Plex HW decoding but not encoding with Nvidia P2000 on Windows Server 2012

[bj0stad]

Server version: 1.13.9.5439

OS: Windows Server 2012

Tested with:
h264, 8bit hevc, and 10bit hevc with both 1080p and 720p files

Tested on:

• Plex Media Player (3.73.1)
• Chrome
• Xbox one
• Android

Issue:
Plex HW decoding works but encoding does not, instead the CPU is doing the encoding.

I have:

• Enabled plex hardware transcoding after installing an Nvidia P2000.
• Server previously ran headless, though it is currently connected to a 1080p monitor. (restarted the server after connecting just to be sure)
• Plex is not running as a service

Log Snippet:

The Transcoder stats log shows:

<Variant id="###" targetBitrate="5007" context="streaming" sourceVideoCodec="hevc" sourceAudioCodec="aac" videoDecision="transcode" audioDecision="copy" protocol="dash" container="mp4" videoCodec="h264" audioCodec="aac" audioChannels="2" transcodeHwRequested="1" transcodeHwDecoding="dxva2" transcodeHwDecodingTitle="Windows (DXVA2)" transcodeHwFullPipeline="0">
<Media audioProfile="lc" id="86613" videoProfile="main" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" bitrate="4384" container="mp4" duration="2580411" height="718" optimizedForStreaming="1" protocol="dash" videoCodec="h264" videoFrameRate="24p" videoResolution="720p" width="1280" selected="1">
<Part audioProfile="lc" id="92819" videoProfile="main" bitrate="4384" container="mp4" duration="2580411" height="718" optimizedForStreaming="1" protocol="dash" width="1280" decision="transcode" selected="1">
<Stream bitrate="4000" chromaLocation="left" codec="h264" default="1" displayTitle="720p (HEVC Main)" frameRate="23.975999999999999" height="718" id="196197" streamType="1" width="1280" decision="transcode" location="segments-video" />
<Stream bitrate="384" bitrateMode="cbr" channels="2" codec="aac" default="1" displayTitle="English (AAC Stereo)" id="196198" language="English" languageCode="eng" selected="1" streamType="2" decision="copy" location="segments-audio" />
</Part>
</Media>
</Variant>

Why do we have an entry for transcodeHwDecoding="dxva2" transcodeHwDecodingTitle="Windows (DXVA2)"
but no entry for transcodeHWEncoding ?

[bj0stad]

Solved.

The issue was with the Nvidia driver. A clean re-install of the driver resolved the issue.

[saleemk]

Hi

What driver version did you install (link?) as I’m having the same problem.

Thanks,

[bj0stad]

I downloaded the latest driver from the nvidia website. The first time I downloaded it, I got a very old version and that was the problem.
The second I made sure to get the latest release and that worked fine.

[shermantenor]

@bj0stad - can you please confirm, did you download the Standard or ‘DCH’ driver? Also - under download type, did you select ‘Optimal Driver for Enterprise (ODE)’ or ‘Quadro New Feature Driver (QNF)’?

It seems that there are four possible drivers one could download for the P2000.

Thanks!

[bj0stad]

I used the standard driver (no DCH option) and chose the ODE driver for stability reasons.

This is the current version of the driver I downloaded: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/141698/en-us

[shermantenor]

Perfect - thanks.