Bold claim.
20 chars.
No offense taken, I just wanted more detail what you saw as “incorrect information” versus “what you would do instead.”
It feels like the typical PC/MAC Intel/Mac Linux/Mac debate to me. I don’t care whether the transcoding is hardware (GPU) or software (CPU). Can the machine power the end result I need? It sounds like you’re saying the Mac mini maybe can’t? Or that it can but the Intel can do it cheaper?
I have a lot of MKVs that need to be transcoded to play on Plex clients. I could have up to 5 simultaneous users (theoretically) at any given time. Is it the case that the Mac mini can’t (or likely can’t) perform well at that max load?
I do have 1GB up and down as my internet connection.
Thanks!
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This is what I meant by, Intel vs. Mac vs. Linux. Not the “religious war” part, just that you’re referring to specs and I’m asking about experience.
This is what I’m looking for more detail on - something beyond “will have significant struggle,” though. If it’s the case that I should have significant struggle with this setup, I’m not sure why I haven’t experienced it, given that I’m on year 15 of running Plex, and it’s been running just fine on my iMac for the last several years. Maybe I have and I just haven’t noticed and it only impacts my remote users?
I appreciate the concern, and I’m really not trying to be difficult, but it feels like we’re talking past each other.
Given that this was the first thread I found when searching for the Intel idea, I’m not inclined to go down the path. https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/1hh2997/plex_beelink_s14_intel_n150/
Err my Studio can quite happily.
The hardware encoders/decoders in the Studio line are often overlooked in many Apple hardware comparisons.
My M1 Mac Studio is significantly faster than my M3 Computers in rendering video.
OTOH, also overlooked in most benchmark brags, I rarely need the Studio encoding/decoding power very often.
If I’m working on my otherwise faster MacBook Air M3, I’ll just “go to lunch” or do something else for a short time while the render completes instead of switching systems over to the Studio just for that “super fast render time”.
I found the same is true of transcoding when I used Plex in the past (on diferent / much older hardware). I just pre-processed the important video and didn’t care that it took hours or overnight - the media was there when I later wanted to view it.
AHH! This is where it clicks for me! Thanks for persevering.
It’s been years since I told the kids to give up on playing Plex videos in non-original quality on their iPads when we travel. The last times I tried to do that it took hours and hours and hours. I assumed (wrongly) this was a Plex or weird bandwidth limitation. It didn’t occur to me that the hours and hours was the transcoding, not the transfer. I’ll bet what you’re describing was the issue.
So, if I’m hearing you correctly - if I go to one of these Beeline options, that capability would now be opened to me. That’s appealing since it’s quite annoying that Plex can’t be part of what the kids download to their devices when we’re going to be away from wifi for a few days (unless they plan well in advance).
Still, I really don’t want to futz with Linux, Docker, or anything that isn’t set it and forget it. I’m technical enough (probably), I just don’t want Plex maintenance to become my hobby. Per the comment above, is the Mac Studio capable of this? I think what you said above is Plex doesn’t enable this for any Mac. Hmm. Choices, choices.
Dang it. That outcome is my fault. Crossed the line from disagreeing to disagreeable. My bad, all. I’ll aim for better next time.
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Jellyfin user here, running on a Synology (with occasional transcoding), but will move it to a M1 Mac mini when I have time.
Well, I bought the GMKtec mini-PC and began to set it up. As I started moving my Plex library over I realized what a big deal it will be to move my server from Mac to Windows (or Linux). I can’t just copy over the plist file of settings as I’ve always done in the past moving between Macs. That means I need to reinstall all the plugins I have, reconfigure the network settings…
I’m losing steam on this. While I was quite excited to open up the new transcoding possibilities, I’ve lived this long without them and I don’t think I have the patience to set up Plex (essentially from scratch) on another OS. If I had it on Docker, that would be one thing, but I don’t.
Hmmm.
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File paths alone for your library would be wrong
True. I’ve done some remapping there before, so that’s not the end of the world (since it’s on a NAS). It’s the settings, codecs, plugins, playlist editors…yikes.
I think I’m going to use the Mac mini and give up on the transcoding advantage. I also was wanting to install Audiobookshelf on this computer but that can install on Docker so I can make that work on Mac if I need to.
I set aside these two projects as my “ice day” projects and we didn’t get nearly the ice planned so my time frame has shrunk considerably!
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“Mac mini (and all macs) are unable to use hardware transcoding for more than 1 stream”
This is 100% incorrect
One of the reasons I bought my Mac Studio was for the built-in hardware processors for multiple video streams.
Haven’t done a lot of video editing lately, so I can’t confirm or deny, but I thought one of the perhaps, subtle advantages of the Studio line over all other M series Macs was the additional hardware decoders/encoders for video processing.
But not sure if that is applicable to Plex.
Of course, Occam’s Razor says not to use a Mac Studio, or a Mac Mini for Plex anyway, many other more cost effective solutions for Plex.
Which client are you using for playback for Jellyfin? Still infuse or something else?