Is it possible to upgrade the CPU on the PR4100?

Hi there,

I recently purchased a PR4100 after previously owning the MyCloud 3Tb personal storage device which was full to capcity. I purchased the PR4100 with one intention and that was to run PLEX. I’ve been runing this device for about a month now it works very well and with the built in transcoding engine seems to do the job effortlessly… Until that is, transcoding 4K movies. it struggles to transcode large (56GB) 4K movies, which would have been fantastic had it been able to seemlessly do this and with maybe multiple 4K transcoding streams.

So my question is this. Ive ordered 16GB of ram to upgrade the current 4GB. Will this make much or any difference at all in turns of performance? Also is it possible to ungrade the actual CPU on the PR4100? And if so what type of CPU could I consider that will work on this device? And would that allow for better transcoding of large 4K movies with the right processor?

Thanks

No, the extra RAM won’t help and CPU can’t be upgraded.
The Brasswell CPU on the PR4100 only supports hardware transcoding for H264 codec.
You’re probably trying to transcode one of H265 / HEVC / VP9, which requires SkyLake/Kabylake.
Source: Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia

Just get a 4k TV or a media player that supports 4k to prevent the need to transcode.
If you really need the mobile streaming option, create a separate movie archive with 720p content…

Okay, well i’ll add the ram anyway I guess as it now en-route. Yes you are correct, those are the formats that seem to stutter when transcoding H265 & HEVC. To be honest 4K isn’t something I am overly concern with it would have just been cool if the transcoding was possible. So if I were to use a 4K firestick these 56GB 4K movies in essence should play fine with direct stream as long as the connection of course is up to speed?

Indeed, all should be fine if you can maintain the network bandwidth.
See also here

So just for my own knowledge, if i wanted just the smallest device as possible that could play literally anything I throw at it 4K UHD, H265, H264 & HEVC and I could take it around with me to plug into a smart tv and stream over the internet would that be the 4K Amazon Firestick?

The 4k amazon firestick is optimized for 4k streaming from Amazon/Netflix.
4k BluRay quality requires 3x the bandwidth… better do some research.

Personally, I don’t have the upload bandwidth to stream 4k out of the house. Check with your provider.
I’m using Tautulli to get more insights on the bandwidth Plex requires.

Okay, thanks for that Tfl. I’ve never heard of Tautulli but just taking a quick look at thier page it does looks interesting so will try it out this evening i think. Does Tautullli monitor your broadband upload speed as well as what upload speed would be required to stream particular files lets say?

Dumb Question: Has Western Digital have any thoughts or desires of creating a hardware upgrade of the motherboard for the PR4100 to increase the processing power of the CPU and RAM memory? The reason I’m asking is that my PR4100 4x 8TB Raid-5, and currently running the PLEX media server and Anti-Virus Essentials apps. My family & friends that are remote in different states enjoy the benefits being provided via the PLEX app across different streaming platforms. Also having the ability to be able to transcode transcode movies of 4K, H265, HEVC, VP9, different movie/TV formats (.avi, .mkv, etc.) and more memory & CPU processing power to help Anti-Virus Essentials would in my opinion be very beneficial, so there is not the need to convert different movie/TV formats to .mp4. The upgrade would be beneficial in the ongoing updates for security and ransomware protection perspective. (Just my opinion, for what it’s worth…)