System specs:
CPU: Dual Core Xeon 2.8 GHz Paxville x1
RAM: 6 GB
HDD: SCSI 10k 73 GB x1
Motherboard: Foxconn XC320
So, here's my issue.
I've got ESX 3.5 installed on this box with an Ubuntu Server 12.04 client on the ESX Hypervisor. I've installed Plex Media Server and upgraded the OS and the PMS. Plex usually has no issues playing anything I throw at it but recently I've been finding files that PMS must trans-code before it can play. This led to constant buffering every 5-10 seconds. I thought it was the network so I ran an Ethernet cable. I thought it was the RAM so I allocated more to the VM. I thought it was the CPU so I upgraded from a single core 3.0 to a dual core 2.8. I'm out of ideas.
Do I need to install a physical video card in this thing so it can trans-code through the GPU? Can the CPU just not keep up? I've looked at the performance tab in the VMWare infrastructure Client and it appears that the CPU has a little bit of wiggle room while trans-coding the video.
