“ Live transcoding 4K HDR 10 with the GPU on windows isn’t currently support is perhaps what he meant.
“I just switched my PMS to ubuntu so it will. Or rather am still moving to ubuntu.”
I gather this is a Windows thing, not a Plex thing. Is going to Ubuntu necessary in order to do this? Any fix on the horizon? I really don’t want to reformat my entire Windows Media server; Plex media server is but one of many apps being used.
Specs:
Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
OS Service Pack -
Internet Explorer 11.789.19041.0
Edge 107.0.1418.42
DirectX DirectX 12.0
Date / Time 2022-11-13 / 16:23
Motherboard:
CPU Type HexaCore Intel Core i5-11600K, 4600 MHz (46 x 100)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte B560M DS3H AC (2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 M.2, 4 DDR4 DIMM, Audio, Video, Gigabit LAN, WiFi)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Tiger Point B560, Intel Rocket Lake-S
System Memory 32565 MB (DDR4 SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (02/10/2022)
Display:
Video Adapter Intel(R) UHD Graphics 750 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) UHD Graphics 750 (1 GB)
Video Adapter Intel(R) UHD Graphics 750 (1 GB)
Monitor Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB] (265116843009)
Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Intel Tiger Point-H HDMI @ Intel Tiger Point PCH - cAVS (Audio, Voice, Speech)
Audio Adapter Realtek ALC897 @ Intel Tiger Point PCH - cAVS (Audio, Voice, Speech)
Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 500 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
Storage Controller Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller
Disk Drive Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1TB (1000 GB, SATA-III)
Disk Drive Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB (2000 GB, SATA-III)
Disk Drive ST10000VE0008-2KX101 (9314 GB)
Disk Drive WDC WD140EDFZ-11A0VA0 (13039 GB)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK
So circling back on this, do i have to install Ubuntu to resolve this problem? I really dread doing that, because i used my windows-based media server a lot, for a lot of things, and I’m kind of happy being away from Linux at this point
The current 64-bit Windows builds support zero-copy transcoding for Nvidia and Intel GPUs. As a result, Plex has to shuffle less data between the GPU and RAM when transcoding. Some users have reported this increases transcoding performance and makes HDR to SDR tonemapping on Windows feasible.
The GPU must be capable of decoding 10-bit HEVC video. For Intel, this means a 7th gen CPU or later. For Nvidia, a GTX 1050 or later.
There are no guidelines regarding CPU speed, memory speed, etc. You’ll have to install the 64-bit build and see how well it works with your media, clients, etc.
Note that subtitles do come into play. It will definitely affect performance if they have to be burned into the video stream (Plex Web, some Smart TV apps). Suggest you perform initial tests with subtitles turned off. You can enable them later to gauge any performance hit.
I’m in the same position as OP. Initially set up my server on a 1145G7 NUC w/ Windows since I needed the OS for some Win-only apps (and wasn’t to fond of VMs).
Now I’m contemplating switching over to Linux although folks on here mention that there, tonemapping keeps getting broken with recent updates.
What I find as perplexing as it is astonishing is that Jellyfin made HW accel transcoding INCL(!) tone-mapping perfectly working on Win w/ recent versions despite largely owing to the contributions/PRs of ONE (!) dev (nyanmisaka). So in a sarcastic tone, one could wonder what Plex devs are doing all day but since I don’t know your codebase it probably has to do with the customizations to ffmpeg.
I just hope you’ll catch up to JF wrt HW accel rather sooner than later so all these community posts of “You just don’t transcode 4K” and “Just always have a separate 4K library or 1080p version of everything at hand” finally disappear.
Zero copy for Intel on Windows has existed since 2019. It is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
However the hardware tonemapping on Windows is an exception with Intel. It requires zero-copy between QuickSync and OpenCL, which doesn’t exist in current Plex Windows build. As a consequence is the PARTIAL / reduced performance, said in official docs.
And this is the issue for many/most of us looking to have 4k hdr transcode to 1080p sdr on windows.
Is the problem a windows problem or a plex problem?
I also dont want to switch to linux on my desktop.
I have an i5-11600k, so using linux i could easily achive it. But with windows I have to turn hdr tonemapping of, or enjoy the buffering.
I have close to 20tb of 4k hdr content, adding enough space to keep double copys of everyhing is defently not going to happen. And purchasing a new pc with a good enough cpu for the sole purpose of running plex server is also not happening.
Luckily i watch most of my content on 4k hdr capable devices. And when i dont, i just have to live with the washed out colors😝 but having hdr tonemapping working with intel gpu on windows with full performance, like in linux, would mean my usage of the the transcode functionality would go up.
Also, i would love some more controll over how plex uses and chooses gpu. Many of us have powerful nvidia or amd gpus in addition to the igp’s. And having plex be able to use them both could mean we can support more transcodes running at the same time. Possibly having transcodes with hdr on the igp, while at the same time a transcode that doesnt need hdr transcode running on the amd/nvidia. Or maybe even split the process of transcoding with tonemapping between the two, to free up the igp resources to do hdr tonemapping, dont know if thats even technically possible tho😜
Anyway. Bottom line is,working 4k hdr transcode on intel igp in windows would be great. The «partial» might as well just be a no-support at this point😏
It does not work efficiant enough to be enabled.
I hope hope hope that this is a plex issue and not a windows issue, that plex can fix sooner or later.
