I am not running into problematic files. I was more concerned about taking advantage of Intel Quick Sync and using the GPU to transcode at will instead of relying solely on the CPU which in my case isn’t all that great by itself. But if Plex used both CPU and could hand off loads to the GPU and use Quick Sync I could stream more then just one or two videos at a time.
It looks like something is going on: after the Shield TV with GPU accelerated transcoding now there’s the WD My Cloud Pro with GPU accelerated transcoding. If I’m not mistaken the CPU in that NAS is a Pentium N3710 with a passmark of only 1200, not enough for the annouced 4 transcodes at 1080p
source https://blog.plex.tv/2016/06/21/endless-summer-plex-western-digital/ , I hope same for my home made nas with a j1900
Slightly off-topic, but with the Wireless drive, does anyone know if it works as a sync destination as well?
@maxengel said:
Slightly off-topic, but with the Wireless drive, does anyone know if it works as a sync destination as well?
No. It is a server, not a client, so it won’t show up as a sync target.
@maxengel said:
Slightly off-topic, but with the Wireless drive, does anyone know if it works as a sync destination as well?
@MovieFan.Plex said:
@maxengel said:
Slightly off-topic, but with the Wireless drive, does anyone know if it works as a sync destination as well?
No. It is a server, not a client, so it won’t show up as a sync target.
But perhaps it should be a sync target. Now that would be sweet. To have a “to go” Plex server that is always up to date with your latest movies or episodes or however you can create a sync rule. Especially since it won’t transcode.
Yeah, that would be my hope. I currently use a Kangaroo PC running Windows 10 this way, but that’s for a different thread…
It appears that Plex is finally going to embrace HW transcoding. So we finally have an answer. Just not sure how long it will be until it moves to the PC based GPU/CPU combos. But things appear to be slowly changing.
@John.Debs said:
I am not running into problematic files. I was more concerned about taking advantage of Intel Quick Sync and using the GPU to transcode at will instead of relying solely on the CPU which in my case isn’t all that great by itself. But if Plex used both CPU and could hand off loads to the GPU and use Quick Sync I could stream more then just one or two videos at a time.
+1 for GPU transcoding and also +1 for the need of distributed transcoding (local computers/cloud etc).
Seemingly the My Cloud Pro PR4100 runs on Pentium N3710 processor and 4GB of RAM
The N3710 has integrated graphic. Specifically Intel® HD Graphics 405 @400mhz
Therefor if it does indeed support multiple streams as per the Plex blog, hardware transcoding Must be being utilised. As its intel, it implies QuickSync.
@adurbe said:
Therefor if it does indeed support multiple streams as per the Plex blog, hardware transcoding Must be being utilised. As its intel, it implies QuickSync.
Exactly myh conclusions. I don’t know if QS is the only way. What OS runs on that NAS? Some variant of Linux? That would be good news for someone with a Linux server based on an Intel chip with integrated graphics like… hmm… me ;D
@zpaolo11x said:
It looks like something is going on: after the Shield TV with GPU accelerated transcoding now there’s the WD My Cloud Pro with GPU accelerated transcoding. If I’m not mistaken the CPU in that NAS is a Pentium N3710 with a passmark of only 1200, not enough for the annouced 4 transcodes at 1080p
I doubt it does based on the support article.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/221104248-Western-Digital-My-Passport-Wireless-Pro
Can the My Passport Wireless Pro transcode video?
The My Passport Wireless Pro does not support transcoding of video. To get the most out of it, you will want to use media that has already been optimized and can be Direct Played by the Plex apps you’ll be using for playback.
it could offer 4 direct play, and be a good server to have on the go, but that’s it.
@adurbe said:
Seemingly the My Cloud Pro PR4100 runs on Pentium N3710 processor and 4GB of RAMThe N3710 has integrated graphic. Specifically Intel® HD Graphics 405 @400mhz
Therefor if it does indeed support multiple streams as per the Plex blog, hardware transcoding Must be being utilised. As its intel, it implies QuickSync.
not what the article says.
@starbetrayer That’s a different product, look at the My Cloud Pro PR4100. The PR4100 specifically says it uses built-in hardware transcoding
Stream anything
With built-in hardware transcoding and the downloadable Plex Media Server, your team can smoothly stream HD media wherever they have an internet connection. Hardware transcoding prepares media for streaming in the right format and quality, and with the Plex app installed on your NAS, you can beautifully stream to any device.
@adurbe said:
@starbetrayer That’s a different product, look at the My Cloud Pro PR4100. The PR4100 specifically says it uses built-in hardware transcoding
All Products: Shop Hard Drives, SSDs, USBs, & Memory Cards | Western DigitalStream anything
With built-in hardware transcoding and the downloadable Plex Media Server, your team can smoothly stream HD media wherever they have an internet connection. Hardware transcoding prepares media for streaming in the right format and quality, and with the Plex app installed on your NAS, you can beautifully stream to any device.
