I really want to get started.
I have a big library of files on a HDD. I will run it off my home computer, and it will be exclusively for my home network.
Question 1: Is it fine to run my desktop computer as a server and a client? I don’t actually know how Plex works yet, so I may be describing it wrong. Currently I watch things on my Desktop Computer. I want to continue this but through Plex instead of just using VLC. If I do add more clients, only one will be viewing at a time. I do have a Raspberry Pi available, but was hoping to use it as a client at a later time instead of a server,
Question 2: Can I scan my media folder in Plex to get started, and then later rescan my Plex library after I rename files? I haven’t reorganised all my files yet, a lot of them should be fine but I don’t have time to do it all now. Some of them I may never bother renaming or reorganising. I don’t mind Plex having to do all the posters and stuff again.
Question 3: What does Plex do for the re-encoding? I think I read that Plex encodes the video files. Does this create new files on the HHD? My drive is pretty full. I don’t have enough space for duplicates in another codec. Does this process replace the files? Will I have to have my Plex drive only contain converted videos? Is there a process to encode from my storage drive to my Plex drive without disturbing my storgate drive? Space is at a premium and I don’t want to risk Plex altering my media on my storage drive.
Thank you.
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- Yes its fine to watch on the same pc as the server
- I believe Plex by default will occasionally scan your library, and there is an option to have plex watch for changes in the media folders so it knows when something is added or removed and update your library, so you would be able to go in and rename your files without even needing to tell plex to rescan, as it would do it automatically
- There are 2 ways Plex can do this: the usual option is on the fly transcoding, meaning Plex will transcode the file in real time as you are watching it, this takes no storage space other than a bit of temporary space. The 2nd option is to pre-transcode other versions that plex calls optimized versions, these versions are saved to your storage. The optimized versions option is usually only used if your server doesn’t have the power to transcode on the fly.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
So it sounds like for now, I can just transcode on the fly. My first phase will be just watching the files on the same computer that connected to the hard drive. It has a good graphics card and CPU. This is just really to test if I like using the program.
When I go to phase 2, it sound like I will then consider setting up a dedicated server with pre-transcoded files. Would I be correct in thinking a Raspberry Pi on my LAN with pre-transcoded files on a HDD directly plugged to the RPi?
The good thing is that you don’t need to have the storage directly attached to whatever is running plex, as long as the storage is available to the server.
As for the transcoding part, there’s a few things to think about. Will you always be the only person streaming from it? Will it always be at home in your network? Do you need soft subtitles? If you are watching locally only with no subtitles, it mostly negates the need for transcoding as long as the media files you have are compatible with the devices you watch on. You can do what’s called direct streaming where Plex does no transcoding at all because the client can decode the media as is. For a low power server like an RPi this would be the ideal way to use Plex. If you plan on using plex remotely or letting other people use your plex library remotely or use subtitles that need to be burn onto the video, then you will need transcoding. In that case, some of the newer RPis can usually barely transcode a single 1080p fast enough for watching video, but that varies by exactly which model you get. Do realize that if you do the pre-transcoding it will essentially max your RPi into that one task, so trying to have more than the Plex service on it likely would not work out well. It can also take a considerably long time to finish the transcoding, as an example a 20minute episode might take 40 minutes to transcode, so you won’t have the target quality until later, so you have to plan ahead if you want to watch something.
It really depends on how you want to deal with your media. I want the best copy of movies that I can get. So I need the server to transcode but that requires a beefy cpu for one stream or using a gpu ( intel iGPUs are great for this) for more. Unfortunately accelerated transcoding requires to pay for plex pass. If you really need hardware transcoding and don’t want to pay you could go with Jellyfin, though it’s harder to set up and doesn’t have clients for as many devices.
One thing is that there are reasonably frequent discounts on lifetime plex pass which is what I did.
Hi!
To answer your first question, yes, you absolutely can use your desktop computer as server and client at the same time. Just bear in mind you’ll need to have it powered on 24/7 to have access from other clients, be it locally or from outside.
Plex has multiple options to scan the library when changes have been detected and does a sweep of the whole library at intervals you set up. You can also trigger a library scan manually if you want. Don’t worry about changing names, it will detect and move around the library without any trouble.
About the encoding part, Plex encodes the stream that is being sent to the client, if necessary. There’s the possibility of creating “optimized” files that would take up space in your HDD, but re-encoding streams so that the client can play the files won’t take space AFAIK.
