Question about hardware transcoding on i7-6700K

[jensrobot]

To my amazement I found out that all of a sudden I can HW transcode HEVC Main 10 on my intel i7-6700K. How is this possible??? I’m sure it didn’t work in the past, I even made sure to build up my library using x264 so transcoding would be smooth all over. Now it just eats everything, even 4K to 1080p. I’m so confused, i thought this was a hardware limitation. I’ve been using the chart at wikipedia for reference in the past: Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia
and it clearly states no 10 bit encoding/decoding for 6th gen.

Server Version#: 1.27.0.5897

[ChuckPa]

@jensrobot

You can’t HW transcode HEVC HDR. There is no hardware for it in the ASIC.

If you think you can, please provide evidence.

Intel® Core™ i7-6700 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz) - Product...

Notice: UHD 530

You need UHD 630 for HEVC HDR

[Volts]

It might be decoding in software, and encoding to AVC/H.264 in hardware?

Share a screenshot from the server status dashboard page during playback!

Server Status and Dashboard | Plex Support

Instead of “Direct Play”, what does it show?

[jensrobot]

Sorry i should have provided these before

and cpu stabilize at around 10%

[jensrobot]

Wasnt talking about HDR just HEVC Main 10. HDR stalls everything, i cant transcode those, but i do have a few 4k movies without HDR and they play with “hw” according to the dashboard

cpu usage at around 20%

[ChuckPa]

Fair enough.

This image:

is showing SW decode of HEVC HDR
with HW encode of H.264 SDR

This is as it should be.

If you had HW decode of HEVC HDR, it would be also listed in the status

[jensrobot]

Aaah now i get it. I assumed the hw at transcode meant both encoding and decoding doh. just tested with a 264 and saw how its supposed to look.
Thanks

[Volts]

In the H.264/H.265 world, transcoding always means the video is first decoded, and then encoded.

Plex is pretty clever about using both the “best available” decoder and the “best available” encoder.