# Hardware Transcoding - Quality Issues

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [January 28, 2018, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316 "2018-01-28T11:33:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DanJD](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/danjd/32/22515_2.png) [@DanJD](https://forums.plex.tv/u/DanJD)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2018, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316/1 "2018-01-28T11:33:10Z")

</div>

Why is the quality worse when using hardware compared to software transcoding?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jingella](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jingella/32/232886_2.png) [@Jingella](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Jingella)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:50am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316/2 "2018-02-16T09:50:25Z")

</div>

Does anyone have an answer for this? If I turn on hardware decoding, the playback is blocky and grainy… Turning it off returns the playback to normal quality.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JuiceWSA](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/juicewsa/32/12253_2.png) [@JuiceWSA](https://forums.plex.tv/u/JuiceWSA)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 11:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316/3 "2018-02-16T11:58:55Z")

</div>

Because software encoding is always better than hardware encoding. Hardware encoding is a work-around for those with crappy CPUs. If you have a good CPU - use it.

Plug this into Google:  
hardware encoding vs software encoding

That should keep you busy for a while, but in the meantime heat up those CPUs if you have them… if not… well… it is what it is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-transcoding-quality-issues/223316/4 "2020-01-08T00:31:29Z")

</div>