What to do in the future - help an inexperienced Plex-user

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

Hi everyone

Sorry for a long post, but I try to provide as much information as possible, hoping it will make it easier to help :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve had Plex for years, and have used it on my desktop computer with no problems what-so-ever. After I’ve moved into a larger apartment I’ve tried to get more into streaming to other devices like smartphones, tablets and our android smart-tv.

DVD-quality movies have always run smoothly on other devices, and for a few blu-ray quality movies I haven’t experienced any problems. However, a lot of them have been lagging a whole lot, and showed the message: “This server is not powerful enough to convert video”.

I checked my internet speed, and realized my upload was at 25-30 Mbit, which obviously is insufficient to stream ~40 Mbit movies, so I upgraded to a better connection, and now have between 60 and 80 Mbit. This helped a bit, but the movies are still not running smoothly. Digging into the FAQ/troubleshooting section of Plex I think I’ve narrowed it down to my desktop CPU being too slow (it has about 5000 PassMark score, and the transcode speed-log showed between 0.6 and 1.0), but I honestly have no idea, if it could be due to some other issue as well. I’m not enough of a tech- or Plex-savvy to be confident I only need a new CPU. I hope someone out there wants to help me figure it out.

I will gladly provide logs if you wish, but the only one I have stored was with verbose activated, and the forum specifically asks not to provide such, so I’ll make new logs if need be.

Some other details:
All my movies, almost without exception, are bought and paid for DVDs and Blu Ray ripped to MKV-files
My computer specs:
CPU: Intel i7 2.80 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 960
OS: Windows 10 64-bit

Server Version#: 1.16.5.1554
Player Version#: 3.108.2 (I think?)

Thank you in advance, for any suggestions and help provided!

2

  1. are you using subtitles?

  2. please find out your CPU model number. “Intel i7” is not nearly precise enough.

  3. copy the contents of the Plex XML info of a movie which gives you the issue.
    (Don’t copy the link to the XML!)

3

1 - yes
2 - sorry, thought I had added it - it is a Intel i7 860 2.80 GHz
3. Hope this is right:
Noob question: how do I add the xml info? copy/paste didn’t do it

