HW Transcoding is artifacting

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.41.4.9463
Player Version#: 8.45 - IOS / 4.143.0 - WebPlayer

For a while now Plex when using HW transcoding I only get artefacts:

example.png
example.png982×509 48.8 KB

This also happens when I try to use player from the phone or tablet.

If I am doing direct playback or software transcoding, everything works as expected on all devices.

My setup is a PC based on the Intel N4200, that is running Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS with 6.11.0-17 Kernel

I am using docker compose and in my setup, and I am forwarding the iGPU using “dev/dri:dev/dri”.

You can see here the transcoder settings I am using:

transcode
transcode723×692 65.3 KB

A while back, it was working properly, and I am not sure what changed. There were no major changes to the server except for updates.

What I tried so far:

  • I was using the linuxserver Plex image and now switched to the plexinc/pms-docker
  • Used a linuxserver image from some months ago, but i don’t remember the version.
  • I was running kernel 6.5 before switching to 6.11
  • I installed on the host the intel-media-va-driver
  • Rebooted the host multiple times
    None of these steps changed the behavior in any way.

Any ideas on how to solve this?

2

Recommendations:

  1. Roll back to 6.8, or even 6.5, kernel if you can. The ApolloLake N4200 does better with those kernels. I’ve found 6.11 does not like my older CPUs either but it loves my AlderLake

  2. You don’t need the intel-media-va-driver. PMS doesn’t use it. PMS brings the driver with it.

  3. Referencing 1.41.3.9463, I should also have you do the following:
    – Stop PMS
    – Get into the Codecs directory
    – Delete everything you see EXCEPT the .device_id file (your license)
    – Start PMS
    – Observe the Codecs directory repopulate as you need those codecs.

Please let me know your progress

3

Hello ChuckPa,

Thanks for getting back to me!

  1. I have tried so far with 6.8.0.54 - generic as well as 6.8.0.50.
    It does not seem to help, I have the exact same behavior. With 6.8.0.50 more things break and the iGPU along with everything else connected to the PC.

I do not seem to have any options for 6.5, or I am missing something. Everything below 6.5 looks to only be 5.15.

  1. and 3. Not sure If I should have expected anything by removing the Codecs contents, but it is clearer how Plex works now. Thanks for the explanation.

So it looks that the primary suspect is the kernel, but because I am hosting more than just plex on this small server I am a bit hesitant too play to much with the kernels, I feel like I could break something more than the HW transcoding.

I was planning to migrate to Proxmox on a Intel I7 8700. I guess I need to do that now sooner than later and hopefully the problem will go away with the migration. I will let you know how it goes in the coming days.

4

If you’re going to migrate, I would do so.

While I don’t profess any proxmox knowledge, I do have a test machine.
I’ve setup a PMS VM using the tteck helper scripts. It was 100% foolproof setup for me. (a noobie)

I have an i7-7700 machine here for PMS and it’s solid.

Regarding the codecs, the expectation was a clean reload of them (in case any were damaged after download)

I do know you’ll have a lot better success with the 8700 given it’s a UHD630 class iGPU versus the HD505 you have now.

5

The migration was successful and with that my problem resolved, things are running smoothly now.

Now I thought it would be interesting to dig a bit and see what caused the problem.
I like to keep ISOs locally I found that the Ubuntu I was using initially started with Kernel 5.15.0-60-generic. So I reinstalled the system to check if a fresh install would do anything. To my surprise, I would get some i915 related errors during booting - that’s odd, I would have remembered those if I had them before.
With the system now reinstalled when I try Plex, I am instantly greeted with the same artefacting.

Putting everything together, I am quite certain now that the iGPU died and those artefacts were it’s way of saying goodbye.

Thanks for your support and suggestions!

6

There were i915-related errors in the 5.0.4 → 5.15.x kernels.
5.19.x finally fixed the bulk of them. (user-facing side of the driver)

The 6.0.x kernel got the other part of the i915 driver.

I find that running Ubuntu 22,04 LTS is good for both my machines.
(24.04 has the HWE kernel 6.11. While that’s OK for my AlderLake machine, my older Xeon E5 v4 doesn’t do well with it so it’s going to stay on 22.04.5 for a while

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