# Distributed Transcoding/Scaling **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Suggestions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2014, 8:35am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681 "2014-09-17T08:35:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ShottotheDome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3be4f8/32.png) [@ShottotheDome](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ShottotheDome)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/41 "2015-01-13T15:31:57Z")
> so maybe in addition to developing distributed transcoding it would be cool if plex could support some sort of stacked pre-transcoded files (which I would imagine would be much easier from the development standpoint) > > so say > > Movie XYZ.1mbit.mkv > Movie XYZ.3mbit.mkv > Movie XYZ.10mbit.mkv > Movie XYZ.original.mkv > > etc or something > > preventing CPU transcoding at all, and realistically the lower bit-rate files should be pretty small Id be ok with this option as well. storage is cheap and going down. Have the server run those transcodes during idle times... works for me. We could probably do that with a script now just run it late at night ---
**Author:** ![kongsted](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6bbea6/32.png) [@kongsted](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kongsted)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 8:37am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/42 "2015-02-13T08:37:42Z")
+1 from me! :) I really think "transcode agents" would make sense. Where I'm leaving I don't have power for free - so I large server for Plex would be expensive to run. I'm having a Synology NAS where Plex is hosted today, but if it has to transcode a eg blu-ray disc to my phone it would be challanged. But why should a large server be running 24/7 for transcode once in a while? I would be nice if Plex could say "I can't handle the pressure - sending a WOL to the mediacenter (an i7-processor), and let the mediacenter handle the transcoding". ---
**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:** [February 14, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/43 "2015-02-14T15:56:20Z")
> so maybe in addition to developing distributed transcoding it would be cool if plex could support some sort of stacked pre-transcoded files (which I would imagine would be much easier from the development standpoint) Plex already supports this.  If you have multiple versions of the same title, Plex should try to select the one that more closely matches the client's request.  Plex will not, however, pre-trancode the files for you.  That's a task you'll have to do. Transcode caching, both as short (local cache) and long term (flush local cache to NAS if the entire title was transcoded) would be helpful. ---
**Author:** ![cayars](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cayars/32/6296_2.png) [@cayars](https://forums.plex.tv/u/cayars)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/44 "2015-02-15T00:46:26Z")
jkiel, I do this myself generating different versions of files to save on transcoding since I often stream to so many clients at one time.  I talk about this in the thread in my sig.  I'm also thinking of just busting out a long day and whip up a distributed encoder that will drop in for Plex use.  Pretty sure I could knock this out in 5 or 6 hours for my own use and then maybe make it configurable and generic so anyone could use it. Carlo ---
**Author:** ![rd911](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/rd911/32/5367_2.png) [@rd911](https://forums.plex.tv/u/rd911)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/45 "2015-03-18T18:20:13Z")
I came across this while looking for a way to distribute video encoding. It is MS Windows based but interesting implementation. [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127611](http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=127611) ---
**Author:** ![cayars](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cayars/32/6296_2.png) [@cayars](https://forums.plex.tv/u/cayars)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/46 "2015-03-18T23:49:47Z")
I lot of Plex Ops use that program Ray. But this is different than what people want here for on the fly transcoding. ---
**Author:** ![Jeax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@Jeax](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Jeax)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 10:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/47 "2015-04-24T10:31:53Z")
I think even something along the lines of a 'backup' server would be manageable for now. Currently i have set up two instances of plex server and have some users on one, and some on another. This means though that all metadata & database data needs to be stored twice for the exact same thing, which is frustrating. Even if it had a backup server toggle, which basically let it get all information from the primary server it would be okay - However right now video files are getting so big and heavy duty to transcode its becoming an issue. & with 4k videos starting to arrive this will be a big issue to some people soon enough. Would love if plex were a step ahead in this regard ---
**Author:** ![cayars](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/cayars/32/6296_2.png) [@cayars](https://forums.plex.tv/u/cayars)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/48 "2015-04-24T12:09:54Z")
4K video and h.265 will put a hurting on transcoding big time! The main problem with trying to pull the database down from the main server is that non of the watched status from the secondary server will get kept as it will get over-written. There is no easy way around this using sqlite. If Plex down the road was ported to use MySQL or similar we could have multiple Plex Servers pointed to the same database which would allow us to scale out to a much greater degree as well as make 3rd party data access so much easier! Carlo ---
**Author:** ![adambahe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/adambahe/32/83591_2.png) [@adambahe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/adambahe)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/49 "2015-06-16T21:54:05Z")
I would like to voice my support for such a feature! I hope Plex makes something like this happen. It would be great to be able to just install something everywhere and add to the transcoding ability.  ---
