QNAP TS x53D NAS 1080p & 4K Plex Test

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... tmMPc/edit



Not sure what his settings in plex were exactly, but i suspect straight up x264 software using the cpu.


google sheet hasn't yet added the x53d series just yet, but if you look at the x53be, the cpu is also an intel celeron, so i suspect the result will be within that ballpark perhaps.

but using the 53be results as reference, they were only able to do 4k transcoding limited to sdr low bit rate content, and requiring a graphics card for hardware acceleration which also requires a plex pass to use this feature.


if you intend to live transcode, make sure you get a device capable for the resolution size and bit rate for your media. I only do 1080p content, so i'm fine using what i got, a ts-877 (refer to the google sheet, it will point out which models under which settings can transcode what media without issue, and make your decisions based on that)

when i first started out with NAS, i didn't know about this and i complained about the transcoding performance. But i realize why that was the case

[jacobite1]

As good as NAScompares is, his transcoding tests always seem to go slightly 'wrong'. One test it was pointed out he switched to the wrong Plex server half way through so was actually comparing one NAS to itself, rather than its updated replacement.

The original Little Shop of Horror's file he's using has an encoded bitrate of only 1.9Mb/s at 1080p, so when he's 'transcoding' it to 1080p files or even 720p 3 or 4mb/s, it's not actually transcoding - it's still direct playing. It only starts transcoding when he switches to 1.5Mb/s at 480p, but transcoding _to_ 480p is not a difficult task even for cheap chips that lack quicksync, provided the input bitrate is fairly low. My NAS (which admittedly is about 2.5x as powerful in raw terms as the x53d series) will transcode in hardware a 30Mb/s VC1 blu ray at 15x realtime to a 480p file, about 12x realtime to a 2mb/s 720p file, about 7x realtime to a 1080p 8mb/s file (which looks very good, I must add) then about the same for a realtime transcode to 1080p 20mb/s. So, transcoding to 480p is not difficult. Converting a lower bandwidth 3mb/s 1080p file to 480p was even faster than 20x realtime. 'Transcoding' that 1080p 3mb/s file to 720p 4mb/s still direct plays, because 3mb/s is less than 4mb/s, and the client can accept the 1080p 3mb/s file.

Additionally, that 400Mb/s Jellyfish H.265 10bit file is notoriously difficult to transcode (my NAS tries but basically can't do it, just about managing to do the 120Mb/s 4K/10bit version in real time - fluctuating between 1 and 1.8x realtime) due to their insanely high input bitrates (the higher the bitrate, the harder the decode is, and the reverse is true for encoding in fact). I might send him an email and suggest he starts using some publicly available Dolbyvision encoded h265 test files (which from my experience will hardware transcode just about 'fine') as these target a bitrate of 60-100mb/s for 4k h265 content, which is much more likely to be the bitrate people watching 'at home' would experience if they are either ripping 4K blu rays or acquiring 4k files in other directions, and also have audio setups much more like what people watching in the 'real world' would experience.

If anyone is interested, my NAS can handle a 60Mb/s Dolby Vision h.265 4K/10bit file and transcode that to 1080p h264 20mb/s at 3x realtime, 720p h264 at 4.5x realtime and 480p at 5.5x realtime.

In addendum, don't bother transcoding HDR content in plex right now, it can't tone map and the output will look very desaturated. Willing to provide screenshot examples if anyone doesn't know what I mean.

In conclusion, his test is pretty flawed.

P.S. All my results were obtained on my 872XT, hardware transcoding enabled (plex pass), with transcoding speeds given by Tautaulli.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

fair enuff. if i find a different source that runs these kinds of tests, i'll try and link. but this is what i got so far.

but the plex google sheet should be pretty accurate i reckon for an idea what nas model can handle what at which settings (x264 software or hardware accelerated)

[dolbyman]

As good as NAScompares is,[...]

Since when ? Just because someone is the only early release source (due to social media and SPAN affiliations), doesn't make him 'good'. Storage reviews and Anandtech are better by a magnitude (when they do reviews).

He lost all credibility when he showed the 'beautiful outside' of the TS-2888x instead of doing any benchmarks.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

....

i found this

Lightwizzard
1d ago

Hello,

there are new products from Qnap and Synology on the market. They are using the Intel Celeron J4125 processor with Intel UHD 600 Graphics.

I was wondering why this new Intel Processor can’t decode h.265 10 bit codec? The very old Intel J3455 from previous Qnap / Synology models can decode this codec.

What does that mean for Plex media (direct local) playback?

trumpy81
Plex Ninja (Moderator)
1d ago

The J4125 has yet to be evaluated by Plex, so they don’t know what capabilities it has yet.

It may require updated Intel drivers before the full potential can be seen, but until it has been put through it’s paces, no one knows.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/problem-with-n ... nas/606878

*updated about this here
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=155615&p=758624#p758624


basically what happened was, someone including myself looked at cpu monkey which at the time reported incorrect info

[jacobite1]

He lost all credibility when he showed the 'beautiful outside' of the TS-2888x instead of doing any benchmarks.

I was not aware that had happened, not good.

My “good” comment was that owing to his connections to SPAN, he basically gets reviewable samples of everything, I wasn't sure if people like anandtech did.

[dolbyman]

seems weird that the UHD 600 has less features than the HD 610 (Celeron 3865u in my 951X)

Screenshot_2020-06-25 Intel Celeron 3865U - Benchmark and Specs.png

according to notebook review
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-UHD ... 820.0.html

Features

The video engine decodes H.265/HEVC (8b and 10b) and VP9 completely in hardware. Up to three displays can be connected via DP 1.2a/eDP 1.3 or HDMI 2.0a (including HDCP 2.2).

[jacobite1]

I read the U in the UHD is basically a rebranding exercise, and that the UHD630 is basically identical to the HD630 and so on down to the 600.

Thus the HD610 being better than the newer UHD600 does not surprise me.

Source for the 'identical' claim: https://www.notebookcheck.net/HD-Graphi ... ic%20model.

[dolbyman]

I edited my post with a link to notebookcheck .. at least a x265 10b decode should work (and transcoding is to x264 currently anyways)

Sadly Plex is very secretive when asked about tonemapping support for 10bit transcodes .. this way I always have to keep an 8bit version of HDR movies on Plex (if I need to transcode them)

[jacobite1]

Sadly Plex is very secretive when asked about tonemapping support for 10bit transcodes .. this way I always have to keep an 8bit version of HDR movies on Plex (if I need to transcode them)

I've been buying 4K blu-rays since the beginning of 2018 and ripping the HD versions. At some point I'll grab myself a UHD reader and start ripping the 4K ones too (as that ability seems fairly mature now) and then build a second 4K only Plex library, because of the tonemapping issue. I've got a bunch of 4K devices (including a 4K-blu ray player for playing back said 4K disks properly) but it will be nice to shove them into plex.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Sorry, wanted to make a correction

CpuMonkey seems to have wrong encoding/decoding specs for Gemini Lake Refresh CPUs (including J4025 and J4125) as these CPUs are confirmed to have HEVC 10-bit encoding / decoding capabilities.

You can't believe the info on the net at times >_>: cpu monkey failed me....
https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comme ... re_coming/
http://linuxgizmos.com/new-gemini-lake- ... m-the-tdp/


i believe they updated with the corrections already
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/cpu-intel ... j4125-1076