Mac M1 PMS questions and clarification

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.28.2.6151
Player Version#: any

I’ve recently wanted to upgrade my old thinkpad running windows 10 to something that could transcode 4k hdr files. I bought a NUC like device with 11th gen intel and tried windows and linux and neither worked for full hardware accelerated 4k hdr transcoding with tone mapping enabled.

My next option was going to be a mac mini but after some searching I’m still a little unclear on if the M1 native PMS is still in beta or GA at this point?

Also, can PMS on the m1 handle hardware accelerated tone mapping?

Lastly, wondering if sonic analysis works on the m1 macs as the plex support article says it does not work on any arm devices.

Hoping someone could provide more info before I go buy a new mac mini. Thanks in advance!

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There are hardware accelerated tonemapping problems with PMS 1.28.1 & 1.28.2 on Linux systems using Intel GPUs (problems = it didn’t work). The workaround was to run a 1.28.0 release.

The problems are fixed in the 1.29.1 beta release.

See Sonic Analysis for Music.

Requirements

Sonic analysis does have some specific requirements:

  • Active Plex Pass subscription for the server admin account
  • You must be running Plex Media Server v1.24.0 or newer
    • Windows, macOS, and Linux (64-bit only) are supported (this includes most NAS devices)
    • ARM-based CPUs are not supported (with the exception of Apple’s M1 systems, which use Rosetta 2 emulation)
  • The new functionality based on sonic data is currently only available when using Plexamp for playback

CPU only according to HDR to SDR Tone Mapping.

3

Thanks for all the info. Any info on whether m1 native PMS is generally available?

4

It has been available for some time since 1.28.0.5999, released July 29th.

Sonic Analysis uses Rosetta 2, but PMS is native.

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