Plex Transcode struggles

Server Version: 1.27.1.5916
Player: Roku Ultra - LAN 100M (Not wifi)
OS: Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop
CPU: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-11900K @ 3.50GHz
GPU: None
uname: Linux Homer 5.13.0-44-generic #49~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 18 18:44:28 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Nic: 10G Fiber to Core Swicth
Storage: Synology NAS - 4x 1G Nic bundle. WD RED’s (slower apparently, bad drive choice)

For items which I can direct stream I seem to be ok. For items like the Martian movie I am trying to play, I get errors that the server cannot transcode fast enough or my connection to the server is not fast enough.

I am struggling to figure out what to do. Roku’s max at 100M lan, i have a 10G server lan, I9 server with this as the only transcode operation. I don’t see why this simply does not work, but yet it seems to be issues playing UHD movies. I had a 5-gen I7 server before this one that seemed to perform 10x better. I shouldn’t;t really need a GPU to transcode a single stream.

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-06-24_05-57-46.zip (3.8 MB)

I do want to add a GPU, but with GPU prices/stock I never could find one that people recommend. I built this server with the hope that I would get -+ 6 transcodes from it. Not even getting 1 is brutal. that is why I picked a beefer processor knowing I didn’t have a GPU available.

Thoughts on what my issue may be?

You have a perfectly capable GPU already, the problem is that the OS is older than the CPU/GPU. Also not convinced you have all the networking smoothed out but the easier thing to do is update your kernel to support the CPU/GPU and load the right GPU driver.

Some hints here:Plex Media Server on Ubuntu 21.10 with Intel 12th Gen (Alder Lake) - #11 by Crispok1

I am specifically running Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS, which was released February 2022, so the OS should not be that old. I could upgrade to 22.x but 21.x did not properly expose /dev/dri forcing me into the 20.x stream at the time.

In terms of network, I have no packet loss anywhere on the lan, and everything is where it should be for speeds. not sure what else I can ask for there.

Also to note I did upgrade to these drivers after that log upload, this is version 22.24.23453

intel-igc-core_1.0.11378_amd64.deb intel-level-zero-gpu_1.3.23453_amd64.deb intel-opencl-icd_22.24.23453_amd64.deb libigdgmm12_22.1.3_amd64.deb
intel-igc-opencl_1.0.11378_amd64.deb intel-level-zero-gpu-dbgsym_1.3.23453_amd64.ddeb intel-opencl-icd-dbgsym_22.24.23453_amd64.ddeb

I had to run older ones on suggestions of the forums as newer ones did not support my CPU. this newer version does. Even with those newer ones, the issue persists fyi.

OS’s regularly trail the Hardware.

You don’t have to change the Ubuntu version, you need to load a newer kernel.

sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-20.04

Looks like I am there. I did just do a restart though as I did some upgrades between posts.

root@Homer:~# sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-20.04
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-generic-hwe-20.04 is already the newest version (5.13.0.51.58~20.04.31).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
root@Homer:~#

Here are new logs post OS and the runtime updates. I just tried watching the same show.

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-06-24_08-01-26.zip (2.2 MB)

Can’t find all the steps at the moment but the ICD you have is too new, you need ICR 21.49.21786.

Did you do this: Linux Tips - #23 by ChuckPa

Alright i installed this version: 21.49.21786 · Releases · intel/compute-runtime · GitHub

Now after install the 21.49.21786 (which was a downgrade from the version released today), i rebooted. tried to play and plex sees it as hw transcode but still buffers buffers, not fast enough error. new logs

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-06-24_08-49-17.zip (1.0 MB)

CPU and GPU are being detected.

Scheduled tasks hasn’t had a chance to deep analyze the file for media info, you can try a manual analyze to see if that improves playback decisions

It is transcoding because of video, audio and subtitles.
To isolate you can:
Disable Subtitles
Disable “Enable HDR tone mapping”
Try playback and see if it still buffers, if not enable one at a time to see which one is causing it.

If nothing is successful then the issue is probably external to the server.

I don’t see where i would disable subtitles. On roku (under settings) to burn subtitles I have always, automatic, only image formats.

Update: doh wasn’t server side (I don’t use subtitles). I went to subtitles in the movie, and changed it to disabled from english. IT appears to now work.

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