I just purchased a Synology DS918+ and found out that I can actually upgrade the memory to 16GB instead of the 8GB document on their website. Will increasing my memory from 8GB to 16 GB improve my streaming with plex?
For the most part, I use my nas server for plex only with the occasional new movie upload.
Memory will only improve when:
if you have a LOT of ram, you can also use it as a transcoder temp folder. 64 gig would be the recommended minimum.
unless perhaps you have extremely slow disk io, this does not really improve performance (transcode is almost never the bottleneck unless your cpu is overloaded, which ram transcode won’t help), but it does avoid any write/wear on ssd’s/raid arrays/etc.
It sounds like i need to let my server run for a wail and then look at the logs to see how much of my memory and CPU it is actually utilizing prior to upgrading the memory. I still have a buffering issue on my movie files when I stream them to my Samsung display and I am trying to figure out how to fix this issue.
if you are trying to stream 4k content, then the top 2 problems are HD audio and subtitles.
you can choose a different audio stream (ie dolbydigital/dts 5.1 or stereo) and/or ensure that subtitles are disabled.
also, smart tvs typically have 100m ethernet, which is often not fast enough for 4k bluray rips.
if any of all that applies to you, see also @ Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you
The highest I have is 1080p. I have noticed when I am in a remote location like at a friends house or something, the content likes to buffer a lot more even though I have there TV streaming it at low 720p automatically. I also have my transcoder quality set to auto.
The interesting thing is that I noticed sometime when I change the quality to a higher rate, it seems to work better.
TLDR: It’s one thing for Synology to state only 8GB of RAM is supported, however Intel’s own documentation states that CPU does not support 16GB of RAM. IMO it’s money better spent for an additional 4GB RAM and the rest towards storage.
I run a 918+ with 8GB RAM and have had no issues.
I add an additional 4GB ram into the 918+ to make it a total of 8GB. Do you ever stream your system outside of network? if so, how well does it work for you and what do you have your settings at?
I do. I have both Hardware Transcoding enabled, and my outbound streams are limited to 4Mbps.
I will say, I have most of my media configured where I have an HD and SD version of a file, therefore (for the most part) Plex does a good job of choosing the SD file and uses Direct Play. There are some instances where it still has to transcode, but it primarily transcodes that SD file so it’s not working too hard. When my users stream Live TV (from a HDHR Quatro) it always transcodes (audio + video) and they report having no issues.
I think part of why my setup works so well is because I’ve done a good bit of media curation to make things as compatible as I can make them without sacrificing picture/audio quality. (Note I re-encode my stuff to x265, which is not always supported on players, and transcoding works without issue.)
Is your “SD” version just the compatibility function in plex or do you have (2) movies of the same type? I have all my movies coded as x264, I didnt think about changing to x265.
I have two files of the same movie. So for a 4K blu ray I do a straight rip of the 4K, then compress the regular bluray in handbrake to a 480p file exclusively for external streaming.
For most of the blu rays I have done, the SD file comes out to 1.5GB max, so I don’t mind taking up the extra disk space. If I need more space, I can always purge those SD files.
Using x264 or x265 is a personal preference imo. x264 will have much better compatibility across a larger range of devices. x265 will retain more quality (depending on your source)
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
