Plex detects my iGPU but doesn't use it for transcoding

[xnrthw]

Server Version#:1.43.3.10828
Player Version#: 1.112.0.359-0d79a49f

Hello, I’ve been trying to get (hw) transcode to work for a couple weeks and I’m at a loss on how to fix it. I’ve looked around at various forum posts about plex hardware transcoding issues and nothing has been able to help. I think I have everything enabled correctly, but when trying to transcode it sticks to software transcoding and my cpu usage maxes out. I’d like to be able to stream things outside my local network, and hardware transcoding is a must-have for me.

System details:
CPU: Intel i5-12500 (Intel UHD Graphics 770)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B760M-A AX
Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz (soon to be 21GB)
OS: Unraid 7.3.2

EDIT:
Noticed this in the Plex Media Server logs

EDIT:

adding Plex Media Server Log Files Here

Plex Media Server.log (266.8 KB)

[LoyalSnoop]

Having the exact same issue here on almost the same setup, but I have a Core Ultra 7 265k. I am also on unRAID 7.3.2 and the same version of PMS as you

Following

[pl_5309]

Thinking this statement needs correction.

--device=/dev/dri:/dev/dri

[xnrthw]

Tried that and it didn’t work. But I noticed this in the Plex Media Server.log

Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi for device ‘/dev/dri/renderD128’ (Intel Alder Lake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 770])
Failed to initialise VAAPI connection: -1 (unknown libva error).
Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: I/O error
Could not create hardware context for h264_vaapi
Codecs: testing hevc_vaapi (encoder)

Any help would be much appreciated!

[nickschneider101]

Having a similar issue, not sure if it’s the same, I’m using TrueNAS Scale/Community Edition with a slightly different CPU. Getting the same logs tho

When I changed the logs/console to show debug & verbose logs I saw the error of

Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Debug — [Req#7bb/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi for device '/dev/dri/renderD128' (Intel Alder Lake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 730])
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Verbose — [Req#7bb/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - libva: VA-API version 1.22.0
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Verbose — [Req#7bb/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - libva: User requested driver 'iHD'
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Verbose — [Req#7bb/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - libva: Trying to open /config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/va-dri-linux-x86_64/iHD_drv_video.so
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Verbose — [Req#7bb/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - libva: va_openDriver() returns -1
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Error — [Req#7bb/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Failed to initialise VAAPI connection: -1 (unknown libva error).
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Debug — [Req#7bb/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: I/O error
Jul 21, 2026 18:31:39.487 [139775375182648] Debug — [Req#7bb/Transcode] Could not create hardware context for h264_vaapi

then I checked that folder (/config/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/va-dri-linux-x86_64/) and saw it was empty, when it should have iHD_drv_video.so

So for the issue I’m seeing, that cache/va-dri-linux-x86_64 folder isn’t getting initialized correctly

And I see the device in the transcoding device list

[napolij]

On my linux box, the driver is acting symlinked to a library under /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Drivers/

Mine is a radieon library so it wont match your system, if you are lucky, the driver is downloaded and just not symlinked.

[nickschneider101]

I tried copying them to the folder it expects, but got other errors.

Made a bug thread on the Truenas app store, but I think it’s actually an issue with the Plex docker image

[xnrthw]

The fix for me was updating my BIOS.