4K Plex Server CPU Recommendation

[Jetster]

FreeNAS has a Plex add on

 

[Durvelle27]

So far what I noticed goes for both 4K and 1080P

4K HVEC plays fine H.265 Plays Fine but H.264 requires transcoding

 

[cdawall]

Dedicated server just needs an i3 and an nvidia gpu. Technically amd is not supported yet and mixed results are seen.

 

[Durvelle27]

Dedicated server just needs an i3 and an nvidia gpu. Technically amd is not supported yet and mixed results are seen.

New gen i3 or any i3 or any dually as newer Pentiums are close to i3s or newer AMD like Raven Ridge or Bristol Ridge

 

[cdawall]

New gen i3 or any i3 or any dually as newer Pentiums are close to i3s or newer AMD like Raven Ridge or Bristol Ridge

I would personally do one of the new quad core i3's, just because that one time you try to push one too many streams and it does have to transcode. I like the have and not need idea. An AMD ryzen chip would be fine too. I however do not know how the GPU implementation works. I only know their notes say quicksync and nvidia work and quicksync on the intel IGP is only so good.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Problem is Plex is the only widely used app that supports multiple plateform a out the gate

So doing as much reading as possible

Would a cheap dual core rig and a modern GPU get the job done versus being strictly CPU as it seems even i7s struggle at 4K transcoding.

Emby aka Media Browser.

Cheap and media server don't really mix.

4K HVEC plays fine H.265 Plays Fine but H.264 requires transcoding

H.264 4K is extremely heavy (that's what the file I described before is). The Xbox Ones should be able to handle it no problem but your TVs will croak. You need something at least as strong as the NVIDIA SHIELD to handle 4K H.264 decoding.

Up to 4K HDR playback at 60 FPS (H.265/HEVC)
Up to 4K playback at 60 FPS (VP8, VP9, H.264, MPEG1/2)
Up to 1080p playback at 60 FPS (H.263, MJPEG, MPEG4, WMV9/VC1)

 

[Durvelle27]

I would personally do one of the new quad core i3's, just because that one time you try to push one too many streams and it does have to transcode. I like the have and not need idea. An AMD ryzen chip would be fine too. I however do not know how the GPU implementation works. I only know their notes say quicksync and nvidia work and quicksync on the intel IGP is only so good.

I might do the AMD route since it’s cheaper than an i3 Quad

Emby aka Media Browser.

Cheap and media server don't really mix.


H.264 4K is extremely heavy (that's what the file I described before is). The Xbox Ones should be able to handle it no problem but your TVs will croak. You need something at least as strong as the NVIDIA SHIELD to handle 4K H.264 decoding.

First part threw me off

Cheap doesn’t mean mediocre. You can build cheap capable rigs especially in this day and age with upto 8 cores being mainstream

The Xbox Ones buffers during H.264 playback and the CPU spikes to 100%

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The Xbox Ones buffers during H.264 playback and the CPU spikes to 100%

Does Plex have FFMPEG logs? You should be able to see why Plex thought it necessary to transcode. I've played 4K H.264 MP4 on my Xbox One S and SHIELD without issues.

You can use MPC-HC, open the file, then do File -> Properties to get the details of the stream.

What container is it? If it isn't a supported container, Plex is forced to transcode it:
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/console/media-player-faq#27b16eeabc08471684b879bece6df03c

 

[cdawall]

I might do the AMD route since it’s cheaper than an i3 Quad

The i3 quad can do quicksync with the IGP as a benefit however.

 

[Durvelle27]

Does Plex have FFMPEG logs? You should be able to see why Plex thought it necessary to transcode. I've played 4K H.264 MP4 on my Xbox One S and SHIELD without issues.

You can use MPC-HC, open the file, then do File -> Properties to get the details of the stream.

What container is it? If it isn't a supported container, Plex is forced to transcode it:
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/console/media-player-faq#27b16eeabc08471684b879bece6df03c

How do I pull the logs

The containers are .mkv

The i3 quad can do quicksync with the IGP as a benefit however.

But it will still struggle at transcoding without a ddg

 

[FordGT90Concept]

How do I pull the logs

What process do you see taking the CPU to 100%? Is it FFMPEG or something else? Plex has this page but it says utterly nothing helpful:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250377-transcoding-media/

Plex Universal Transcoder: The original Plex Transcoder will be replaced completely by the Plex Universal Transcoder. It includes all the smarts of the old transcoder but is much more powerful, faster and smarter. If you see an option in a client to use the Universal Transcoder, it should generally be enabled. If you’re having problems with certain media, try turning the Universal Transcoder off.

Not FFMPEG. Could try turning "Universal Transcoder" off as it says forcing it back to FFMPEG.

The containers are .mkv

Not the container then. Gotta be something about the video/audio streams that the Xbox One doesn't natively support. Or could be an error in Plex where it is transcoding when it shouldn't be.

 

[Durvelle27]

What process do you see taking the CPU to 100%? Is it FFMPEG or something else? Plex has this page but it says utterly nothing helpful:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250377-transcoding-media/

Not FFMPEG. Could try turning "Universal Transcoder" off as it says forcing it back to FFMPEG.


Not the container then. Gotta be something about the video/audio streams that the Xbox One doesn't natively support. Or could be an error in Plex where it is transcoding when it shouldn't be.

