PLEX Media Server On QNAP TVS-EC1080 Cannot Stream HEVC x265 To Remote Users With new software version

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hi, I’m experiencing some problems with remote x265 transcoding and the latest versions of PMS. I can hear the sound from the mkv but the only thing I see on the player is a green screen. I’ve read on a forum thread that the transcoding has been changed from software to hardware by default.

It’s strange because it worked correctly in previous PMS versions, so why not detect if the processor/GPU is able to transcode with hardware or software and act accordingly?

Is my server able to transcode this? Is there a way or a configuration that can solve the “green screen issue”? Maybe letting software instead of HW do the transcode?

TVS-EC1080 specs:

  • Intel Xeon E3-1245 v3 quad-core
  • 32GB RAM
  • GPU Intel HD Graphics P4600

Server Version: TVS-EC1080 with PMS Version 1.17.0.1709.
Player Version: Last version on all devices

Thank you very much in advance for all your work and effort,

2

There is still a check box to turn Hardware Acceleration on/off.

You do not have a GPU capable of x265 so it will drop to software which is most likely happening since you are remote streaming. Check if the file has HDR properties, a x265 -> x264 transcode will not tone map and on some players you will get a green screen.

3

Thanks a lot for your response @pl_5309 . File properties according to Plex:

  • Codec HEVC
  • Bitrate 2002 kbps
  • Bit Depth 10
  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
  • Color Range tv
  • Frame Rate 23.976 fps
  • Height 1080
  • Level 4.0
  • Profile main 10
  • Ref Frames 1
  • Title HEVC x265 10bit Video / 2000 kbps / 1080p / 23.976 fps / Main 10 Profile 4
  • Width 1920
  • Display Title 1080p (HEVC Main 10)

But what really misleads me is why if I checked " Use hardware acceleration when available
Plex Media Server will attempt to use hardware-accelerated video codecs when encoding and decoding video. Hardware acceleration can make transcoding faster and allow more simultaneous video transcodes, but it can also reduce video quality and compatibility" Plex is trying to transcode with HW instead of automatically change to software transcoding if the CPU/GPU can’t handle it.

Anyway, without HW acceleration my NAS CPU is being hit very hard (93%-100%) to transcode x265. I think I should convert all my x265 to x264… is there any good tool to do it for a lot of files?

Thanks a lot!

4

If I may offer some information:

  1. The TVS-EC1080 comes with 3 CPU options:
    https://www.qnap.com/en/product/tvs-ec1080/specs/hardware 
TVS-EC1080-E3-16G：Intel® Xeon® E3-1245 v3 3.4 GHz Quad Core Processor or above
TVS-EC1080-E3-8G：Intel® Xeon® E3-1245 v3 3.4 GHz Quad Core Processor or above
TVS-EC1080-i3-8G：Intel® Core i3-4150 3.5 GHz Dual Core processor

  1. The Intel Xeon E3-1245 v3 is Quick Sync Video capable
    https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75462/intel-xeon-processor-e3-1245-v3-8m-cache-3-40-ghz.html

  2. HEVC comes at a price. That price is a major elevation of computationa power required to decode it. This is why HW transcoding is the recommended means of utilizing it.

  3. If I may refer directly to the NAS compatibility guide spreadsheet with this information detailed.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/

5

We are all running on the new transcoder base in PMS-1.17.0.1709 that adds support for decoding in hw on NVIDIA GPUs. Fallback to software failure has been raised recently.

You listed some media information. In general, the XML output is best, or to answer Tiebierius’ question, does it use bt2020 that indicates HDR content? If it uses bt709 then it’s SDR.

The fact it worked before and doesn’t now makes the devs more keen to investigate any logs you supply. A video from jell.yfish.us is a good place for samples if you want to capture the fallback issue.

From Future Proofing HTPCs on Anandtech, April 10, 2015

HEVC Decode Acceleration Support in Contemporary HTPC Platforms
Platform	                            HEVC Main (8b)	HEVC Main10 4:2:0 (10b)
Intel HD Graphics 4400 / 4600 / 5000	Hybrid      	Not Available
Intel Iris Graphics 5100            	Hybrid      	Not Available
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200	        Hybrid	        Not Available
Intel HD Graphics 5300 (Core M)	        Not Available	Not Available
Intel HD Graphics 5500 / 6000	        Hybrid      	Hybrid
Intel Iris Graphics 6100	            Hybrid	        Hybrid
NVIDIA Kepler GK104 / GK106 / GK107 / GK208  Hybrid	    Not Available
NVIDIA Maxwell GM107 / GM108 / GM200 / GM204 Hybrid	    Not Available
NVIDIA Maxwell GM206 (GTX 960)	        Hardware	    Hardware
6

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, PMS 1.17.0 does require a not-yet-released NVIDIA_GPU_DRV upgrade from QNAP.

Without the upgraded drivers, nVidia cards will not be seen by PMS.
QNAP has been notified and the Product Manager has confirmed with me he dispatched the task to their Engineering department.

In the interrim, the Xeon E3-1245 v3 will do the hardware transcoding.

7

Thank you! I’ve got a TVS-EC1080-E3-8G upgraded RAM to 32GB (Intel Xeon E3-1245 v3 3.4GHz Quad Core Processor or above). I put “or above” on strong because I realize mine is an E3-1246 v3 @ 3.50GHz 4 Cores 8 Threads. I think it doesn’t matter in terms of transcoding between those two CPU because according to your information about Quick Sync versions (second point) both are Haswell:

Version 1 (Sandy Bridge)
Quick Sync was initially built into some Sandy Bridge CPUs, but not into Sandy Bridge Pentiums or Celerons.

