3 simple ways to speed up your Plex server’s transcoding

If you’re content is buffering, these quick fixes might help

If you're running a Plex server that's absolutely brimming with content, but the TV show or movie you're playing sometimes suffers from intermittent buffering or poor image quality, you might be encountering transcoding issues. It's a common problem many people run into when it comes to self-hosting media on platforms like Plex and Jellyfin, and while transcoding is far less common on modern streamers like the Apple TV 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, or Roku Ultra because they natively support nearly every video file type out there, it can still crop up on older streaming devices, particularly smart TVs.

That said, in most cases, Plex can stream a video directly from your server to your streaming device without changing the file type. However, if the media you're trying to watch is in a file format your streaming device can't play natively, Plex transcodes the audio and video in real-time to a compatible file type, which can be resource-intensive depending on the original file type and its quality.

For example, with my Apple TV 4K and M4 Mac mini-powered Plex server, I've only needed to transcode a few times, but that's because it's a pretty high-end setup and Apple's set-top box is compatible with nearly every file format out there. With all of that said, if you're running into transcoding issues with your Plex home server setup where some movies or TV shows are buffering or just outright getting stuck, there are a few things you can do to speed things up.

Jellyfin on Samsung TVs removes the biggest barrier to switching, forcing Plex to compete on trust, not inertia. A simple solution to transcoding issues is to ensure your Plex server has sufficient power. If you're a Plex Pass subscriber or a lifetime license owner and have an integrated or discrete GPU capable of hardware-based video encoding, try turning on Use Hardware-Accelerated Video Encoding under Plex's Settings menu to see if it resolves your issues.

This setting ensures your GPU or integrated graphics are being used to convert whatever video you're watching, not your CPU. This can help with streaming high-bitrate 4K content, especially if you have a weak CPU on your Plex server. With Hardware-Accelerated Video Encoding turned off, Plex primarily uses your device's CPU for transcoding. Additionally, if you share your Plex server with several users, you can limit the amount of GPU, CPU, and background transcoding that can happen at once to ensure you have the hardware bandwidth to handle what you're watching.

If you're running into transcoding issues, you can try using an app like Handbrake to convert the file you want to play into a more widely supported format, such as H.265, MP4, or .MKV, before streaming it from your Plex server. Roughly 15 years ago, I used to do this frequently with a media server app called Tversity and my Xbox 360, which couldn't handle playing .MKV files. You can also set the bitrate to maximum on your Plex server by heading to Settings in the Playback Menu, then selecting Quality and Maximum (make sure you're looking at the local settings).

This prevents videos from being transcoded to match your quality settings if they're lower than the video you're playing, so content plays at the original quality. When this setting is on, ensure you have a local network capable of handling the bandwidth required for high-quality video playback. Back in the day, I used to run into this all the time with my now-ancient Intel-powered MacBook Air. I'd start streaming a movie from my MacBook Air-hosted Plex server while also playing a game, installing updates, and probably running a few other background tasks.

Suddenly, my stream would start hitching every few minutes as it tried to transcode a high-bitrate file. I quickly learned that if I wanted to watch transcoded content, I needed to let my ancient MacBook Air handle it and nothing else. Of course, this isn't an issue with my M4 Mac mini server, but it still holds true today for older hardware. If you're using an older PC or Mac, or have a cheap NAS that doesn't offer much hardware power, keep background tasks to an absolute minimum if you're running into background transcoding issues.

The home media server landscape has changed a lot since the last time I was immersed in it.

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