Odd cpu/gpu usage with plex-htpc depending on Hardware Decoding and Video Playback Quality settings

I noticed this because occasionally my videos would stutter while I was doing other things on the machine. I’m running 1.23.2 from the snap store. I’m direct streaming 4k vp9 video from the server.

When I have Hardware Decoding on, I see a plex-htpc thread running at around 200% cpu. GPU usage is around 30%. If I uncheck the Hardware Decoding box, GPU usage stays around 30% while the plex-htpc thread runs at 100%. There are other plex-htpc threads, but they don’t seem to materially change between the two scenarios.

Oddly, if I adjust the Video Playback Quality from Normal to Maximum then I see 120% cpu and 40% gpu usage with Hardware Decoding enabled and 200% cpu and 30% gpu usage with it disabled.

What exactly is Video Playback Quality doing? It’s not mentioned in the settings article. https://support.plex.tv/articles/htpc-settings/ And my Local Quality is already set to Original and I’ve confirmed I’m direct streaming both audio and video.

See Testing Linux EGL

I’ll give that a try when I get some time.

But what exactly is Video Playback Quality doing? It’s not mentioned in that post.