# Allow path for transcoder executable to be overridden. **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Suggestions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590 "2014-01-04T00:50:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jkiel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jkiel/32/4301_2.png) [@jkiel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jkiel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 12:50am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/1 "2014-01-04T00:50:59Z")
I'd like an advanced server preference to allow me to easily override the path to the "universal" transcoder executable (not for the transcode output, but for the executable),   There are multiple reasons for this, but the main reason is that I'd like to point plex to a wrapper script that will distribute transcode requests to a pool of slave PCs, after first sending a WOL packet to the selected slave(s) and waiting for them to awake.  While I could just replace the transcoder executable with the wrapper, an override would be a cleaner approach, and would show up in the log, allowing bug reports from an unsupported transcoder to be ignored.   ---
**Author:** ![mcboss86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@mcboss86](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mcboss86)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/2 "2014-01-04T10:19:21Z")
I have no idea if they can implement this. But as far as I understood your post you have the know-how to outsource transcoding to another (or even multiple) machines???  If that's true and you get it working I guess you would be the hero for a lot of NAS-Users or other people with low cpu speeds by sharing your work!  See for example this thread: [https://forums.plex.tv/topic/92997-my-plex-experience-so-far/](https://forums.plex.tv/topic/92997-my-plex-experience-so-far/) ---
**Author:** ![jkiel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jkiel/32/4301_2.png) [@jkiel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jkiel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/3 "2014-01-04T16:49:39Z")
Some superficial testing shows that it should be possible load balance transcodes, yes, but I don't want to spend much time on it until there is an easy way to hook the transcode request that survives PMS upgrade installations. Load balancing individual transcodes across multiple PCs could also be possible, except in the case of un-seekable streams, but much more difficult to implement.  Pushing a full transcode (not breaking it up to a bunch of smaller transcodes) to another PC for processing shouldn't that difficult, but they'll need a decent network connection between them (ie: gigabit, or even a dedicated gigabit(s) if there are enough transcode slaves.) ---
**Author:** ![Orionshock](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/orionshock/32/84068_2.png) [@Orionshock](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Orionshock)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/4 "2014-01-05T04:56:51Z")
Something that might help. In the Advanced Plex Settings under Transcoder there is an option to put in a custom Transcoder temporary directory. You could copy the Plex Transcoder to the other computer (it's just a custom build FFMPEG) and then save to a common network / network accessible location. Tho you'll need to account for URL locations and make sure you have the plex tokens kept in place. ---
**Author:** ![jkiel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jkiel/32/4301_2.png) [@jkiel](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jkiel)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/5 "2014-01-05T16:46:48Z")
> Something that might help. > > In the Advanced Plex Settings under Transcoder there is an option to put in a custom Transcoder temporary directory. > > You could copy the Plex Transcoder to the other computer (it's just a custom build FFMPEG) and then save to a common network / network accessible location. Tho you'll need to account for URL locations and make sure you have the plex tokens kept in place. Yes, I understand I can (and I do) change the path to where transcodes are stored, but I'd like to change path of the transcoder executable -- where I would direct it to a script that would load balance transcodes over multiple PCs. ---
**Author:** ![JB09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@JB09](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JB09)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/6 "2014-01-06T20:02:40Z")
> While I could just replace the transcoder executable with the wrapper, an override would be a cleaner approach, and would show up in the log, allowing bug reports from an unsupported transcoder to be ignored. Any chance you'd be willing to share you're wrapper script for the time being? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 11:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/7 "2021-03-21T23:49:55Z")
Early 2021 clean-up: duplicate > [@Distributed Transcoding/Scaling](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681): > > I realize this is a longshot but right now my plex server is a quad socket system and it's barely keeping up with user load, looking at 8 socket systems and they are just astronomically expensive which got me thinking about the huge surplus of cheap dual socket blade servers   what if there was a way of scaling plex itself to have separate compute/transcode nodes instead of just having one giant server...   so for example, you have one box running plex itself, then several slaved boxes that … ---
**Author:** ![tom80H](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/tom80h/32/19753_2.png) [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 12:46am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/allow-path-for-transcoder-executable-to-be-overridden/52590/8 "2021-06-10T00:46:52Z")