QNAP TS-453D Plex Hardware Transcoding not Working

[jkkc313]

Server Version#: 4.76.1
Player Version#: 9.0.6.31998 (fa17c77a)

To be 100% accurate, it trancodes but it takes around 1 minute to buffer 1 second of 1080p H264 footage even at “very fast” setting at 160p. I have tried software trancoding and it works fine at least for anything 1080p or lower.

Incase you ask, this issue is not unqiue to the player, i have tried pc browser, iphone and LG OS where the problem occurs on all devices.

Can someone advise if i may have missed some setting i need to change on the NAS/ Plex? thanks

[ChuckPa]

In Settings - Server - Transcoder - SHOW ADVANCED

Set check these boxes. Don’t enable HDR tone mapping (not yet hardware supported on QTS/QuTS)

Now, you must also confirm:

1. The video being played does not contain PGS, VOBSUB, or DVDRIP subtitles as this disabled HW transcoding.

2. If the video being played contains SRT (text based) subtitles, the player settings are “Automatic”. If set to “Always Burn”, again, hardware transcoding will be disabled.

Subtitles disable HW transcoding (effectively) because the CPU must burn the image into the video frame-by-frame. This is VERY slow compared to the hardware and will manifest as buffering / slow to start.

[jkkc313]

thanks this is very useful info! it makes all sense now

[jomjohannes]

Was that your solution? The hardware should be able to convert 4k easily, right?
Perhaps you are running in the the problem I had? QNAP transcoding problems after upgrade to Firmware 5.0.0.1986 Build 20220324 - #12 by ChuckPa