Which means its using the integrated graphics card for transcoding right? In other word Plex is utilizing the hardware to transcode and stream which is something Plex has been stated doesn’t do. If this is the case then why isn’t this same feature being used on other machines? Is it because the Plex devs specifically designed the Plex app for the WD NAS to use hardware transcoding? And the idea behind this isn’t universal so that other machines can take advantage of this? Or maybe it is a stepping stone towards making this work universally for other machines in a future update? It would be really nice if a Plex dev would chime in here and tell us whats going on.
@starbetrayer said:
@zpaolo11x said:
It looks like something is going on: after the Shield TV with GPU accelerated transcoding now there’s the WD My Cloud Pro with GPU accelerated transcoding. If I’m not mistaken the CPU in that NAS is a Pentium N3710 with a passmark of only 1200, not enough for the annouced 4 transcodes at 1080pI doubt it does based on the support article.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/221104248-Western-Digital-My-Passport-Wireless-Pro
That’s for the Wireless Pro, i was writing about the MyCloud Pro
@JDubbedN said:
Which means its using the integrated graphics card for transcoding right? In other word Plex is utilizing the hardware to transcode and stream which is something Plex has been stated doesn’t do.
Plex always said that they want to do it, but they don’t want to fragment the features for the “computer” version of the server. This (and the Shield TV) is sort of a special case where there’s one hardware and one software to support, so it’s much easier. I hope though this is a step in a good direction for us using Plex server on a computer.
If this is the case then why isn’t this same feature being used on other machines? Is it because the Plex devs specifically designed the Plex app for the WD NAS to use hardware transcoding? And the idea behind this isn’t universal so that other machines can take advantage of this?
Exactly: developing for one device with one OS and one software/driver etc is a thing, developing for a plethora of devices with different OSes is much more cumbersome (linux flavors anyone?)
Or maybe it is a stepping stone towards making this work universally for other machines in a future update? It would be really nice if a Plex dev would chime in here and tell us whats going on.
I hope so
@adurbe said:
@starbetrayer That’s a different product, look at the My Cloud Pro PR4100. The PR4100 specifically says it uses built-in hardware transcoding
All Products: Shop Hard Drives, SSDs, USBs, & Memory Cards | Western DigitalStream anything
With built-in hardware transcoding and the downloadable Plex Media Server, your team can smoothly stream HD media wherever they have an internet connection. Hardware transcoding prepares media for streaming in the right format and quality, and with the Plex app installed on your NAS, you can beautifully stream to any device.
who has one so that we can get feedback ?
@rcombs said:
Sorry about the confusion earlier, Atrus was slightly confused regarding the differences between x264’s OpenCL support and Intel’s ISMD and QuickSync video, and asked me to drop in and explain the details.
…
Lastly, Intel Clear Video and similar technologies allow most or all of the H.264 decoding process to be performed on a general-purpose GPU. This is more useful for reducing power usage during playback on laptops and similar, but could provide some (no idea how much) performance boost in some cases for the transcoder. To be honest, I haven’t even begun to research whether or not it’d be feasible to use GPU decoding across our supported platforms in ffmpeg, so I don’t even know if it’s remotely probable as a future feature.
All of the above features are things that we could look into in more detail for the transcoder in the future, but our dev team is small, and we can’t focus on the transcoder as much as we’d like to. However, the transcoder itself is a fork of the open-source project ffmpeg, to which anyone can submit feature requests or patches to implement said new features. If you’d like better support for hardware transcoding, upstream is always a good place to look.
People have requested qsv support “upstream”. As of March 1, 2016 the Zeranoe compiled builds of ffmpeg include qsv support.
QSV support is now included with the most popular free programs, ffmpeg and handbrake. QSV support is now included in almost all of the commercial packages, marketed for home use. Look at products from companies like DVDFab, Roxi, Badaboom Media Converter, CyberLink , ArcSoft and Nero. Look at competing media server packages such as Emby. Can anyone name a package geared to consumer transcoding for mobile use which doesn’t support qsv?
Posters want to prioritize features. I don’t consider qsv a feature that should have to make it on a list. The need is obvious and compelling. I put it in the same category as power windows and power door locks in a car. “Features” expected in all but the most stripped down cars.
JMO but there really isn’t another side to the issue. People with low powered systems benefit. People with higher powered systems also benefit. Lower CPU utilization means the computer can be used for other things. It means more videos can be streamed at once.
I won’t consider paying anything until qsv support is added.
So with the v1.0 update, they have merged to the latest version of ffmpeg correct? Does this finally mean hardware encoding is a reality???I know that ffmpeg has supported it for some time!
