No hoax. The HEVC codec as a transcoding target is currently only used if the client is a modern iOS device (iPhone 8) with a new(ish) version of iOS and the server has a working hardware encoder for HEVC. Mainly because these iOS devices have well-known specifications and there are relatively few variants. Which makes compatiblity testing faster.
I tried an iphone 10S Max with latest plex client, latest plex servers on my UHD630 Intel w QSV that happily hw transcodes, on quite a few HEVC source files but I couldn’t get it to transcode into anything but 264.not sure why I didn’t see it, Hopefully more info trickles out soon!
I too tested a few clients (including iphoneX) with a server running on i3 8100 w/ hw hevc. I see the same results as @mervincm Not saying it’s a hoax but that I’ve never been able to see it. Also I’d rather use it to hw transcode stuff when recording from hdhomerun (mpeg2-> hevc) instead of h264 like it does it now. Doesn’t look like it’s an option either
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I have to take that back.
I was told by the developers, that the only way to see something like transcoding and video stream in HEVC is in the case of a Direct Stream.
Where the source file’s video is already encoded in HEVC, and either only the container is exchanged (e.g. MKV to MP4) or where only the audio stream is transcoded, but the video stream remains unchanged.
H265 encoding has still not been implimented, this would be a priority for me if I were a Plex developer.
The libx265 encoder can be found everywere.
It is causing me to look at Emby and Jellyfin were Jellyfin is already implimenting it.
Even if Plex just implements the plugin without activating it in the profiles then we can test it as end users.
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This is an extremely sensible (or downright necessary) feature in 2020, where we can buy 64-core/128-thread consumer CPUs but some of us still simply can’t get more than 4 Mbps of outgoing bandwidth. Every month the number of HEVC-compatible display devices grows, and all of our bandwidths keep staying the same. With each passing day transcoding to HEVC is less a luxury and more a necessity.
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Time has come for this to be implemented.
You can now buy a 9th gen Pentium Gold for 65 euros that can handle multiple HW hevc encodes without breaking a sweat.
Users with supporting devices will get much better quality over limited bandwidth.
Please make this happen!
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I want this aswell. With HDR preserved in the resulting streams.
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I would love to see be able to supply 1080p HDR experience from 4K HDR source.
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I sure hope this is on the roadmap. Here in Australia, even with NBN we have limited upload bandwidth. I have a new unraid server with plex running on an i3-9100 cpu which can support up to HVEC 10-bit transcode. Base level HVEC trancode has been supported since Skylake in 2015.
Adding HVEC would enable 1080p transcodes @ 4Mbit or double the number of transcode streams. It would be great if the developers could let us know if this is on their radar.
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For those with NVIDIA cards who paid for a plex pass to have access to HW transcoding, please look into adding this. I, frankly, can’t think of another feature I would rather add.
If I had access to fiber internet with 1000mbps upload bandwidth and no data caps, I suppose I wouldn’t care. But with my “high speed” internet, I only get 11-12mbps upload speed. That means that if I want to even allow 2 simultaneous remote streams then I have to limit the streams to 4mbps which is sadly only 720p. If it were transcoded to HEVC it could easily provide very good 1080p (even with HDR) at that same bitrate. Yes I could have 2 copies of every movie (I want to keep the full quality rips) but that’s silly.
Some of the newer Roku’s (the higher end models) and fire sticks support HEVC. Newer phones do. Newer TVs are also doing that.
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+1
265 is easy now days. As far as i am concerned it should have been added a long time ago before it got to prevalent…
Then again have never read many good things about Plex devepment…
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Another random thought I had, when HEVC is eventually offered as an encoding option, it would be nice (logical?) to offer the option to have it enabled “only” for remote connections. In my home (and I assume most others), I have beyond enough bandwidth to handle higher bitrate, more easily encoded h.264 video. It is, again, the remote connections due to limited upload bandwidth where h.265 could really help a lot.
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direct play is already fully supported on your local lan unless using a web browser…
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Well transcoding to HEVC could help people with spotty wifi as well. I dont think artificial limitations is the way to go.
Edit: i missed u wanted it as an option
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It’s not limited to LAN. I have users that direct play x265 from my server remotely without issue.
If you see transcoding in remote streams, it is either due to bandwidth limitations or device support for x265 (like you said, web browsers don’t play nice)
Be sure to check the remote quality settings in the Plex app. This can be a bottleneck and cause unnecessary transcoding for those remote users who have not modified the default value.
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I like this idea. Transcoding to x265 for supported hardware (both server and client) would reduce network load and increase quality in some situation.
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Main problem is that a proper UHD movie is between the 82-128mbps if you include the Atmos/DTS-X audio and every TV model only supports a 100mbps LAN cable.
Then you need to stream it with wifi to still achieve these speeds but that can sometimes be unstable or downscale the movie with the live transcoding plex offers.
Above the 100mbps your direct stream to the plex app on the TV will be forced to keep buffering and in this case being able to downscale it but preserve the HDR would be awsome.
That is also the case for people who want to stream something on a HEVC supported device and are on 4G or a bad wifi, you should get a better quality stream on your device with HEVC than H264, lower bandwidth, higher quality. I think it will also preserve the color of the stream than whitewashing it because of the 10bit color -> 8bit color when it is transcoding HEVC -> H264.
I was not referring to 4K content exclusively, but any content encoded in H.265/x265. I was simply commenting that Direct Play of HEVC is not limited to LAN.
But since you are experiencing issues with 4K, you should check out the rules of 4K (specifically rules 1, 2, 8):
If you really need to downscale a 4K video, you should probably look into curating your media (for example using handbrake) to create different file versions instead of making Plex do it on the fly.
To your point of streaming on 4G or Wifi, that’s why I compress an HEVC SD (480x720) version of my Blu Rays. Direct Plays like a charm, and does not require much extra effort.
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Hi Scott,
Thanks for the reply.
The Plex tips and tricks worry me about the future of Plex.
I have a Shield, still I find Shield has its drawbacks, direct streaming on the TV seems to always look better than through the Shield.
About the rules:
1,2. Don’t bother transcoding 4k is old school, 4k is now the standard in the world. The future is 8k, this should not be a rule anymore.
3. Some 4k films take too much bandwidth to direct stream unless you have something like a Shield but as mentioned above, TV direct streams still remain the best.
4. I have more than enough storage space.
I can use handbreak to do the downscaling but I think embeding the libx265 encoder in Plex would be the quicker solution. I don’t want to spend hours making multiple formats like the HEVC SD you create so that I can give every device the best quality stream. Not only will I have the high quality blu-ray file, I will also have multiple unnessosery files with different formats for the same movie (this is how they do it at most media companys like netflix), I think this is a waist of time and storage space that can easily be fixed by implimenting the encoder.
By using handbreak to create your HEVC SD files all you are doing is creating a workaround for something that Plex should support.
I have a lot of storage and a GPU that can easly decode/encode HEVC 12-bit, I would like Plex to join the future and impliment the encoder, then Plex is all the software you need 
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