HELP STATION

Plex transcoding

I recently opened up my Plex server running on a QNAP TS-251+ to a few friends to discover that transcoding does one of two things: If I enable hardware transcoding, the video frequently looks blocky and pixilated, but I can stream to multiple clients with no problems. But if I disable it, only one person can watch a transcoded stream without overwhelming the server. What can I do to improve the quality over hardware transcoding?

Phil West

TechLife responds: The problem here is your QNAP’s Celeron J1900 processor. Although it supports hardware transcoding through QuickSync, the processor’s onboard GPU is based on the old Ivy Bridge generation of Intel HD graphics. These are known for the poor quality of their transcodes, so the only way around this is to either minimise or eliminate transcoding from your machine or upgrade your NAS.

You could opt for QNAP’s TS-251D series, which is powered by a dual-core J4025/J4005 Celeron processor sporting Intel HD Graphics 600 – it’s this 6th-generation chip where QuickSync finally delivers