# \[Feature Request\] Intel Quick Sync Video

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [July 9, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434 "2014-07-09T12:42:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mwarren83](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mwarren83/32/10344_2.png) [@mwarren83](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mwarren83)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 12:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/1 "2014-07-09T12:42:01Z")

</div>

FFMPEG now has support for Intel Quick Sync Video:&nbsp;[https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2591](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/2591 "External link")&nbsp;(comment 8)

&nbsp;

It's Linux and Windows only due to the Intel SDK requirement but can this patch be merged into the plex encoder? &nbsp;I haven't done any benchmarks but I would assume it would give Intel CPUs a nice bump in transcoding performance.

&nbsp;

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![karbowiak](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/karbowiak/32/82103_2.png) [@karbowiak](https://forums.plex.tv/u/karbowiak)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 1:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/2 "2014-07-09T13:17:35Z")

</div>

Interesting, sadly it requires the intel media sdk on linux, which for some reason costs money. Otherwise i'd be all over it :)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mwarren83](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mwarren83/32/10344_2.png) [@mwarren83](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mwarren83)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/3 "2014-07-09T15:42:46Z")

</div>

[https://software.intel.com/en-us/media-solutions-portal](https://software.intel.com/en-us/media-solutions-portal)

sdk for servers costs $. &nbsp;client sdk (which would need to be used in this instance) is free.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![btaroli](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/btaroli/32/2911_2.png) [@btaroli](https://forums.plex.tv/u/btaroli)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/4 "2014-07-29T04:44:09Z")

</div>

I just got an inquiry from Netgear, when I began poking around about CPU temp issues whilst dong background transcoding for Sync, that perhaps PMS would be much faster (and cooler) if it used this… Add my vote.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zAo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ce7236/32.png) [@zAo](https://forums.plex.tv/u/zAo)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/5 "2015-06-18T14:16:47Z")

</div>

Any news on Quicksync?

EDIT: Version 2.7 of ffmpeg has h264\_qsv build in by default!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zAo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ce7236/32.png) [@zAo](https://forums.plex.tv/u/zAo)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/6 "2015-07-01T12:58:47Z")

</div>

Well, I sold the box. No developer even reacts, Plex Pass or not. Thanks guys.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MwC\_Trexx](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/mwc_trexx/32/119131_2.png) [@MwC\_Trexx](https://forums.plex.tv/u/MwC_Trexx)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/7 "2015-08-28T18:54:00Z")

</div>

I would like to see this supported as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mankiko7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9a28c/32.png) [@mankiko7](https://forums.plex.tv/u/mankiko7)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 8:57pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/8 "2015-09-11T20:57:24Z")

</div>

Any update on this? Seems like a great improvement for Plex!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BeroMero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecc23a/32.png) [@BeroMero](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BeroMero)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/9 "2016-01-27T19:11:05Z")

</div>

Any news? Hallo?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![starbetrayer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/starbetrayer/32/11335_2.png) [@starbetrayer](https://forums.plex.tv/u/starbetrayer)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/10 "2016-01-29T14:37:24Z")

</div>

> @BeroMero said:  
> Any news? Hallo?

yes intel does not publish the MFX librairies in GPL, they are closed source.  
This is the main issue for the implementation in Plex.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![toliman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/toliman/32/92478_2.png) [@toliman](https://forums.plex.tv/u/toliman)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/11 "2016-02-02T21:35:43Z")

</div>

It should be possible to have the client opt-in and download/authorise the required libraries on the server ? this is usually how OS projects bypass limitations on hosting or including licensed material i.e. putting the obligation on the individual to use experimental / alpha builds or 3rd party libraries.

