Found the issue! I was using a tool to auto start the Plex service…seems it was causing the service to start with lower user rights. Reverted to launching the service as administrator and HW transcoding is back!
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Don’t update to the latest PMS (1.25.4.5468). It broke HW Transcoding again. I reverted back to 1.25.3.5409 and it’s all good. I’m going to have to test all the releases until it’s stable again 
Plex needs to learn how to perform regression testing.
Problem came back (without updating PMS) and I finally found out my issue is exactly this:
RDP/Anydesk breaks the Hardware transcoding with quicksync.
Generally I have found that if you start up the PC with a monitor attached and start PMS in that mode it is OK as the intel driver is active. You can then swap to using RDP etc.
This is not the same as my issue with transcoding though
Yeah I spoke too soon…HW transcoding still broken. Even if no remote desktop Which version are you using now? I’ll revert to 1.25.3.5409 ( as mentioned by FlaTechNode ) and see if HW transcoding comes back…
PMS Version 1.25.4.5468
I find the combination of transcoding options in attachment works OK - not full transcoding, but offloads some of it. I f I enable the “use hardware accelerated video encoding” then it uses no Intel h/w to transcode at all and has also hung PMS in the past.
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No change with PMS 1.25.5.5492.
Also tried a downgrade to 1.25.3.5409 and HW transcoding still not working… Are you using a headless system?
I’ve got the same issue i7-3770 and latest plex version no longer getting transcode on Windows 10
- Reinstalled drivers for the GPU
- Plugged a monitor in so it is no longer headless
- Uninstalled Anydesk
- Tested without RDP (e.g. using VNC instead)
Tested on these versions that I had on hand
- 1.25.2.5319-c43dc0277
- 1.25.3.5409-f11334058
- 1.25.4.5487-648a8f9f9
- 1.25.5.5492-12f6b8c83
No change, but as JustinHow has noted, if you select the option not to encode, then it at least returns the hw decode option.
Just the use hardware acceleration enabled, and use hardware accelerated video encoding disabled
Compared to having both enabled and getting absolutely no hardware decode or encode
It definitely seems to try though
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.638 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing h264_qsv (encoder)
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.638 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API qsv
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.757 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.757 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Could not create hardware context for h264
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.757 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing h264 (decoder) with hwdevice dxva2
Feb 02, 2022 21:28:05.757 [17192] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API dxva2
For me there is no HW transcoding happening at all, even if deselecting the encoding option… Did the same as you, tried with a monitor plugged in, updated to the latest Intel drivers etc…
So far I’ve only seen 6th Gen and up processors get the driver with the updated Intel Media SDK runtime.
The SDK lists support for 3rd Gen and higher, but it mentions some functionality (like the latest SDK) is only available for 6th Gen or later drivers.
Can we get some Plex employee officially look into this? Transcode is completely broken still. Reverting to some previous versions didn’t fix it. Could it have something to do with some latest Windows updates or intel UHD drivers?
- Headless server, fresh restart, no remote software installed
- Latest Windows 10 version
- Latest Intel drivers (30.0.101.1191)
Feb 03, 2022 07:45:11.195 [4912] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred
Feb 03, 2022 07:45:11.195 [4912] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing h264 (decoder) with hwdevice dxva2
Feb 03, 2022 07:45:11.195 [4912] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API dxva2
Feb 03, 2022 07:45:11.197 [4912] ERROR - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Failed to create Direct3D device
Feb 03, 2022 07:45:11.197 [4912] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred
@Ridley might be able to help or get someone else looking into this.
This issue started after the transcoder/ffmpeg updates to allow HW Transcoding for the Iris XE/12th gen Intel GPUs (introduced in the public PMS version 1.25.0.5282).
It seems this update broke 3rd though 10th gen Intel iGPU HW Transcoding. The latest Intel driver (UHD DCH 30.0.101.1191) fixed it for me up to 1.25.3.5409 (but not others as you can see in this thread), however the transcoder update in 1.25.4.5487 broke it again.
I had to revert back to version 1.22.0.4163 to get HW transcoding to work again. This is what annoys me about the Plex team. They don’t respond to issues in a timely manner, or at all. Total opposite compared to the Emby team. If you break your own product, acknowledge it, and at least make an attempt to communicate with your customers.
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Unfortunately I agree. Very little said by Plex about this issue so far. Dissappointing indeed.
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Trying just about everything here to get HW transcoding back…I noticed when I select “Convert Automatically” on the playing device I see the (HW) appearing on my PMS Dashboard:
As soon as I select a different resolution, the (HW) disappear:
fyi I tried to convert a video file with Handbrake using a Quick Sync profile and it works just fine.
I tested Quick Sync via Hanbrake and it also worked fine.
I reverted to 1.23.2.4656 and HW transcoding started to work again…
@anon18523487 I’ve noticed you’re looking into the transcoder crash issue that some are having on 1.25.x, but has there been any investigation into the general HW Transcoding issues seen on Intel iGPUs with Windows since that update?
It seems that part of my problem was solved by an updated driver, but this did not solve it for others as you can see in this thread.
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Some of us on the older platforms will never get an updated driver, the one for my system is as new as it gets from Intel.
