We are happy to announce a public version of the new HEVC transcoder. Note this is still considered experimental. Thank you to all the users that helped test this while in preview allowing us to feel more comfortable having more folks give it a try.
Info on how to access in transcoder settings.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/transcoder/
It requires Plex Media Server 1.41.3 or newer. If you already have this version you may have to restart your server for it to pick up the new feature.
GPU/CPU needs to support 10bit hevc encoding. If you do not have a supported CPU/GPU then the HEVC option will not appear (AMD is not supported)
Notes on Usage
- HEVC encoding requires more processing power and resources. While this will result in smaller network usage for the stream, it will not affect Direct Play streams and it will result in fewer concurrent HEVC streams than are possible with H.264. If you are not sure that your hardware can handle this increased load then please consider not enabling HEVC transcoding
- HEVC transcoding will result in a better quality at the same bitrate. For example 1.5 Mbps will result in a 720p video instead of 480p. (a good rule of thumb is it will generate the same resolution as a h.264 transcode at 1.5x the bitrate)
- For the web client the transcode would result in an 8 bit video which would also trigger tone mapping if playing a 10 bit video ( this should be remedied soonish)
- While HEVC transcodes generally work to most clients that support HEVC, there are these limitations…
- For Apple and Android devices if Automatically Adjust Quality is enabled, transcodes will be forced to h.264
- for the web app HEVC transcoded streams only works in these browsers
- Safari on macOS
- Chrome on macOS/Windows
- Does not work with
- Xbox One S