Version 2 (Ivy Bridge)
The Ivy Bridge microarchitecture included a “next-generation” implementation of Quick Sync.

Version 3 (Haswell)
The Haswell microarchitecture implementation is focused on quality, with speed about the same as before (for any given clip length vs. encoding length).[citation needed]
This generation of Quick Sync supports the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, VC-1 and H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 video standards.

Version 4 (Broadwell)
The Broadwell microarchitecture adds VP8 hardware decoding support. Also, it has two independent bit stream decoder (BSD) rings to process video commands on GT3 GPUs; this allows one BSD ring to process decoding and the other BSD ring to process encoding at the same time.

Version 5 (Skylake)
The Skylake microarchitecture adds a full fixed-function H.265/HEVC main/8-bit encoding and decoding acceleration, hybrid and partial HEVC main10/10-bit decoding acceleration, JPEG encoding acceleration for resolutions up to 16,000×16,000 pixels, and partial VP9 encoding and decoding acceleration.

Version 6 (Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake)
The Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake microarchitecture adds full fixed-function H.265/HEVC Main10/10-bit encoding and decoding acceleration and full fixed-function VP9 8-bit and 10-bit decoding acceleration and 8-bit encoding acceleration.

Version 7 (Ice Lake)
The Ice Lake (microarchitecture) adds VP9 4:4:4 decoding, VP9 encoding (up to 10-bit and 4:4:4), HEVC 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 decoding and encoding, HDR10 Tone Mapping and Open Source Media Shaders.

But according to the NAS compatibility guide (third point), my CPU is capable to handle HD 1080p HW transcoding… but It’s not (green screen).

8

If both of those are Haswell, then HEVC isn’t going to happen. – That’s correct.

SkyLake or above is required to decode HEVC SDR (bt709)
KabyLake or above is required to decode HEVC HDR (bt2020)

9

Well, unfortunately TVS-EC1080 doesn’t allow a GPU upgrade, so I’m stuck with the Intel P4600 integrated GPU that comes with this CPU.

10

Perhaps that’s why QNAP instructed me to remove it from the NAS compatibility guide.
QTS 4.2 support is gone,
QTS 4.3 support is frozen except for maintenance updates by QNAP
QTS 4.4 is current.

Yes, I know this is a sensitive topic but this is where it’s at and how things are.

11

You’re can get the full details on what exactly qualified it as Green when you mouse over the column header to get the tooltip:

Based on an average source file:

Resolution: 1080p
Bitrate: 10 Mbps
Encoding: H.264 (8-bit, High@4.0)

The compatibility chart is not testing 1080p HW against HEVC.

12

Thank you nibbles, you’re right with the compatibility chart… let me see the details at the column header.

13

I pulled my hair out because I thought my 451+ could do more. It’s tough surfing the wave.

14

Since I’m the maintainer of that chart, might it be more appropriate to annotate better?

I felt the tooltop provided adequate additional information without cluttering the column header.

15

yup hahaha…It’s weird they (QNAP) haven’t added support for a newer GPU on this kind of NAS.
I think It’s a commercial movement or something…

Playback Info ():

Source: Transcode (Server_name)
Quality 4,4Mbps (Android app)
Video: Transcode (HEVC-H264(HW))
Audio: Copy (AC3)
Transcode Reason: Device cannot play this video format at 19201 x 10802

Wait!! I’ve played another file from the same TV Show (x265) and It’s playing right now without problems:

  • Codec HEVC
  • Bitrate 2422 kbps
  • Idioma English
  • Bit Depth 8
  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
  • Color Range tv
  • Frame Rate 23.976 fps
  • Height 1080
  • Nivel 5.0
  • Profile main
  • Ref Frames 1
  • Width 1920
  • Display Title 1080p (HEVC Main)

Maybe the Bit Depth from 8 to 10 causes this?

Yes, I can’t play x265 10bits, there is no problem with x265 8bits.

16

Please don’t spin a conspiracy when it’s a simple matter of keeping track of nVidia and how often they spin new versions of their drivers. QNAP is the most proactive NAS vendor when it comes to supporting Plex. I am alerted of new NAS models before they are released. They make these available to use for qualification testing when needed so their products can be listed on the NAS compatibility guide. If any packaging work is needed, the advance notification allows me time to schedule and complete the work.

17

sorry, I’m just mad that I can’t upgrade my NAS as it can be done with other QNAP models. This has not been appropriate on my part and for the matter that concerns us atm.

18

If you’re having a problem with QNAP and its products, Please consider taking it to the QNAP forums.

Your disagreement with QNAP is of no concern to Plex.
Your argument and venting here is somewhat inappropriate given I see every post which takes time away from supporting others.

19

Agree, sorry about that.

Well… It’s working (8bits x265 file) with mobile data connection but not with Wi-Fi connection (Android). No green screen with Wi-Fi but “Error: Playback has stopped because the connection to the server has been lost. Please make sure the server is available and retry”.
8bits x265 It’s working too with Google Chrome on a Desktop PC.

20

By that definition of the problem, in isolation, points to a) the client and b) the network.

If the client says connection to the server has been lost, and simultaneously,
the server logs indicate “connection reset by peer”, the only thing left in the equation is the network because both are saying that the other end disappeared.