Dylan Posted January 25 Posted January 25 Problem statement: Experiencing what I believe to be "transcoding lag" via Plex using a new NAS. Old NAS - Netgear ReadyNAS quad-core ARM processor w/ 2GB RAM streamed 5Ghz wirelessly via direct connect to router using 1GB NIC. New NAS - Aoostar WTR PRO Intel N100 w/ 32GB RAM streamed 5GHz wirelessly via direct connect to router using 2.5GB NIC. Old NAS streamed via DLNA with zero issues streaming both 1080p and 4k 10bit HDR content in mostly x256 .mkv files. New system experiences the transcoding lag (visual glitching on the screen) about ~20% of the content I attempt to stream. i can't seem to correlate content to trancoding lag - meaning one directory with x264 .mkv will lag but not another similarly spec'd file. Same with x265 .mkv - one folder works, another does not. I suspect this is Plex attempting to transcode my media and I have attempted to force "direct play" both at the app and the server as i know my TV can handle the content (same content streamed via DLNA via the previous NAS), but I am missing something. What am I missing? Thank you!!! (edit to tag @Sonic as he has the same device) Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 I've doubled the RAM to 8GB available to Plex and added GPU passthrough in the TrueNAS interface as a test to see if that helps (even though I *think I still want Plex to just send the file and not transcode) Will reply if this changes anything. Quote
Mobius Posted January 26 Posted January 26 a couple other users reported having plex show up as indirect streaming and force transcoding? any chance you see the indirect when looking at active streams on your dashboard? Quote
Sonic Posted January 26 Posted January 26 10 hours ago, Dylan said: Problem statement: Experiencing what I believe to be "transcoding lag" via Plex using a new NAS. Old NAS - Netgear ReadyNAS quad-core ARM processor w/ 2GB RAM streamed 5Ghz wirelessly via direct connect to router using 1GB NIC. New NAS - Aoostar WTR PRO Intel N100 w/ 32GB RAM streamed 5GHz wirelessly via direct connect to router using 2.5GB NIC. Old NAS streamed via DLNA with zero issues streaming both 1080p and 4k 10bit HDR content in mostly x256 .mkv files. New system experiences the transcoding lag (visual glitching on the screen) about ~20% of the content I attempt to stream. i can't seem to correlate content to trancoding lag - meaning one directory with x264 .mkv will lag but not another similarly spec'd file. Same with x265 .mkv - one folder works, another does not. I suspect this is Plex attempting to transcode my media and I have attempted to force "direct play" both at the app and the server as i know my TV can handle the content (same content streamed via DLNA via the previous NAS), but I am missing something. What am I missing? Thank you!!! (edit to tag @Sonic as he has the same device) Hi Dylan, I have the AMD version, and the Radeon Graphics aren’t really great for Hardware Accelerated Transcoding. I don’t have much experience with Plex, and I haven’t installed it on HexOS yet. I’m afraid I can’t help you with this. Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 7 hours ago, Mobius said: a couple other users reported having plex show up as indirect streaming and force transcoding? any chance you see the indirect when looking at active streams on your dashboard? Yeah commented on a few threads on the fact that some users may need to manually set their IP's in the plex settings. As i had to do the same on my remote server. I also just finally transferred my plex server from my Mac Mini > Hex server yesterday, and likewise had to Manually set the IP's in both the Plex server, and on the plex app. so far no issues at all on both servers with local content. @Dylan let us know if tis is potentially the issue, happy to help further if needed. On 1/24/2025 at 5:09 PM, Theo said: @ubergeek Check out the reply i posted here. you may have to manually add your local ip / lans to the Plex app settings to ensure your Plex apps are definitely connecting locally. Let me know how you get on and if that helps? Likewise if your long term plan is a lot of remote / transcode viewing, your best bet will be the plex pass for HW transcoding or JellyFin. On 1/7/2025 at 2:04 PM, BranchKo said: This worked! thank you! 1 1 Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 5 hours ago, Sonic said: I’m afraid I can’t help you with this. No worries at all, mate! I appreciate you taking your time to reply. Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 @Theo - Thanks for your reply! As I've never used Plex, I'm going to take this slow. I do have Plex Pass and have pointed the plex app (tv) to the plex server (TrueNAS IP on port 32400) but am not seeing where to manually apply an IP on the server side other than where I identify my ip/subnet as networks that are allowed without auth (network section). I've attempted to force direct streaming via the server: As well as in the app by settings>Video>Force Direct Play is checked and both Allow Direct Play & Allow Direct Stream unchecked. Still glitching on some media files. SO weird. Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 So its in the server > Network settings. You'll want to add your LAN ip address range to LAN Networks, Custom server access & List of IP Address. This will 100% make sure you're server is being found locally. Side note, when playing content on your end device, when viewing the server dashboard now playing on a computer, what does plex show? Take a screenshot of the player window Will show here >>> Lastly, as for your transcode settings. If you're viewing HDR content would recommend enabling tone mapping, also looks like you've got the plex pas, definitely enable Hardware acceleration as that will ensure it's using all of your hardwares recourse to avoid any issues if it 'Does' need to transcode anything. And as for disabling transcoding, this may cause issues as audio will transcode regardless if needed, but i believe with some subtitles it may require transcoding, so fyi for the future. If that all fails, the last thing to do is enable plex to the host network in the TN settings. 1 Quote
Sonic Posted January 26 Posted January 26 23 minutes ago, Theo said: So its in the server > Network settings. You'll want to add your LAN ip address range to LAN Networks, Custom server access & List of IP Address. This will 100% make sure you're server is being found locally. Side note, when playing content on your end device, when viewing the server dashboard now playing on a computer, what does plex show? Take a screenshot of the player window Will show here >>> Lastly, as for your transcode settings. If you're viewing HDR content would recommend enabling tone mapping, also looks like you've got the plex pas, definitely enable Hardware acceleration as that will ensure it's using all of your hardwares recourse to avoid any issues if it 'Does' need to transcode anything. And as for disabling transcoding, this may cause issues as audio will transcode regardless if needed, but i believe with some subtitles it may require transcoding, so fyi for the future. If that all fails, the last thing to do is enable plex to the host network in the TN settings. This is very helpful! 1 Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 11 minutes ago, Sonic said: when viewing the server dashboard now playing on a computer, what does plex show? When not running anything? This: I ran two different files; a compressed 1080p ~1GB file of a show (From) and a compressed 2160p 25GB file of a movie (Nosferatu) of which, neither glitch but both are encoded via x265. Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Dylan said: When not running anything? This: I ran two different files; a compressed 1080p ~1GB file of a show (From) and a compressed 2160p 25GB file of a movie (Nosferatu) of which, neither glitch but both are encoded via x265. Click on those 3 lines on the right to show details and share again Edited January 26 by Theo Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 Oh my damn! Dude, thank you SO much!! Now I can really start to troubleshoot. I really do appreciate your help @Theo - next time I see you beers are on me. 2 Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 2 hours ago, Dylan said: Oh my damn! Dude, thank you SO much!! Now I can really start to troubleshoot. I really do appreciate your help @Theo - next time I see you beers are on me. Nice, yeah looks like you’re up and running. Blame Plex, the fact the detailed view isn’t default is stupid… 🫠 1 Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 Been educating myself reading a bunch of Plex articles, which has been helpful, but it looks like in order to take advantage of Intel Quick Sync Video hardware decode, I would have to make an edit in my docker container. So...that looks fun. https://github.com/plexinc/pms-docker#intel-quick-sync-hardware-transcoding-support Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 Hmm, maybe this is me but i assumed it should just work fine. Assuming you've toggled the GPU passthrough option on the plex TN settings. When you go into the plex transcode space, you should see your GPU listed For context, i don't have a GPU. this is the integrated graphics on my CPU, which to my noob understanding should include the quick sync functionality. i.e no extra step is needed? Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 17 hours ago, Mobius said: a couple other users reported having plex show up as indirect streaming and force transcoding? any chance you see the indirect when looking at active streams on your dashboard? Somehow missed your comment. Until just a bit ago I didn't know how to check the transmission method (direct or transcoding) but I sure do appreciate your help, sir!! Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 1 hour ago, Theo said: For context, i don't have a GPU. this is the integrated graphics on my CPU, which to my noob understanding should include the quick sync functionality. i.e no extra step is needed? Yeah, this kinda confused me as well. I also have integrated GPU via the Intel N100. I have that set in Plex server but need to check the TNUI. It would be worth digging to verify whether or not the settings you mention are sufficient or if the docker edit I linked to is also required. This might be a good post to the TN forums (or perhaps searching their forums first). Quote
Mobius Posted January 26 Posted January 26 7 minutes ago, Dylan said: Somehow missed your comment. Until just a bit ago I didn't know how to check the transmission method (direct or transcoding) but I sure do appreciate your help, sir!! all good, i would have probably referred you to @Theo anyways since he seems super knowledgable about plex. 1 Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 Well i'm now going to have to go down another rabbit whole... Even though my Integrated GPU is showing up, i did a test and i'm not hardware transcoding! For context you should see (HW) at the end to connote hardware transcoding. Looking at the above forum thread you linked @Dylan i don't have the errors mentioned, it seems like everything's fine? Will have to dig deeper into this 🫠 Quote
Theo Posted January 26 Posted January 26 (edited) Arguably as Plex is meant to be a One-Click app, i'm sure others will face the same issue. and having to go into the TNUI, doing CLI commands and changing the docker images won't work for the masses. So @jonp sharing for visibility, incase this is something the team need to look into for all Plex (And future jellyfin ) users, to ensure the correct hardware is set up and visible to the apps. Edited January 26 by Theo 1 Quote
Dylan Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 1 minute ago, Theo said: to ensure the correct hardware is set up and visible to the apps. + 1 on this idea. However, it occurred to me that this may be a Plex question and not necessarily a TN question. Meaning, if TN is set to GPU pass-through then, that'd be it from a TN perspective. The question to Plex should be "if Plex server is set to HW transcode for my specific C/GPU, why would a docker edit be required to enable this feature?" My setting mirrors yours: Quote
jonp Posted January 27 Posted January 27 @Theo @Dylan Very aware that Plex isn't "perfect" just yet. We definitely have some work ahead of us because there are some issues with performance, transcoding, and networking that need to be addressed. We are definitely going to be revising the Plex one-click deployment and should be able to address a lot if not all of these issues. 3 Quote
Theo Posted January 27 Posted January 27 2 minutes ago, jonp said: @Theo @Dylan Very aware that Plex isn't "perfect" just yet. We definitely have some work ahead of us because there are some issues with performance, transcoding, and networking that need to be addressed. We are definitely going to be revising the Plex one-click deployment and should be able to address a lot if not all of these issues. Great to hear, Let us know if we can be of any help! Quote
backstagetaylor Posted February 17 Posted February 17 (edited) Resurrecting this because I appear to be having the same issue, but in my case I’ve made sure the local network is listed in TrueNAS settings and in the Plex settings, I’m kind of stumped here. No matter what I do it keep thinking my Apple TV is connected remotely. Also infuriating that it’s even limiting the bandwidth as I’ve got those set to maximum *and* have 2gig fiber. Edited February 17 by backstagetaylor Quote
ubergeek Posted February 17 Posted February 17 10 minutes ago, backstagetaylor said: Resurrecting this because I appear to be having the same issue, but in my case I’ve made sure the local network is listed in TrueNAS settings and in the Plex settings, I’m kind of stumped here. No matter what I do it keep thinking my Apple TV is connected remotely. Also infuriating that it’s even limiting the bandwidth as I’ve got those set to maximum *and* have 2gig fiber. I had to set the list of ip like this to get mine to work Quote
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