I am running Plex on an underpowered DS120J. I use it for lan streaming. I have transcoding disable and when it works it works well. But sometimes does not.
I get en error message sometimes that the server is not powerful enough to convert the medium. It’s interesting because transcoding is disabled. The same video just wont play, and after a restart will then play really well. Even stream almost the whole video in a few seconds.
I think what is happening is this:
There is some background task in the DSM going on, and it’s using up some system resources. I have checked and there is not huge resources being used. It’s just temporary.
Plex might have to do some work, and finds there is not enough CPU for it to function properly, and throws the converting video message.
I think it’s just being impatient though. Waiting for the system would surely fix the issue, as I am almost sure it’s not that the resources are not available, just just that they are taking longer to be returned to Plex than it wants.
Some logic involved where if there is not a super heavy task thrown at the system, (like transcoding the video) it waits a little longer to see if the CPU is temporarily tied instead of just assuming that it will never happen.
That would be really helpful. Make Plex more reliable on these underpowered systems, which it works well on most of the time.
Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 1.88.1.96-c1c59fc1
In most cases, the issue is a lack of network bandwidth and NOT a lack of CPU processing power.
Plex often needs to transcode a video in order to accommodate the available bandwidth (or lack thereof), but since you have disabled transcoding and your NAS is NOT capable of transcoding, you are presented with those error messages instead.
Plex has no way to determine that the cause is the network, it only sees a lack of processing power, so it tells you that you do not have enough processing power, which is partly correct, as your NAS cannot transcode in order to meet the bandwidth demands.
Unfortunately, there is little you can do to alleviate that problem except to limit the devices on your network and their usage of your network, which is not convenient or easy to achieve in most cases.
Your only alternative is a more powerful NAS, but that can bring it’s own set of headaches…
I am running Plex on the local network. It’s a combination of with gigabit Ethernet & 2.5 gigabit. I can guarantee is 99% of the time working under 10% load. (if you assume only gigabit) Normally much less. The biggest thing we run on the network is the internet, which if maxed out can only use 10%.
The other funny thing is why restarting the NAS would fix a general network saturation. The only thing that uses any amount bandwidth is Plex on that NAS.
Assuming your right and the bandwidth is saturated with some unknown software saturating the LAN, videos stream well from another Plex server I operate on highly restricted 10mbps upload speed internet service. I would find it curious that 1. The other remote Plex server is not affected by the same issue when remote streaming into the same network. 2. That given video only needs 0.5% of the local network, to stream without buffering that the network is so completely unable to share traffic that it would fail outright instead of even buffering.
I have also found that on my other network, I can saturate the network with file transfers, even multiple file transfers and plex direct streams just fine. Its so good that I don’t see any difference.
Given these things, I think what you are suggesting may not be correct.
I said nothing about network saturation, I stated that you have bandwidth issues, the ability for your network to carry data and that is not the same thing as network saturation.
If you have ever watched a file downloading, you will see the peaks and valleys in the download graph. These peaks and valleys usually represent the bandwidth and the networks ability to carry data at any given time.
Rebooting your NAS is not generally what corrects the issue, it is usually the time taken to do so that affects the issue, since your network conditions have likely changed during that time.
When your bandwidth drops below the expected threshold, then Plex must transcode in order to change the bitrate of your video file to compensate for the lack of bandwidth. That is when the
error message will appear.
This condition may only last a few seconds or even milliseconds, but you get the error message anyway.
Sometimes the error may seem continuous, but what you do not see is that the conditions change constantly (think of those peaks and valleys), but may remain below the threshold longer than above it.
Ok, so your saying the network has some kind of error?
The rest of the network does not seem to have issue, for example browsing the web or downloading files at many times the speed of what is required to stream from plex is unaffected.
It still sounds very unplayable, but let’s assume your right. How would I go about testing this?
Why is it that the network has such constrains, but when I stream remotely from another plex server it’s just fine? (yes even direct streams)
No, I am saying your network has bandwidth issues, something that all networks have, it is the nature of networks in general, remember the download graph?
Now, you are talking about two different networks. Your LAN (Local Area Network) and the WAN (Wide Area Network, aka the internet).
Your LAN is configured within your Router settings and it should have an address range as set out here: Private network - Wikipedia.
Any addresses outside of the ranges shown on the page above, are considered to be WAN addresses and any WAN address can be discovered on the internet by anyone.
The WAN is configured, to some degree, by your ISP and all other ISP’s out there.
Think of your router as the doorway between your LAN and the WAN. Your router controls all traffic between the two via your router settings.
You can open or close the door between the two networks by simply configuring your router settings.
If you wish to know more about networks and how they work, I suggest you hit Google and the like and do some research. You can earn university degrees in networking if you have a mind to, it is a very large subject, far too large to cover in depth here.
I am a programmer and have installed several networks. I get how a network works.
I appreciate your help but don’t think your right. I don’t see you asking enough questions to know what you claim to about my situation. I think you’ve been selective in answering the questions I have posted, when they might indicate your right. I don’t see you correcting your idea when I show there is evidence to the contrary. I see this whole explanation of networks as illelavant. I’ve I stalled networks and use them frequently. Both in personal and commercial environments. I am not a sysadmin who knows how to program Layer 1 Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks but know the basics of what each layer does.
I was willing to entertain you, but given the lack of testing your able to advise on in order to narrow down and fix the issue, have to now conclude that your guess was not corrext. The LAN is fine. Running exceptionally. It’s not normal for plex not not be able to direct stream with relatively small files on a LAN. That’s not what happens elsewhere and that’s not what is happening here. The LAN does not experience any problems generally. Additioannly all my videos are set to direct stream and my client supports the video format. The normal behaviour with my configuration (as I use two plex servers) is to direct stream. If there is buffering, when the remote plex server is serving, I need to manually select the right transcode to use as it will just continue to direct stream. The plex server on the LAN (the one I am having issues with) should behave the same way. It never indicates on the dashboard that there is ever any transcoding happening. And there shouldn’t be. At the very least the error message is wrong. Better error checking should be used so issues can be narrowed down better.
I am 99.x percent sure that I am right about this having nothing to do with the LAN. It makes no sense with what I know about what is going on.
Given that the error message is not correct, I am putting weight on my initial guess as to what is going on is right. But it needs testing. It needs a programmer who can reproduce the error and knows more than I do about the inner workings of plex to figure it out.
I think the error is caused by the extremely limited cpu cycles of the server. I suspect that plex does not have a separate error check for transcoding specifically. It just checkes if whatever is requested is CPU bound and if it is, presumes that it’s transcoding that bound the CPU. However in this case it’s not. It’s the normal stuff that plex does to direct stream. Because in this environment it’s normal for periodic cpu binding. Plex just needs to be aware that it should wait a little longer if it’s not transcoding video. Or at least that is my imagination about it. It would of course needed to be checked.
Dude. I can direct play the same movie from a remote Plex server just fine. But the LAN won’t work because of network issues? That makes no sense. They both have to use the same LAN to the same degree! They should both not work if that was the case!
This is not an infrequent issue. It’s not just chance, as you suggested before. The probability the remote plex server will encounter this issue is NEVER. The posabilitu the local plex server will encounter this issue is about 10% of the time.
