My personal approach is that I do not transcode 4K media. I keep my 4K movies & TV shows in their own libraries. I do not play 4K HDR material on devices where it will not direct play. I do not share my 4K HDR libraries with remote users as a) none of them stream to 4K TVs, and b) I do not have the upstream bandwidth to stream 4K without transcoding.
The i5-11500 will definitely be better at CPU tasks than the i7-7700. The i5 has a Passmark of 18039 versus 8618 for the i7.
Will the i5 handle tonemapping? Others will have to weigh in. As mentioned, I don’t transcode 4K, so I’ve no experience with it. Also, other than “cpu intensive,” I have not seen information on system requirements for tonemapping (Info may be available, but I haven’t seen any).
Tonemapping is still a work in progress. Plex refers to it as a “Plex Pass preview” in the support document. They’re definitely working to make it better, but it will take some time to work out all the kinks.
Personal Opinion:
The Sony seems to be the TV with playback issues.
- If the TV should direct play 4K HDR, but does not, find out why and fix that problem.
- If it does not support direct playing of 4K HDR media, then don’t play 4K HDR media on that TV.
- If the TV is not 4K HDR capable and you still want to play 4K HDR on the TV, consider a Plex client that handles tonemapping and 4K → 1080p scaling. A 2019 Nvidia Shield Pro performs both those tasks, and cost ~$200 USD. An AppleTV with the Infuse app may also work (see this post). Plex for Windows/Mac or Plex HTPC may also be options. They perform scaling and tonemapping as well, without relying on the Plex Media Server.
