So I don’t get it. My 4K transcodes start off at ~1.3x on the P2000, but then the server starts to throttle the encode and then I start getting buffering issues. I increased the throttle time out to 300 seconds and that kind of helped, but as soon as the 5 minutes were up I started have buffering issues. Am I missing something here?
Correlation seems to be whether I am running headless or not. The P2000 doesn’t seem to act quite right without a monitor attached.
is what i wanted to know, because my server is screenless , using it via rdp.
So, without screen hwtranscoding does not work?
Well, that’s what’s weird. Seems to work fine with 1080p when headless. Only 4K seems to trip it up. I ordered a DisplayPort dummy plug to try and fake out the adapter. Should have it tomorrow and I will report back my findings.
Ok!Waiting for your feedback.
The dummy plug did the trick. Works fine headless now. The only exception I have found is that burning in PGS subs during a 4K -> 1080p transcode doesn’t work worth a damn. I will assume that is a hardware transcode problem. Will test with the UHD 630 just to be sure.
Edit: Turns out the DP->HDMI adapter I bought only goes to 1080p. Brilliant. That’s what I get for not paying attention. So I have an actual Display Port dummy coming tomorrow that supports 4K. Curious if that changes anything.
can you give me a link for the dummy adapter? i need to buy one.
thanks.
You can buy an HDMI dummy plug at Amazon. Around 8 dollars for one, 20 bucks for three. Here’s a search for you:
thanks!!! im gonna buy one.
Only thing to keep in mind about buying an HDMI dummy plug is you will need a DP->HDMI adapter for the P2000. I have a DP dummy plug coming today and after I test it I will let you know.
Here is the display port dummy I am using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077CZ6JC3/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
While it theoretically supports 4K, it is capped at 17Hz. Anyways, no change in P2000 performance either way.
really thanks, as soon i get the p2000 the duymmy display port will be coming home.
I put the P2000 into my dual X5650 server today but it will only hardware decode, not encode. Did you have any trouble with that? I cannot figure out why it wont encode on the GPU.
My server is typically headless, but I did connect a monitor and that did not seem to help either.
Are you running Plex as a service? I had that problem when running Windows with Plex as a service
I am not, thanks for the suggestion!
I had read some things about limitations when running as a service, but they seemed to be the opposite of my problem, only allowing hw encode with no hw decode, where mine is only hw decoding with no hw encode.
This thread is awesome. Okay so my plex server runs Ubuntu 18.04 will the P2000 work the same for me?
yes, absolutely.
I’ve gave up after 20 1080p HEVC (265) transcodes. The processor was about 60% and the GPU was about 50%.
Note that your processor will still need to transcode audio and container if needed for clients like the web (eg MKV -> MP4 and AC-3 -> AAC).
Also, it chews up 2160p HEVC just as easily.
Thank you so much for this @bossgrady i think i might have to pull the trigger here! What CPU are you using? I am thinking a P2000 and a new i5 might do the trick?
I do not think i will do more than 6 transcode ever (excluding direct streaming at the same time).
SOOOOO i stumbled across this vid, he points to a patch that has been released for NVIDA drivers on Ubuntu that unlocks all cards. so the Cheapest card that supports all the video formats is the GTX 1050. It’s 1/2 the price of a P2000 i would love to see the numbers of trancodes that can handle. Either way i might go P2000 just have to wait for a deal.
My server has an old i7-3770. The CPU has a passmark of 9293. Plex estimates 2000/transcode and my CPU proved it. I could only reliably pull off about 4 transcodes of MKV 265 AC-3.
After adding just the P2000 I’ve had 20 concurrent trancodes of the same and still had a lot of room left on the processor and even more on the GPU.
So, I would say, it all depends on your clients and media. If your clients are all web clients and your media is all MP4 264 AAC then you won’t need any processing power. Just a ton of storage.
If you pull the trigger on a P2000; your CPU will be bored until you have 10+ transcodes going. A newer generation i5 will handle the remaining process in stride.
Also, 2160p is very little more effort for the GPU than 1080p. However, my CPU could not do a single 2160p transcode.
Until you can convince all of the people you share with to invest in clients that can direct play/stream, snag a P2000 and never worry about it again.
I love me some Jason.
Also check out Sloth Tech TV. His channel really breaks down all the information and is what convinced me to buy the P2000.
Hey
If you want to compare nvidia card performance for transcode/decode then https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-gpu-support-matrix might help as it shows how many of each engine a card has. ie. 1-3 enc and also what feature set the card has.
Decoder speed shouldn’t be an issue as it can handle hundreds of FPS.
So a pascal and above based card with 3 encoders/transcoders should easily handle over 1k FPS in 1080. See https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1027962/video-codec-sdk/how-the-nvencs-performance-of-quadro-p2000-compared-to-quadro-k2200-/ for reference. Thanks @bpenris for that link.
I keep meaning to add a watchlist in ebay for certain cards for when they’re really cheap but can’t be arsed. maybe a good idea for some of you?
Hello everybody, if the GPU can’t transcode more streams it change automatically to CPU decode and decode?
