMD 5800X3D
  • RAM: 16GB DDR4 3800CL16
  • GPU: Nvidia 3080 10GB
  • OS: Windows 10 21H1
  • SSD: 1TB M.2 NVME (ADATA SX8200PNP)

My network setup is: 1Gb/s link from server to access point (ASUS RT-AX88U, up to 6Gb/s), then Wifi 802.11ax multiband to AppleTV 4K in the adiacent room (it is hooked to a 4K HDR projector through HDMI 2.1 cable).

The file I’m trying to stream has the following characteristics:

General
Format                      : Matroska
Format version              : Version 4
File size                   : 22.0 GiB
Duration                    : 2 h 6 min
Overall bit rate            : 24.9 Mb/s
Encoded date                : UTC 2022-06-21 13:04:20
Writing application         : mkvmerge v63.0.0 ('Everything') 64-bit
Writing library             : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : HEVC
Format/Info                 : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile              : Main 10@L5@High
HDR format                  : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                    : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                    : 2 h 6 min
Bit rate                    : 24.1 Mb/s
Width                       : 3 840 pixels
Height                      : 1 608 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 23.976 FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                   : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.163
Stream size                 : 21.3 GiB (97%)
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No
Color range                 : Limited
Color primaries             : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics    : PQ
Matrix coefficients         : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color pri : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1478 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light : 916 cd/m2

Audio
ID                          : 2
Format                      : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                 : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name             : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                    : A_EAC3
Duration                    : 2 h 6 min
Bit rate mode               : Constant
Bit rate                    : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 6 channels
Channel layout              : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                  : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode            : Lossy
Stream size                 : 695 MiB (3%)
Language                    : English
Service kind                : Complete Main
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No
Complexity index            : 16
Number of dynamic objects   : 15
Bed channel count           : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration   : LFE

Transcoder settings are:

  • Transcoder quality: Prefer high quality
  • Background transcoding x264 preset: Fast
  • Enable HDR tone mapping: Checked
  • Disable video stream transcoding: Unchecked
  • Use hardware acceleration when available: Checked
  • Use hardware-accelerated video encoding : Checked

EDIT: I’m using external .srt subtitles → no colors or fancy things, plain text only

2

Have you tried setting Direct Play → Force on the client? Provided the Apple TV client can natively play H265 video & E-AC-3 audio the PMS doesnt need to transcode.

I like to have powerful Plex clients (Roku 4/Ultra, Amazon Fire Cube) that can handle many audio & video codecs and then PMS only has to stream the data, no transcoding needed. Anytime Plex has to transcode you’re gonna loose video detail, much better just to play the original stream.

3

Are you playing the movie with subtitles? If so, disable them temporarily.
For fun & giggles, disable “Enable HDR tone mapping” temporarily. Then repeat the test. Does this change anything?

4

I’ve not seen that before but if there are bad audio channels, that can affect the playback of the entire file.

5

I have found for clients that cannot play HEVC it’s best to optimize the video ahead of time so that they can get a stream that works for them without my server having to transcode. The only thing I tend to transcode these days is the audio stream.

Of course this will take up more space.

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