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="Film" librarySectionUUID="dea0591a-c8da-439d-a0c5-55ba4d35f600" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1566336724">
  <Video ratingKey="1267" key="/library/metadata/1267" guid="com.plexapp.agents.imdb://tt0096895?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="Film" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" studio="Warner Bros. Pictures" type="movie" title="Batman" contentRating="PG-13" summary="The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker, who has seized control of Gotham's underworld." rating="7.0" audienceRating="8.4" userRating="6.0" viewOffset="655435" lastViewedAt="1568120305" year="1989" tagline="Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" thumb="/library/metadata/1267/thumb/1566868586" art="/library/metadata/1267/art/1566868586" duration="7579863" originallyAvailableAt="1989-06-23" addedAt="1557480496" updatedAt="1566868586" audienceRatingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.upright" chapterSource="media" primaryExtraKey="/library/metadata/1639" ratingImage="rottentomatoes://image.rating.ripe">
    <Media id="1313" duration="7579863" bitrate="25070" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="ac3" videoCodec="vc1" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="advanced">
      <Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="3256" key="/library/parts/3256/1400705787/file.mkv" duration="7579863" file="N:\Film\Superhero\Batman\Batman.mkv" size="23753260076" container="mkv" videoProfile="advanced">
        <Stream id="33450" streamType="1" codec="vc1" index="0" bitrate="22734" language="English" languageCode="eng" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" height="1080" level="3" profile="advanced" refFrames="1" scanType="progressive" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (VC1)"/>
        <Stream id="33451" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="ac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" samplingRate="48000" title="Surround 5.1" displayTitle="English (AC3 5.1)"/>
        <Stream id="33452" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="2" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" samplingRate="48000" title="Surround 5.1" displayTitle="English (AC3 5.1)"/>
        <Stream id="33453" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="3" channels="2" bitrate="192" language="Français" languageCode="fre" audioChannelLayout="stereo" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="Français (AC3 Stereo)"/>
        <Stream id="33454" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="4" channels="2" bitrate="192" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" audioChannelLayout="stereo" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="Deutsch (AC3 Stereo)"/>
        <Stream id="33455" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="5" channels="2" bitrate="192" language="Italiano" languageCode="ita" audioChannelLayout="stereo" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="Italiano (AC3 Stereo)"/>
        <Stream id="33456" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="6" channels="2" bitrate="192" language="Español" languageCode="spa" audioChannelLayout="stereo" samplingRate="48000" title="Stereo" displayTitle="Español (AC3 Stereo)"/>
        <Stream id="33457" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="7" channels="1" bitrate="96" language="Español" languageCode="spa" audioChannelLayout="mono" samplingRate="48000" title="Mono" displayTitle="Español (AC3 Mono)"/>
        <Stream id="33458" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="8" channels="1" bitrate="192" language="Português" languageCode="por" audioChannelLayout="mono" samplingRate="48000" title="Mono" displayTitle="Português (AC3 Mono)"/>
        <Stream id="33459" streamType="3" selected="1" codec="pgs" index="9" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33460" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="10" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33461" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="11" language="Français" languageCode="fre" displayTitle="Français (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33462" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="12" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" displayTitle="Deutsch (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33463" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="13" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" displayTitle="Deutsch (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33464" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="14" language="Italiano" languageCode="ita" displayTitle="Italiano (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33465" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="15" language="Italiano" languageCode="ita" displayTitle="Italiano (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33466" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="16" language="Español" languageCode="spa" displayTitle="Español (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33467" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="17" language="Nederlands" languageCode="dut" displayTitle="Nederlands (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33468" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="18" language="中文" languageCode="chi" displayTitle="中文 (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33469" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="19" language="한국어" languageCode="kor" displayTitle="한국어 (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33470" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="20" language="Español" languageCode="spa" displayTitle="Español (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33471" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="21" language="Português" languageCode="por" displayTitle="Português (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33472" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="22" language="Dansk" languageCode="dan" displayTitle="Dansk (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33473" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="23" language="Suomi" languageCode="fin" displayTitle="Suomi (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33474" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="24" language="Norsk" languageCode="nor" displayTitle="Norsk (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33475" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="25" language="Português" languageCode="por" displayTitle="Português (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33476" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="26" language="Svenska" languageCode="swe" displayTitle="Svenska (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33477" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="27" language="中文" languageCode="chi" displayTitle="中文 (PGS)"/>
        <Stream id="33478" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="28" language="한국어" languageCode="kor" displayTitle="한국어 (PGS)"/>
      </Part>
    </Media>
    
</MediaContainer>
4

The secret is to mark it as ‘code’ by enclosing it inbetween lines with 3 backticks above and below.

The issue with this movie is twofold:

  1. it is using the VC-1 video codec, which can only be transcoded with one cpu core. (limitation in ffmpeg)
  2. it has a subtitle in PGS format, which also can only be burned-in using one cpu core (or more correctly “one thread”).

You have these options:

  • get a plex client which can handle PGS subs (only a few can do this)
  • get a faster (more modern) CPU. Yours can be called “ancient” by now.
  • Transcode the movie (e.g. with Handbrake) to the H.264 video codec.
    For further reduction of CPU load, convert the subtitle to SRT format (which transforms it from a bitmap [graphics] format to text.) Subtitle Edit can do this. There are much more Plex clients which can handle SRT subtitles directly, instead of requiring the server to burn them in.
5

Thank you for your quick replies!

Just to make sure I understand it correctly:

Getting a much more powerful CPU would fix the problem no matter what?

Or do I have to do the other suggestions as well? The converting the subs to SRT-format should be doable, but I’d prefer not to change the file format away from MKV.

6

Yes.
(At least until you get involved with 4K UHD movies. These require hardware transcoding. But since you have a Plex Pass, it is available to you in Plex – if you have the necessary hardware. Just get a modern Intel CPU with Quicksync support. With “modern” I mean a cpu model from the “Kaby Lake” series or newer. Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia )

Only if you want :wink:

Converting the subtitle won’t change the container format. In fact, you can even place the converted subtitle beside the video file. So your original file is not touched in any way.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200471133-adding-local-subtitles-to-your-media/

7

Thank you so much :slight_smile:

I’m really glad to have all of this clarified, and you’ve been a tremendous help!

8

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