[Support] Linuxserver.io - Plex Media Server


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4 hours ago, mathgoy said:

HI again,

 

So I ran a test again once the parity check was over and the results are the same.

Running conversion at 5x speed maximum, all my cores are used but only at 30 to 50%

 

Any idea?

 

THanks

Just as a test, setup a cache only share and add a path to it in the docker. Use that share for your transcode. This will be outside of parity and may give you better write speeds. A UD mounted drive will work for this as well.

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1 hour ago, mathgoy said:

I am using ram to transcode (mapped the /transcode folder to /tmp) so I don't think it is the issue here

 

I had tried this also (mapped the /transcode folder to /tmp) and what I had found out from my sister that has access to my plex server was that the stream she was watching was really bad. Bad meaning that playing the file would cause the video to buffer every 5-10 secs. I could see that the trans-coding was going on using with my server because all my cores were pegged at 100%. 

I do believe that /tmp if not mapped to anything it will then default to the flash drive. Those with more knowledge please correct me if this is wrong.

 

Anyway I mapped a tmp folder to my appdata folder on my cache drive (ssd). My sister tried again and I could see under the /mnt/user/appdata/tmp/transcode folder that a new folder was created called sessions. Opening that folder up I could see the trans-coded files being delivered for the stream. Now my sister tells me that the file plays wonderful and all is good. On my end I no longer see a 100% CPU usage throughout the trans-coding operation .

Thought I would give my thoughts on the subject.

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9 minutes ago, trurl said:

No, /tmp is in RAM. Whether Plex works well with RAM transcoding isn't clear to me. At one time I believe Plex said it wasn't supported.

I agree with you and was expecting to see my ram usage going up with that setting (/tmp) but it did not but what I saw was a tmp folder created on flash drive and a trans-code folder created inside that. So that lead me to map that /tmp to my cache drive inside. 

 

So I have to think that trans-coding on RAM is not working on my end.

Edited by Harro
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5 minutes ago, Harro said:

I agree with you and was expecting to see my ram usage going up with that setting (/tmp) but it did not but what I saw was a tmp folder created on flash drive and a trans-code folder created inside that. So that lead me to map that /tmp to my cache drive inside. 

 

So I have to think that trans-coding on RAM is not working on my end.

When you made that test did you make sure to specify the tarsncode folder (the one you mapped to /tmp) in the plex server settings (within the webgui)?

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1 hour ago, Harro said:

Yes I did.

My docker looks like this. 

 

Inside the plex setting. 

 

transcode.jpg

plex transcode.jpg

 

Well if you want to enable the ram transcoding, you need to use /tmp as a host path in your floder mapping.

 

Then, with an ssh connection, you can check that plex uses the /tmp folder with ls /tmp/transcode (you should see a session folder and in that session folder one folder per active stream).

 

Anyway, I ran some test using my SSD for transcoding and the performance are still the same. Also, even if all the cores are used, none of them will go higher than 50% when encoding a file :S

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25 minutes ago, mathgoy said:

 

Well if you want to enable the ram transcoding, you need to use /tmp as a host path in your floder mapping.

 

Then, with an ssh connection, you can check that plex uses the /tmp folder with ls /tmp/transcode (you should see a session folder and in that session folder one folder per active stream).

 

Anyway, I ran some test using my SSD for transcoding and the performance are still the same. Also, even if all the cores are used, none of them will go higher than 50% when encoding a file :S

Yes I did see the /tmp/transcode folder and inside the sessions folder for each stream. with my cpu pegged at 100%. To me it makes no difference since I stream everything from my Unraid server on lan to Kodi, but for the few family members that have outside access to my plex server those transcode  setting made their viewing horrible. So I converted back to the cache directory(SSD) for transcoding for them. Their feed back said that the viewing now is flawless.

 

This was basically an experiment within the last 2 weeks if I could make plex better for them and RAM transcoding was a fail, as far as I am concerned.  

