Optimize version conversion speed - Anyway to increase speed above 3x

General Discussions
1

Hello,

Plex server details:
PMS version: 1.19.3.2852
Use hardware acceleration when available: Enabled…
Use hardware-accelerated video encoding: Enabled.
i7 4820k
32GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Driver version: 446.14

Is there anyway I can speed up the optimization of some video files? or is it limitation of the file itself and / or the hardware of my PC?

When I check how hard the GPU is working when optimizing one of the x3 speeds, it sits around 14%.

Some files are converted at x50 / x60 speed where as others peak around x3.

I have pasted the file details of a video that was peaking at x3 conversion speed. I did try and look up for any clues on the forums, but I could not see any relevant posts. Any advice welcome.

* General
* Complete name                  : I:\TV\Into the Night\Season 1\Into the Night - 1x01 - Sylvie.mkv
* Format                         : MPEG-4
* Format profile                 : Base Media
* Codec ID                       : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
* File size                      : 1.47 GiB
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Overall bit rate mode          : Variable
* Overall bit rate               : 5 171 kb/s
* Cover                          : Yes
* FileExtension_Invalid          : mov mp4 m4v m4a m4b m4p m4r 3ga 3gpa 3gpp 3gp 3gpp2 3g2 k3g jpm jpx mqv ismv isma ismt f4a f4b f4v

* Video
* ID                             : 11
* Format                         : AVC
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Video Codec
* Format profile                 : High@L4
* Format settings                : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
* Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
* Format settings, ReFrames      : 4 frames
* Codec ID                       : avc1
* Codec ID/Info                  : Advanced Video Coding
* Duration                       : 40 min 32 s
* Bit rate                       : 1 525 kb/s
* Width                          : 1 920 pixels
* Height                         : 1 080 pixels
* Display aspect ratio           : 16:9
* Frame rate mode                : Constant
* Frame rate                     : 24.000 FPS
* Color space                    : YUV
* Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
* Bit depth                      : 8 bits
* Scan type                      : Progressive
* Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.031
* Stream size                    : 430 MiB (29%)
* Writing library                : x264 core 157 r2932 303c484
* Encoding settings              : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1525 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 10
* Codec configuration box        : avcC

* Audio #1
* ID                             : 1
* Format                         : AAC LC SBR
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
* Commercial name                : HE-AAC
* Format settings                : Explicit
* Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 96.0 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz / 24.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (2%)
* Title                          : allemand
* Language                       : German

* Audio #2
* ID                             : 2
* Format                         : AAC LC SBR
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
* Commercial name                : HE-AAC
* Format settings                : Explicit
* Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 96.0 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz / 24.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (2%)
* Title                          : anglais britannique
* Language                       : English
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 1

* Audio #3
* ID                             : 3
* Format                         : AAC LC SBR
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
* Commercial name                : HE-AAC
* Format settings                : Explicit
* Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 96.0 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz / 24.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (2%)
* Title                          : français [VO]
* Language                       : French
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 2

* Audio #4
* ID                             : 4
* Format                         : AAC LC SBR
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
* Commercial name                : HE-AAC
* Format settings                : Explicit
* Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 96.0 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz / 24.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (2%)
* Title                          : polonais
* Language                       : Polish
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 3

* Audio #5
* ID                             : 5
* Format                         : E-AC-3
* Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
* Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
* Codec ID                       : ec-3
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
* Bit depth                      : 16 bits
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 186 MiB (12%)
* Title                          : allemand - Dolby
* Language                       : German
* Service kind                   : Complete Main
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 4

* Audio #6
* ID                             : 6
* Format                         : E-AC-3
* Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
* Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
* Codec ID                       : ec-3
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
* Bit depth                      : 16 bits
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 186 MiB (12%)
* Title                          : anglais britannique - Dolby
* Language                       : English
* Service kind                   : Complete Main
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 5

* Audio #7
* ID                             : 7
* Format                         : E-AC-3
* Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
* Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
* Codec ID                       : ec-3
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
* Bit depth                      : 16 bits
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 186 MiB (12%)
* Title                          : français [VO] - Dolby
* Language                       : French
* Service kind                   : Complete Main
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 6

* Audio #8
* ID                             : 8
* Format                         : E-AC-3
* Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
* Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
* Codec ID                       : ec-3
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
* Bit depth                      : 16 bits
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 186 MiB (12%)
* Title                          : polonais - Dolby
* Language                       : Polish
* Service kind                   : Complete Main
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 7

