This server is not powerful enough to convert video

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 4.49.2

I’ve recently run into a problem with my Plex server. I’ve gotten the error “This server is not powerful enough to convert video.” twice now, once on a 750mb AVI file, and once on WW1984 in 4K. The 4K one i understand, but I can’t play back a sub-1gb, 720p avi file on this hardware:

2.3 GHz Intel Xeon X5650 6c/12t
AMD FirePro W5000 2GB
32GB RAM
Windows Server 2016 Datacenter

is anyone else experiencing this?

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I’m not experiencing this issue but I’ve had issues with playback before. It all depends on if you’re needing to transcode the file to play it back. For an avi file I assume you are having to transcode it. This process solely depends on your Cpu and the benchmark (what it can handle) for this pc is relatively low… However you should still be able to play it if nothing else is taxing the pc. You might be able to convert the file to something your player natively plays. Or play the file at a lower quality.

1 Like
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i’ll try converting the AVI to an MKV, which is what most of my movies are.

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You will have to fully re-encode the video, a simple remix likely won’t fix it.

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It also depends on the client that you’re playing back the content on and if you have direct play enabled. If the client cant process the video properly, you’ll get that error as well. This is what I’ve seen in my experience. Hope this helps.

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UPDATE

On the topic of the SD movie that wouldn’t play: i tried playing it back on a Roku TV, and in google chrome on my PC, both gave the same error, but converting it to an MKV in handbreak, which actually made he file larger, somehow made it playable.

On the topic of the 4K movie: it will not play on my PC, which only has a 1080p monitor, but, it will play back perfectly on our new 4K TV, so it seems i have enough power to push a 4K movie, but not compress a 4K movie on the fly, even with GPU acceleration.

also, i am pretty sure i have direct play enabled everywhere, but this is the final straw for me, i think i’m going to have to start buying parts for the new server soon, and as much as it breaks my Intel loving heart, i think i see a Ryzen 5 in my future.

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