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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded
 
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

 When I cast to my Chromecast, using media that is on my Plex server, it sometimes locks up, and I have to hit the stop button, then hit play again to get it to work.

What is the best fix for this? Should I convert everything to MP4? A lot of my files are currently MKV.

* # ¿ Apr 11, 2014 09:29
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# ¿ May 2, 2024 13:13
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

kri kri posted:

What media server version are you using?

Version0.9.9.7.429


Roundboy posted:

Are you running out of transcoding juice ? Tail the logs, grep for "speed" and see what you are arctually transcoding at. anything below 1 means you are stuttering. Depending on buffer you can handle a few occasionally, but not constant.

Before I upgraded my server, i found that it was better to raise the encoding level to MAX, and let my media play directly vs a blanket transcode to 4 MBPS 720p. Media that contains DTS, or anything unknown will always require a transcode regardless

Nope, I am able to stream to everything else just fine. Only on my Chromecast do I have the issue.

I looked through the logs, and never see any issues with my speed. What logs should I look at?

My machine is on 8 GB ram, i5 4570 3.2G, and is pretty new.

* # ¿ Apr 11, 2014 23:59
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

Roundboy posted:

https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200250417-Plex-Media-Server-Log-Files

Plex Media Server.log is what you want to look at (also make sure you have debugging on) .. examine that log for something with 'speed; in it

code:

Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] DEBUG -  * progress => 47.7
Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] DEBUG -  * size => -38
Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] DEBUG -  * speed => 8.1
Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] DEBUG -  * remaining => 4253
Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] DEBUG - It took 0.000000 sec to serialize a list with 0 elements.
Apr 11, 2014 21:55:37 [0x7f4e2a7fc700] VERBOSE - Completed request: PUT /video/:/transcode/session/szqpgpcklxlayvi/progress?progress=47.7&size=-38&speed=8.1&remaining=4253: 2200
anything above 1 is transcoding fsater then realtime... below one you are lagging.. and supposedly 1.0 exactly is direct play no transcoding.

I just dug through all the logs I had. All of them have my speed way up there, 20+. The only time it went below that, was when I attempted to stream a twitch server, and it was at like .1, but I remember that the twitch stream took forever to load up for some drat reason.



I also do not have Plexpass.

* # ¿ Apr 12, 2014 12:37
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

 Well, I figured out part of my problem with Chromecast. I had my server setup via WIFI, because I wanted to have it in a room that no one really used, so that it wouldn't randomly spin up when I wanted to watch/download/whatever something. Turns out the card I was using would randomly drop down to 5 Mbits speed, and that is right when whatever I was playing would start skipping.

Ran some wire to it, and now have it hardwired into my router, and it works like a charm.

If your server is connecting to Chromecast via WIFI, you may want to check it out, and try to hard wire that poo poo in. I never realized just how lovely my cheapo depo wifi card was till now.

* # ¿ Apr 27, 2014 01:22
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

teagone posted:

The Lenovo TS140 with a Core-i3 can be had for around $250-$300. Has 4 HDD bays I believe.

[edit] http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-TS140-70A4000HUX-Computer/dp/B00F6EK9J2 $262 shipped fulfilled by Amazon.

I have seen this mentioned multiple times, is this a pretty good one to go with? I have no problem building one myself, but I have never built a server.


Can the i3 deal with 1080p and all that junk?

* # ¿ Sep 3, 2014 09:40
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

teagone posted:

Yeah, the Core i3 is very much capable of handling 1080p transcoding. How many front-end devices would the server be transcoding for with your set up?

I would probably be dealing with one - three inside the network, and up to 4 outside the network. One of the ones on the network is a Chromecast, with the other two being computers.

Outside the network would be a mix of phone, computers, tablets, and maybe a Roku/Chromecast/Fire TV.


I was looking into building my own, but it looks like it would cost more than the Lenovo system.

* # ¿ Sep 3, 2014 16:44
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

Thermopyle posted:

I think he's asking how many you will be transcribing for simultaneously.

At most I would probably have 3 or so at once.

* # ¿ Sep 3, 2014 17:59
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# ¿ May 2, 2024 13:13
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Colt Cannon
Aug 11, 2000

teagone posted:

Yeah, that's what I meant. Sorry if I wasn't clear :shobon:

That said, a Core i3 should definitely be enough to handle transcoding 3 streams. I'd probably up the RAM to 8GB though, if you're getting the base model with 4GB. What's your current Plex server specs if you don't mind my asking?

i5-4570 3.2
8 GB RAM DDR3-1600
GTX 760

* # ¿ Sep 3, 2014 23:20
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded