Is it possible to setup Plex as strictly an in house media server, not requiring intranet? ISP max speeds (I sadly live in a rural area) speeds are slow enough that 2/3’rd of watching time is spend loading while media is sent through the router to the internet, only to return to the same IP as the server. If I can go directly from server to in-house device, I’d only have to deal with router speeds.
I also live in a rural area. I have just enough internet to retrieve my posters and metadata along with ‘normal browsing’ and Plex Pass verification as needed.
As long as you do not enable Remote Access, keep all devices on your internal LAN (same subnet), you will be fine.
My structure is:
Modem + Router
|
|
Switch
|
+-----+-----+-----+
| | | |
Devices & Wifi here
Actually, if you only use Plex inhouse, you might want to disable ‘Secure Connections’.
This step will avoid some potential pitfalls which may be caused by your router configuration (and which may cause your media traffic to cross over the internet unintentionally/unnecessarily)
Settings - Server - Network - ‘Secure Connections’ = “Disable”
after setting this, close/quit your plex server software, wait a few seconds then start it up again.
Wait a few minutes, then reboot/restart every Plex client device as well.
Hmm. I’ll check into both of these suggestions. Remote access was turned off but I was still buffering (loading) every 2-3 minutes. I know my intranet speeds are high enough, even though internet speeds are marginal. The HTPC is also a dedicated media server and I’m the only user. The media saved is also relatively low data volume - classic TV and movies, etc - nothing Blu-Ray or 4K.
One thing, though, ChickPA - why the switch? I’ve got the same config you’ve got without the switch; modem/router, wifi to HTPC and to several RoKu streaming devices. Signal strength from router is 3-4 bars, so …
I run with the switch because when working, it is normal for me to be pushing around several 30-40 GB files.
Running this level of traffic through a single strand of ethernet is too much. It would also bury wifi and block PMS usage.
I use the switch to segregate traffic to where it belongs. It is the backbone of the network.
a. Tablets -> PMS or Internet, etc
b. Workstations to PMS & core NAS functions
c. Support devices on the switch
d. Test devices isolated on the unmanaged switch or the main as needed.
The full detail of my configuration is:
+------------+
| Modem |
+------------+
|
+------------+
| pfSense | (PPPoE & NAT routing)
+------------+
|
+---------------------------------------------+
| HPE 1820-24G |
+---------------------------------------------+
|||||||||
||||||||+--- Wifi (for the house)
|||||||+---- Wifi (my office)
||||||+----- Roku 3 (my office)
|||||+------ 4x 1GbE (LACP) Synology DS1815+ (8x 4TB) (Test PMS)
||||+------- 4x 1GbE (LACP) QNAP TVS-1282 (8x 6TB) (Primary PMS & VMs)
|||+-------- Wkstn 1
||+--------- Wkstn 2
|+---------- Printer
+----------- Unmanaged switch (test/project devices)
Both NAS units can and do provide 400+ MB/sec of traffic to/from the switch via LACP trunking.
There is never any latency / disturbance for PMS playback while I’m moving files across the LAN
Thank you, ChuckPA - I’ll have to try this.
I’ve been testing with positioning with respect to the PMS server and TV to the router, wired or WiFi data transmission, all with no notable difference. Very frustrating!
I was considering that maybe because I’m using 3 8tb 3.5 HDDs for my media the communication speed between the server and the externals could be a bottleneck. However, testing with several videos placed on the main OS drive (internal) doesn’t appear to make any difference.
I’m beginning to think it might be my CPU, which would be a real pain. I only bought this for the media server; if it won’t “push” a media server, it’s probably worthless as a “real” PC. I never thought I wouldn’t need a thoroughbred for simply 1 user and playing videos 
It’s got the current WiFi, 2.4 and 5gb, plenty of RAM (8gb), etc.
Processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N3050 @ 1.60GHz, 1601 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Intel Corp. PYBSWCEL.86A.0057.2016.1012.1134, 10/12/2016
SMBIOS Version 2.8
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.16299 Build 16299
System Name DESKTOP-92NAV9O
Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.92 GB
Available Physical Memory 4.70 GB
Total Virtual Memory 9.17 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.20 GB
Page File Space 1.25 GB
WiFi Adapter Type Ethernet 802.3
Product Type Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168&SUBSYS_20608086&REV_15\4&2D0AE540&0&00E2
Your CPU is most definitely the problem. It only has 880 Passmarks. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+N3050+%40+1.60GHz
That is barely enough to run the PMS gui and build metadata. 2000+ Passmarks is much more reasonable. A 4 year old, i7 - 3740qm generates 8000 Passmarks and can perform two H.264 transcodes concurrently.
Damn. This is a brand new system, ostensibly “designed” for a home theater.
Now, now I wonder who I can palm this lead-sled off on to free up shelf space? 
Thank you!
Checking into this further, I’ve found several “avoid the trial and error” articles touting i3 chips, considerably lower than an i7. Others suggest Athalon’s (slower than Celeron, I think) are enough, although they’re not available any longer, etc. One even suggests using a PC Stick as “music and video don’t take much power.” Nothing I’ve seen (not exhaustive) mentions ghz, so …
Several suggest Chrome boxes (SS min PC’s with no moving parts - and no fan).
Personally (I’m a PC software weanie - although not hardware) I’ve never heard of Passmarks. Is there something in the normal product specs that indicate this value or do you have to check a 3rd party site? Everything I can find on HTPC’s is saying what I’d thought - music and video are low CPU use tasks and more than enough for an HTPC (assuming not using it for anything else - which I’m not).
Asking because I don’t want to make another mistake on CPU selection
The defacto standard we all use is https://www.cpubenchmark.net/
If anyone tells you “Music and video are low CPU use tasks” then they’ve never dealt with attempting to decode and play HEVC HDR content. To accomplish such decoding and playback requires an i7-7xxx series (KabyLake) if you want the hardware assist. Without, be prepared to max the CPU and spin up the fans.
The most important point in sizing any hardware solution is "What type and resolution / complexity media do you want to play with it? How do you intend to use it? " Until you can bound the use-case, there is no point in specifying or selecting hardware
HFChristie,
There also something most will never say first.
I run almost the same thing you are but with one difference.
You have to use this
This will remove all useless services that you want in a local PMS. Just remember, when you do, you will not be able to use it for anything other than a PMS.
If you do, you will get mad because you will have removed a lot.
Just a small list of things.
All GUI enhancements such as AERO and Metro tabs
Homegroup for sure.
Use the optimize feature of Plex to clean any movie. IT Does make a difference.
I also have only one suggestion left. Hard wire your little PC to your router. Tweak the speed to the fastest on the i/O of the ethernet card and router. Wifi is always too slow for files of 1080 or higher.
The thing to test here is whether your CPU is actually having to transcode your media. While streaming one of your video files access the now-playing portion of the web interface and you’ll get an indication of whether it’s direct stream, direct play, or transcoding. If it’s transcoding and you’re getting repeated buffering then it’s likely your CPU at fault.
You can test further by using the “optimize” functionality on a video in Plex. Choose to “Optimize for TV” and that will effectively do the transcode ahead of time, then play back that optimized version on your device and you should hopefully be able to avoid transcoding.
If you’re able to get smooth playback when not transcoding then you know it’s a CPU issue. If you’re not able to get smooth playback, even when not transcoding, then you have a bandwidth bottleneck somewhere.
Well, that cpu is pretty much trash, but have you tried making sure your files can direct play and not require transcoding?
Either use a client that supports lost of codecs/containers like a good htpc or a Nvidia shield, or pre-transcode your files to h264 lvl 4.0 and aac2.0/ac3 5.1 so that pretty much any client can play them. That would really relief your CPU as it would simply send the file to the client without touching it.
Another option would be to add a GPU to use hardware accelerated transcoding… But that’s not well supported yet on discrete GPUs, so changing to something like a Pentium 4560 or an i3-8100 would be a great idea.
@HFChristie said:
Personally (I’m a PC software weanie - although not hardware) I’ve never heard of Passmarks. Is there something in the normal product specs that indicate this value or do you have to check a 3rd party site? Everything I can find on HTPC’s is saying what I’d thought - music and video are low CPU use tasks and more than enough for an HTPC (assuming not using it for anything else - which I’m not).Asking because I don’t want to make another mistake on CPU selection
For the past few years every computer buying decision I’ve made I’ve looked at the Passmark CPU benchmark score.
When I built my Plex server I bought a used PC with a i5-3470 processor which had a score of 6576 and surpasses some i7 CPUs in benchmark speed. Saved me a bundle of cash.
Double hmm
I am planning on using the HTPC CPU strictly as a PMS server, and I’ve already removed most of the unused functions - I’ll double check that, though. Windows 10 insists on automatic download so something might have creeped back.
I do have the optimize option checked; didn’t see anything obvious on the server display to indicate it’s been done or not. Don’t doubt my current server CPU is at the low end - as I mentioned, I didn’t think I needed anything “stronger” at the time.
I also have the server hardwired to the router (saw that somewhere else in this forum). Actually, that’s odd because I read somewhere else that a hardwired connection is slower than WiFi. Hardly matter in this case, still encountering buffering issues.
Has anyone noticed if CPU power is less critical with Linux instead of Windows? I know Windows is resource hungry, even if stripped.
Well, it’s off to do some shopping. And, thank you all for the suggestions and tips.
If it’s a single user then you should choose a good AV receiver plus a decent client that can Direct Play everything then you won’t need to transcode & your CPU will be perfectly adequate. Before I moved to Google Drive & Plex Cloud My local PMS was a 4TB Seagate Personal Cloud which must be the cheapest lowest power NAS capable of running PMS. With either a Roku or Amazon Fire TV 4K I could Direct Play everything. I even tested with five simultaneous 1080p streams which worked OK.
Don’t forget that the degradation of picture quality when transcoding is quite noticeable. You do not want to cater for transcoding. Attack the issue the other way around, as has been described by others in here.
I purchase a quad-cord i5 platform (Intel® Core™ i5-3470S CPU @ 2.90GHz, 2901 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)) and I don’t appear to have the buffering issue now. However, I haven’t had much opportunity to watch the media so …
I’ve also noticed that I can no-longer use the “view remotely” option. It turns the remote access feature on and then tells me I can’t access it outside the home network. I haven’t had time to check into this (although it’s definitely not a router or firewall issue) and I doubt it has anything to do with new platform, it just limits when I can test the buffering.
Thanks (again) to everyone for the help on this.
