4K Streaming on 2012 mac mini?

[jplanera]

I have a late 2012 mac mini set up as my PLEX media server which streams to my 4k TV running the PLEX app. I know through hard wire that the mini cannot display 4k resolution but is the same said for streaming over wifi? Does the video direct stream in this case or am I still only getting the max resolution that the mini can put out still?

At this point the mini is acting as a NAS so why wouldn't it be able to? Unless the processor is the bottleneck but the passmark is about 3900. That seems sufficient...

What are your thoughts?

 

[jpietrzak8]

What are your thoughts?

Hmm. If we were just talking about streaming media to a device (such as a DLNA-aware TV), you would be correct -- there's no reason why you couldn't just stream the data over wifi from a Mini (or, really, pretty much any remote DLNA server).

But PLEX is a different matter. PLEX is a very fancy system, that tries to do lots and lots of additional work over and above simple streaming; in particular, it likes to do real-time transcoding of video. This can lead to (a) an enormous amount of work for the computer's CPU, and (b) a lot more data being sent over the network (as real-time transcoding leads to much lower data compression rates).

One thing you might try first, is experiment with streaming video from your Mini to your TV without using PLEX. It may take a little more work on your part to get it set up, but a straight-up DLNA stream (or other form of streaming) should work just fine. I don't think modern TVs really need as much video-data massaging as the PLEX guys seem to think...

 

[jplanera]

Ok cool. I had kind of the same thought process. I have my TV setup for straight up DLNA and used that before I discovered PLEX. I will give it a go. I wish there was a way to see what resolution and bit rate the stream is at in real time. Without seeing that im left with "Well it looks 4k...." haha

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[nebo1ss]

You did not say what device you are using for the client part of Plex. If you are running both the client and the server on the mini then you are not going to stream 4k to the TV. If you run the server software only on the mini and run the client on a device that can support 4k like a Roku 4 then provided the original file is 4k you will have no trouble supporting 4k from your Plex server.

 

[jpietrzak8]

I wish there was a way to see what resolution and bit rate the stream is at in real time.

Well, in most cases, DLNA is just a file-sharing service; PLEX is unusual in that it mucks around with the guts of a file before sending the data.

But yeah, the usual mechanism is that a video is encoded in a given resolution and bit rate when it is stored in a file. You should be able to read off the resolution and bit rate using most any standard video file analysis tool.

 

[jplanera]

If you run the server software only on the mini and run the client on a device that can support 4k

The TV has a PLEX app that I use currently. I also have a Roku 4 that I could hook up to test.
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the usual mechanism is that a video is encoded in a given resolution and bit rate when it is stored in a file

Thank you for the help.