Question: Plex 4k Transcoding HTPC

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lukeintheo

Weaksauce
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May 27, 2021
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Hi Folks,

Not sure if that would the correct section in the forum.

I'm trying to build a plex dedicated PC capable of transcoding 4K so I can stream on my GF house. Any chance CPU's today to do that task? I've heard that not even Threadrippers would be able to do it.

I'm really trying to learn more about Plex.

Thanks
 
I think (almost) any CPU can transcode. J5005 (low power quad core) was able to transcode source 4k vp9 from youtube on 2 of the cores at 87% cpu usage after buffer was filled (virtual machine). My main server (VM still) 6 cores of E5-2690v4 ate up all the cpu till buffer was filled, then ran at 23% source was HDR H265 4K. If you want to do multiple streams and/or use less CPU so other things can run, need to look at hardware transcode. J5005 has it (quicksync), CPU usage was 20% when buffering then dropped to 8%. My main server doesn't have hardware transcode. If interested in doing a large number of streams this may help https://www.elpamsoft.com/?p=Plex-Hardware-Transcoding
 
lukeintheo said:
I'm trying to build a plex dedicated PC capable of transcoding 4K so I can stream on my GF house. Any chance CPU's today to do that task? I've heard that not even Threadrippers would be able to do it.
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It is extremely heavy in my experience, but more in the sense that your old 4 core would not be able too, not that a threadrippers could not.

Often if you go the 4k road it is to have 50-100 mbs/HDR type of content has well which is quite every to go down to say 10-15 mbps 1080p, there is some rules of thumb:

Transcoding 4K with CPU via Plex transcoder requires an extremely highly-configured CPU. As for single 4K transcoding, your CPU is supposed to be at least Intel Core i7 3.2GHz, with 12000 PassMark score for 4K SDR (40Mbps, 8-bit HEVC) to 10Mbps 1080p conversion and 17000 PassMark score for 4K HDR (50Mbps, 10-bit HEVC) to 10Mbps 1080p transcoding. And you need a more powerful CPU processor if there are more than one simultaneous transcode. This is bound to cost you an arm and a leg.


Every 2000 passmark point give you a regular 1080p transcode and every 10-20K passmark a 4k depending of the type.

Which could have made people say it is impossible for a cpu to do it some year's ago, but in 2022, a core 15-12400 is an very impressive 19.5k passmark machine, which should be more than enough for one heavy 4k transcode and you have the option to one day by a plex pass and use the quicksync on it.

If the gpu support it hardware transcode is an interesting alternative, intel Igpu are well supported and good at that for a cheap solution.
 
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I use emby and have a few 4k DVDs ripped. I use an old 1050ti for hardware encoding and it fine. An old rx 470 should do the trick too.
 
I will probably leave that alone then. Is not gonna be cost effective as I was expecting.
 
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