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That's interesting; thanks for your feedback.

I have absolutely no idea why it didn't work on your server. 16GB of ram seem enough for that.

 

I could read from here and their that transcoding from the SSD could wear it quite quickly. That's why I use ram transcoding. To be honnest, it doesn't seem to improve the user experience but at least, it will significantly reduce the I/O on my ssd.

 

One subsidary question, I can read that you use kodi and I was used to use it as well but honnestly, I couldn't find a reliable way to make it work with plex. plexkodiconnect is struggling so hard when it comes to sync the large libraries and the plex app for Kodi is just not that great. Can I ask you what is your solution because I would love using Kodi again (because of its decoding capabilities!)

 

thanks

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2 hours ago, Harro said:

I agree with you and was expecting to see my ram usage going up with that setting (/tmp) but it did not but what I saw was a tmp folder created on flash drive and a trans-code folder created inside that. So that lead me to map that /tmp to my cache drive inside. 

 

So I have to think that trans-coding on RAM is not working on my end.

The docker shouldn't even know the flash exists. Are you sure you weren't mapping to /boot/tmp ?

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27 minutes ago, trurl said:

The docker shouldn't even know the flash exists. Are you sure you weren't mapping to /boot/tmp ?

 

I probably jumped to a misunderstood conclusion on that.  Yes it was running in RAM (even though memory usage never went up, only CPU usage).I would post a screen shot again but at the moment rebuilding a drive. 

I understand that Unraid once booted runs in RAM. Once I had the setting for plex and the container set.  Host path /tmp  and container path :/transcode . I restarted docker. Later that night got a phone call from sister asking why plex on her roku kept crashing back to the home screen once she started a stream. Thought that was odd and since plex was running for her with out a problem before, I could only come to the conclusion that it was the settings I had done in the morning to the container.I open the web gui for plex and see her stream as paused and my nephews stream as direct with no converting. My cpu is pegged at 100% and memory usage is stable at 20%.  I then go into editing the container for plex to check those settings i put in. While all the streams are still active and I am in the edit for the host path which is just /tmp, clicking on that box will bring a drop down showing what seemed to be the contents of my flash drive. But looking back now probably was just the tmp ram directory.I could see the transcode folder and streams inside that. So I just assumed at that point it was holding that /tmp on flash drive, which at the time made sense to me with the cpu usage and what plex was doing on the clients end. With over 5 gig in sessions from the transcode folder and if the flash drive was dishing that out I could understand the problems clients were having.(This was all my thinking at this time).

 Mapping the host path inside the cache folder solved all these problems with my family's plex outside my lan. 

This is how i came to the conclusion that the /tmp doesn't work for me unless I map that tmp to a folder.

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1 hour ago, mathgoy said:

That's interesting; thanks for your feedback.

I have absolutely no idea why it didn't work on your server. 16GB of ram seem enough for that.

 

I could read from here and their that transcoding from the SSD could wear it quite quickly. That's why I use ram transcoding. To be honnest, it doesn't seem to improve the user experience but at least, it will significantly reduce the I/O on my ssd.

 

One subsidary question, I can read that you use kodi and I was used to use it as well but honnestly, I couldn't find a reliable way to make it work with plex. plexkodiconnect is struggling so hard when it comes to sync the large libraries and the plex app for Kodi is just not that great. Can I ask you what is your solution because I would love using Kodi again (because of its decoding capabilities!)

 

thanks

I only have a plex server up for my family to access it from outside my lan and for when I am on a road trip and want something to watch. Otherwise I use Kodi solely for all my media. I like the presentation on my large screen with all the art work etc.. 

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2 hours ago, mathgoy said:

That's interesting; thanks for your feedback.

I have absolutely no idea why it didn't work on your server. 16GB of ram seem enough for that.

 

I could read from here and their that transcoding from the SSD could wear it quite quickly. That's why I use ram transcoding. To be honnest, it doesn't seem to improve the user experience but at least, it will significantly reduce the I/O on my ssd.

