Server Version#: 1.26.2.5797-5bd057d2b
Player Version#: N/A
Yes, I have searched for answers. None are definitive. I have seen statements that data transfer is a bottleneck, or CPU bound, etc. I have also reviewed and utilized the Advanced Hidden Settings for the config xml file.
Take a look at the results of the top command. You’ll be able to tell that way if Plex is only maxing out a single core for a process.
My system takes a few minutes to generate preview thumbnails as well, it’s normal and I wouldn’t consider it to be problematic. Depending on the amount of media that thumbnails are being generated for, I wouldn’t want it to be any more than a single core process - saves resources for things that matter like transcodes.
Top would indicate its a single threaded process as it hovers around 100%. It is unfortunate that, like much in Plex, there is no configuration or tuning options available to speed up or slow down generation. I don’t need the resources saved for anything else, they are readily available. Also, I have GPU’s for transcodes. Appropriately leveraging my system resources, I could complete this task 30X faster than it is going to end up taking.
While you might have cores and memory to spare, things like NAS boxes don’t.
Trying to write a dynamic-loading control module which could load the CPU with administrative tasks then adapt instantaneously to on-demand user-playback / transcoding would be extremely difficult.
Understand and agreed. Adaptive, dynamic scaling would be amazing but highly complex. However, a single dropdown option which allows the selection of X number of concurrent tasks is substantially less tedious to code and would yield enormous gains for those of us who aren’t using an ARM processor weaker than most cell phones.
