Plex and transcoding help needed

[andthereitis]

I currently have a home network setup with TS-1263U-RP. To stream media was not the primary purpose but it handled it fine up until now. The system has 16 GB of ram and I also have two 1G SSD drives but do not use them for transcoding. I started to add stuff in 2k resolution, a step up from the 1080 or 720 that I had previously. Also these media files were recorded in MP4 and not MKV files like before. I now can watch about 1-5 minutes before it starts cutting out and eventually gives me an error in plex. I use a Roku with the Plex app to watch my movies, I also have a Plex access pass if that matters.

I then went to the Plex application and looked at the resource monitor. When attempting the new MP4 files I am using 99% of the CPU and like 2% of the RAM on board, the RAM never went above 20% for the NAS. I ran the test with one of my previous 1080 MKV files and the CPU went to about 50% and then leveled off around 35% overall. I saw people using stuff like RAMdisk to use some of my RAM for transcoding. Since my RAM is pretty much sitting idle this looks to be a good solution. I also understand I could release my SSD drives for this, but would prefer not to, or it may help if I take my MP4 files and convert them to MKV files but not sure. I could transcode them before hand in Plex but not sure how much of disk space having this additional copy would add.

I have not done anything but read a few threads about RAMdisk but not that familiar with Linux and not sure if my system has a different way of doing this in my QTS 4.5.2.XXXX software. I would like the system to use something like "/tmp" RAM since normally am not doing anything else intensive on the NAS when watching movies. I am open to suggestions.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

this is what is capable of for nas. get the qnap nas model that is able to handle the media resolution, bit rate and codec you are handling. the google sheet has results based on using intel quicksync and without. Quick sync is only available on intel cpu models and requires a plex pass ....
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 0jdj3tmMPc


usually if the nas can't handle it for whatever you are throwing at it to transcode, the alternative is like a nvidia shield which accesses the media from the nas, then transcodes or playbacks on the nvidia shield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5sGAI1ShRo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwESpiW1ShA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYfmxb1OqzE


nvidia shield can handle most of what your nas might not be able to do. downside is, maybe not all your clients have access to the nvidia shield, so you would rather have transcoding handled directly on the nas instead, so then the clients are not dependent on having a nvidia shield handy

[jaysona]

The 1263 does not have enough CPU processing power for transcoding anything above 1080p. The AMD GX-420MC is roughly equivellent to a Celeron J3455, minus the hardware transcodIng capabilities.

MP4 and MKV are just containers and have minimal impact on PMs. What really matters is the video codec used, bitrate and bit depth. Your Roku player is the problem, it is incapable of playing the 2k video files without transcoding. Ideally, the PMS should just stream the files to the player, no transcoding require.

Ramdisk does not add much of a benefit for transcoding or streaming.

[andthereitis]

The replies are what I figured but didn't hurt to ask.

I wish there was an updated list of Plex recommended NAS devices. The list from plex is a bit old. I don't see any QNAP NAS listed on the spreadsheet with the AMD Ryzen CPU. I will probably get a different NAS with the option to put a Nvidia card in but not sure how hard the video card in todays market will to find...

Edit....
On that note I have not researched if I would have to connect my TV directly to the output of the video card in the NAS. If so I will have to purchase a NAS with all the hardware from the start and the video card is a no-go.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

afaik plex maintains that list? it's worse for newer models, since it takes longer before those appear on that list (if ever).

the other alternative is to check for other user reviews, or make a rough comparison based on what cpu is in the nas (since that is usually main determinant how well the transcode would fare on that model).

if you add in a nvidia graphics into a nas that supports, i heard that plex pass beta may be able to utilize it for graphics card hw acceleration. Although to me that is hearsay, i don't have actual experience using it myself :/ you can check on forum on reddit for those who have tested if that works on qnap or not.

[jaysona]

I wish there was an updated list of Plex recommended NAS devices. The list from plex is a bit old. I don't see any QNAP NAS listed on the spreadsheet with the AMD Ryzen CPU. I will probably get a different NAS with the option to put a Nvidia card in but not sure how hard the video card in todays market will to find...

