4K HEVC Plex ideal Setup?

[ShadyHost]

So I have a 6600k in my network box powering my Plex server. Recently I've been playing 4K HEVC files on various devices including an iPhone X, Xbox One X, and also a Macbook Pro. 

 

My issue is I have inconsistent playback running full res/bitrate conversion...usually 4k@25mbit maybe a little less. 

Some suggestions I've seen are to run the audio at AC3 instead of TrueHD or whatever the default is for HEVC. 

 

 

I guess my question is: should I hold out for some sort of HEVC patch for Plex, install a GPU in the system to offload some encoding, buy a better CPU setup, or......maybe just live with pre-transcoded 1080p/4k footage at the expense of time on the front end?

 

 

Maybe there are some tricks I'm not aware of. Let me know what you guys running 4k HEVC have in your setup.

I do have my encoder settings set fo VeryFast, caching temp files to an SSD, encoding preset to prefer encoding speed over quality. 

 

Usage is pegged at 99% most of the time. Idle (not encoding) is around 0-2% as this is a dedicated storage/Plex box. 

[lttUser1234]

This may help

 

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/26-home-theater-computers/2956800-minimum-hw-4k-hevc-mkv-playback.html

[kingmustard]

12 hours ago, ShadyHost said:

<snipped> 

I've been told a PassMark CPU score of at least 8,000 is required for 4K content.

 

Your Intel Core i5-6600K scores 8,044.

 

I recently bought a system to act as a Plex server, containing an Intel Xeon E3-1270, which scores 8,233.

 

I haven't tested 4K videos on the system yet but I'm hoping they'll be fine.

[ShadyHost]

2 hours ago, kingmustard said:

I've been told a PassMark CPU score of at least 8,000 is required for 4K content.

 

Your Intel Core i5-6600K scores 8,044.

 

I recently bought a system to act as a Plex server, containing an Intel Xeon E3-1270, which scores 8,233.

 

I haven't tested 4K videos on the system yet but I'm hoping they'll be fine.

I've read that HEVC isn't supported natively on most devices yet (expected)
Plex automatically transcodes HEVC stuff into H.264 - 1080p is fine but 4K pushes the 6600k just a little too far. 

 

So "regular" H.264 content will be fine as it will just directly stream across the network with little to no conversion, but HEVC is like encoding/streaming 20mbit+ 4K content to one or more devices at once.

[paddy-stone]

Simple, just use kodi for the 4k content, no transcoding required no matter the device it's played on.

[AshleyAshes]

2 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Simple, just use kodi for the 4k content, no transcoding required no matter the device it's played on.

I mean, yes and no?  The hardware in the Kodi machine also has to be able to decode that video with either hardware acceleration or brute force CPU power.  My i7 3770k powered Kodi HTPC has no problem with this for example. But Plex can ALSO do this, Plex can avoid transcoding entirely if the client can decode that and transcode only if the client device requires it.

[paddy-stone]

26 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I mean, yes and no?  The hardware in the Kodi machine also has to be able to decode that video with either hardware acceleration or brute force CPU power.  My i7 3770k powered Kodi HTPC has no problem with this for example. But Plex can ALSO do this, Plex can avoid transcoding entirely if the client can decode that and transcode only if the client device requires it.

Yes, but when it comes to 4k videos which is what the OP is saying about, kodi has the edge because plex needs much more cpu power to transcode the video. I play things on my shield TV for example, with plex on most 4k content I have it tries to transcode it, and fails miserably most times even using a 6700K in the server. With kodi on the exact same client machine and server it plays the files flawlessly and doesn't transcode, my server cpu usage is still on like 1% or lower. That's why now if I want to view 4k material, especially HEVC, I use kodi instead of plex to save myself the headache and server load of trying to use plex.

[AshleyAshes]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

Yes, but when it comes to 4k videos which is what the OP is saying about, kodi has the edge because plex needs much more cpu power to transcode the video. I play things on my shield TV for example, with plex on most 4k content I have it tries to transcode it, and fails miserably most times even using a 6700K in the server. With kodi on the exact same client machine and server it plays the files flawlessly and doesn't transcode, my server cpu usage is still on like 1% or lower. That's why now if I want to view 4k material, especially HEVC, I use kodi instead of plex to save myself the headache and server load of trying to use plex.

I think you have a software problem here then.  Plex is entirely capable of saying 'Don't transcode this, Mr. Server, just send me the data and I'll decode it myself'.  And Kodi and Plex, at their hearts, have basically the same video decoding functions as both (Along with so many other things) use the open source FFMPEG project for their decoding.

