Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded

brains: May 12, 2004

if you�re definitely not going to need transcoding at all (sanitized media), the cheapest, fastest option is probably a raspberry pi with usb 3 externals (via a powered usb hub because the pi can�t push the voltage for them by itself). that�ll get you 16-24tb of storage with a server to run plex.

really though, your synology with run it fine. if you don�t want to draw from your storage pools, just plug an external into it and keep it separate.

edit: it goes without saying that you need hardware to run the actual plex server package; a hard drive will only store media.

brains fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jan 29, 2020

# ¿ Jan 29, 2020 16:38

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# ¿ Apr 16, 2024 13:28

brains: May 12, 2004

TraderStav posted:

Sat down to do a rewatch of Breaking Bad and S01E01 only had a French track. Rest of the show looks good, but is there a way to scan my whole Plex library for any media that does not have an English soundtrack so that I can get a better copy? Luckily BB is on Netflix so didn't have to deal with it while we're all ready to watch, but could happen in the future and I'd like to janitor this now while it's on my mind.

Thanks in advance!

from the web view, browse the tv library, click "all," set a custom filter for audio language and the audio track titles from everything in the library will appear as criteria (i.e. english, french, director's commentary, etc). you can do the same with movies, just easier since it's a default filter option.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2020 04:19

brains: May 12, 2004

mastershakeman posted:

Good lord this watch together stuff is a mess, it's a cool idea though

I run synclounge in a docker container set to autojoin a room, it Just Works and it's easy enough to access that my wife can corral her very non-tech savvy friends into it with just a url. The Plex watch thing is neat but in practice not having a dedicated lobby is a deal breaker because the access is really unintuitive and just causes too much cat herding.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2020 16:11

brains: May 12, 2004

EL BROMANCE posted:

Oooooh yeah. I swear half the clients default to like 720p 4mbit and being a slow server/fast internet person, this just pains me.

for real. even though i understand not forcing all bitrates to a single serverside setting because clients will just break with no feedback, being able to at least force the default to max supported would be a huge improvement. every time i get a complaint about a movie or show looking like it was filmed with a potato, i check the stream and it's some xbox or 10 year old tv setting it to the lowest resolution. or you get the people who don't complain, and you visit them only to realize they're watching everything at like 720p/2mbit and don't know any better.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2020 18:04

brains: May 12, 2004

Soysaucebeast posted:

I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing, and I had a different question for y'all. When I try to play a movie, it defaults to the commentary track. I figured out how to swap it over to the movie audio, but is there a way to change it to default to the normal audio track? Or, is there a way to rename all the tracks? I'm ripping to MP4 via VLC so if there's some setting in VLC I'm ignorant of, just let me know. I saw some people on reddit talking about how MKV is a better file type for audio track shenanigans, but I'd rather convert them as a last resort. I don't want to get rid of the commentary tracks, but if I gotta I gotta. Basically I just want to make things as painless as possible for my boyfriend/mom/random guests. This is what I'm seeing now for audio track options.

Also, dumb question, but when you guys are talking about getting the rips from other people online, are you talking about or are there legit places to swap the files around like that without paying for everything I own a second time? Because if I can legally outsource this work, y'all will save me my weekend.

iirc it's a bug with roku and maybe some other players, not plex. i had the same issue and tried a couple things but the roku was stubbornly playing the commentary even if there was a non-commentary 2.0 track right next to it. in the end i just ripped out all the commentary tracks.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2020 01:59

brains: May 12, 2004

Bonzo posted:

I've worked in tech a long time, and been thought a number of acquisitions and mergers. Moves like this scream "we are looking for a buyer!" as new (half broken) features are released and attempts to get revenue up in order make the books look good to investors.

yep, they are on the train to revenue town and by god they'll get there by any means necessary, no matter how many half-baked subscriptions and broken features they toss out. consider any development or refinement of core features to be essentially over at this point. i half expect an update that knowingly breaks core functionality in order to add some new shiny thing to attract new subscribers any day now, because lifetime passholders are just cost centers at this point :capitalism:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2021 20:54

brains: May 12, 2004

Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:

I really do genuinely appreciate the concern but I don't think what I am doing is all that uncommon; if it were there wouldn't be a Windows version of the Plex server software. I was exaggerating a bit when I said I go 6 months without rebooting; I was just trying to drive home how great the fix I posted was for Windows users and the annoying random reboots.

For me to switch to Linux I would have to:

1) buy all new USB hard drive enclosures, of which I have 3 containing a total of 17 hard drives
2) completely set up SABNZBD, Sonarr, Radarr, and Plex, all over again
3) learn a new operating system instead of the one I've been using since I was 13
4) reconfigure my entire home security camera recording setup (I am willing to be Wansview does not have a Linux program)
5) lose access to all of my PC games that I play over NVidia Gamestream

this is just to name a few. I also have been running this sort of setup for the better part of 8 years now and have had zero security issues, even when I stupidly had the RDP port forwarded for a good 3 of those years (I used to want access to my server while I was at work, but I realized how dumb that was and turned it off).

