So when a system has to transcode files for remote users, it makes the CPU work harder - but does it also use more bandwidth? Trying my best to make this good for my family I stream to but when 3-4 people are on they say it buffers. I have 300/20 Mb internet so 20 upload should be plenty. All I have is SD, limit remote streams to 2Mb, upload limit set for 20, and when I watch my Google Wifi Router app it never spikes above 14Mb upload so I’m not maxing that out.
I’m starting to think it might be a transcoder issue. I have a very nice NUC setup. i7. 16 gigs memory. Score for CPU is 9828. Memory usage is never above 4/16 gigs. Even with 5 people connected the CPU usually stays around 7-15% with rare spikes to 40-80%. Still, may that be causing the buffer issues?
My CPU: Intel Core i7-4770R CPU @ 3.20GHZ
My CPU score on CPUBenchmark: 9828
CPU section says “720p/4Mbps requires 1500 PassMark” (and my streams are only 2Mbps)
Also, what types of files does Plex have to transcode if all files are played through Chromcasts? Because some MKV files play “Direct Play” to some remote family, and some say “Transcoding.” Is one file type preferred in Plex over another? And could optimized media potentially solve this problem? I know it’s a bunch of questions but I have been testing and testing for months - I promise I’ve been trying stuff! Any advice from the Plex Ninjas is appreciated
My thought -
I have the same Nuc and works for me.
What are the Clients ? All Chromcasts?
That means wifi so it might be their end.
I use MP4 exclusively
Get Plexpy setup and it will give u great info on who and what is transcoding.
e.g. I have 1 friend who was using Chrome on a Win7 Laptop - 95% of what he watched was being transcoded!
Switch to IE - nothing is being transcoded!!
Thanks for the quick response.
I actually do use PlexPy. 90% of my streaming shares are Chromecasts. Definitely considered it to be on their end since sometimes it seems to be the same people complaining about buffers but don’t want to rule out other possibilities. Seeing my CPU usage on the performance monitor spike high occasionally made me think maybe transcoding was the underlying issue. Sometimes I have 8 people connected with no issues. Sometimes 3 people will be on and PlexPy will email me buffer alerts or they complain of it, and 3 people on SD quality is easily handled under 20Mb connection.
I will have to look into using just MP4 as well I think. Too bad like 1,0000 movies are AVI and MKV formats… I know there is programs like HandBrake and some others to convert files to other file types but that would take foreeeeever, and I’m not sure what I should be customizing the settings to so that I don’t lose video quality or anything. Ugh. IDK what to do.
Could I use Plex’s “Optimize Media” to convert all MKV and AVI to MP4, and then just delete the original and keep the optimized version? Does it do a good job keeping the video quality?
Its hard for me to tell a users to set a quality setting when I have all tv as SD and all movies as 720P
Transcoding does not necessarily use more bandwidth. It is possible for files that get reencoded to end up larger, and thus suck up more bandwidth when being delivered compared to the original file, but Plex doesn’t transcode like that as far as I know. That is only something you might run into in other software that does encoding where you can explicitly target bitrates and quality settings etc. Plex will transcode to REDUCE bandwidth if the source file’s bitrate is too high.
You could use the optimize media option, as it ends up generating a brand new file that is saved to your library. Just move them into the original file’s folder and then delete your original file. I haven’t actually done it but I see no reason for it not to work. I’m intending to do this to handle VC1 files that do not stream to my Xbox One without transcoding. My NAS is not powerful enough to transcode so I am trying to get my entire library into a format that does Direct Play and the optimized files work great so far.
Also, be aware that MKV is not really a format. It’s a container that can have different formats in it. That comment I made above about VC1 files was born from VC1 format files inside MKV containers right along side other files I have that are also MKV but with H264 format in them. I was confused about why some MKV’s always transcoded, and most never do. The H264 files stream to my Xbox without transcoding just fine, but VC1’s have to transcode regardless of connection speed and thus they are miserable to watch.
Similar to what I’ve bee ndoing, you could find out exactly what formats Chromecast can handle, and then use handbrake to transcode everything in a queue. If you do that, you can queue up a bunch of files at a time and wait however many days it takes to get them done. That might be just as easy as using the Plex optimize feature and moving files around. Depends on the muscle in the machine you use to reencode. My old-ass gaming machine takes 15 hours to reencode a 2 hour movie from VC1 to MP4. It’s 9 years old! The NAS does it in about 4 hours or so.
