Hey Everyone,
I’m having some issues with the preview build (v1.4.0.3224) not fully supporting hardware transcoding … so I’m thinking I may have to switch out some hardware … Here is my current Plex Server build:
ASUS A68HM-Plus Motherboard
AMD A10-7860K APU (GPU disabled)
MSI GTX 1050 OC Video Card
8GB RAM DDR3
256GB SSD for OS/Plex Server Software
4TB HDD for Media Storage
My media is stored in HEVC/8-bit or HEVC/10-bit and then transcoded to H.264 as needed. My main devices (SHIELD TV and XBOX One) use Direct Play but my wife and kids watch videos on their iPads which triggers transcoding. With my current configuration, I’m only getting partial hardware transcoding (as it reads “Transcoding H.264 to H.264(hw)” and as I understand from reading the forums, it should read “Transcoding H.264(hw) to H.264(hw)”). The video card definitely supports full HEVC transcoding but it looks like the initial transcode utilizes CPU (maxing it out) and the output utilizes the GPU (which the VCE sits around 15%). Sideline question - why are there two transcodes taking place and why does it say H.264 for the first part vs HEVC? That part I don’t understand …
So, I was thinking of upgrading some of the hardware as follows:
MSI B250M Gaming Pro Motherboard
8GB RAM DDR4
Next, is where I’m unsure about selection … I’m debating between the i3-7100 and the i5-7400/7500 … I know the GPU in these processors are the same, so am I better off to save the money and get the i3? Or buy the better value between the i5-7400/7500 for the extra 2 cores and performance boost?
Also, will the hardware trancoding utilize BOTH the Intel QSV and the nVidia GPU? Or will it just use the QSV and completely ignore the nVidia GPU?
… and most importantly, will this solve my problem of getting my HEVC media to fully utilize hardware transcoding?
Thanks!
I should add that I’m running Windows 10 Pro with the latest nVidia drivers (and all Windows Updates are current as well).
Thanks!
I wouldn’t switch hardware at this point. This is still considered Beta and could change. I would instead describe the media you are trying to play and provide the PMS logs so we can see why hardware transcoding isn’t working. Not all hardware is supported now, but there is still work going on so it might work in the future. Wouldn’t want you to kick yourself after you bought new equipment to find out it works on the old stuff.
@MovieFan.Plex Did you want me to post just a scrubbed “Plex Media Server.log” file or is there another file you would need to see as well?
The media I’m trying to play is HEVC/8-bit or HEVC/10-bit encoded and it’s transcoding to H.264 to play on an iPad 2 (as one example). Here is the Debug Job Running command:
Feb 01, 2017 15:07:38.798 [7536] DEBUG - Job running: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS=’\\?\C:\Users\root\AppData\Local\Plex\ Media\ Server\Codecs\b343bef-1165-windows-i386\’ XDG_CACHE_HOME=‘C:\Users\root\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache’ XDG_DATA_HOME=‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources’ X_PLEX_TOKEN=‘xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx’ C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe -codec:0 hevc -codec:1 aac_mf -ss 2584 -i “E:\Media Files\filename.mkv” -filter_complex [0:0]scale=w=min(720,iw):h=min(406,ih):force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,format=pix_fmts=nv12[0] -map [0] -metadata:s:0 language=eng -codec:0 h264_nvenc -b:0 533k -maxrate:0 1195k -bufsize:0 2390k -r:0 23.975999999999999 -force_key_frames:0 expr:gte(t,2591+n_forced*8) -map 0:1 -metadata:s:1 language=eng -codec:1 aac -ar:1 48000 -channel_layout:1 stereo -b:1 193k -segment_format mpegts -f ssegment -individual_header_trailer 0 -segment_time 8 -segment_start_number 323 -segment_copyts 1 -segment_time_delta 0.0625 -segment_list http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/66BD10E8-C5F2-43CD-A61B-33EBEEF68C25/seglist -segment_list_type csv -segment_list_size 2147483647 -max_delay 5000000 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 media-%05d.ts -start_at_zero -copyts -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/66BD10E8-C5F2-43CD-A61B-33EBEEF68C25/progress
Here are the “Get Info” details of the file being played:
1080p HEVC/10-bit
Bitrate 1888 kbps
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Container MKV
Audio Profile lc
Video Profile Main 10
Audio Codec AAC
Channels 5.1
Bitrate 340kbps
Sampling Rate 48000Hz
While the video is playing, when I click the info under “Now Playing” it reads as follows:
Transcoding
Video Transcoding H264 to H264 (hw)
Audio Transcoding AAC to AAC
I can perform other tests with additional media and different devices to create additional log info …
Any help in solving this is greatly appreciated!!
Sorry, I missed that you originally stated you were using HEVC. Your current system doesn’t have hardware decoding for HEVC. Most system’s won’t. The newest Intel chips have HEVC support, but I haven’t seen any tests if Plex works with it or not.
@“MovieFan.Plex” I read that the nVidia GTX 1050 supports HEVC encoding/decoding? Is that not true?
I found this for the 10xx series of nVidia GPUs:
PureVideo Feature Set H hardware video decoding HEVC Main10 (10bit), Main12 (12bit) & VP9 hardware decoding (GM200 & GM204 did not support HEVC Main10/Main12 & VP9 hardware decoding)
Maybe the transcoder doesn’t recognize it as supporting HEVC?
It’s possible. This is still early beta so not everything might be working right. Heck, I don’t even know if HEVC hardware decoding has been enabled for anything. I would suggest asking the question in the PMS preview thread. The dev working on this might have a better answer for you.