* Audio #9
* ID                             : 9
* Format                         : AAC LC SBR
* Format/Info                    : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
* Commercial name                : HE-AAC
* Format settings                : Explicit
* Codec ID                       : mp4a-40-2
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 96.0 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz / 24.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (2%)
* Title                          : français - Description sonore
* Language                       : French
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 8

* Audio #10
* ID                             : 10
* Format                         : E-AC-3
* Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3
* Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus
* Codec ID                       : ec-3
* Duration                       : 40 min 34 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Constant
* Bit rate                       : 640 kb/s
* Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
* Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
* Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
* Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
* Bit depth                      : 16 bits
* Compression mode               : Lossy
* Stream size                    : 186 MiB (12%)
* Title                          : français - Description sonore - Dolby
* Language                       : French
* Service kind                   : Complete Main
* Default                        : Yes
* Alternate group                : 9

* Text #1
* ID                             : 12
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 5 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 62 b/s
* Stream size                    : 18.2 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : allemand
* Language                       : German
* Default                        : Yes
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 11

* Text #2
* ID                             : 13
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 5 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 3 b/s
* Stream size                    : 1 020 Bytes (0%)
* Title                          : désactivés
* Language                       : German
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 12

* Text #3
* ID                             : 14
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 37 min 11 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 2 b/s
* Stream size                    : 615 Bytes (0%)
* Title                          : désactivés
* Language                       : English
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 13

* Text #4
* ID                             : 15
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 37 min 26 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 67 b/s
* Stream size                    : 18.5 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : anglais
* Language                       : English
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 14

* Text #5
* ID                             : 16
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 5 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 66 b/s
* Stream size                    : 19.3 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : espagnol
* Language                       : Spanish
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 15

* Text #6
* ID                             : 17
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 0 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 4 b/s
* Stream size                    : 1.26 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : désactivés
* Language                       : French
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 16

* Text #7
* ID                             : 18
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 5 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 64 b/s
* Stream size                    : 18.9 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : italien
* Language                       : Italian
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 17

* Text #8
* ID                             : 19
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 40 min 5 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 1 b/s
* Stream size                    : 239 Bytes (0%)
* Title                          : désactivés
* Language                       : Polish
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 18

* Text #9
* ID                             : 20<div data-theme-tiles="1">

<div data-theme-tiles="1">

Add images

</div>

</div>
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 38 min 1 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 81 b/s
* Stream size                    : 22.6 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : anglais britannique
* Language                       : English
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 19

* Text #10
* ID                             : 21
* Format                         : Timed Text
* Muxing mode                    : sbtl
* Codec ID                       : tx3g
* Duration                       : 38 min 1 s
* Bit rate mode                  : Variable
* Bit rate                       : 86 b/s
* Stream size                    : 24.1 KiB (0%)
* Title                          : français
* Language                       : French
* Default                        : No
* Forced                         : No
* Alternate group                : 20
2

Settings - Server - Transcoder - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Background transcoding x264 preset”

However, setting a 'Fast’er profile here will lower the quality of the encoded files.

You can only really speed that up by

  • enabling hardware transcoding
  • pick a CPU with a higher ‘Single Thread Rating’ for performance

Your limiting factor is probably the latter.

3

Thank you for the reply.

I thought I read the transcode speed only applied if hardware transcoding wasn’t enabled?

I’ve just checked and the "Background transcoding is set to “very fast”

Both hardware transcoding options are enabled.

Can you give any indication as to why some files convert around 50 / 60x and other 3x?

Presume it must be the files in question? As the settings above were the same on both file optimizations.

Thanks

P

4

Mostly differences in source video codec. I expect AVC/H.264 to transcode much faster than VC-1 or even HEVC/H.265.

When there are subtitles enabled, these will get burned-in in some optimization profiles, which also can only use one cpu thread.

Making optimized versions is also a “background thread”, which means it will get slowed down of the plex server has also foreground tasks to execute like playing files etc.

5

Interestingly enough, I disabled hardware acceleration and the conversion speed increased to 4x +

When Hardware decoding is turned on, it actually decreases the conversion speed (for the file in the original post)

If I then try a file that was converting at 60x with hardware decoding off its then converts at around x25 / x30.

I think I am better off leaving the Hardware decoding on as I don’t have to optimize / transcode that often.

It’s just a little disappointing I can’t get anymore out of it when enabled. When it is on though the GPU doesn’t go above 12% to 15% when optimizing.

P

6

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