All the audio portions are AC3

 

[FordGT90Concept]

That could be the problem. Mine is AAC and I've seen my server remux (not transcode) AC3 to AAC. If Plex transcodes instead of simply remuxing...yeah, there's probably you're problem. Transcode is a huge burden where remuxing isn't.

More info: https://www.macxdvd.com/mac-dvd-video-converter-how-to/aac-vs-ac3-comparison.htm

It's hard to say for certain though without seeing some logs detailing why the transcoding is happening.

 

[Durvelle27]

What process do you see taking the CPU to 100%? Is it FFMPEG or something else? Plex has this page but it says utterly nothing helpful:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250377-transcoding-media/

Not FFMPEG. Could try turning "Universal Transcoder" off as it says forcing it back to FFMPEG.


Not the container then. Gotta be something about the video/audio streams that the Xbox One doesn't natively support. Or could be an error in Plex where it is transcoding when it shouldn't be.

Weirdly i don't see any plex processes but the server itself

That could be the problem. Mine is AAC and I've seen my server remux (not transcode) AC3 to AAC. If Plex transcodes instead of simply remuxing...yeah, there's probably you're problem. Transcode is a huge burden where remuxing isn't.

More info: https://www.macxdvd.com/mac-dvd-video-converter-how-to/aac-vs-ac3-comparison.htm

It's hard to say for certain though without seeing some logs detailing why the transcoding is happening.

So i've been playing with it all night and i modified the DLNA Client preferences to force 4K and DirectStream so now all the 4K movies play good on my LG TV but they still buffer on H.264 on my Xbox's

 

[cdawall]

But it will still struggle at transcoding without a ddg

Well that means you need to go the same route as me. This and a standalone GPU is unbeatable.

 

[Durvelle27]

Well that means you need to go the same route as me. This and a standalone GPU is unbeatable.

Like we all have thousands to throw

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So i've been playing with it all night and i modified the DLNA Client preferences to force 4K and DirectStream so now all the 4K movies play good on my LG TV but they still buffer on H.264 on my Xbox's

Great! Now to figure out why Xbox One S can't stream it. Like I said, copying the properties of it from HPC-MC would be helpful.

 

[Durvelle27]

Great! Now to figure out why Xbox One S can't stream it. Like I said, copying the properties of it from HPC-MC would be helpful.

I can’t find the logs you mentioned

 

[cdawall]

Like we all have thousands to throw

That chip was less than you think.

 

[Durvelle27]

That chip was less than you think.

less tan 1K more than $500

 

[Jetster]

My understanding is if you streaming from your Plex server over network or ip the standalone GPU does nothing. Its all CPU rendering.

I use an i3 and that's it. Watch at work, on my phone, my brothers house, daughter watches it at her house

 

[Durvelle27]

My understanding is if you streaming from your Plex server over network or ip the standalone GPU does nothing. Its all CPU rendering.

I use an i3 and that's it. Watch at work, on my phone, my brothers house, daughter watches it at her house

If that’s the case that really sucks

So i couldn't pull logs but i screen shoted this

As seen on the Xbox One X its transcoding both the Audio and Video

on the LG TV its directly streaming the video but transcoding the Audio

even the audio transcoding is weird as my HT supports Dolby Digital

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I can’t find the logs you mentioned

It's apparently in the server log. Where that is, I don't know. On a search, I did find this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...9GklVycFTfqBTYidRs5bqT2onI/edit#gid=101193936

And there's the problem... mkv (≤2160p) h.264 is not supported. I verified myself. My mp4 4K h.264 is just a green video on the Xbox One S. Pathetic. The Xbox One has enough GPU power to decode it yet for some reason, Microsoft prohibits it.

I suspect it is downsampling it instead of actually transcoding it (because h.264 to h.264). Either way, transcoding 4K video is a bad idea.

 

[neatfeatguy]

It's apparently in the server log. Where that is, I don't know. On a search, I did find this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...9GklVycFTfqBTYidRs5bqT2onI/edit#gid=101193936

And there's the problem... mkv (≤2160p) h.264 is not supported. I verified myself. My mp4 4K h.264 is just a green video on the Xbox One S. Pathetic. The Xbox One has enough GPU power to decode it yet for some reason, Microsoft prohibits it.

I think the issue you may be having is the fact that Xbox One (from what I can find) doesn't support mp4. Here's a list of video/media files Xbox One media player is compatible with (can find it here):

• 3GP audio
• 3GP video
• 3GP2
• AAC
• ADTS
• animated GIF
• .asf
• AVI DivX
• DV AVI
• AVI uncompressed
• AVI Xvid
• BMP
• JPEG
• GIF
• H.264 AVCHD
• M-JPEG
• .mkv
• .mov
• MP3
• MPEG-PS
• MPEG-2 MPEG-2 HD
• MPEG-2 TS
• H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
• MPEG-4 SP
• PNG
• TIFF
• WAV
• WMA
• WMA Lossless
• WMA Pro
• WMA Voice
• WMV
• WMV HD

As for the server log, I don't know if this is what you're specifically looking for, but you can download the logs from the Plex Server. Go into Settings > Server > Help and you should see this page so you can download the logs:

 

[FordGT90Concept]

"H.264/MPEG-4 AVC" it supports it, just not at 4K or greater resolutions. Plex's list is accurate. Xbox One S only supports 4K HEVC or MPEG4 (not h.264). Xbox One X also adds support for 4K VP9.


I'm thinking the best solution is to convert it from h.264 to HEVC. HEVC is what ATSC 3.0 is moving towards anyway.