Hello guys i wanna start my own plex media dekstop server
the thing is i wanna be able to stream to 10 devices at once.
what specs do i need ??
10mb upload speed would be enough for this?
That really depends on many variables…
- what does your content look like SD, HD, 720P, 1080p, 4k?
- what do your devices look like? shields, web browsers, smart tvs?
- were are your devices? remote, local?
You need to figure out what your devices will be consuming before you can what you need.
I would suggest you start slow and small and add devices and see what you need.
Look at this page for some basic requirements per stream.
mostly 1080p and lower
devices are smart tv and streamers
devices would be remote
i wanna start big
1080 content which is MPEG2VIDEO sourced from the DVR runs at about 10mbps.
1080 content which is H264 runs at about 1mbps.
a 10mbps upload is probably going to be as small as you would want for 10 streams.
hopefully all your devices can support direct streaming so no transcoding is required but to be honest that is unlikely to be true which will mean you will need a fairly decent sized system with decent modern CPU.
So wait, if i will render the videos with H264 it would reduce the mbps for sending files ?
about the cpu
i will need intel i9 would take the load ?
what about a graphic card is it needed ?
That depends if your devices can support h264 direct…
an i9 has about 20000 passmark so based on numbers you should be able to transcode 10 X 1080p (10Mbps, H.264) files or close to.
As far as GPU if you get a decent one you can use hardware acceleration to help with transcoding.
I suggest you start small. your media characteristics and especially what your streamers are viewing with have such a big impact that there really is no correct answer to what CPU do I need for X sessions. Not when under perfect circumstances it will stream with a couple percent CPU usage, and worse case scenario a single file is not even possible on a quadcore.
Unless your internet link is dedicated to remote plex usage, you will want to restrict it to a percentage, say 80% of your upload. 8mbps is fine if you serve a bunch of 800mb 720p movies, but it will quickly become a problem if you have a buch of 25GB blurays or 85GB UHD blurays.
CPU is not worked hard if you can stream remotely in direct play, but usage goes up massively if you need to transcode live.
Starting small will help you understand when you will see transcoding and how hard your situation will work your CPU. It is the file combined with your upload rate combined with your users client devices combined with their client quality settings, combined with the capability of the devices use.
so if i get it right
some users need transcoding done by my server and some users can do their transcoding alone ?
whether transcoding is needed is entirely dependent on the file and whether the client/player can play it without conversion, and what the client quality settings are configured for, and how much total upload you have versus how many streams at the same time.
it is really simple, just install PMS on a computer you have, point it to some media, and test it out on your tv/streamers.
then you will know if what you have is sufficient or if you need something more.
also, gpu transcoding requires plex pass, so don’t even worry about gpu unless you plan to get plex pass.
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all transcoding is done on the server. the client impacts when you must transcode and what form you transcode it to.
When you play a file in plex, there is a comparision between what you have (The file itself and the available network bandwidth) and what you need (what the client can support and what bitrate/resolution you configured it to use). If it lines up perfectly, no transcode is required, and it plays directly with very little effort by the server. if it does not line up, then the server changes it into what your client can do / asks for. this changing is transcoding.
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