PMS does not appear to use GPU

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Hi,

I’m hoping someone has had a similar experience and could share some ideas on how to proceed.

I’m running the latest PMS on Debian Buster with the ‘main contrib non-free’ backport repository active.

I’ve installed a Quadro K4000 Nvidia card in the system and also installed the nvidia drivers available in the repository.

I can see in Tautilli that one of the server streams running is a trancode so I ran nvtop and it showed 0 GPU load & no processes running.

And yes I have both ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’ & ‘Use hardware-accelerated video encoding’ checkboxes enabled in the PMS settings and have been a happy Plex Pass subscriber for a number of years.

Is there something I’ve missed in setting things up? I’d really appreciate any help.

Thanks,

Jim

2
  1. Which PMS version in use?
  2. Not familiar with designation main contrib non-free . it doesn’t apply to Plex.
  3. Captured DEBUG (not verbose) logs ZIP
    a. Start Playback
    b. Allow to play 20 seconds
    c. Stop Playback
    d. Wait 30 seconds for logs to quiesce
    e. Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs
    f. Attach the ZIP
3

Chuck thanks so much for the quick response. The PMS version is 1.18.8.2468.

Yes, you are correct ‘main contrib non-free’ backport has nothing to do with Plex but is a Debian software repository indicating I have the latest nvidia drivers for Debian Buster.

I will do as you suggest and report back when I have some data.

4

Chuck,

Logs attached. i recorded maybe 30-40 secs of playback. There were three clients connected: 1 was paused, 1 was direct play and the other was transcoded.Plex Media Server Logs_2020-03-02_20-41-59.zip (1.4 MB)

5

Sorry… I need DEBUG logging enabled. (it’s the default setting) DEBUG doesn’t use any more disk space on than off but with it on I can see what’s happening.

I’m sorry but you’ll need to redo please.

DEBUG = ON, VERBOSE = OFF (these are the defaults and Recommended settings)

6

Chuck,

Oops - not sure what happened. i enabled the debug logging and then disabled after the test.

Instead I’ll keep it turned on with verbose disabled. then when I see a stream being transcoded I’ll download the logs.

My video library is all .mp4 so it only transcodes on some TVs. i have to wait until a user connects with one of those devices - all my devices are direct play.

Thanks for your patience.

7

Chuck,

I hope these logs are what you need. Attached pics show debug turned on and a transcode stream playing.Plex Media Server Logs_2020-03-03_21-07-24.zip (1020.1 KB) debug transcode

8

It’s not staying active.

DEBUG on,
VERBOSE off
SAVE

(watch for errors)

I think I know what’s happening.

systemctl stop plexmediaserver
sudo chown -R plex:plex /var/lib/plexmmediaserver

Caveat If you have the directory elsewhere or use a different username (override), please edit appropriately.

9

Thanks Chuck.

I’ve made the change and will reply back with results when I have some.

10

Chuck,

A transcode is happening now. See attached pic. Logs also attached - I don’t see any GPU activity in nvtop.

Any ideas?transcode Plex Media Server Logs_2020-03-04_10-56-18.zip (901.0 KB)

nvtop
nvtop741×490 84 KB

11

Please enable DEBUG logging and keep it ON ?

I can’t see anything.

Screenshot from 2020-03-04 12-35-34
Screenshot from 2020-03-04 12-35-341067×276 47.5 KB

12

hello,

  1. k4000 does not support hevc hw decode. (see @ https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-gpu-support-matrix)
  2. your tautuli screenshot clearly shows (HW) being used
  3. you are probably using your CPU integrated gpu…

what cpu to do you have ?

13

Chuck,

Attached is a pic from the server - is debug set correctly? Also attached is the output of the ‘You can view debug logs here’.

server
server937×534 257 KB
you can view debug logs here.txt (58.3 KB)

14

TeknoJunky,

Thanks for the help. It’s a Intel® Pentium® CPU G4400 @ 3.30GHz CPU.

15

these are the log settings

image

your cpu has its own gpu HD Graphics 510 @ https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88179/intel-pentium-processor-g4400-3m-cache-3-30-ghz.html

that gpu does support hevc transcoding but only 8 bit (not 10bit/hdr). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video

in summary, you are getting HW transcoding, the nvtop isn’t going to show you anything because its not using the k4000 at all.

16

TeknoJunky,

Wow thanks a lot. So I might as well use the K4000 in another server since Plex will use the embedded GPU.

Again - thanks very much for the help.

17

I need to check but there might be a way to select the graphics device.
If it’s not yet implemented, it’s at least been discussed. I will inquire and reply back.

18

Chuck,

After TeknoJunky pointed me to the right place, I was able to capture some transcoding logs which are attached.

streams
streams959×344 190 KB
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-03-04_19-21-53.zip (835.1 KB)

19

Now that you have DEBUG turned on (albeit a bit late to capture the transcoder activity),

Would you mind recreating again with DEBUG still on (please leave on after this. it doesn’t consume any more disk space than with off)

I found:

e95eac96-99d2-44d5-88b2-0bb0f25bd2e1)
Mar 04, 2020 10:44:01.881 [0x7f80e5002700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (dc8aaffd-cdc5-4129-86af-819ce589f5f2, expected 33a8788b-edba-48b7-a104-964e3d279cbc)
Mar 04, 2020 10:44:01.881 [0x7f80e5002700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (26aaf6e3-d898-4700-ac15-9ca1ef9bb465, expected 33a8788b-edba-48b7-a104-964e3d279cbc)
Mar 04, 2020 10:44:01.882 [0x7f80e5002700] WARN - PubSub: Received notifyConnectivity event with incorrect async identifier (fc12503a-6767-4466-a748-81e3b246f216, expected 33a8788b-edba-48b7-a104-964e3d279cbc)
Mar 04, 2020 10:49:52.952 [0x7f80e6004700] WARN - [FFMPEG] - No quality level set; using default (20).
Mar 04, 2020 10:49:55.384 [0x7f80dd5a9700] ERROR - [PlexRelay] kex protocol error: type 7 seq 11
Mar 04, 2020 10:50:00.421 [0x7f80df5ad700] INFO - [PlexRelay] Allocated port 1643 for remote forward to 127.0.0.1:32401
Mar 04, 2020 10:56:18.059 [0x7f80a6ffd700] INFO - AutoUpdate: no updates available
Mar 04, 2020 10:56:18.164 [0x7f80e5803700] WARN - Deleted file "/tmp/logs.zip52507679-c2f4-4938-b5f3-9d3c5702a953" after connection reset
Mar 04, 2020 11:13:12.037 [0x7f80ed49b700] WARN - JobManager: Could not find job for handle 4109
Mar 04, 2020 11:13:18.093 [0x7f80ed49b700] WARN - JobManager: Could not find job for handle 4180
Mar 04, 2020 11:13:19.022 [0x7f80ed49b700] WARN - JobManager: Could not find job for handle 4205
Mar 04, 2020 11:13:21.094 [0x7f80ed49b700] WARN - JobManager: Could not find job for handle 4232
20

Chuck the attached logPlex Media Server Logs_2020-03-06_00-11-15.zip (4.9 MB) should have some transcode info in it.