AV1 Encoded Content is not Transcoding Properly

[czuio]

Server Version#: Version 1.41.7.9717
Player Version#: Version 4.145.1

When transcoding content that is encoded with the AV1 codec, the resulting video is corrupted.

I’ve come across this issue quite alot lately, and it’s really starting to bug me.
It’s not just Plex Web either, Chromecast, Hisense TV App, Samsung TV App all exhibit the same issue when playing transcoded content from AV1 encoded files.

Playing via Direct Play to Android Phone works fine.

Transcoding is occuring using AMD GPU (Plex refuses to Transcode in CPU, “Not Enough CPU”, on a Ryzen 9 9950X…)

[czuio]

For reference:

VLC Works Fine: Watch vlc works fine | Streamable
Transcoding via Plex, Playing on Plex Web: Watch transcoder issue | Streamable

[ChuckPa]

@czuio

Ryzen 9 9950X

The problem with your AMD is that AMD GPUs are not fully supported yet.

AMD GPUs will work if you manually install all the drivers. ( AMD + libva )

Adding full AMD support is one of the many things we’re doing as part of the transcoder upgrade ( there’s a huge amount of work to do / being done )

While not what you want to hear, AV1 support is already present in PMS and on Intel and Nvidia GPUs. We will get there. I don’t know where AMD is in the list of things to do

[czuio]

But I can’t even get it to do CPU transcoding on a 16 core 5.4 Ghz CPU…
Is AV1 just not CPU Transcoding able?

[czuio]

also, I have the radeon gpu drivers installed.

root@plexmediaserver:~# vainfo
error: can’t connect to X server!
libva info: VA-API version 1.20.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_20
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.20 (libva 2.12.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1 for AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi, raphael_mendocino, LLVM 19.1.1, DRM 3.57, 6.8.12-4-pve)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileAV1Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc

[ChuckPa]

Would you please make certain the Server’s DEBUG logging is enabled and then do a quick recreation ?

1. Start Playback
2. Let it play 15 seconds
3. Stop Playback
4. Settings - server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs
5. Attach the ZIP file it gives you here.

[czuio]

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-04-30_22-57-06.zip (4.8 MB)

[ChuckPa]

Thanks for the logs.

I found the error.

Direct mapping disabled: deriving image does not work: 1 (operation failed).

It’s an FFMPEG 4 bug (which is what this transcoder is based on)

#8006 (VAAPI: fails to transcode HEVC 10bit on AMD RAVEN APU) – FFmpeg

[hevc @ 0x845300] Ignoring unknown format 0x36313050.                                                                  
[hevc @ 0x845300] Picked p010le (0x30313050) as best match for yuv420p10le.                                            
[AVHWFramesContext @ 0x482000] Created surface 0x1.                                                                    
[AVHWFramesContext @ 0x482000] Direct mapping disabled: deriving image does not work: 1 (operation failed).            
[AVHWFramesContext @ 0x482000] Created surface 0x2.                                                                    
[AVHWFramesContext @ 0x482000] Created surface 0x3.                                                                    
[AVHWFramesContext @ 0x482000] Created surface 0x4. 

I’m sending you a link via PM.

I would appreciate you trying it and reporting your results.