Hardware Transcoding issues - ApolloLake & GeminiLake CPUs

[pommesmatte]

Its Gemini Lake Refresh though.

I faced no issues with HW transcoding and Tone-Mapping with the recent builds on my J4125 rig.

I only went back to i965 driver (sideloading and activating via Preferences.xml) because something around the iHD driver broke subtitle burning in realtime.

Works fine with i965 driver though (including Tonemapping).

[ampersandTV]

havent heard of any refresh and transcoding not breaking. I have a 1520+ and any update after 6999 broke transcoding

[Wingspanner]

Are there any official progress updates to get the Synology 920+ working with hardware transcoding like it used to?

[djfriday13]

this is the latest i am aware of.

PMS 1.32.6+ HW transcoding issues and corrections

@djfriday13 Yes, we know how to resolve this. (GeminiLake) There have been other fixes in the general transcoder (subtitles, etc) The work we need to complete now is to change both the transcoder and PMS so both are in sync with PMS in control.

[ChuckPa]

This is the info you need.

1. It is the manual restoration of the i965 driver for transcoding preference
2. It installs the i965 driver into PMS

PMS 1.32.6+ HW transcoding issues and corrections

ALL: For those with the GeminiLake problem, a workaround has been devised. This same workaround is how we pinpointed where the deviation occurred and what and why the changes are needed. We have a file for you to test with. There are specific instructions : Place this file in the Cache/va-dri-linux-x86_64 directory under Plex Media Server unzip it It will look like this when done. (You will also have other files in there. Don’t worry) root@geminilake:/var/lib/plexmediaserver/P…

[Wingspanner]

I thank you all. I already had the i965 driver line in my preferences file from way back.

But I did need to re-add and unpack the i965 driver back into the file system.

Things are working as expected so far.

Any other gotchas we might be looking at on the Synology 920+?

[ChuckPa]

If I may update you all –

We’ve been working on making this fix happen the right way.

While I don’t know how safe it is for full “production” status (QA hasn’t blessed it yet)
We have Apollo and Gemini Lake CPUs fully operational without need of any workarounds.

[pommesmatte]

@ChuckPa

We have Apollo and Gemini Lake CPUs fully operational without need of any workarounds.

Nice.
Out of curiosity: Will the fix (automatically) use i965 again or did you somehow fix the iHD driver chain?

[ChuckPa]

We reconfigured the transcoder and the drivers PMS downloads for the transcoder.

The specifics are:

APL & GLK → Use IVD instead of IMD.
Sub-KBL → Use IVD instead of IMD

IVD = Intel Video Driver == i965
IMD = Intel Media Driver

Further testing of the JasperLake processors is needed to confirm the configuration is complete.

EDIT

This build is developer EXPERIMENTAL
It does work for transcoding.
It HAS NOT been approved by QA.
Use at your own risk for HW transcoding testing

Synology DSM 7 X86_64 only.

PlexMediaServer-1.32.8.7605-63e66830a-x86_64_DSM7.spk

[smann]

Here’s to hoping it can make it into the next beta release! I’m sure a lot of the delay in releasing the last beta to the public (currently 21 days) is due to transcoding issues and such still being worked out.

[ChuckPa]

@smann

Regret to inform but the delay in releasing is not due to the transcoder.

To inform you and all –

1. The release cadence has changed.
2. “Every 2 weeks, ready or not” is no more.
3. The new cadence is monthly. This gives more time for development and testing
   – half-baked/partially completed work — NO MORE
4. Internal policy has changed as well.

Regarding these transcoder changes, this work was needed for a long time.

We still need to confirm the behavior of JasperLake CPUs . If it also needs to be reconfigured, now is the time.

[ChuckPa]

ALL:

I’ve opened a Forum Preview which includes the PMS & Transcoder changes for Apollo Lake and Gemini Lake CPUs.

We would like to get as much confirmation of success as possible ASAP.
If we get enough, we’ll include these changes in the version of PMS which gets submitted to QA on Monday.

If we don’t make the window. we’ll have to wait until next release next month.

Plex Media Server - Transcoder Forum Preview - Apollo & Gemini Lake CPUs

Plex Media Server - Transcoder Forum Preview ALL: Below please find our first step toward fixing what ails PMS and the transcoder. In this step, we are addressing the Apollo Lake, Gemini Lake, and older processors. Those processors had been configured to use the Intel Media Driver. Unfortunately, the Intel Media Driver doesn’t fully support all of them. We’ve therefore reconfigured and will now use the Intel Video Driver (i965) In this build, you will find - Apollo Lake CPUs will n…

[NS_Plex]

Where does this stand? If I don’t want to run a beta, am I waiting for 1.32.8? Or is the fix in the current main build? (Gemini Lake)

[ChuckPa]

All this work is completed.

Most of the work is already released in Public 1.32.7
A few bug fixes are in PMS beta 1.32.8 (which will be public shortly as well)

We are already working on the next round of transcoder updates & fixes
(there several things we need to fix and doing them based on severity and complexity)

[Turaiel]

Thanks for sticking with us through all this! I really appreciate the work you and the rest of the team are doing to support this relative hardware minority!

[ChuckPa]

@Turaiel

We’ve got some new work (more fixes and upgrades) coming along which will make it better for everyone. We’re hoping those will be ready sometime after the first of the year.

[terraccotta]

Can anyone on Gemini Lake confirm the fixes, and on which Plex version?

[FordGuy61]

See release notes for current beta: Plex Media Server - #607 by gbooker02

[ChuckPa]

@terraccotta

To add to FordGuy,

I have a J4125, running Ubuntu, which works solid.

I also have an Unraid thumbdrive for this machine. We’re tracking down a problem with Unraid / Docker.

[Robert_Muehler]

I just stumbled on this thread as I wanted to try hardware encoding with my J4125. Looks like 1.32.8.7639 just happened to release today to my luck. With the update I can now H/W transcode 4K HEVC to 1080p at about 15-20% CPU for the 2 files I tested (HEVC Main 10).

HDR tone mapping does not work with hardware acceleration. I’m guessing that is one of the bugs that @ChuckPa mentioned. I am running from a Docker container in Ubuntu. Is there a beta release that I could spin up in a container to see if the HDR tone mapping is fixed?