Transcoding tips for a new server

General Discussions
1

Hello
recently my Plex server PC died and I had to rebuild it on a new PC. Things are working fine for direct play but I seem to be having some performance issues with transcoding that I did not have on my older less powerful pc.

What are the basic server config tips?

I’m running plex on a 10th Gen I7 with 16 GB ram and the transcoding directory is pointed to an SSD

The fans on my CPU sound like a jet taking off

This would also include any tips in Windows 10 to tweak to improve transcoding performance.

Seems weird my newer much more powerful pc would have more issues transcoding then my old pc

2

Well… what kind of media are you trying to transcode and what particular CPU is this about?
Lower-power versions of the 10th gen i7 might not be suited to do a 4K transcode…

Edit: enabling hw-accelerated encoding under Settings > [Server Name] >Transcoder might make a difference.

3

is it to do whether you are transcoding via hardware or software (what were you doing before and what are you doing now)?

4

Problem is my server died and I did not have the reg backed up so I do not know the exact setting I tweaked over the years to get plex running smoothly.

So I’m looking for a starters transcoding guide for Win 10 and plex setting to help transcoding.

I have alot of 4k HDR videos and transcoding those on my old pc worked fine after lots of tweaks over the years

My cpu is a i7-1065G7

5

That CPU won’t be able to deal with 4K HDR transcoding on its own (by bare CPU power). It got a Passmark benchmark score of approx. 10800. In order to transcode a 4K SDR movie to 1080p you’ll need a score of approx. 12000 – for 4K HDR it’ll be in the area of 17000.

Your best shot is to look at the Transcoder options mentioned above (Settings > [Server Name] > Transcoder) – specifically:

  • Use hardware acceleration when available
  • Use hardware-accelerated video encoding

https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/

If your clients don’t support HDR you might also want to look into Enable HDR tone mapping.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/hdr-to-sdr-tone-mapping/

6

Ok the hardware when available option seemed to help

Any other basic settings to check/change for smoother transcoding? Anything else in win 10 as well that is recommended for better playback?

Just want to cover the very basic settings

7

Why not make optimized versions of the 4K movies so they don’t need to transcode and if transcoding is needed it will use the optimized version instead of the 4K version.

8

Na, my old pc transcoded them fine just want to get my new more powerful pc up to snuff with various tweaks

9

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