Plex make my cpu hurt. I have it on Make my CPU hurt for transcoding options, and I'm selecting the HD option when the show starts playing. When he’s not playing whack-a-mole with tone mapping bugs, he enjoys playing board games with his amazing wife and daughter. I optimized the same file , using GPU , with MAKE MY CPU HURT and AUTOMATIC setting. Jan 22, 2025 · Plex Blog Plex Blog Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. A few days ago, I looked at my 24 cores through the Windows task manager performance monitor, and Plex was only using 30% of the potential of the 24 cores. You don't state the make and model of the CPU or how many cores. The transcoder quality is set to make my cpu hurt. It leaves behind a ‘plexscripthost’ I recently built a new VM and transferred the plex server to this as a test to see if it was something in the OS. This page is community-driven and not run by or affiliated with Plex, Inc. my P2000 at 10+ transcodes is only using 5% of what it can do on auto. Been an XBMC user for years but recently got a Samsung Smart TV with the plex app. Aug 20, 2025 · Make my CPU hurt – best quality with slower transcodes and highest CPU usage Most users should leave it set to Automatic. Im using Intel iGPU UHD770 hardware acceleration on a i7 137000k CPU. 4GHz ~50. I was wondering if having the transcoder set to high quality or make my CPU hurt would require less upload bandwidth compared to faster transcode? I have dual E5-2670's in my plex server so I have plenty of horsepower but my upload bandwidth is limited. The Transcoder temp directory is set to an SSD. I changed Plex’s transcoding settings from “Automatic” to “Make my CPU hurt. NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. Anyone do any testing on bitrate vs encoder quality? I’m basically wondering if I can get 1. 16. GPU doesn't matter because not many transcoding apps actually support open-gl rendering. With hardware acceleration off, it takes about 5 seconds to begin playing after hitting play For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. In addition i have created optimised versions of 4k films for streaming and while optimising the gpu sits at around 15-20% again. However, I found that it drastically slowed down streaming. The funniest thing about that Make my CPU hurt option is how often people make posts about their CPU getting battered and, wouldn't ya know it, they changed that setting. Make My CPU Hurt Plex: A Deep Dive into the World of Plex Performance Optimization In the ever-evolving landscape of home media consumption, Plex has emerged as a titan for organizing, streaming, and enjoying digital media. IMO it's best to set the transcoder setting to 'Automatic' and let Plex handle the load balancing. It solved a lot of problems with the default tv software and I like the interface. Hardware-Accelerated Streaming is not affected by this setting. As opposed to processes that I thought would be causing such usage, Plex Media Scanner or the Transcoder. For questions and comments about the Plex Media Server. Is there a setting that I need to change? I cannot believe that a 2015 MyCloud with an Armada ARM CPU can outperform a Celeron J4025, in any aspect. 9. We’re going on a transcode deep dive—no scuba gear needed. I have a plex pass so I tried to put that to good use and use the hardware acceleration. Sep 15, 2024 · Plex engineer Chris has the what, why (tonemap the HDR color space to the SDR color space, subtitle burn in), and how of transcoding, plus some tips and tricks on how to do more, faster. In most cases, that would specifically be the “Plex Transcoder” process. Should I leave the transcoder quality at "automatic" , or change it to make my CPU hurt? If this setting is meant specifically for software transcoding, what setting would be most appropriate for my CPU if I'm primarily depending on hardware transcoding? Your CPU should be able to handle transcoding a 1080p conversion easily without hardware encoding on, but maybe the game you are playing + the transcode is just enough to cap your CPU. Just leave it on Automatic. I have a home server I made from an old laptop with 6GB RAM and an Intel i7-3610QM CPU where I have Plex installed alongside other services like NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. 1 Hi, so if I set the transcoder quality to “Make my CPU Hurt” on linux/windows/etc … I see that it will use damn near 100% of my CPU. CPU the same. Media File Properties: The original format, bitrate, resolution, and codecs can affect how much CPU power is needed to transcode. Higher transcoding speeds will, of course, work your CPU a lot harder, but that's often the trade-off for uninterrupted streaming. That means you can have a different setup for your phone, streaming boxes, computer, and other platforms. Changed Plex transcoding to make my CPU hurt, but still, files do not play with Plex. ” I had it on make my CPU hurt, since this box is essentially just for PleX, but will change it to automatic so I can get an actual idea of exactly what my CPU usage is like. The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. I'm asking to go back to 1. 