Chuck_IV wrote:
So, I loaded the alpha/beta version 16 Plex server qpkg with hardware encoding and WOW, what a difference. Everything in the home continues to work great and now streaming to the phone is fantastic. The same John Wick/Avatar files now stream smooth and the QNAP(451+) doesn't even break a sweat at about 20%. BIG difference.
thx for your feedback, i'll keep this in mind.
though if in future you do come across 1080p for either
- x264/h264 profile Hl5.1
- x265/hevc 10bit
*ideally with SSA subtitles
please test it out on plex and share the result. i'm wondering if the hardware acceleration will make a difference or not on that unit.
Trexx wrote:
You either have a CPU with HW Accel built into the embedded GPU that supports HEVC/h265 AND SW that leverages that HW Accel, or a REALLY fast CPU that deals with it via shear brute force.
Currently the public versions of Plex are using shear brute force (with a couple exceptions like Nvidia ShieldTV).
There is a PlexPass (beta) version that is supporting HW Accel (don't recall if supports h265 or not) but it doesn't support the GPU in the TVS-x73 families right now for example. So here is a case with the HW has it, but the SW isn't supporting it yet.
As for AV1, I thought I had read where the h265 group was rethinking their "licensing fee" structure recently due to AV1, so will be interesting to see how that all shakes out in the long run.
By the way do you need a plex pass to use that beta version?
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articl ... w-Releases
*update
i found this
1.7.5.4035-313f93718
June 28, 2017
https://www.plex.tv/downloads/
i'll test that out for my ts-653a, haven't in a long while. will see if things improved
then report back.
*update
got it installed but it's gonna take a while for my anime collection to be added. not sure is good idea to test while the library is still doing the intensive task of indexing. i'll wait that's done before i do a proper test.
*update
i don't see any hardware accelerated option in the transcoder setting
hm....
*update
plex hates ssa. it will immediately force a transcode if you insist on using SSA subs.
tests performed
- 1080p with 3199 bit rate, 8bit, h264 profile hl4, aac, SSA (pass)
*plex is also indexing my anime same time, so not sure that this resource monitor is of use. regardless even under load the video played fine.
The first test i ran at default, however at this point i modified the plex player and server testing for fastest performance at expense of quality. cause point of the test is to ensure it will play back smoothly first and foremost ideally at original.
(BDRip 1080p AC3 10bit) main 10 profile, 3465 bit rate, SSA (
failed test) *some preload stutter every 5-15 or so seconds for 1-2 seconds each time
1080p with 9074 bit rate, 10bit, h264 profile level 5.1 high10, FLAC, SSA (
failed test) *some preload stutters similar to hevc but slightly less worse off perhaps but still not good enough for serious viewers.
Bottomline
h264 1080p hl4 no issues. However the story is different with h264 1080p 10bit hl5.1
for me still had some issues for hevc 10bit 1080p (not as bad as it was long time ago when i tried, but still stutters enough not to be pleasant for me to watch even if the stutters are short). Maybe if i opted for the option that transcodes ahead of time this is no big deal. But i'm the type of user that rather just play watch now than wait later.
I don't have access to the hardware transcoding plex app so i cannot test myself if that would make a difference, only rely on others feedback
But i feel that my tests are pretty spot on with qnaps own *"limited 1080p" foot note which is probably referring to
HEVC 10bit and
h264 HL5.1 10bit judging by my result
hevc is better for 4k content, whereas quality 1080p is better with h264. but reason why i use hevc for 1080p is for space savings. Also my collection i usually keep if i barely notice the difference in quality as long as i'm getting good bang for my buck so to speak
(most of it is encoded direct from BD)
for power user like myself either skylake, kabylake or ryzen would have best performance transcoding
Decoding you'd want to do on the GPU anyway, no quality loss there. That's why no one is testing it. Playback on the CPU/software is going to be dependent on how well the player is written. Ryzen is going to be as fast or better than Kabylake at software decoding from similar IPC and sheer core count, it's going to crush the i7 on % CPU utilization. Will be happy to compare with anyone's i7 come Tuesday when my 1800X is put together finally. Just let me know which playback software you want to use.
The 3-5% CPU utilization is using the IGP hardware decode to achieve that. There's nothing special about Skylake to Kaby and both are half as capable as an R7.
What i like about plex
- convenience. you toss whatever you want and it will play it back either direct or transcode.
- very sleek cool sleek cinematic type interface. i give their UI a 10 out of 10 * rating
what i don't like about plex
- it may do directplay however i find that most often than not, it will force a transcode. Transcoding lowers quality, so you wouldn't go out of your way to use that if possible, hence why directplay is preferred. It only makes sense to transcode if your watching remotely using html5 player, or when playing to a mobile device which has limited specs or support for media type so you transcode for compatibility to justify it's use. If your merely watching on your local lan, i prefer directplay, which kodi seems to be better at compared to plex. that said i don't think most people would mind as much as i do.
specifically in their own directplay option
Allows the player to play compatible media without any conversion. In most browsers, direct play supports MP4 videos with h264 video and AAC audio. Videos with subtitles cannot be played directly.
- transcoding is a cpu intensive task. so unless your NAS has a good cpu, the 1080p and above resolution content may have playback performance issues (
might not necessarily be a problem with hardware transcoding feature however).
- SSA subs are sufficient in sense it burns them to video to be able to watch, however i doubt it's as good as say me playing a video on my win10 desktop using MPC-HC megamix lav filter which uses either ASSfilter or XYsubfilter for SSA subtitles for crisper looking subs and effects. Not to mention using SSA subs will force transcoding as far as i'm aware, which ** if your video support directplay but you can't watch it unless you use your subs which then messes that up
*re-tested still same result
PS: when i tried using 1080p 10mbps just to test instead of original, i get a not enough bandwidth error message, then it wants to skip video because it can't play it using that setting.