HW Transcoding not working

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.22.3.4392
Player Version#: web

Neither my iGPU(Intel) nor my GPU (NVIDIA) is doing hw transcoding and I cannot figure out why. I have read nearly ever forum with this problem. Here’s what I’ve checked so far:

  1. Hardware transcoding enabled
  2. HDR tone mapping disabled
  3. Local media vs NAS media (different libraries to test)
  4. iPhone client, web client
  5. NVIDIA studio drivers vs game drivers
  6. Windows 10 Graphics performance settings
  7. Current Plex Pass

I don’t know what else to check. Can anyone take a look at my logs and see something I am not seeing?

Screenshot (5)
Screenshot (5)703×712 104 KB

Screenshot (4) - Copy
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Screenshot (4)
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Plex Media Server Logs_2021-04-23_08-38-03.zip (3.1 MB)

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Do you have Plex Pass?

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Forgot to mention: Lifetime Plex Pass

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Please, enable debug only and disable verbose

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Please turn off verbose logging, as it adds much unnecessary information to the log files. Settings → Server Name → Settings → General, not Settings → Plex Web → General.

Does the failure to use h/w transcoding happen with all media, just this file, just 4K media, etc?

CPU model?
GPU make/model?
Are you running Plex Media Server as a Windows service or on a headless system? Both can interfere with using h/w accelerated transcoding.

Here’s the error message:

Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.594 [4132] ERROR - [Transcoder] [h264_qsv @ 071af0c0] Error initializing an internal MFX session: unsupported (-3)
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.595 [4132] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error initializing output stream 0:0 -- Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height

I searched the forum for those error messages. I did not see any recent postings (last 2 years) with possible cause or solution.

Hopefully others can provide some ideas.

Plex did use hardware acceleration twice when you played the file. It used Nvidia to decode from H.265 and Intel to encode to H.264.

Apr 23, 2021 08:29:16.133 [3940] DEBUG - [Transcode] [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: C:\Users\joshleonard\Videos\New folder\2020-12-27_08-00-01.MOV
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:16.133 [3940] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: nvdec, final encoder: qsv

When h/w acceleration failed, Plex failed to find find the hardware:

Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.659 [16632] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.659 [16632] DEBUG - [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: C:\Users\joshleonard\Videos\New folder\2020-12-27_08-00-01.MOV
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.660 [16632] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
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One other item I noticed is that Plex alternates between h/w acceleration working and failing.

Lines below from Plex Media Server.log, for successive plays of 2020-12-27_08-00-01.MOV (an iPhone video?)

Apr 23, 2021 08:29:16.133 [3940] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator nvdec
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:16.133 [3940] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support not present
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:16.133 [3940] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: nvdec, final encoder: qsv
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.659 [16632] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Apr 23, 2021 08:29:17.660 [16632] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Apr 23, 2021 08:36:25.565 [7384] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator nvdec
Apr 23, 2021 08:36:25.565 [7384] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support not present
Apr 23, 2021 08:36:25.565 [7384] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: nvdec, final encoder: qsv
Apr 23, 2021 08:36:27.014 [10704] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Apr 23, 2021 08:36:27.014 [10704] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
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This looks a lot like my issue, HW transcoding used to work on my Windows 10 Server with 2x SLI NVIDIA 1080 Ti, and then one day it just stopped.

Jun 18, 2021 11:48:58.074 [22480] Debug — [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator nvdec
Jun 18, 2021 11:48:58.074 [22480] Debug — [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support not present
Jun 18, 2021 11:48:58.075 [22480] Debug — [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: nvdec, final encoder: nvenc
Jun 18, 2021 11:49:00.760 [9624] Debug — TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Jun 18, 2021 11:49:00.761 [9624] Debug — TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Jun 18, 2021 11:49:01.854 [17080] Debug — [Transcode/01q81sr8xa7j1q6boqllk4sw] TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Jun 18, 2021 11:49:01.854 [17080] Debug — [Transcode/01q81sr8xa7j1q6boqllk4sw] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
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