Plex hardware transcoding GPU

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.19.4.2935

Hi All

I am having a bit of fun getting hardware transcoding to work, the issue I get is it only uses 10-20% of the graphics card performance making it slower to transcode than the CPU.

Server Spec

HP Proliant ML350e Gen 8
Intel Xeon E5-2450L V2
8GB Ram
OS on Mirror SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti - Driver version 26.21.14.4292

At the moment I have disabled hardware transcoding as I can watch anything which requires transcoding.

Has anyone had these issues or has a system similar that is working?

2

That would depend on the codecs involved and if it was actually using hardware.

You’ll need to reproduce the issue and provide logs from PMS.

3

Hi

It seems to affect all types, 1080p and 4k films. I have synced a 1080 film which only renders at 1.7x. I have played a 4k film and asked it to recode to SD and it only uses 10% of the 1050ti.

I have done loaded the logs, I did the testing from 9:18 till 9:30.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-06-13_09-23-05.zip (5.1 MB)

4

Jun 13, 2020 09:18:15.548 [10124] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - cu->cuCtxCreate(&hwctx->cuda_ctx, 4, cu_device) failed
Jun 13, 2020 09:18:15.548 [10124] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - → CUDA_ERROR_UNKNOWN: unknown error
Jun 13, 2020 09:18:15.548 [10124] ERROR - [FFMPEG] -
Jun 13, 2020 09:18:15.548 [10124] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred

Jun 13, 2020 09:18:45.485 [14140] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: dxva2, final encoder: mf

According to your logs, PMS was not able to use your graphics card. It is using regular hardware decoding and encoding, not the accelerated version of quick sync or from your video card.

Your cpu doesn’t support quick sync so that part is expected.

Your video card is a little old. I’m not sure if it will work. Searching NVidia’s site, Geforce Driver Results | NVIDIA, they list the latest version as 446.14. that’s probably the package number and not the specific video card driver, but might be worth seeing if that upgrade works.

5

Hi,

I have had a bit of a play but I’m still not getting anywhere, I have done a clean install of Server 2019 and installed the latest drivers but it is still having issues.

Can you have a look at the logs and see if anything has changed? Time from 19:45 till 20:05.

I have read lot of the threads and people are saying that the 1050ti works and it can do around 3 4k streams.Plex Media Server Logs_2020-06-15_20-03-13.zip (2.7 MB)

6

Jun 15, 2020 19:49:44.819 [8596] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: nvdec, final encoder: nvenc

Show’s it’s using your video card now.

Jun 15, 2020 19:49:54.001 [8596] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 02781040] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read ‘\?\C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)\47687E90-2091-4677-9686-2BA1B7DAB3D7_6876-0-2.wav’
Jun 15, 2020 19:49:54.001 [8596] ERROR - [Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 02781040] error reading output
Jun 15, 2020 19:49:54.002 [8596] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while decoding stream #0:1: I/O error

There are some errors around the audio. Check the permissions for that folder and see if something isn’t set properly.

Jun 15, 2020 19:41:03.743 [8616] ERROR - Error creating directory “D:\Plex\Transcode”: The system cannot find the path specified

I did see this error at the top of the log. Maybe related since PMS wants to use this folder but can’t so it’s using the one in the temp folder.

7

Thanks for this.

I move the transcode folder to the same drive as the media to see if it made a difference, it didn’t.

I think my only option is to upgrade the graphics card? Would something like GTX 1660 be better or would you upgrade the processor?

8

I don’t like making recommendations, but either would be an improvement.

9

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