LRADIKAL posted:I looked a few pages back. What's the recommended mini PC, or maybe what's the next step up from that in terms of transcode/storage/memory sort of capacity for use in more general server stuff as well. Depends on how much you want it to do / how much you want to upgrade. Scruff gives a good rec for something thats going to be very small. Stuff like this is older / sometimes cheaper etc https://www.ebay.com/itm/295020790427 I use this for my Plex transcode box https://www.ebay.com/itm/115777075226
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Aug 18, 2023 13:11
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Also interesting in getting something that just acts as a Plex broadcast / transcode box. Right now I'm running PMS in a TrueNas jail and I frequently have to tell it to stream in 720 because 1080 buffers, even though the bitrates don't seem to make sense (1080 (Maximum) shows 1.8 Mbps and buffers, 720 (High) at 4 Mbps plays smooth  ).I assume with a NAS setup the general idea is to get something with a transcode-friendly CPU, throw whatever OS and PMS on there and just network mount your library? Can I just move my DB file over to the new install or is there a more complex Plex dance needed to migrate systems?
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Aug 18, 2023 14:34
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Takes No Damage posted:Also interesting in getting something that just acts as a Plex broadcast / transcode box. Right now I'm running PMS in a TrueNas jail and I frequently have to tell it to stream in 720 because 1080 buffers, even though the bitrates don't seem to make sense (1080 (Maximum) shows 1.8 Mbps and buffers, 720 (High) at 4 Mbps plays smooth This is exactly what I did and it was much easier than trying to make an ancient NAS (which still runs great just for that) try to do things it just wasn't meant for. I got the lil HP box in my 2nd link, put ubuntu and PMS on it and then pointed PMS to the mounted media share folders for TV / Movies etc. I don't recall there being much of an issue with moving over the DB file but I also didn't really care about it much at the time I moved everything. I think it mostly imported it when I logged into PMS? Can't be sure on that last part.
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Aug 18, 2023 14:43
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Found on Reddit, but apparently Plex is going to start updating the default "remote" bitrate on its apps to 12Mbps 1080p:
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Aug 18, 2023 16:57
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IOwnCalculus posted:Found on Reddit, but apparently Plex is going to start updating the default "remote" bitrate on its apps to 12Mbps 1080p: One less port to worry about. Nice.
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Aug 18, 2023 17:01
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That Works posted:I use this for my Plex transcode box https://www.ebay.com/itm/115777075226 Was about to grab one of these, the Celerons seem like pretty good CPUs for this usecase. Decided to shop around a little bit and see if I could find something with a slightly upgraded CPU (a J4125 vs this J4025 ). Found this for slightly less, but it's some Chinese brand I've never heard of so am slightly wary: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374737622964 but also found this for the same price from Acer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/255186968611 Any reason not to go for the Acer over the HP you linked?
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Aug 18, 2023 17:53
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Takes No Damage posted:Was about to grab one of these, the Celerons seem like pretty good CPUs for this usecase. Decided to shop around a little bit and see if I could find something with a slightly upgraded CPU (a J4125 vs this J4025 ). Found this for slightly less, but it's some Chinese brand I've never heard of so am slightly wary: Nothing major, I might look into a cheap RAM upgrade for it and make sure the Acer one uses stuff that you can find cheaply (it should). I did replace the stick of RAM on my HP from 4 to 8gb for like $10 or something but I don't think that's mandatory. I'd go for it e: https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/acer/aspire-xc-830 That Works fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Aug 18, 2023 |
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Aug 18, 2023 18:04
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That Works posted:Nothing major, I might look into a cheap RAM upgrade for it and make sure the Acer one uses stuff that you can find cheaply (it should). I did replace the stick of RAM on my HP from 4 to 8gb for like $10 or something but I don't think that's mandatory. Thanks for the info. One more question, which probably should have come up sooner: am I going to need to enable HW transcoding to take advantage of the Celeron's iGPU i.e. time to buy a PlexPass? I've been holding off for years, but as much as my family uses the server now it's probably worth it.
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Aug 18, 2023 18:53
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That Works posted:One less port to worry about. Nice. Yeah. As someone who doesn't store/share any 4K, I bet I start seeing a lot less transcoding once this rolls out. Surely Plex has figured out that most people who are sharing their libraries aren't doing it from a 5Mbps uplink.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:04
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Takes No Damage posted:Thanks for the info. One more question, which probably should have come up sooner: am I going to need to enable HW transcoding to take advantage of the Celeron's iGPU i.e. time to buy a PlexPass? I've been holding off for years, but as much as my family uses the server now it's probably worth it. I can't find out much about how the 600 handles Plex HW transcoding, but Intel 610 and 630 graphics have little in the way of a practical limit, being around 20 encodes before the performance bottlenecks come in through I/O. I believe the base 600 is around half this performance, but you might want to research it further. Xe graphics are in the same category. The HP minis that use the fuller-fat celerons or base i3 chips tend to be the classic way to do an uber-cheap plex transcoder box, something like https://www.ebay.com/itm/124567626003?mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5338535236&toolid=20013&mkevt=1 or https://www.ebay.com/p/13059662714 Can be regularly found under $200. You can find job-lots of people clearing office inventory of these units. Just search ebay for HP S01, HP mini, intel 610, intel 630 or any of the low level i3s or G-celerons and you'll find a lot of options about.
