ADVANCED PLEX TIPS PS
The perfect way to stream your media
IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A MEDIA SERVER that doesn’t just enable you to organize and play your media, but shows it off in the best possible way, you need Plex. It works across just about any device you own, and enables you to watch across multiple platforms, both at home and over the Internet, picking up where you left off watching on another device.
The biggest issue with Plex is choosing the server to run it on. A PC is an obvious choice, but it needs to be left on 24/7 for unlimited access. You’re better off installing it on a dedicated low-power device, such as a high-end NAS, like QNAP’s TS-251+, which boasts a quad-core Celeron CPU and hardware transcoding engine. But that’s not necessarily affordable, so a cheaper NAS with app support (like the WD My Cloud [ Image A]) or a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 is capable of serving media.
The major trade-off is performance—you free up resources from your main PC, but your server is slower and visibly less responsive. It still does the job, though, and armed with the following tips, you’ll squeeze that bit more performance from it to deliver a great media experience. 1 USE THE RIGHT FORMAT The most effective way to improve performance is by reducing— or even eliminating—transcoding. Transcoding converts your media stream from its native format to one that’s compatible with your media-playing device, so the more exotic and varied your media formats are, the more likely it is that Plex needs to transcode them.
>> Wherever possible, save your media in .mp4 file containers using the H.264 video and AAC or MP3 audio codecs—this is the closest to a universal format you can get, and most devices should be able to play it directly. Handbrake ( www.handbrake.fr) can do this for you.
>> The critical elements here are the codecs—if you use a different file container (such as .mkv or .avi) with H.264 and AAC/ MP3, Plex uses a process called Direct Stream to “remux” the file in a compatible container (typically .mp4) before streaming it. Although this requires extra processing power, remuxing is far less demanding than a full transcode. 2 ADD SUBTITLES If you need subtitles, it’s important to choose the right format if you use external files—otherwise Plex has to transcode the stream to accommodate them. Go to “Media Preparation > Subtitles” at https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us for instructions. Here you’ll discover which formats to choose to avoid transcoding (.srt and .vtt are two), along with a means of fetching subtitles on demand from the Internet using OpenSubtitles.org. Then browse to “Settings > Languages,” check the “Automatically select” box, and set “Subtitle mode” to “Shown with foreign audio,” and “Prefer subtitles in” to “English.”
Subtitles are notorious for being out of sync—if your media player doesn’t provide offset controls (typically in milliseconds), visit www.subsedit .com/simple to paste in your subtitles from a text editor, select an offset, and generate a new .srt file that syncs perfectly. Use VLC Media Player’s “Tools > Track Synchronization” with the original .srt file to calculate the offset you need. 3 SPEED UP NETWORK CONNECTIONS If you connect your server wirelessly to your network, you can improve its performance by taking it off your congested Wi-Fi network, and connecting it via Ethernet cable—either directly to your router, or indirectly via a switch or HomePlug network (500Mb/s is adequate, but 1,300Mb/s is best if your server frequently serves multiple streams).
Some NAS drives—including our beloved QNAP— offer dual Ethernet ports with support for Link Aggregation Control Protocol (802.3ad). Pair this with a suitable network
switch (such as TP-Link’s affordable TL-SG2008 model), and you’ll boost network throughput when serving multiple connections. 4 TRANSCODER SETTINGS There’s a noticeable lag when playing back media over the Internet—like it or not, this involves some transcoding, even with directly supported formats. To boost responsiveness at the expense of quality, log on to your server through your web browser: “192.168.x.y: 32400/web,” where “192.168.x.y” is the IP address of the device running your server. Choose “Settings > Transcoder,” and set “Transcoder quality” to “Prefer higher speed encoding.”
Plex is also set to transcode an unlimited number of streams— restrict this to just one or two via the “Maximum simultaneous video transcode” drop-down [ Image B]. Note: This doesn’t restrict Direct Play connections. 5 OPTIMIZE FOR TRANSPORT Does Plex struggle to deliver a good stream to certain devices? You can use its Media Optimizer tool to make use of idle server time, by converting selected media files to a format that will stream using Direct Play, without buffering or dropping frames. The process produces a smaller, lower-quality copy of the file in question, which sits alongside the original, and improves streaming performance.
Don’t optimize your entire library; instead, optimize on demand—maybe you’re going away for a few days, and want access to three or four TV episodes or movies. To do this, log into the server in your web browser, then browse to the movie or episode in question. Click the “…” button in the left-hand pane, and choose “Optimize.” Pick a preset: Mobile, TV, Original, or Custom (this latter option lets you choose from more presets, or set your own frame rate and resolution). Leave the default storage location alone, and click “Optimize” [ Image C]. 6 TWEAK OPTIMIZATION SETTINGS Media is optimized one file at a time, but you can build a queue. Check their progress via the “Conversion” tab. To manage optimized versions—allowing you to delete some or all of these converted files to reclaim drive space at a later date—go to “Settings > Optimized Versions.”
Return to “Settings > Transcoder,” and click “Show Advanced.” At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the “Background transcoding x264 preset” setting—it’s set to “Very fast” by default, but consider “Super fast,” or even “Ultra fast,” if the optimization process is taking too long, and you’re not bothered by video quality. 7 RESTRICT LIBRARY UPDATES Go to “Settings > Library” to manage how Plex updates your media libraries. By default, it monitors for new and changed content in your media folders, then updates accordingly. This isn’t practical on lower-end media servers, such as the Raspberry Pi, so restrict the scan to no more than once an hour using the “Update my library periodically” option instead. Also consider setting “Generate video preview thumbnails” and “Generate chapter thumbnails” to “Never” to reclaim more system resources [ Image D].