Subj : Re: Taking My DVR With Me
To   : Nightfox
From : Gamgee
Date : Fri May 19 2023 16:16:00

-=> Nightfox wrote to Gamgee <=-

 Ni>   Re: Re: Taking My DVR With Me
 Ni>   By: Gamgee to Nightfox on Fri May 19 2023 12:58 pm

 Ga> I'm recently been playing with a Plex server setup, and have it working
 Ga> well for stuff here in the house, using the Roku app on several TV's.

 Ga> I have a newbie question about it - does that "streaming outside the
 Ga> home" ability require a *serious* video card be in the server machine,
 Ga> to provide the "transcoding" functions needed? Not sure that's the
 Ga> right term, but I think so. Thanks.

 Ni> It seems to me that it depends on several factors.  Ideally, the
 Ni> client device & app would be able to stream the video directly,
 Ni> in which case it wouldn't need to transcode the video; thus a
 Ni> serious video card wouldn't be needed.

 Ni> Things that could cause it to transcode:
 Ni> - Client can't handle the codec that the video is encoded in.
 Ni> For instance, if the video is encoded with h265 but the client
 Ni> only handles h264, Plex will need to transcode the video.  I
 Ni> think this is determined more by the client's hardware than the
 Ni> Plex client app.

 Ni> - Low bandwidth: Plex might decide it needs to transcode to a
 Ni> lower resolution or lower bit rate, depending on the bandwidth

 Ni> - Subtitles in a graphical format (such as PGS) - I've found that
 Ni> if you're using subtitles, it's best to use subtitles in a
 Ni> text-based format (such as SRT). Some movies come with subtitles
 Ni> in a graphical format (PGS), and in that case, Plex would have to
 Ni> transcode the video so that the image includes the subtitles
 Ni> along with the original video.

 Ni> - If you've specifically chosen on the client that you want a
 Ni> lower bit rate, the Plex server will transcode the video to that
 Ni> bit rate

 Ni> It seems there's a wide variance in the capabilities of various
 Ni> client platforms and what they can handle.  In my experience, it
 Ni> seems the Nvidia Shield Pro performs the best from what I've
 Ni> tried and is able to handle a lot as far as codecs, subtitles,
 Ni> etc.  With Roku clients, if I use subtitles, I've been trying to
 Ni> use SRT subtitles so it will avoid transcoding video, especially
 Ni> if I'm watching 4K content.  I can tell if it's transcoding or
 Ni> not based on how long it takes to buffer - Sometimes it takes a
 Ni> few moments to buffer, which may mean the video is being
 Ni> transcoded.  If the video isn't being transcoded, then buffering
 Ni> is usually fairly quick (assuming your network/internet bandwidth
 Ni> is good).

 Ni> Also, these things apply to streaming within your home network as
 Ni> well as outside.  And it seems that even if you have a fairly
 Ni> good video card, it may have trouble transcoding and streaming (I
 Ni> haven't quite figured out why).  I have an Nvidia GTX 1060 in my
 Ni> Plex/BBS PC, and sometimes it still has trouble transcoding 4K
 Ni> videos, so I try to avoid transcoding when possible.  That PC of
 Ni> mine also has an Intel i7-8700k, which has Intel's QuickSync,
 Ni> which Plex can make use of for transcoding - but I'm nto sure if
 Ni> Plex is only using the Nvidia card or if it uses both for
 Ni> transcoding.

 Ni> Sorry if this is a lot of information to process..  Just wanted
 Ni> to share what I've learned.

No worries, and thank you!  Saved this for future reference as I dive 
deeper into this.  Appreciate it.



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