As seen in the other thread, somehow it’s tripping up on libmfx,

> **[Any news on GPU transcoding, especially Intel Quick Sync?](https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/112471/any-news-on-gpu-transcoding-especially-intel-quick-sync/p10)**
>
> Hi there!   Is there any development towards using the GPU to transcode? Particularly Intel Quick Sync would be great as many users have an Intel CPU.  This would be a huge improvement for the media server. The low power Atom based J1900 (10w tdp)...

as rcombs puts it,

“The current support for QuickSync in ffmpeg has technical issues (it only supports full-GPU pipelines when no filtering is performed) and legal ones (we can’t distribute the MFX libraries ourselves under GPL, so this would only be useful for Windows users where they’re usually preinstalled). We’ll add support on Windows when those technical issues are resolved, and we’ll add support on Linux when a different mechanism is added that doesn’t use MFX (work on this is being conducted upstream, with our input).”

i’d have to guess the “no filtering” means that you couldn’t HW transcode with subtitles or audio processing filters either, and it would also very likely also be a very rough quality HW encode / decode with no post-processing, lots of fast encoding artifacts, etc.

i.e. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfM4esnQz7E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfM4esnQz7E)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![syco54645](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/syco54645/32/92942_2.png) [@syco54645](https://forums.plex.tv/u/syco54645)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/12 "2016-02-16T04:14:05Z")

</div>

I am all for this as well. If plex supports Quicksync it should help with h265 playback.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ro.sniper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@ro.sniper](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ro.sniper)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/13 "2016-04-04T14:51:17Z")

</div>

Please add support for this, it would help for all the lower powered NAS boxes out there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dewsallt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@dewsallt](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dewsallt)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/14 "2016-10-07T14:51:09Z")

</div>

Interestingly Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and StaxRip are able to utilize Intel Quick Sync Video; both of which are free ware. If Plex were to implement this I would be most pleased.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GConst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7bcc69/32.png) [@GConst](https://forums.plex.tv/u/GConst)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/15 "2016-12-12T22:44:35Z")

</div>

any news concerning \_qsv?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bgbraga_gmail.com)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 11:53am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/16 "2016-12-21T11:53:47Z")

</div>

Why we don’t see any answer or feeedback from development team?

Is it a forum outside [plex.tv](http://plex.tv) domain where the community have questions and other guys from this community should invent hypothesis or give personal opinions because it is not a forum supported officially by plex team?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dduke2104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@dduke2104](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dduke2104)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/17 "2016-12-21T15:39:50Z")

</div>

Plex doesn’t comment much about what they’re working on.

Other than the nVidia Shield TV, PMS doesn’t support any hardware-assisted decoding but would hope people recognize it’s an eventual must with 4K/HEVC entering the picture. As I see it, there’s only two choices in regard to PC hardware neither of which is perfect:

1. Intel QuickSync looks promising for 4K/HEVC but only on the very latest Kaby Lake processors.

2. Recent, high-end nVidia GPUs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bgbraga_gmail.com)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/18 "2016-12-21T19:29:44Z")

</div>

We could see other solutions using hardware acceleration. So it is confuse to users.  
Why they have it and here it is so difficult.  
The myths about FFMPEG does not apply anymore.

What is next myth? Licensing?  
Why othe solution don’t have these problems with licensing?  
If it is a really problem, why we don’t do something like DivX players devices? The license is needed. The device could run it, but to run the customer should get/buy a DivX license and configure/enable it.  
It is simple. Give the responsibility to pay to users.

What the next myth? Compatible processors or GPUs?  
Just say: hw acceleration will only works with these models and brands. So we could buy it.

I think the money should not be a problem. Just send these problems to us and we could pay for it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bgbraga_gmail.com)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/19 "2016-12-21T19:38:55Z")

</div>

In my use case we have a condominium of houses with optical fiber. So we would like to have a central server in a pop (mini datacenter) with Plex Server to transcode to N users.

N should be about 1 to 100 simultaneous transcoding because we have 575 houses.  
How we could have the compute enough using the current implementation? It is almost impossible and very expensive.  
So it’s better pay for intel licenses or GPUs than buy a lot of servers, air conditioning and space.

I don’t know the performance with hw acceleration but for sure it will help a lot to implement many transcoding simultaneous.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@bgbraga\_gmail.com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bgbraga_gmail.com)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434/20 "2017-01-05T01:26:34Z")

</div>

Ok, we don’t have myths anymore.

The problem is not FFMPEG.  
The problem is not Licensing.

What is the really problem?  
I don’t believe the [plex.tv](http://plex.tv) create a forum to users say a lot of myths.

Where is the developer with the real problem?

[Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-intel-quick-sync-video/70434.md?page=2)
