Server Version#: 1.21.4.4079
Player Version#:
cpu: i5-4570t
Can it be hardware accelerated?
I installed plex servers, but when watching 4K video, I found that hardware accelerated transcoding was not used;
Is it not supported or what needs to be set?
From what I can find this particular CPU generation can only deal with h264. You won’t be able to get any HEVC/h265 hw accelerated transcoding from it.
Short Answer: You need an Intel 7th gen processor (-7xxx) or later or a Nvidia GTX-1050 or later GPU (AMD should work as well, but I cannot find a reference for their capabilities).
Long Answer:
4K HDR movies are HEVC 10-bit video.
A transcode consists of two parts: decoding from the current format and encoding to the target format.
To use hardware transcoding in Plex for 4K HDR movies, you need a GPU that can decode HEVC 10-bit video. The video will be encoded to H.264 8-bit video. Any GPU that can decode HEVC 10-bit can also encode to H.264 8-bit.
With Intel, you need a 7th gen (-7xxx) or later processor with integrated Intel Quick Sync graphics (not all Intel CPUs have a GPU).
If upgrading your CPU is not an option, you could add a Nvidia 1050 or better GPU to your system if it has available expansion slots.
References:
Plex: Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming. Note the comment, “Support for AMD GPUs is provided “as is” and your mileage may vary.”
Wikipedia: Intel Quick Sync Video - Hardware Decoding & Encoding
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