Plex is killing me

[johnt]

I'm struggling with Plex Media Server. I have a lifetime pass, the server is installed on an i5 12400 CPU with 32 GB of DDR4 memory running Windows 11. I am using the iGPU Intel 730 for transcoding. There are several posts out there about how this CPU/GPU can handle HW transcoding in Plex and it should be good for several 4k streams. I can't even remote stream at 1080p. My family tried watching a 1080p source that is around 6,000 kbps bitrate and a total file size around 2.5 GB. It's peanuts! This particular file did not have HDR, but they were using subtitles. My upload bandwidth is 100 to 115 Mbps. But for whatever reason, they had the Plex client installed on their Amazon Fire Stick and they had to reduce quality to 240p for smooth playback. I have no ****ing clue what to do.

 

I admit, the Plex client on my Apple TV was not really keeping up with my videos even locally. However, I struggled with crazy bitrates over 50 Mbps. My struggle was mostly AV sync, not smooth playback. I switched to Infuse and it uses direct play for nearly everything. The Plex client is designed for transcoded video, even locally, which is awful.

 

Is the 12400 legit or just a POS? I have a GTX 1050ti and a 1070 sitting around that I can try. But there are several reddit posts that say QSV is better than Nvidia GPUs for simple transcoding and of course several that claim the opposite. I have no clue what to believe. I can't tell if they are running on Linux or some other NAS software that doesn't have native Nvidia drivers? My Intel drivers are from Microsoft. Will drivers from Intel be better??? I hear the Intel 730 is not very powerful either. I have a 12700k with the 770 iGPU. I've been considering testing that, but I feel like a 12700k would be overkill for Plex/simple file server.

 

I have similar issues with Jellyfin, but I have not used it much because of lack of native clients. Transcoding remotely on JF is just as bad as Plex from my limited testing.

[Kilrah]

iGPU is plenty fine, and it either works or doesn't. 

Start a transcoded stream and check on the dashboard that it is being transcoded by hardware, also ckeck that the CPU isn't maxed out. If that's OK then the problem is likely network-related.

[BoomerDutch]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

iGPU is plenty fine, and it either works or doesn't. 

Start a transcoded stream and check on the dashboard that it is being transcoded by hardware, also check that the CPU isn't maxed out. If that's OK then the problem is likely network-related.

Or optionally you can change settings on client to external player which then it transcodes on client side instead server side and see if works better that way.

 

(I'm using jellyfin and hosting with 4 cores en 8 gig virtual server without gpu or igpu)

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, johnt said:

I'm struggling with Plex Media Server. I have a lifetime pass, the server is installed on an i5 12400 CPU with 32 GB of DDR4 memory running Windows 11. I am using the iGPU Intel 730 for transcoding. There are several posts out there about how this CPU/GPU can handle HW transcoding in Plex and it should be good for several 4k streams. I can't even remote stream at 1080p. My family tried watching a 1080p source that is around 6,000 kbps bitrate and a total file size around 2.5 GB. It's peanuts! This particular file did not have HDR, but they were using subtitles. My upload bandwidth is 100 to 115 Mbps. But for whatever reason, they had the Plex client installed on their Amazon Fire Stick and they had to reduce quality to 240p for smooth playback. I have no ****ing clue what to do.

 

I admit, the Plex client on my Apple TV was not really keeping up with my videos even locally. However, I struggled with crazy bitrates over 50 Mbps. My struggle was mostly AV sync, not smooth playback. I switched to Infuse and it uses direct play for nearly everything. The Plex client is designed for transcoded video, even locally, which is awful.

 

Is the 12400 legit or just a POS? I have a GTX 1050ti and a 1070 sitting around that I can try. But there are several reddit posts that say QSV is better than Nvidia GPUs for simple transcoding and of course several that claim the opposite. I have no clue what to believe. I can't tell if they are running on Linux or some other NAS software that doesn't have native Nvidia drivers? My Intel drivers are from Microsoft. Will drivers from Intel be better??? I hear the Intel 730 is not very powerful either. I have a 12700k with the 770 iGPU. I've been considering testing that, but I feel like a 12700k would be overkill for Plex/simple file server.

 

I have similar issues with Jellyfin, but I have not used it much because of lack of native clients. Transcoding remotely on JF is just as bad as Plex from my limited testing.

Are you sure tht it isn't a firestick issue? What was it like if they turn subtitles off? Any smoother?

[johnt]

9 hours ago, Kilrah said:

iGPU is plenty fine, and it either works or doesn't. 

Start a transcoded stream and check on the dashboard that it is being transcoded by hardware, also ckeck that the CPU isn't maxed out. If that's OK then the problem is likely network-related.

I used my phone on 5G to do transcode streaming over WAN. The iGPU is definitely maxing out frequently with transcodes, although it does seem to be very file dependent. Overall, it is working most of the time. I tried the 6 Mbps bitrate file they were watching and a different 25 Mbps HDR video and the iGPU did okay. Definitely can be a bottleneck. The CPU itself was never maxed out. Windows reports them separately, luckily.

 

9 hours ago, BoomerDutch said:

Or optionally you can change settings on client to external player which then it transcodes on client side instead server side and see if works better that way.

 

(I'm using jellyfin and hosting with 4 cores en 8 gig virtual server without gpu or igpu)

I haven't seen a setting to do client-side transcoding on Plex. I suspect the fire stick would melt.

 

8 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

Are you sure tht it isn't a firestick issue? What was it like if they turn subtitles off? Any smoother?

It is hard to pin point. I tried replicating remote streaming with transcoding using my phone, but I suspect my phone is a lot more powerful than a fire stick. The subtitles were direct play so I don't think they were contributing that much to processing.

 

I tried an older PC, a 5820k with a 1050ti, and that GPU seemed to handle transcoding a lot better. Jumping around the video was very responsive, but the "decoder" output in Task Manager was over 50% the whole time and temps were around 50C (30 idle). So it's definitely doing something! I'm going to work with my family to see if it's the fire stick. The problem is they use it to stream other apps like netflix and disney, and they claim it looks fine and works. But it is not always clear what bitrate or resolution they are actually running at. I had a Samsung tv from 2016 that would let me change the resolution setting to 2160p on YT, but my internet usage never reflected it. I was always under a terabyte. I swear it was always limited to 720p no matter what I selected. After I got my AppleTV, my internet usage jumped through the roof (several terabytes per month) the month I got it and the picture quality definitely improved. Anyways, I am wondering if the fire stick is doing something similar where it is favoring lower bitrate or resolution content and upscaling somehow. They have an LG C3 so it can make anything reasonable look good.

[ewitte]

I did plex on a container on top of Proxmox with a 12600k (I gave it access to the GPU) and like 4GB of ram and 2 cores.  It pretty much handled anything I threw at it.  I try to not let it transcode though because it messes up HDR.  Subtitles was a big issue I had to get past it forces transcoding if you don't have the right format.  Running of a Core 7 ultra 155h NUC right now in windows.  

 

BTW: the primary client is a 2024 Roku Ultra on a Samsung S90D.

[maplepants]

Lots of good advice here so far. Another way to test this would be to share the file via SMB and then play it on the stick using VLC. If you have the same problems, then you at least know it's not Plex.

 

On practice that has served me very well in Plex debugging over the years has been to have one gigantic (preferably HDR) movie that you use as a standard test and then some other file you compare it to. My gigantic file is a 4k HDR blu ray rip of Blade Runner 2049. It's 22GB and basically my torture test. My other test file is a DVD rip of the Daft Punk movie Electroma, it's SD but still 5GB.

 

The theory behind my test files is that if it's an encoding problem, it'll choke on Bland Runner 2049 but handle Electroma. If it's network problem, it'll struggle with both.

 

Obviously your mileage may vary on what you think you need to test, but this has worked very well for me.

[johnt]

On 2/17/2025 at 12:53 PM, ewitte said:

I did plex on a container on top of Proxmox with a 12600k (I gave it access to the GPU) and like 4GB of ram and 2 cores

The CPU requirements for Plex are surprisingly low. My 12400 is keeping up just fine. It's just the iGPU that is peaking at 100% and sometimes it doesn't go down during transcode. If it can handle the transcode, the GPU usage drops and it has intermittent peaks during buffering. Otherwise something else is happening and I haven't figured it out yet.

 

 

On 2/18/2025 at 1:58 AM, maplepants said:

Lots of good advice here so far. Another way to test this would be to share the file via SMB and then play it on the stick using VLC. If you have the same problems, then you at least know it's not Plex.

This is a great suggestion. After chatting with them, I learnt the the fire stick was a 2016 release that they purchased in 2019!!! I am not sure how D+ and NF hasn't dropped support for it at this rate. But it can't even do 4k or "high bitrate" whatsoever. So they have been watching 1080p on their C3 since they got the tv smh. Sometimes people and technology don't mix well and it's the people's fault. I tried over 4g service the other day hot spotted to my iPad. The same video they tried was running at original quality/direct play with the Plex app. No transcoding, no nothing over 4g!! So their fire stick was causing me a ton of grief. You were totally right that was the issue.

 

I also tried several other videos that would definitely need to be transcoded and most worked perfectly fine. The iGPU usage was over 95% the whole time though, but never fully maxed. Not sure what that means for multiple streams, but I have to admit these files were enormous, super high bitrate, 4k, and HDR. Also, apparently Plex doesn't have a license to transcode Dolby Vision profile 5 HDR content. Seven hells it never ends lol

[apoyusiken]

I can use it just fine with 2300g and 16gigs on ram