[paddy-stone]

4 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

I think you have a software problem here then.  Plex is entirely capable of saying 'Don't transcode this, Mr. Server, just send me the data and I'll decode it myself'.  And Kodi and Plex, at their hearts, have basically the same video decoding functions as both (Along with so many other things) use the open source FFMPEG project for their decoding.

Could possibly be that, but I don't know exactly. I have tried many ways and from different servers like using my PC as the server instead of my freenas server, and it's always the same,,, and similarly with the clients.

If you can give me some things to try I am entirely willing to try them out. But otherwise I have to go with my conclusions of trying out pretty much everything I can think of and coming up with "plex doesn't like transcoding certain things". As I have no other frame of reference.

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, paddy-stone said:

But otherwise I have to go with my conclusions of trying out pretty much everything I can think of and coming up with "plex doesn't like transcoding certain things". As I have no other frame of reference.

I don't think that you've quite grasped what I've said here.  Plex does not HAVE to transcode anything.  Assuming the client hardware supports playback you can just use direct play, which involves no transcoding between server and client.

 

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250387-streaming-media-direct-play-and-direct-stream/

[paddy-stone]

2 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

I don't think that you've quite grasped what I've said here.  Plex does not HAVE to transcode anything.  Assuming the client hardware supports playback you can just use direct play, which involves no transcoding between server and client.

 

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250387-streaming-media-direct-play-and-direct-stream/

Ok, but I think you haven't GRASPED what I am saying either... the EXACT same content played from the same server, and to the same client.. using plex it's transcoding it (I can see this on the plex client AND on my server load), and using kodi it doesn't transcode it but direct plays it.

I have tried pretty much everything I can think of to see if it's a software problem with plex... and nothing works. Which is why I use kodi for my 4K HEVC stuff because it stresses my server too much to use plex.. and sometimes plex won't play it properly even, but has to buffer and sometimes stops altogether. IIRC I also tried playback on my main PC being used as the client, and even then it was transcoding etc. I have tried EVERYTHING, and looked at various forums including plex, and have seen others saying about it too, something to do with plex using x264 for transcoding, so transcoding from x265 HEVC to x264 was hard work for the server CPU to do or something.

 

[paddy-stone]

I apologize. I think I have finally figured out what the problem is with plex, it appears to be after a little more testing that the files I have problems with are actually 10-bit.. and plex has the video playing loads of glitches. The weird thing is that kodi plays them fine though, same device and everything. So I wasn't exactly wrong, but I was wrong about what it was that was the cause.

OP just to clarify for you, most of my 4k HEVC videos play back brilliantly with plex, the audio does need decoding, but that's more of my device's problems, NOT plex itself. However, the 10-bit videos do NOT playback on plex hardly at all, and with great glitches in them and so on.. this again COULD be device oriented instead of plex, BUT as I mentioned earlier KODI plays them back fine with no problems.

@AshleyAshes

[gamerking]

On 4/13/2018 at 9:47 AM, ShadyHost said:

I've read that HEVC isn't supported natively on most devices yet (expected)
Plex automatically transcodes HEVC stuff into H.264 - 1080p is fine but 4K pushes the 6600k just a little too far. 

 

So "regular" H.264 content will be fine as it will just directly stream across the network with little to no conversion, but HEVC is like encoding/streaming 20mbit+ 4K content to one or more devices at once.

that ant totally true i thought the same thing HEVC support was crap , but it really depends on the device a smart tv from the last two years (the model i got) HEVC is almost required . if you play your plex thur windows yes its a crap shoot i still cant get it to work on firefox,chrome or windows app all 3 transcode the video , my 4k tv happily direct plays it . chromecast/roku i gave up i have a chromecast and it couldnt get it to play stuff 100% of the time without transcoding

such as

HEVC 10bit TRUEHD plays fine hevc 8bit Truehd the video wants to transcode . ive encoding both files so i know what was changed .

 

when i looked most tv's have a section now somewhere if they got wifi or Ethernet that has all supported res's and audio for internal hdmi or passthur to sound system via optical ect . another option is  emby , which will about direct play any format and combo that i tried  and setting it up alongside plex and much more work once you got it all setup .

[ShadyHost]

I'll give Plex on my TV a try and see if it works any better. The Samsung Smart Apps keep bricking and I have to reset SmartHub every few months - so I avoid using the smart functions altogether and just use Plex on my Xbox.

 

Call it the Plexbox since that's all it's good for.

[Mikensan]

Xbox One X and iPhone 7 and greater support native h265 playback, so you should be able to change the stream to "original" and offload the stress of your plex server. Your issue might be trying to use wireless to stream 4k. Could be a weak signal or some other variable impacting your playback.

 

I'm direct-streaming 1080p h265 to my chromecast ultra without a hitch, but it's one wall away from my AP.