Server Version#: 1.16.2.1297
Player Version#: NA
I’ve hunted down the issue which was causing the Intel NUC hardware from not performing hardware transcoding and using a significant amount of CPU time.
The issue comes down to the plex user not being added to the render group of the server.
After adding the plex user to the render group and restarting the Plex Media Server, the Plex server successfully hardware transcodes along with a great reduction in CPU usage.
The existing installers should be adding themselves to the existing video group, whatever it is.
This sounds like something went wrong.
Which distribution and version please?
It is adding itself to the video group but not the render group. Plex needs to be added to the render group to correctly access the video encoders.
Using Debian Buster and Plex version 1.16.2.1297-4b7ace214 of the Ubuntu / Debian x64
When I initially found the problem, I thought it was a codec issue where I removed all the codecs, got Plex to download them all again, refreshed all the metadata, restarted the Plex Media Server service, restarted the Linux server multiple times between changes and even re-installed Plex.
After going through all these issues, I dug into the OS and checked that the right Intel drivers were installed and being accessed correctly.
After that I turned on Plex debug and verbose logging where I finally found where Plex was attempting to access /dev/dri/renderD128 but that required group rights to the render group.
As soon as I corrected the Plex permissions by adding it to the render group, it successfully connected to the renderer and stopped complaining about not being able to access the device.
Thank you for letting me know.
It seems more and more, the distros are changing.
I have a new installer in Forum preview testing which is intelligent enough to detect everything it needs.
Tests already performed on Debian Buster demonstrate it detecting video group render and adjusting as it should.
I just updated the PMS version I use there to 1.16.2.
You’re welcome to use it and help test if you wish.
The full thread, with rather elaborate detail, is here
Thanks!
Grabbed the new 1311 build and it installs wonderfully.
Render group and HW transcoding is detected at install. Super awesome change to the install regime!
The only thing which I have spotted is that the temp directory that it quotes doesn’t exist. Should it attempt to create at install and/or starting of the service?
if you haven’t rebooted yet, grab and post /tmp/plexinstaller.log please.
It will tell me everything the preinstaller found.
The new installer will create what it needs for new installations.
For existing installations, it will validate what it finds.
It will show the override file it used in making the decisions.
Part of the fail-safe I built in prevents it from breaking an existing. It sounds like you’re seeing that in action?
Please show me what you mean? (usage case)
Here is the log file output…
Init=0
Systemd=1
IsEnabled=0
IsRunning=0
NewInstall=1
HaveOverride=0
OverrideFile=""
PlexUser=“plex”
PlexGroup=“plex”
VideoGroup=“render”
AppSuppDir="/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support"
PlexTempDir="/var/lib/plexmediaserver/tmp_transcoding"
LangEncoding=“en_US.UTF-8”
HaveHardware=1
NeedUser=0
NeedGroup=1
NeedVideo=1
Verbose=1
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