They didn’t come down in price. Yes, it is a ‘Big Boy NUC’ but that’s exactly what I wanted. I want a machine to power through whatever I throw at it and this bad boy does it. My NAS will push 20Gbps into the switch so i wanted a machine which can pull on the 10GbE and sustain it. I can run multiple PMS servers concurrently and not notice it.
I have 3x NUC8-i7-HVK machines on the shelf which I use with Incus and PMS testing. They work great.
Yeah I saw this in another thread.
The version of the Intel Media Driver Plex builds and bundles with Plex seems to be Version 24.1.5-3 and the battlemage initial support was added with Version 24.3.4.
So we have to run a custom kernel and wait for Plex to update the Intel video driver to a version 24.3.4 or higher.
The custom kernel alone didn’t work. There are reports of people getting BMG to work with jellyfin though. So that would answer your question about anyone getting BMG to work with any kernel.
Can you point me to that info (IMD release version info).
I’ll create and assign a ticket to ensure it’s right.
I was reading this thread.
Intel Arc B580 | Proxmox Support Forum
Also seems confirmed here:
Intel Media Driver Update for Plexserver on Linux? - Plex Media Server - Plex Forum
@Shades228 You’re right, my bad. I meant getting it working with any kernel with Plex. The GPU itself certainly works on newer kernels.
My best guess is the same, we need updated Intel Media Driver w/ PMS. Though last I heard theres no point in doing that before the major transcoder upgrade. Though judging by what Chris has said, that might not be that far off now.
Speaking off-topic 
, that upgrade is very close.
There’s one very annoying , existing, bug which he’s working on.
It ha------ wi------by 5-----io
He almost has it fixed.
“It happy with nearby 5G radio”
Plex 5G mind control conspiracy confirmed.
Confirm that Plex Version 1.41.6.9606 hardware transcoding does not work with unRAID 7.1 beta 2 (kernel 6.12.20)
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] DEBUG - [Req#1777/Transcode] Codecs: testing hevc (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] DEBUG - [Req#1777/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi for device '/dev/dri/renderD128' (Intel Battlemage G21 [Intel Graphics])
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] ERROR - [Req#1777/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - libva: /config/Plex Media Server/Cache/va-dri-linux-x86_64/iHD_drv_video.so init failed
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] ERROR - [Req#1777/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Failed to initialise VAAPI connection: 18 (invalid parameter).
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] DEBUG - [Req#1777/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: I/O error
Mar 31, 2025 22:25:42.223 [23057865763640] DEBUG - [Req#1777/Transcode] Could not create hardware context for hevc
As for Jellyfin, some AV1 transcodes work, others not (with ffmpeg errors) with version 10.10.6.
I’ve chatted with Chris about the timing of this.
Either: FFMPEG 6.1 -or- Intel Media Driver
We need FFMPEG 6.1 for AV1 encoding and all those newer features
We need Intel Media Driver for CPU support (LunarLake and above)
– Intel Compute Runtime gets updated with Intel Media Driver.
Both will cause a degree of disruption (breaking some little things which already work)
Question is, which he’s going to discuss with management, which one first.
I will keep everyone advised as I hear what the decision from Management / Product team is.
Hopefully both can be implemented if the whole transcode engine has to be redone to accomplish it.
Both is not a question. but doing both at the same time. which introduces three unknowns – would be insanity (Remember IMD & ICR are a pair unto themselves)
Great, thanks for the update!
Thanks for the update will be monitoring this as I just managed to grab a B580 at MSRP from Best Buy.
Just checking/summarizing… a new kernel is required for Linux (including unRAID implementation, where 7.1 beta has support, which also officially supports iGPU in Arrow Lake / Core Ultra CPU’s for Plex transcoding).
However, Plex and the Docker version of Plex currently implements Version 24.1.5-3 if the Intel Media Driver (which supports iGPU for Arrow Lake / Core Ultra Gen15 processors), but the Intel Arc B-Series “battlemage” initial support was added with Version 24.3.4… so Plex requires a later driver to be implemented for B580 to be recognized at an app level for transcoding and encoding (the latest experimental Plex H265 output feature for optimizing output streams as H265 instead of always H264).
Understandably this takes lots of engineering effort, however if prioritizing the Intel Media Driver versus the FFMPEG 6.1 requirement for AV1… I’d say the cards need to be supported at a fundamental level first so if a first pick needed to be chosen the driver might make the most sense first.
That way the community gets some progress on addressing any fundamental B580 driver recognition and transcoding issues first, before tackling new AV1 content (ie: likely less people will want AV1 support than battlemage general support specifically for Plex… but I could be wrong).
Let me know if I’m understanding that correctly - as I am not sure the unRAID community has this fully straight just yet and are thinking battlemage will be supported just with the new kernel on unRAID 7.1.
Folks,
I can report:
I don’t have any feedback about whether ICR/IMD or FFMPEG upgrade sequence.
Thank you for the update.
Any chance of a preview build for some guineapig testing?
I just want to let you know i check this thread every day hoping for magic, but I understand this is gonna take a bit to get sorted.
As soon as we have a forum preview build, you’ll be the first to know.
(after we’ve kicked the tires a bit)
I’ve got the B580 sitting in the box waiting to try when it’s time.
Thanks for the efforts.