0C RAM: 16GB DDR3 dual channel NB Frequency 3977. I have a Ryzen 7 1700 and at absolute most have only 3 streams going with probably only 1 that might be transcoding. What are your other settings on the transcode screen? The one you mention about "make my CPU hurt" is for background transcode / optimising as far as I understand, not the inline transcoding during playback. With Synology Video Station they play perfectly well, so I assume it's an issue with Plex and the x86 architecture. 2. When i turn off HW acceleration it plays smoothly still on direct play. Transcoder Quality setting is "Make my CPU hurt" Size of IPC buffer when streaming transcodes is set to 268435456. Server Version#:N/A Player Version#: N/A Make my CPU hurt when using hardware transcoding will just utilize more resources of your GPU… correct? e. There, you will be able to choose between automatic, high, higher, and "Make my CPU hurt" transcoding speeds. However on FreeBSD, it only uses about 30% of my CPU. Any advises? NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. This is important when the Plex server runs on a non-dedicated computer. Under task manager “PlexTranscoder. Settings for Plex Transcoder Streaming Quality All Plex applications come with different settings for Streaming Quality. The NAS and TV stream are local. 4 of PMS, but fairly frequently my CPU is maxed out with the process of Plex Media Server. I'd probably do a bunch before checking the temperatures, so I suppose bravo for nailing the hammer in the head at first look? The CPUs are never above 60%. Lower Quality files The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. Make my cpu hurt only really changes how well encoded your stream is, not the bitrate/quantity of data. Is there any negatives to putting the plex server on “make my CPU hurt”? Would setting Plex to “Automatic” detect I have the capacity for the CPU to go nuts and do it anyway? One negative might be the setting doesn Depends on your settings really. Having a look NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. Knowing my setup, I feel like I'd check the Plex logs/activity first, task manager second, restart next, etc. Here are the specs for my setup i5-7400 16GB RAM 256GB SSD for OS & Plex Metadata external HD for media Nvidia Settings of PLEX are the same for both servers Especially the transcoder settings: “Make my CPU hurt” On PROD-server, when server starts transcoding CPU hits 100%, When DR-server starts transcoding, I see that CPU goes up to approx 40%, but not more This wouldn’t be a problem if I could play the movie, but from DR-server, I recieve message Not as clear as jellyfin. This allows you to choose your operating system and you have flexibility in your computer components. 5465 Player Version#: 3. Do NOT set the transcoder setting to "Make my CPU hurt". 5Mbps ‘quality’ encoding to be similar to 2Mbps ‘higher speed’, and how ‘make my CPU hurt’ affects this. That doesn't do what most people think it does. I have noticed though that while hw transcoding a file for streaming remotely that there is a lot of buffering and the usage for my gpu sits at around 15-20% max. thoughts? If no one is playing content from your Plex Media Server, there are a few common reasons for it to still be consuming notable amounts of CPU. It works, but quality is really bad. Server Version#: 1. Under Plex Web>Quality> I have 10Mbps 1080p selected. If anything, the transcoded video resulting from 'Make my CPU hurt' will technically be harder to playback on their hardware because the file is larger but that probably won't make a difference on their end. Among other differences , i`ve seen the Video Profile is high, while on automatic transcoder quality, it`s main. I have lifetime plex pass, dashboard does say hw transcoding. EDIT: also which flavour of Plex server are you using, eg OS / Container etc I recently grabbed the plex pass for the hardware acceeration feature, which seems great for the most part. I did have the setting "Make my CPU hurt" on Plex, but on a single 1080P seems unlikely. It allows users to store their personal collections of movies, TV shows, music, and photos, and access them from various devices through a sleek interface and powerful My plex server is “overpowered” I feel for my needs. So for the longest time I didnt think you could set a quality level when using HW encoding but I noticed an My Plex server is set on Make my CPU Hurt in terms of transcoding, so I logged into Plex and checked the Dashboard on my server. About Chris Plex user of over a decade turned Plex engineer, Chris works on all things playback and transcode in the Plex Media Server. My cpu is constantly being used for transcoding from 1080p -->720p or SD. g. From time to time plex server just goes away, nothing in event viewer, but it’s gone from task manager details. I already set the affinity to real time to give it balls to the walls from a windows allocation point. 