# Offload transcoding to secondary servers

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/offload-transcoding-to-secondary-servers/307633>\
**Category:** Feature Suggestions\
**Created:** [September 12, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/offload-transcoding-to-secondary-servers/307633 "2018-09-12T15:04:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![celloch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@celloch](https://forums.plex.tv/u/celloch)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/offload-transcoding-to-secondary-servers/307633/1 "2018-09-12T15:04:49Z")

</div>

It would be great if we could have multiple servers with a single set of libraries and the ability to trigger transcoding on “slave” servers when needed.

My situation: I have one server not powerful enough to transcode to the 6/7 friends and family members at the same time, but I have a couple of spare Mac Mini computers which could be useful.  
Today, if I set up additional servers, they all have their independent set of libraries and watched progress - and you have to assign friends to specific servers.

The way I’d love for it to work is to be able to assign servers to the cluster, define a number of max transcodes (global and per each server in the cluster since they might have different specs - in my case I have a NUC which supports HW transcoding but also older computers) and let Plex do the magic when one server is used at its maximum potential.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/offload-transcoding-to-secondary-servers/307633/2 "2018-09-12T15:05:45Z")

</div>

A request for the same feature exists already, and it has more votes.

> [@Distributed Transcoding/Scaling](https://forums.plex.tv/t/distributed-transcoding-scaling/76681/1):
>
> I realize this is a longshot but right now my plex server is a quad socket system and it's barely keeping up with user load, looking at 8 socket systems and they are just astronomically expensive which got me thinking about the huge surplus of cheap dual socket blade servers &nbsp; what if there was a way of scaling plex itself to have separate compute/transcode nodes instead of just having one giant server... &nbsp; so for example, you have one box running plex itself, then several slaved boxes that …

Therefore this one is closed.  
Votes are given back to the users who voted on this request. Please think of re-voting in the other thread if you still want it.

* * *

Please **search** before creating a new suggestion thread.  
Only one feature per thread.

See feature suggestions, sorted by **most popular** first  
[https://forums.plex.tv/c/general/feature-suggestions/l/votes](https://forums.plex.tv/c/general/feature-suggestions/l/votes)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/offload-transcoding-to-secondary-servers/307633/3 "2018-09-12T15:05:48Z")

</div>