**Author:** ![flecom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/flecom/32/5814_2.png) [@flecom](https://forums.plex.tv/u/flecom)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/50 "2016-01-01T11:27:49Z")
if anyone is still interested in this request check this out! > **[Plex Remote Transcoder - A distributed transcoding backend for Plex](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/178320/plex-remote-transcoder-a-distributed-transcoding-backend-for-plex/p1)** > > I just came across this repo and couldn’t find a post on here about it. I AM NOT THE DEVELOPER, but I am really excited about this and have been waiting for something like this. Would love to hear peoples take/opinion on this project. ---
**Author:** ![themillsclan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@themillsclan](https://forums.plex.tv/u/themillsclan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/51 "2016-06-17T22:08:28Z")
+1 PRT isn’t working for me at the moment and I’d love to be able to offload some of the pre-optimization of my library to a PC, just to help churn through it all. ---
**Author:** ![jalarab](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jalarab/32/2322_2.png) [@jalarab](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jalarab)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/52 "2016-07-21T20:39:05Z")
+1 for me also ---
**Author:** ![istinct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@istinct](https://forums.plex.tv/u/istinct)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 11:28am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/53 "2016-09-04T11:28:29Z")
+1 for me PRT is not for me, i would lije use it with many rasp ---
**Author:** ![Snives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Snives](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Snives)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/54 "2016-09-18T15:59:30Z")
My PMS is running on my TS140 currently which also handles TVHeadEnd, MCEBuddy, TeamSpeak, Mumble, and a half dozen other services . I’m running Server2012r2+Ubuntu16.04 in a VM currently, switching to ESXI + Win7 VM + Ubuntu 16.04 VM or Debian once I get drive space to offload and reformat . This works smoothly normally, but if I’m transcoding in Plex, transcoding from TVHeadEnd (hopefully Plex DVR can kill this for me), transcoding and stripping commercials with MCEBuddy, etc.all the the same time performance begins to choke as you’d expect. I have a ShieldTV as well as a gaming desktop that would be able to offer ample overflow transcoding power if the backend was in place. The ShieldTV is always available, and the desktop would require a WOL. ---
**Author:** ![AsphyxNYC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9e8a1a/32.png) [@AsphyxNYC](https://forums.plex.tv/u/AsphyxNYC)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/55 "2016-09-19T17:03:50Z")
> @flecom said: > if anyone is still interested in this request check this out! > > [https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/178320/plex-remote-transcoder-a-distributed-transcoding-backend-for-plex/p1](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/178320/plex-remote-transcoder-a-distributed-transcoding-backend-for-plex/p1) That project is interesting but I think it might be easier for Plex Devs to just create a program with just the stuff needed to transcode a stream that can be installed on any computers on the local net. Each would be given a Priority number based on power/performance. When a stream is requested Plex will look to see what transcoders are available locally and use the idle one with the highest priority until all are doing a transcode. All that would require is the FFMPEG software and some background communication with the server. ---
**Author:** ![adambahe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/adambahe/32/83591_2.png) [@adambahe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/adambahe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/56 "2016-10-15T00:37:40Z")
I would love to see this soon. I have tons of CPU cores in other boxes which could be used to help handle my transcoding load. ---
**Author:** ![kirpraq](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/kirpraq/32/21291_2.png) [@kirpraq](https://forums.plex.tv/u/kirpraq)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/57 "2016-10-15T19:28:33Z")
+1 Would love this as I have multiple computers with lots of idle time that they could use encoding. My NAS just serves as a storage place for my files while I have a desktop machine hosting the server. I would love to be able to add some of my other desktop machines in as transcode agents to help out when too many people are requesting my files. My machine is supplying for multiple types of platforms (some remote some local). ---
**Author:** ![GuyGizmo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/guygizmo/32/131536_2.png) [@GuyGizmo](https://forums.plex.tv/u/GuyGizmo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 4:54am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/58 "2016-11-02T04:54:11Z")
+1 My media server doesn’t have the beefiest CPU, but I have other systems sitting around that could take the load off, or even do better. I can appreciate a project like PRT but it strikes me as not something I’d want to use as it sounds like it takes a lot of work to set up, administer and maintain, especially since new versions of PMS apparently break it. The beauty of Plex is that you set it up and it “just works”. It’d be amazing if the Plex devs could add in distributed transcoding in a manner that more or less “just works”! ---
**Author:** ![anthonycamilleri](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/anthonycamilleri/32/84324_2.png) [@anthonycamilleri](https://forums.plex.tv/u/anthonycamilleri)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/59 "2016-12-06T07:27:26Z")
+1 This would solve many issues of using a NAS ---
**Author:** ![outkastz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ebca7d/32.png) [@outkastz](https://forums.plex.tv/u/outkastz)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/60 "2017-01-07T06:10:31Z")
+1 lets keep this going. [Previous page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681.md?page=2) [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681.md?page=4)