# Transcoder very poor quality and maxed out CPU
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460
**Category:** Plex Media Server
**Tags:** server-windows
**Created:** [April 10, 2021, 11:10am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460 "2021-04-10T11:10:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/francesco_delagarda_com)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2021, 11:10am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/1 "2021-04-10T11:10:28Z")
Server Version#: 1.22.2.4282
Player Version#:Samsung TV
Windows 10 64bit
Intel Xeon X5687 @ 3.6 Ghz
24 Mb Ram
I have been happily using Plex for about 2 years, even streaming 4k films to my tv (Plex app on Samsung TV).
Recently I upgraded server and now it struggles to transcode 1080 x264 (99% CPU) with very poor video quality on TV
I purchased plex pass to enable hardware transcoding, it lowered cpu usage to about 17/22 % But video quality is still terrible…
Any advice pls?
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### Author:  [@BobSnot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BobSnot)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2021, 12:53pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/2 "2021-04-10T12:53:42Z")
that’s really not a very fast processor given it’s age, what bitrate/codec is the media you are transcoding and what bitrate are you transcoding to?
What device are you doing the hardware transcoding on?
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### Author:  [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/francesco_delagarda_com)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/3 "2021-04-10T13:02:00Z")
I agree its quite an old processor, but my point was it was doing fine up to two days ago…
I dont know how to determine bitrates, sorry… its just some 1080 x264 episodes of Bates Motel I have from torrents…
So the files are all on my Win10 machine with the xeon, and I’m watching with a samsung tv that has the plex media app built in.
I also noticed that films now take a lot longer (like 20 seconds against 5 before) to start playing…
Sorry I cant give you more info, I’m quite new to this.
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### Author:  [@BobSnot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BobSnot)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/4 "2021-04-10T13:05:01Z")
ok, but that CPU does not support hardware transcoding, so unless you have setup a nvidia video card in your server to do the transcoding your server cannot hardware transcode.
where you playing the same episodes last week that worked?
restart the server, play some of the episodes that max the server out for 5 mins, then upload the server logs here.
> **[Plex Media Server Logs | Plex Support](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/)**
>
> Log files are an important tool that can be used to help investigate problems you may be having. It’s important...
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### Author:  [@Super4Jet](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Super4Jet)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/5 "2021-04-10T15:16:10Z")
> [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](#):
>
> I upgraded [my] server
So you say you upgraded your server? I’m curious what your setup was before. 24MB RAM is not a lot, I guess you mean 24GB lol. But an X5687 is not an upgrade to anything really… And Hardware Acceleration requires a good GPU which in your case is the - ?
> [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](#):
>
> was doing fine up to two days ago…
Did that change _with_ the update or is that upgrade more than a week in the past?
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### Author:  [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/francesco_delagarda_com)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/6 "2021-04-11T17:40:38Z")
Thank you very much for your help … here are the server logs…
BTW I do have hardware accelaration if I want, but I did this test disabling it.
Quality is the same both with and without hardware acceleration, but CPU drops from 90% to about 24% enabling it (and GPU goes up to about 45%)
[Plex Media Server Logs\_2021-04-11\_19-36-41.zip](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/qIrwHw1DpEOPjS37yXLnwZ2myHL.zip) (2.9 MB)
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### Author:  [@BobSnot](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BobSnot)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/7 "2021-04-12T12:00:26Z")
There is nothing “wrong”
you’re transcoding high bit-rate media over a small bandwidth connection and your CPU in only just fast enough to do it. Why do you have the playback bandwidth restricted to 2Mbps? that’s never going to work well when you’re downloading 15Mbps media.
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.156 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 15540kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 2000kbps
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 7954
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Seamen: Direct Play is disabled
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Seamen: media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Seamen: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Seamen: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/eac3
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] Seamen - video.width limitation applies: 1920 \> 720
> Apr 11, 2021 19:35:13.175 [5972] DEBUG - [Transcode] Seamen - audio.channels limitation applies: 6 \> 2
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### Author:  [@francesco\_delagarda\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/francesco_delagarda_com)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/8 "2021-04-12T12:59:06Z")
Thank you BobSnot!
I cant see anywhere where I limited my bandwidth!!!
Where is the setting, cant find it! 😉
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2021, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/transcoder-very-poor-quality-and-maxed-out-cpu/708460/9 "2021-07-11T13:00:04Z")
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