I have a Shield TV Pro being used as a Plex Media Server with an attached 8TB NTFS HDD.
I have been reluctant to upgrade my PMS from 1.23.x to 1.24.x or 1.25.x due to a Plex employee and users here mentioning Hardware Transcoding issues in 1.24 and 1.25…
What exactly are the issues in question?
Is a fix in the works?
I found the following just now threads and posts (quoted below). So it appears HW transcoding may work on client devices, just not on the Shield itself. Although there was no final confirmation from an impacted user who had the HW transcoding issue with their iOS Plex client, to which Plex advised the user to disable the option to automatically adjust the quality and see if that resolved it or not.
The user had since downgraded to PMS 1.24, which was working fine for them, so they could not confirm if disabling the option.
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Sorry if I wasn’t clear. Let me clarify.
Shield Experience 8 (Android 9) - HW transcoding is broken with PMS 1.25.x but only when playing on the Shield itself. There should not be HW transcoding issues playing from other clients. If you have this, please provide logs so I can investigate. I have not been able to reproduce any other issues myself. I can confirm this issue on the Shield itself. There is some issue with ndkdecoder being used by both PMS and the client app at the same time.
Shield Experience 9 (Android 11) - HW transcoding broken for all transcodes regardless of what version of PMS you are using. This is an issue with Android 11 we are investigating. Once we resolve the Android 11 issue, we still need to address the 1.25.x PMS issue. Although it’s possible fixing Android 11 will also fix this issue. We still need to fix it for Android 9.
I’m still getting infinite spin (buffering) when trying to transcode 4k content to an iOS phone connected to my local network, or to a computer browser (Chrome). Seems to transcode 1080p content fine, but if it has to convert any higher resolution down to something lower, it craps out. These are all HEVC to h.264 transcodes.
I’m running the last version of v1.24.x
Contemplating downgrading to v1.23 where I was before, because I seem to recall transcoding working correctly at that version. I’d hate to put in the effort though and find out I was just remembering incorrectly.
No issues transcoding h.264 stuff, or anything 1080p or lower resolution.
I am sure you’re more versed in transcoding with Plex than I am (I only enabled HW transcoding recently to both reap the benefits and I also thought it might help when I had some issues, since resolved, and thought HW transcoding might help).
You have probably experimented, but I had infinite spinning issues, mainly for a small number of 4K HDR files, with it sitting stuck (spinning) on one of my clients (Samsung TV’s built in Plex App).
I since upgraded to Roku Ultra which immediately resolved that issue for the first 4K HDR video impacted which has been bothering me. 
I think I have some files (very few now) which still have spinning even on the Roku Ultra. The trick, which always works to get the video playing, is to do one of the following:
I assume you have tried changing those 2 settings on the iOS Plex settings, but thought I would post it just in case…
When I use the Plex Android app on my Sony TV it seems to be better in this regard.
But between PMS 1.23 with HW transcoding enabled and using Roku Ultra I am in good shape and if the video still has playback issues with ‘spinning’ at startup, I simply change one of the 2 settings above (In fact I think I have defaulted the settings to always play original quality locally, so I only have to worry about Direct
No issues playing on my 4k TV (Chromecast) because it doesn’t have to transcode.
I can play everything locally when I stream original quality because then it’s not transcoding.
The issue is remote viewing because my upload speed is only 10 Mbps, and I need more like 50 Mbps to avoid transcoding. Can’t use the “original quality” trick to get around transcoding in that case.
Maybe it never worked, even in v1.23… I could have sworn 4k files could be transcoded on the fly to lower resolutions, to meet my upload limitations.
It’s a bit of a minor complaint since I don’t have much 4k content.
Yes, I hear you regarding remote viewing.
If have 1400 Mbps downstream internet but 40 Mbps upstream (get 42 or so).
By the way, am I correct to assume that transcoding (via HW, if setting is enabled, or via software) is only used IF needed?
I.e. as you noted if, for the media content in question, your client is capable enough and your internet connection supports the upstream bandwidth (in the case of remote viewing), or supports a fast enough wifi connection (for local viewing use cases), then no transcoding will occur (regardless of whether the setting is enabled or not)?
As you can see I am new to transcoding…
That being said I have my Plex working great, including 4K HDR clips with no buffering…
I rarely (so far) stream remotely, but will check it out on my phone’s Plex app now with a 4K HDR clip (will disable wifi on the phone) to simulate remote viewing).
Locally I have a Wifi 6 Orbi system (800 series) and even my worst client’s internet connection is well over 100 Mbps, so there ideally should hopefully be no concern since internet is not involved locally; so as long as my wifi (not internet) connection / signal support at least 50 Mbps (for 4K) for the ‘upstream’ data transmission from the Shield Pro to the Plex client…
(I get over 700 Mbps on my laptop on the other side of the house on a Wifi 6E adapter)
You seem to know at least as much about transcoding as I do.