I hope this answers your concerns, cheers!
undefined> here’s the possibility of creating “optimized” files that would take up space in your HDD, but re-encoding streams so that the client can play the files won’t take space AFAIK.
I’m not sure I completely understand.
what exactly do you mean when you say re-encoding streams?
Sometimes the client can’t play the file on the HDD directly, so Plex transcodes the files so the client can play them. This doesn’t take up any space in the HDD, as it is being done in real time for the stream.
Got it. Thanks
- Yeah, that’s fine. Your experience on the same machine as the server will likely not be much different than that if anotherachine on your home network.
- That should be fine, Plex can scan on a schedule or when files change/get added/whatever. I am not 100% sure, but I think it will even still remember your watch statuses due to how it detects and matches movies with places like themoviedb.org. It is a very good idea to at least have stuff like movies/TV split up in advance so you can set up your libraries right.
- It re-encodes on the fly, but will need some disk to store those files temporarily. Also, depending on the media (codecs for audio/video, container, subtitles, etc) it may not have to re-encode them at all. E.g. an mp4 with h264 video and aac/mp3 audio and no subtitles should be streamable to any device without having to do anything.
Hey this is basically how I use mine until I finally get around to creating some type of home server. It works extremely well though I mostly cast to other TVs.
Everyone else has answered your questions but I can confirm those answers as well.
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Yes it’s fine.
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Yeah you can have it auto scan for changes or you can tell it in the UI(even from a remote client) to scan libraries for changes. I have a drive shared between my host with Plex and a VM with a VPN, so I can aquire media on the VPN and then share it bypassing the VPN without disabling it. Files in this shared drive are automatically added and usable in plex.
3.other people answered better but it can reincode on the fly. If you have multiple clients at once you’ll want a decent GPU (mines running a gtx 980 with no problems)
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you can set the server and watch it in the same computer. You can also have other clients like fire tv or Roku sticks and connect them to your server.
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I wouldn’t rename them, Plex has “agents” that scan the files and find the closet match even if the name of the file is similar to THE.simpsons.S09E8.the.vengance.of.apu.byMEGUSTA.mpeg, if it detects the wrong match you can adjust it. It does a decent job.
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it reencodes while are watching the file, it won’t save it, it uses a cache. Here are two schools of thought, you set a small raspberry pi and get nothing fancy but at least a 3 year or less old stick as client(s) and watch everything directly without encoding because the sticks can handle it, or get a fancy server, get Plex pass to use the video card and encode everything you want to 4K. Your choice.
Take into account that if the server is too small it will have issues encoding. I had an 12 year old PC as server and a 4 years old fire sticks playing directly without issues. But when I tried to use an old Roku stick it would keep buffering.
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I know this is already answered but I wrote this a while ago and forgot to submit it lol
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Yes. One machine can run both the server and client. A raspberry pi
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If you want to deal with renaming, I would recommend first installing Sonarr and Radarr to help manage them. You can point it at your libraries and customize the naming scheme and tell it to rename everything.
There’s other programs that can rename things but Sonarr and Radarr have a lot of capabilities that directly help with your Plex server and they have a ton of support from the community in case you run into issues.
- Plex transcodes on the fly when streaming. It’s recommended to change your streaming settings on the client device to always play original quality to lessen the strain on the server, as this will usually eliminate the need for transcoding. The only time it will still transcode is when the client is unable to play the video file of the original content.
So a RPi is good enough to be a server and client at the same time?
I’ll look into sonarr an radarr, thanks
Actually the pi itself may not play the media all that well. You’d be better off using the pi for Plex and all the *arr apps and then streaming to a computer or something.
Yes, and everything can be ran on the raspberry pi! I’d recommend using docker with Portainer.
The pi itself absolutely cannot do transcoding, though. Everything must play natively. Depending on what device you’re streaming on and what the media format is, you may run into troubles. Most clients should be fine, though.
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Yes, you can run Plex on a single computer. IIRC you just need to install the server and the client on the same desktop and point them towards each other.
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Yes, that is fine. Plex keeps track of file changes in the library.
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If you tell it to, Plex will create separate versions of media files according to certain parameters (like Optimised for TV or phone). These are separate files. But if you’re only watching on your desktop, this is not necessary. Transcoding might be necessary if e.g. you’re running Plex on a low-powered NAS and watching media on a Chromecast, which is incompatible with certain codecs. Then you need to transcode the file beforehand. But a desktop is powerful enough to do live transcoding ánd generally has no compatibility issues.
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