# Strange hardware transcoding

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/strange-hardware-transcoding/832061>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-windows\
**Created:** [February 23, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/strange-hardware-transcoding/832061 "2023-02-23T13:09:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![youya1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/eb9ed0/32.png) [@youya1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/youya1)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/strange-hardware-transcoding/832061/1 "2023-02-23T13:09:45Z")

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My plex server (win10, G4560) could not do hardware transcoding （CPU usage 100%）. BUT I found that if I login my win10 server through windows remote desktop （RDP） and keep  
the conversation alive，hardware transcoding will be successfully activated. Once i closed the RDP conversation, hardware transcoding instantly gone and i get a 100% cpu usage

quite confused why this is happening

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 1:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/strange-hardware-transcoding/832061/2 "2023-02-23T13:16:20Z")

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Hardware decoding in Windows is only allowed to apps which run in the user context. Which means that if you run Plex as a system service, you cannot use hardware decoding.  
You must use “automatic user logon” after bootup and then start Plex either automatically or via the Task Scheduler.

Another potential wrinkle is Remote Desktop using the hardware transcoder itself as long as a remote session is in progress. See [Windows Remote Desktop breaks HW Transcoding (QSV) - Here's the fix!](https://forums.plex.tv/t/windows-remote-desktop-breaks-hw-transcoding-qsv-heres-the-fix/776428/1)

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/strange-hardware-transcoding/832061/3 "2023-05-24T13:17:13Z")

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