Server Version#: QNAP 1.21.1
Player Version#: Android, WebOS, Windows Clients
Merry Christmas everyone!
So for a long time I’ve been using an old Intel Q4400 gaming PC I built about 12 years ago running Mint, pulling media off of a Western digital Nas, which worked but it was not very efficient and acquired a lot of messing around with linux.
Based on reviews I had seen, I decided to try the TS-453D (4GB RAM) as that was supposed to be a good Nas for Plex 1080p with the occasional 4K direct stream.
Now that I have the device set up with WD Red drives in RAID 1, even with hardware transcoding enabled, watching 720 x264 videos with subtitles results in a unviewable mess of pixelation. And it also buffers horribly on any 1080p video without subtitles.
Yet if I use that same old gaming PC as a server to play the media off of the qnap nas, it works flawlessly.
So I wonder is the TS-453D really that underpowered that it can’t handle subtitles? Is this something I can fix by adding a SSD or one of the PCIe expansion cards? Or should I be using that money to return this and buy one with a Core i3 or Razen processor? If so, which one?
Thank you all for your time.
The J4125 CPU (TS-453D) produces 3152 Passmarks of performance.
A comparable i3 (i3-7300) produces 4876 Passmarks.
The next step up would be i5 (i5-7500) at 6111 Passmarks
If you are going to BURN subtitles, you want higher passmarks.
Speaking to what you have now:
If your subtitles are text based (SRT, ASS, or SSA) and the player is set to overlay (not force burn), You are in good shape. You’ll run out of CPU transcoding audio first (2-3 streams) IF it doesn’t need to burn subtitles.
Caveat:
Low bitrate video + subtitle burning is possible with the J4xxx CPUs.
This is because subtitles are merged, by the CPU, into the video after the hardware does the transcoding.
My recommendation, while they might sound harsh, will result in a better experience:
You’re getting pixelation because there’s only 264 horizontal lines to work with – of course it will look bad.
Dump the 720x264 videos and at least get 1280x720p (vertical height).
While doing this , make certain to keep only the text-based subtitles. Don’t use Image-based unless you plan to pre-burn them into the image permanently.
Thank you for the feedback, I should have specified that the video is 720p with x264 codec.
If this current set up doesn’t work, would the SSD or expansion cards help at all or should I start scraping pennies to look for a i5 / AMD NAS?
And for the J4125, what is considered not garbage? The 12 year old quad core pentium eats pretty much anything, do I now have to avoid HVEC, x265, bitrates below 20, etc?
I didn’t rip these files so I didn’t get a say in their format, bit what formats will keep this thing happy with 720p files with subtitles?
Thanks for the input folks.
They don’t have the CPU power to burn the images (which is required when using image based subtitles – TVs & Players can’t overlay images but can overlay text)
The J4xxx CPUs have the Gemini Lake video ASIC attached to them.
They are still a Celeron CPU but have a serious ASIC for the video.
Good to know, but in my case would a TS-473 be a better choice? It’s a lot easier for me to scrape together the extra $200 to get that then to try to re download or rerip all of my media in the most efficient format
That’s disappointing to hear. I guess I will have to take a look at the guide you posted to figure out my next move and run the old Mint server until then.
Thanks for the info.
I’m mainly running into issues on my Android devices and LG WebOS TV after updating to the latest Plex QNAP Server version, I am looking into the audio / subtitle streaming settings, as It just seem absurd that a 720P x264 file with .ASS subtitles would be buffering every 15 seconds.