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Aug 18, 2023 23:18
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Takes No Damage posted:Was about to grab one of these, the Celerons seem like pretty good CPUs for this usecase. Decided to shop around a little bit and see if I could find something with a slightly upgraded CPU (a J4125 vs this J4025 ). Found this for slightly less, but it's some Chinese brand I've never heard of so am slightly wary: Those J chips are pretty old at this point, both from 2019. When I was looking into this earlier this year my conclusion was a N5105/N5095 with the N6005 as a harder to find upgrade pick (these were from 2021). I was seeing mixed reports on how well the older J chips could handle 4k transcoding when also doing hardware tonemapping (e.g. if you need to transcode a 4k HDR video into SDR in a lower resolution) and at least at the time those N chips weren't much more expensive. However, it looks like they very recently released a newer gen mobile chips that are already showing up in the Chinese mini PCs: I'm now seeing the N95 and N100 as options now in the sub $200 range. Might be worth looking into these.
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Aug 18, 2023 23:45
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I'm taking the plunge, moving from the RPi 4 to a DS220+ I should move some sort of database over, right? Do I need to export it first, so it survives the change in architecture? Is this even the same endianness?
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Aug 18, 2023 23:48
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cruft posted:I'm taking the plunge, moving from the RPi 4 to a DS220+ In my own research I keep seeing this link: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201370363-move-an-install-to-another-system/ Which makes it sound like, especially for a Linux > Linux move, you just install on the new platform then dump your existing PMS directory on top of the fresh one. I sure hope it's as easy as that makes it sound, but I'm prepared to keep the existing server around for a bit while I work out kinks in the new one. e: Splinter posted:Those J chips are pretty old at this point, both from 2019. When I was looking into this earlier this year my conclusion was a N5105/N5095 with the N6005 as a harder to find upgrade pick (these were from 2021). I was seeing mixed reports on how well the older J chips could handle 4k transcoding when also doing hardware tonemapping (e.g. if you need to transcode a 4k HDR video into SDR in a lower resolution) and at least at the time those N chips weren't much more expensive. This video makes the J4125 look pretty good for this sort of thing, especially since it will be in a dedicated Plex box and I'm not pushing into 4k yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edTKhqAZ6_c For a Proof of Concept I think this will be fine for a while, and if in a few years I start collecting a bunch of 4k x265 files like Khablam said it's easy to grab an old business PC with the CPU of your choice and dump PMS over there (I hope). Takes No Damage fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 00:13
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Welp. It looks like DSM insists on using LVM, which means my 24TB btrfs volume isn't going to mount. So it's back to the RPi4, and I guess I need to find somebody who wants to buy a DS220+ with 2x4TB drives that's been used once for 30 minutes. Maybe I can give it to my sister. cruft fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 03:00
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OldSenileGuy posted:Which would you recommend between ersatzTV and dizqueTV ? I’ve been wanting to set up something like this forever, but always got scared away by how complex it seemed and how the software always seemed to be in beta and barely working. yeah my impressions were kinda meh for both, but I found ersatzTV to be a bit more useful for an music-video channel.
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Aug 19, 2023 03:27
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Just a heads up, winRAR has a big security issue, update or uninstall. I know most people are using 7zip at this point.
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Aug 20, 2023 01:20
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drat, I was just about to buy a license too....
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Aug 20, 2023 01:30
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Just a heads up, winRAR has a big security issue, update or uninstall. I know most people are using 7zip at this point. Okay thanks
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Aug 20, 2023 02:34
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A WinRAR is you!
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Aug 20, 2023 02:55
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Fozzy The Bear posted:Just a heads up, winRAR has a big security issue, update or uninstall. I know most people are using 7zip at this point. Sounds like something a 7zip fanboy would say! Got a link?
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Aug 20, 2023 03:19
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LRADIKAL posted:Sounds like something a 7zip fanboy would say! Got a link? https://securityonline.info/cve-2023-40477-winrar-code-execution-vulnerability/
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Aug 20, 2023 05:20
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Oh, so just download the new version.
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Aug 20, 2023 06:42
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After going through that blogspam to source to rarlab. Update was released 18 days ago. Also install Winget UI.
