Does anyone know if plex allows VA-API? I’ve used plex for a long time, but then I gave Jellyfin a chance and configured it to use VA-API, but I’ve noticed some things that jellyfin support should improve and I’m thinking about going back to plex. However, I have already performed the GPU passthrough into the docker container and I have the Plex subscription active, but I can’t find a way to choose VA-API trancoding.
afaik that is one of the APIs we use for HW transcoding. The option to enable HW acceleration is in the server transcoder settings
Also, a Plex Pass is required for hardware accelerated (GPU) transcoding.
Plex uses VAAPI. See Tech Specs at the bottom of Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming.
But contrary to what happened in Jellyfin, when I activate this option, it is not the GPU that performs the transcoding, but the CPU. I performed the passthrough as follows:
version: “2.1”
services:
plex:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
container_name: plex
network_mode: host
environment:
- PUID=1000
- PGID=1000
- VERSION=docker
- PLEX_CLAIM= #optional
volumes:
- .config:/config
- /media/external/streaming/movies:/movies
- /media/external/streaming/series:/series
- /media/external/streaming/animes:/animes
- /media/external/streaming/documentaries:/documentaries
- /media/external/streaming/standup:/standup
group_add:
- 27
- 103
devices:
- /dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0
- /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128
restart: always
However, plex does not transcode from the GPU…
A Plex Pass is required for hardware accelerated transcoding. It will not work without one.
Your forum login does not show you have a Plex Pass. Otherwise, “Plex Pass” would appear next to your username.
If you have recently obtained a Plex Pass:
- Close all browser windows.
- Go to https://plex.tv and sign out of your Plex account.
- Log back in to your Plex account.
- Restart your Plex Media Server.
That should reset your forum login and indicate your have a Plex Pass.
Restarting Plex Media Server will force PMS to communicate with plex.tv. This will let Plex Media Server know you have a Plex Pass and enable those options.
I have the Plex Pass, I have the option active and I already restart the container, Plex is performing the HA but with the CPU not the GPU…
is your PlexPass attached to the account you use here in the forum (this email address)?
If so, please go check it and which account the server is logged in as.
This, non-PlexPass account has “O***” “A*****” and “H*****” 
It sounds like the OP is saying they can do HW accel (and it is), but it keeps using the Intel CPU driver HW rather than the GPU VAAPI driver to HW transcode. Seems Plex is choosing CPU over GPU HW accel.
I think CPU driver is superior to GPU (GPU has limits of 2 simultaneous streams last I heard), but if the OP wants to use it, how can they choose GPU instead? Remove reference to the CPU driver in their docker?
Can you provide additional details about your system and what you are trying to achieve?
What CPU is installed?
If Intel, do you want to use the integrated Quick Sync graphics?
If you want to use a discrete Nvidia GPU, what is the model and which Nvidia driver version is loaded?
