Hello all,
It’s been awhile since I had time to look into this problem again, but I am happy to report I have a working combination now!
Apparently the plex media server is VERY picky on the exact version of the Intel Compute Runtime you are using, it has to match exactly the one used when a particular version of plex media server is compiled and released.
I figured this out by pure accident when I downloaded the latest release Version 1.26.1.5772 and it just happened to match the Intel Compute Runtime Version 21.49.21786 I happened to have installed at the moment and the playback of a HEVC 4K file to my iPhone actually worked and looked correct! And the plex server was reporting (hw) on the transcode!
After my success I noticed ubuntu now had a LTS version 22.04 and the Intel compute runtime was grossly out of date. So I upgraded both to the newest versions, and guess what, plex hardware transcoding of HEVC was broken again. After a bunch of back tracking I figured out it was the Intel Compute Runtime. If you uninstall it and then try to install Plex Media Server again, it’ll give you a big error about not finding the runtime, and it mentions a exact version you need to install. I then reinstalled the exact version it asked for and reinstalled plex media server to confirm that it detected the runtime again and the HEVC hw transcode started working again!
So the BIG KEY is that you HAVE to use the version of the Intel Compute Runtime that plex media server expects! You cannot just use the latest version available. I’ve been struggling with this for two years now and finally I have a working setup.
I hope this information helps more people get this working on their new 11th/12th gen intel hardware!
-Jerry