CatHorse fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Aug 20, 2023 |
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Aug 20, 2023 07:21
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Learning WinRAR still sees active development isn't something I expected today
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Aug 20, 2023 10:59
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How do I diagnose this problem? Some movies are just playing as stereo but when I open the file with VLC, its full surround. No settings are changing on my AVR. My computer is hooked up to the AVR, using the local windows Plex client vs playing the VLC on the same computer. Audio in plex shows (AC3 5.1) VLC shows DD 5.1
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Aug 22, 2023 05:23
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No help? Is everyone mad about winrar?
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Aug 23, 2023 03:12
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Fozzy The Bear posted:No help? Is everyone mad about winrar? I don't know how to help you with Windows, OP. Did you tell it you have five speakers? If so, that's the extent of the help I can offer.
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Aug 23, 2023 03:24
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cruft posted:I don't know how to help you with Windows, OP. Did you tell it you have five speakers? If so, that's the extent of the help I can offer. VLC is playing surround sound on the same PC. Some movies Plex will play surround, just not on them all.
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Aug 23, 2023 03:57
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Fozzy The Bear posted:How do I diagnose this problem? Are you using the Plex HTPC app vs Plex Media Player?
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Aug 23, 2023 04:03
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Fozzy The Bear posted:VLC is playing surround sound on the same PC. Some movies Plex will play surround, just not on them all. This sounds to me like another bonkers codec issue. When you play the thing that should be in surround and isn't, does Plex say it's transcoding the audio?
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Aug 23, 2023 04:19
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Burden posted:Are you using the Plex HTPC app vs Plex Media Player? I just double click the little icon at the bottom right in the notification area. The Plex Media Server, right click it and say "Open Plex" cruft posted:This sounds to me like another bonkers codec issue. When you play the thing that should be in surround and isn't, does Plex say it's transcoding the audio? Yes  How do I change it not to? This one plays surround without issue. 
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Aug 23, 2023 04:29
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Fozzy The Bear posted:I just double click the little icon at the bottom right in the notification area. Is it opening up a web browser when you do that or an app? I would make sure you are using Plex HTPC and not Plex Media player or a browser.
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Aug 23, 2023 04:34
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Burden posted:Is it opening up a web browser when you do that or an app? I would make sure you are using Plex HTPC and not Plex Media player or a browser. Its opening up a tab in Chrome, will download Plex HTPC and test. Thanks. e: Fixed! Fozzy The Bear fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 04:35
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Why does Plex on tvOS have such a problem playing 4K HDR stuff? I thought it was 4K stuff but it turns out the problems are HDR in MKV HEVC containers. Everything else I throw at it seems fine. This is on an Apple TV 4K (the 2nd revision, with the nice controller) on an LG C1, 1Gb Ethernet with Plex server local.
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Aug 24, 2023 03:10
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My Plex on tvOS works fine with my 4K encodes? Over wifi even.
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Aug 24, 2023 03:46
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Ive switched to infuse and will never look back.
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Aug 24, 2023 03:48
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I find it handles DV quite poorly
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Aug 24, 2023 04:10
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Hed posted:Why does Plex on tvOS have such a problem playing 4K HDR stuff? I thought it was 4K stuff but it turns out the problems are HDR in MKV HEVC containers. Everything else I throw at it seems fine. Something changed, either with the playback engine or with the way things were being encoded. At one point it was only affecting stuff sourced from Disney+ but it’s gotten worse. They’ve had similar issues with reference frames in bluray remuxes before that was eventually fixed, but this is taking some sweet time and it’s frustrating because as mentioned before - it doesn’t affect Infuse.
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Aug 24, 2023 04:56
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Matt Zerella posted:Ive switched to infuse and will never look back. Yep
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Aug 24, 2023 04:58
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"New" (refurb Aspire XC-830) plex server arrived, spent the day getting things set up. I was going to use Ubuntu Server for the OS but then figured why even abstract things that far and just went full Debian. Once I un-hosed my rsync command the migration went smoothly (in *nix you just throw your old Plex Media Server directory at the new server) and I even messed up and forgot to match PMS versions, I just installed the latest release on the new server, Plex didn't care still worked fine. Since I made sure to make the network mount for my media the same as the old jail mount I didn't have to do a bunch of rescanning new directories, new install picked everything up right away. Figure I'll limp along with a monthly Plex Pass and see if they put the Lifetime on sale for Black Friday/Xmas, but once I bought it my config picked up my CPU as a hardware acceleration device and by watching it with htop it definitely moves the workload over. Since Debian comes with a built-in ramdisk in /dev/shm that was a no-brainer for the transcode temp directory as well. Went ahead and ordered another 4gb ram stick to max out what the CPU will support so I can put a little more space in /dev/shm, but based on my local testing (2 simultaneous 1080 transcodes) I'd call this a success 
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Aug 27, 2023 00:00
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