The model number of the NAS is not all that important, CPU is all that really matters when it comes to plex. So look at the current list, find a NAS that has the capabilities you're looking for, look at the CPU that is listed and then find a NAS with that same to better CPU.

On that note I have not researched if I would have to connect my TV directly to the output of the video card in the NAS. If so I will have to purchase a NAS with all the hardware from the start and the video card is a no-go.

Do not use the NAS as a player, there is no QNAP NAS that is anything more than a half decent player, and that is using QNAP specific software for playback, use the NAS is a server, nothing more.

I suggest you spend some time reading through the QNAP section of the plex forums, starting here:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/qnap-faq-read-me-first/109942

[dolbyman]

on top..qnap removed plex playback support on hdstation anyways ..see the current firmware release notes

[andthereitis]

The model number of the NAS is not all that important, CPU is all that really matters when it comes to plex. So look at the current list, find a NAS that has the capabilities you're looking for, look at the CPU that is listed and then find a NAS with that same to better CPU.

Currently, I looks like I might be better off to build a PC based on some of the CPU specifications out of the box on QNAPs website.

Based off the website below, I need roughly a benchmark of 17,000 or higher for current 4k UHD playback. They referred to the passmark site for the numbers.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373 ... ht-for-me/

This is the passMark software benchmark results:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Unless I get an enterprise model (didn't look at them really) the best option is the a TS-x77XU series with the Ryzen 7 2700 CPU. This only gave a benchmark of 15,713 which for now would probably be fine but in the future I see this creating the same problem I have now.

QNAP looks to be promoting the TVS-872XT-i5-16G as their best model for running plex. It has its own internal intel UDH 630 GPU. This unit and cannot handle software playback of 4k UHD files, according to the spread sheet link posted previously. The TVS-1282T units that the spread sheet show it will run some of the 4k UHD software encoded media is not on the QNAP website (assume discontinued).

My quote
On that note I have not researched if I would have to connect my TV directly to the output of the video card in the NAS. If so I will have to purchase a NAS with all the hardware from the start and the video card is a no-go.
End of my quote

Do not use the NAS as a player, there is no QNAP NAS that is anything more than a half decent player, and that is using QNAP specific software for playback, use the NAS is a server, nothing more.

I would never use the factory QNAP output for video, I was specifically meaning using the output of a PCIe Nivida video card if I added it to the NAS.

I am not a hardware guru but I have built my own PC before (basic stuff, never tweaked the CPU or anything like that). In all the computers I have built the output of the video card was sent directly to my monitor(s). I would hope I could use the processing power of the video card and then send it via ethernet cable to my Roku for playback. I am not sure that is an option because I never looked into it. If using an PCIe video card would require my NAS to sit next to my home theater I would really hesitate to go this route. I would then probably build a PC and install a RAID array along with a CPU with enough "juice" to transcode and send to my Roku.

[andthereitis]

Snip...
MP4 and MKV are just containers and have minimal impact on PMs. What really matters is the video codec used, bitrate and bit depth. Your Roku player is the problem, it is incapable of playing the 2k video files without transcoding. Ideally, the PMS should just stream the files to the player, no transcoding require.

Ramdisk does not add much of a benefit for transcoding or streaming.

I have several Roku's around the house but the one I was using is a 4640x (Roku Ultra model with 4k/HDR/HD streaming device). I figured this should playback the files fine but maybe there is a setting on the Roku? I would not see that being a settings option but figured I would ask.

[dolbyman]

I have a Roku TCL 635..plays x265 in HDR10 or Dolby Vision..all without transcoding via plex

[jaysona]

I have several Roku's around the house but the one I was using is a 4640x (Roku Ultra model with 4k/HDR/HD streaming device). I figured this should playback the files fine but maybe there is a setting on the Roku? I would not see that being a settings option but figured I would ask.

I have no idea what the Roku settings are, I do not use that player. However, I have more than 30 people on my plex server, and every single Roku player always transcodes, even when set to play original quality. The Samsung, LG TV players and Firestick players do not transcode when set to play original quality.