I think transcoding is done when the network connection (or internet) is too slow to support original quality, the client is requesting a different quality than original, the client can’t play the codec (HEVC for example), or certain subtitle situations where they are burned into the video rather than overlayed.
You’ve got quite a nice internet connection. Supposedly fiber is being installed soon here, so I might be getting 40 Mbps upstream (and more importantly no data caps). Locally I have everything wired gigabit, with the exception of the Chromecast. It’s 3 ft from my Asus RT-AX86U router though. It just happens that the main TV is centrally located to the house, so it’s a good spot for the WiFi router to provide full coverage.
Thanks. I read that, aside from bandwidth, there may be other limitations, especially with mobile devices, which require transcoding:
Snippet.
Mobile Devices usually:
** Have a low powered, power efficient processor that isn’t capable of processing high-resolution files smoothly*
** Have a restricted set of media types it can play back (H.264)*
** Have a small, lower-resolution integrated display*
Mobile devices are still in their infancy and are not nearly as powerful or flexible as a desktop PC. They have special requirements when it comes to playing back media. Ideally, the media should be sent in:
** The ideal resolution*
** The right media encoding (H.264, etc.)*
** A compatible file container*
*The Server acts as a Universal Translator . It understands what types of file and format–language if you will–a particular client can handle and translates your media into that language. This process is handled by a Transcoder. The great thing is, you don’t have to worry too much about this. *
Nice, good luck with getting fiber with higher speed and the no caps benefit.
We have no caps for now, but we’re the lucky few (Northeast).
The Orbi really helps get great speeds throughout the house with great signal levels. Even on my older (fall 2018) mobile phone I get over 300 Mbps everywhere in the house!
Some of my TVs do not fare so well, using inferior wifi adapters or antennae, but still easily over 100 Mbps.
I found a report on the Nvidia forum today as follows:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/shield-tv/9/485640/plex-media-server-hardware-transcoding-broken-901/
Can you (re)confirm the HW transcoding issues in PMS 1.24.x and 1.25.x are ONLY when playing back media on the Shield itself, and that HW transcoding works on other clients (Roku Ultra/ Smart TVs etc.)?
Is there a fix for the HW transcoding not working when playing media on the Shield itself?
I am more concerned about 1) than 2) above since I do not use the Shield for playback, only using it as a media server with attached NTFS USB HDD.
Thanks!
It depends on what firmware you are running.
Android 9
Android 11
@anon18523487:
Okay, thanks.
And with respect to Android 11, is HW transcoding broken ‘only’ in term of playback on the Shield only (like Android 9), or with Android 11, is it not working even when playing back on other client devices (aside from the Shield)?
On Android 11, totally broken, no HW transcoding for anything.
Thanks for the confirmation, glad I asked then.
@anon18523487 Is there any progress on identifying the root cause and / or an ETA to fix this? Thanks!
I am holding off on updating Shield Experience to 9.0 and even holding off on a PMS standalone update from my current 1.23 to 1.24 or 1.25 due to the hardware transcoding issues.
Hello,
Just popped in to say I did a factory reset of the shield, installed a fresh PMS (latest Experience 9.0x and latest PMS as of today)
I have the following errors in the console logs.
I get the same errors when using a browser, or a roku enabled TV and force the quality down to 1080p
If I boost the quality up to original, it indicates “partial transcode” (probably the audio) and works fine.
File info H265 (hvenc?) 4k with 10bit HDR, and roughly 15mbps bitrate
This is on a gigabit network for the file server, the shield, and then wifi with good signal for the TV
[Transcoder] MediaCodecNDK binder library (libndkbinderutil.so) not loaded
[Transcoder] Error while opening decoder for input stream #0:0 : Encoder not found
[TranscodeOutputStream] Streaming Session 0x30e13a7f28 appears to have died from under us
@MovieFan.Plex - Any update on the investigation / root cause of the HW transcoding being broken in PMS 1.25 and when a fix could be expected?
HW transcoding is one of several reasons I upgraded to a Lifetime PlexPass.
I just received my Nvidia Shield TV Pro. I really thought it sucked this bad, now I see there’s an issue?
When transcoding anything above 1080p it’s just horrible. Buffering every 2 seconds for 5 seconds. I also don’t see the HW mark in the dashboard next to the transcoding instance, suggesting it’s using software transcoding?
It’s SW transcoding if you don’t see HW.
As I said, just downgrade to v.1.23.x as I had a fantastic experience at that version.
Won’t work. I’m on latest update from Shield. HW transcoding totally broken it seems, no matter the version of PMS.
I think the main problem is with x265 content.
When I look a x264 transcoded with my phone, it play alright, but with x265, it stop every ~15 seconds.
Like you said, it was working fine before.