I mean yeah there's a chance that tomorrow I eat crow and get hacked but I keep passwords on anything that is internet-facing (sabnzbd, sonarr, radarr, calibre, etc.) and so far so good.

anyway how do I fix Beavis and Butt-head

if you want to use windows that's your prerogative, but if you're running an internet-facing windows installation you need to keep it up to date because it's not just a threat to your own services, it's a potential bot in a botnet. there are easy ways to ensure services autostart on reboot on windows systems; look into those, test them out, and turn on windows update.

also, if you want to avoid the pains of setup/installation/maintenance for all those services (including plex), i'd recommend containerization through docker or similar. that way you have easy, hands off updating using watchtower or ouroboros, as well as easy migration if you ever want to change or upgrade OS (including to win server, not just linux). having passwords on services is not enough, they need to be updated and patched.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2021 16:52

brains: May 12, 2004

Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:

I don't turn Windows update off. I turn off the thing that causes Windows computers to reboot without being asked.

If anything my suggestion was way better than the one recommending they set up the internet as a metered connection, where you'd never get an update ever again.

Edit: in fact, as I said before, the reason I dug up that guide for the poster was because the internet is absolutely filled to the brim with terrible advice on how to get Windows to stop random reboots, and most of them involve turning off updates using gpedit or blocking Microsoft's connection. So I actually went out of my way to re-find that guide so they could get updates just as often and as normal, but without the random reboots.

your suggestion is about breaking the windows update installation process, which is ironic considering you didn't seem to read the original post you quoted:

Chumbawumba4ever97 posted:

I researched a ton of different options and this one is the best:

https://www.joe0.com/2019/10/17/how-to-prevent-windows-10-auto-restart-new-instructions-oct-2019/

Using that, I still get updates automatically. The only difference is my computer will never reboot on its own. When I manually reboot once every ~6 months for whatever reason, all the updates install perfectly. It's the best of all worlds.

univbee posted:

You basically can't (at least not in an official capacity) without running the special Enterprise LTSB/LTSC versions of it. Because people were frequently disabling updates to avoid any sort of bother, a lot of nasty viruses were able to proliferate despite the exploits they relied on having been fixed several months prior, and users would then immediately blame Microsoft for Windows being insecure. Because of this, Microsoft changed course and now forces update installation and reboots on most versions of Windows 10 because the "nice" way wasn't working. You can postpone updates to a certain degree (with increasing allowances if you're running Win10 Pro or Enterprise, and further still if you're running a Windows Server to manage the updates going to the networked machines) but not indefinitely, and you generally have to do the postponements manually.

there is no reason to do this, at all. you definitely have not given a use-case requiring 24/7 uptime, so what are you even accomplishing by doing all this? schedule reboots for 4am or something and start services automatically on boot.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2021 18:05

brains: May 12, 2004

nexus6 posted:

I have a local setup for Sonarr/Radarr/Plex. A mini PC running Sonarr & Radarr grabs files then transfers them over the network to the HDD I have attached to a Shield running Plex.

This setup works well and I can access the web interfaces of Sonarr & Radarr to manage them, but it seems my mini PC is on its last legs. It's making a horrendous whirring sound now and I've tried to clean it inside and out but it still happens so I think a hard drive might be failing.

Any recommendations for a new PC or better/alternative setup?

Edit: Seems a lot of posts on Reddit are "Use a PI" "Lern unraid" "Get old PC and put linux on it". I'm kinda looking for something I can just plug in and it'll work

if it still works and performance is adequate, i'd just try to fix the specific hardware issue. the whirring is probably a fan bearing going out, and fans are dirt cheap and easy to replace. hard drives are also very easy to replace, if that is the actual issue. make sure you have backups, regardless.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 19:42

brains: May 12, 2004

alternatively you can use this as an excuse to go on ebay and buy used enterprise gear to build a quicksync-capable plex server :gritin:

# ¿ Dec 2, 2021 19:45

brains: May 12, 2004

That Works posted:

I�d be interested in that as well. I�ve only run docker off the Unraid GUI so I don�t really have the best grasp of it.

Also, anyone run Tailscale off of OPNsense? Might set up my router to do that if it�s not a bad way to do it.

https://tailscale.com/kb/1097/install-opnsense/

works great.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 21:40

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# ¿ Apr 16, 2024 13:28

brains: May 12, 2004

Plex megathread: state of the .rear end

# ¿ Mar 6, 2023 19:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded