HW options for 2000$ budget

[T.J.Hammer]

I don't use Plex so I don't know.
You can probably force it to use the dedicated GPU by, as I wrote in my previous post, deactivating the iGPU in the BIOS.
But if your VGA doesn't work you are left with no screen, and then the only option you have is probably a BIOS reset.

The GPU is working I have video output its just the HW that is too weak..
I will wait for the new CPU and MB to arrive, hope it will fix it

 

[Davvo]

I doubt a change of MoBo and CPU will drastically change anything.
If you want 5 simultaneous streams in 4k (transcoding?) you need a (working) dedicated GPU, period.

This is my opinion.

 

[NugentS]

You need to check IF you are using hardware or not.
If you open Plex, look at the activity - is the transcoding hardware o

how can I make use of it?
I installed it and its recognized.
here is how it looks on the plex app:
View attachment 59073
here is the nvidia-smi command:
View attachment 59074
here is the plex settings:
View attachment 59075
what am I missing?

Change the allocated GPU resources to the line saying 1, not zero
I think

 

[T.J.Hammer]

You need to check IF you are using hardware or not.
If you open Plex, look at the activity - is the transcoding hardware o

Change the allocated GPU resources to the line saying 1, not zero
I think

Its on 1, the CPU is on 0

where can I check in plex? in the web portal?

 

[NugentS]

Watch a movie - make sure its transcoding and then look at the job in Plex. It should say HW
Not an expert here.

 

[poldi]

Its all saved on the nas and by using plex I stream it to my tv.
All the files are 4k and I am not converting anything but when I try to watch 2 movies at the same time (lets say I want to watch a movie in the living room tv ans my wife want to watch her show in the badroom) its buffering and unwatchable..

Hi,
can I ask one thing. What is your source material and what are your targets capable of?
I just tested it myself. I have a Chromecast 4k hooked up to my TV. I can watch 4k h264 content as well as HVEC (H265) encoded content and I don't see transcoding on Plex. That is simply because the Chromecast has hardware decode support for both codecs build in.
Maybe you need to revisit your clients instead of throwing hardware at it on your sever side?
Getting 4k Chromecasts (or insert your favourite streaming client instead) is probably cheaper then all the hardware you just ordered.

On a side note, I do believe very strongly that on Geforce cards the NVENC encoder is artificially limited to two streams. So five streams on one card is not going to work either way. NVIDIA wants you to buy a Tesla card for that.

 

[poldi]

Sorry I was a little in a hurry earlier.
You can find out what is happening exactly by going to Plex web.
In the upper right hand corner there is a link to jump to the dashboard:

When a stream is running you can see it on top.
If you pick more details and you can see what Plex is doing:

Here is one example. I started a stream from Plex for iOS, the device is determined to be local. The video source is 1080p HEVC and audio track is DTS-HD MA. In both cases he says it is 'Direct Play', i.e. no transcoding required.

Here is case number two:

Here the client is the same. The source is 4K HDR h264 which needs to be transcoded to 4k h264 (so HDR is an issue here) and the same goes for audio as TrueHD 7.1 is transomed to AAC.

Maybe you can run a test with one of your samples and take a screen shot.

The reason I am asking is two fold.
A. I believe that most of the transcoding can actually be avoided by pairing source material and end device compatibility intelligently. If transcoding can be avoided it saves you energy, hardware and a lot of grey hairs.
B. from what I see in the previous analysis your Geforce card seemed to work correctly. The secret with hardware transcoding is that it has very specific requirements (see the compatibility matrix here). Maybe you are throwing a codec at your card that it simply cannot handle.

 

[T.J.Hammer]

Sorry I was a little in a hurry earlier.
You can find out what is happening exactly by going to Plex web.
In the upper right hand corner there is a link to jump to the dashboard:

View attachment 59218

When a stream is running you can see it on top.
If you pick more details and you can see what Plex is doing:

View attachment 59219

Here is one example. I started a stream from Plex for iOS, the device is determined to be local. The video source is 1080p HEVC and audio track is DTS-HD MA. In both cases he says it is 'Direct Play', i.e. no transcoding required.

Here is case number two:

View attachment 59220

Here the client is the same. The source is 4K HDR h264 which needs to be transcoded to 4k h264 (so HDR is an issue here) and the same goes for audio as TrueHD 7.1 is transomed to AAC.

Maybe you can run a test with one of your samples and take a screen shot.

The reason I am asking is two fold.
A. I believe that most of the transcoding can actually be avoided by pairing source material and end device compatibility intelligently. If transcoding can be avoided it saves you energy, hardware and a lot of grey hairs.
B. from what I see in the previous analysis your Geforce card seemed to work correctly. The secret with hardware transcoding is that it has very specific requirements (see the compatibility matrix here). Maybe you are throwing a codec at your card that it simply cannot handle.

I use only 4K movies so there is no transcoding with any of my TV's but when I try to fire up a second stream Its buffering and not playable.

My new hardware just arrived and once ill figure how to move all my data to the new disks (any tips on that maybe?) ill update if it was helpful or not.

 

[poldi]

I use only 4K movies so there is no transcoding with any of my TV's but when I try to fire up a second stream Its buffering and not playable.

My new hardware just arrived and once ill figure how to move all my data to the new disks (any tips on that maybe?) ill update if it was helpful or not.

If you get buffering with two parallel streams and it is not due to transcoding then it has to be the network connection. I don't think this was answered here in the thread on how your TVs and server connect. If the connection is wireless then that might be your issue.

Either way I wish good luck with your new hardware. I hope that resolves the issue.

 

[T.J.Hammer]

If you get buffering with two parallel streams and it is not due to transcoding then it has to be the network connection. I don't think this was answered here in the thread on how your TVs and server connect. If the connection is wireless then that might be your issue.

Either way I wish good luck with your new hardware. I hope that resolves the issue.

All conected via LAN, no wireless connection allowed in my house exept of our phones
I have 1 giga connection so I dont think its the problem vut once the new server will stand ill have more information.