So why doesn’t everyone do this? The answer is that, despite the convenience offered by a NAS-based PMS solution, there is one huge drawback compared to dedicated PMS hardware: transcoding.Īs mentioned earlier, a fantastic feature of PMS is that it can automatically transcode content on the fly to suit the client device. But the Raspberry Pi 4’s 1,657 score means that your streaming experience will stutter and buckle if more than one person needs transcoding.With Plex on a NAS, you can store your media right on the NAS alongside the server software, and have everything run off of one relatively small package. Mobile or low-powered processors will work fine for a local Plex setup, but you’ll need a desktop-grade processor if your Plex server will have remote users.įor example, the Intel Core i5-12600K has a PassMark score of 24,254, so it’ll comfortably support around 12 viewers watching transcoded 1080p content. In plain English, what all this means is that you’ll want a processor that can support the number of remote users you’ll have on the server. (And we haven’t even gotten to hardware acceleration, which can improve transcoding performance for Plex Pass subscribers, but that’s another article for another day-learning about video encoding is a real “crossing the Rubicon” moment.) One 4K SDR transcode: 12,000 PassMark score.One 1080p transcode: 2,000 PassMark score.One 720p transcode: 1,500 PassMark score.As Plex’s support page notes, a single transcoded stream requires a CPU with the following minimum scores from benchmark program PassMark (PassMark scores measure CPU performance and higher scores are better): Transcoding will rarely be a problem when you’re accessing Plex at home.īut the biggest challenge with transcoding is the CPU horsepower it’ll require from your Plex server. For instance, Plex will have to transcode a video if you’re remotely playing a 4K video on a 720p smartphone.
In the most layman of layman’s terms, transcoding refers to when Plex has to convert a video to play on a new streaming device.
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