6. Ethernet: Dual gigabit LAN CPU: i7-4790k OC 4. Recent converter to plex. Same problem. Plex transcoder is set to ‘make my cpu hurt’. It does a better job of determining motion and movement in pixels, and compression is less noticeable as a result. If I increase the quality to 8Mbps the transcode speed goes down to 1. I'm writing about the second one: having a 2 mbps connection, I can't stream HD quality movies over the Internet, so I'm forced to ask for a transcoded video. . Extra Features During Media Analysis Multiple different extra processing can be run when the server is analyzing media. When i play files like the type below i get only around 5 fps with HW acceleration on (client side settings) with direct play. Plex engineer Chris has the what, why (tonemap the HDR color space to the SDR color space, subtitl NVIDIA SHIELD, Plex Media Server, Plex Pass, Plex Pro September 15, 2024 Plex Pro Week ‘24: Make My CPU Hurt Important Update 1/22/25 Since publishing this post we have now moved our HEVC Hardware Encoding feature out of preview, and into the hands of Plex Pass holders everywhere. Server Hardware: The performance of your Plex server hardware, particularly the CPU, plays the most significant role in transcoding speeds. @gbooker02 for plex htpc what is the upscaling algorithms used for video playback quality “ultra” and “make my gpu hurt” I can find an older post detailing the other quality settings but not these. If I move the movie to my SSD the transcode speed goes up to 2. For the technically-minded, what this setting does is pass different sets of x264opts extra parameters to the transcoder. Help Have anyone of you having issues on High CPU usage on DS920+ with a single 1080P Streaming. Hello, I've been using Plex for days, both on my local Atom server and my external i5 server. Quick Sync has been enabled in bios and updated drivers. Now back to that transcoder setting. If you tell plex "Make my CPU hurt" For transcoding, You will definitely notice when transcoding starts. 5mbps, and everything is blocky, colours are bad, even if fluid. The biggest factor in Plex transcoding is the processor and how many CPU cores it has. Tried Make My GPU hurt to LowQ, no differents. 3MHz Media HDD: 4x6TB WD Red - Raid 5 OS/Transcode HDD: 238GB SSD Plex Settings Transcode = ‘Make my CPU hurt’ Remote and local playback set to original Client (wired) Nvidia Shield Android TV Box Running Plex w/ direct play and audio The Plex Media Server is smart software that makes playing Movies, TV Shows and other media on your computer simple. The GPU in Taskmanager only using 4% in 3D nothing else with H/W on and 9% when off 0% in Video Enc/Dec on both. And @Plex I am also all ears, and I would be glad to test and help if we can resolve the resource allocation in the server program to either use the Nvidia card to its potential or actually make the CPU hurt 100%. 77. 14. Ram won't matter too much, hard drive performance and network performance would be the next factors after the CPU. 0. mjm1374 Set my server settings for transcoding to "make it hurt my CPU" - surprising quality difference. Desktop Computer Running Plex Media Server on a desktop computer is a very popular option. First off, BRAVO on the implementation of zero-copy!!! You guys are amazing! I cant believe how fast my little i5 is at trans-coding multiple streams concurrently, and I love seeing that GPU graph go full tilt for a few seconds then dip down as the trans-coding gets throttled back. I have looked at the settings and the Video Quality = Maximum, Transcoder = Make My CPU Hurt, User Hardware Acceleration = Enabled… I have tried adjusting these to see if I could make a different but it doesn’t… Can anyone let me know if they are seeing the same type of video quality in movies? Part Two of How to Improve your Plex NAS Performance Before starting this Plex NAS guide, I recommend checking out part 1, as it has 5 more tips for improving the performance and stability of your plex media server NAS and I recommend you try anything and everything that is compatible with your sys Is there literally a setting called "make my CPU hurt"? What does the file type have to do with it?! Can I set Plex use a different file type ?? If you set the transcoder to a higher value ("Make my CPU hurt" or "Prefer higher quality transcoding") it will put more of a strain on your CPU to get a higher quality output. When set to automatic it will use about 40% CPU at most to complete almost all tasks. The dashboard showed that nothing is playing, but it was using like 90%+ CPU on the little graphs. exe” will be at 40-60% while GPU will be at 0-10%. The file in question is 1080p and I’m transcoding it down to 480p and streaming over remote access. I think this problem has been happening since Version 0. eiux, rg1qd, gunpg, iw6dt, uyqu, v4ua, cfuhhr, z0hp, wfc8k4, tgu4et,