 

One subsidary question, I can read that you use kodi and I was used to use it as well but honnestly, I couldn't find a reliable way to make it work with plex. plexkodiconnect is struggling so hard when it comes to sync the large libraries and the plex app for Kodi is just not that great. Can I ask you what is your solution because I would love using Kodi again (because of its decoding capabilities!)

 

thanks

My setup might work for you.  I used be to be an XBMC user then switched to Plex about 7 years ago, and I've switched back this year because of HD audio problems with Plex which are non-existent with Kodi.

  • I've got Kodi clients within my home using a shared database with 2 profiles - one for grown-ups and one for kids.  Once I've setup one I just copy userdata and appdata to instantly setup the next one. (I've also set playlists and favs to a network share to keep consistent)
  • I've installed Trakt addon on kodi clients so playback progress synced to trakt
  • On plex server I've installed trakt so playback progress synced from kodi and vice versa
  • plex is used for mobile devices and low-powered TVs that have 1st gen fire TV sticks (will upgrade soon) that can't handle my current kodi library
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I have just ordered the parts to build an UnRaid Server and will be putting Plex on it.   Currently I have a Synology 1513+ that isn't powerful enough to do Plex Transcoding so I am running Plex on my Windows 10 machine.   I have a couple questions that I'd like to straighten out before I start my build so I can smoothly transitio

 

I think there are a few different ways that Plex can be installed.   I've read about at least 2 containers and then the download on the Plex site.   How does one pick a version?   What are the pros and cons?   Why use a Docker vs just installing the server app?

 

Is it possible to copy my Plex Media Server appdata folder on my Windows 10 computer over to my UnRaid server.   I'm not sure as one is Windows and the other isn't so I'm not sure if the appdata is compatible or not

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7 hours ago, go69cars said:

How does one pick a version?   What are the pros and cons?

Probably the only significant difference between the various dockers will be the level of support you get. This docker and the binhex version are both well liked I believe.

 

7 hours ago, go69cars said:

Why use a Docker vs just installing the server app?

A docker runs independently from your system. If the docker crashes it shouldn’t take the system down with it.

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7 hours ago, wgstarks said:

Probably the only significant difference between the various dockers will be the level of support you get. This docker and the binhex version are both well liked I believe.

 

A docker runs independently from your system. If the docker crashes it shouldn’t take the system down with it.

 

6 hours ago, Squid said:

Don't use that one.  Completely unsupported, and regardless that it says it works with unRaid 6, with the changes since 6.1 the odds are excellent that it won't run properly

 

Thanks guys.  I’ll start with this one.  

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15 hours ago, go69cars said:

Is it possible to copy my Plex Media Server appdata folder on my Windows 10 computer over to my UnRaid server.   I'm not sure as one is Windows and the other isn't so I'm not sure if the appdata is compatible or not

If you don't get an answer to this on here, you might try checking on the plex forums.

 

I've never tested this, but my guess is that the safe thing to do would be to re-create from scratch. You could always do some testing though.

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1 hour ago, wgstarks said:

If you don't get an answer to this on here, you might try checking on the plex forums.

 

I've never tested this, but my guess is that the safe thing to do would be to re-create from scratch. You could always do some testing though.

 

I think that’s what I’ll end up doing.  

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1 hour ago, go69cars said:

 

I think that’s what I’ll end up doing.  

 

 

I followed the Plex instructions & it worked - going from Win7 to LSIO docker.  Basically copy the library folders & paste into the new server.

 

Some of the 'recently added' got a little out of order, but all my watched/unwatched transferred over, which was what I really wanted.

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Can you explain what you did.   Did you move any of the appdata?  What instructions did you use?

 

edit - Were these the instructions you used - I'm most interested in the watched/unwatched for the various users so if that can work then I'll give it a try

 

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201370363-Move-an-Install-to-Another-System

Edited by go69cars
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