When running live tv I get heavy buffering. My CPU is running at 5% during this time which makes me think it’s not transcoding !
I’m running ASrock AM1H-ITX with AMD 5350 Kabini. Attached my log file if some of you smart people could take a look and try to find the culprit !
Thank you!
Lots of reports on this and server crashes. PLEX wants to blame other software.
I installed a test server on an other computer and transcoding works perfectly. If you don’t have any constructive advice Smokindog, respectfully get the ■■■■ out of my post.
My post was very constructive to let you know there are a lot of posts you could read that talk about your problem but now I see your problem is obviously not PLEX.
@mbcollin said:
I installed a test server on an other computer and transcoding works perfectly. If you don’t have any constructive advice Smokindog, respectfully get the **** out of my post.
@ChuckPA you seem to be the transcoding guy, any insight?
First, If anyone wants to mouth off at each other, why not mouth off to me? I am fair but have zero tolerance for abuse or trolls. 
Hardware transcoding works differently depending on platform.
Windows platforms are such that Windows provides the API to the different GPU devices which are capable of HW transcoding.
Linux platforms are confined to QSV (Intel Quick Sync Video) using the integrated GPU of the processor (if available) through the libva API.
Linux platforms also can utilize other GPUs if two conditions have been met.
The Passmark specs for the Kabini 5350 are here. PassMark - AMD Athlon 5350 APU - Price performance comparison
Candidly, it’s not promising. 2599 Passmarks.
As a general rule, 2000 Passmarks / 10 Mbps of video bitrate / transcode session are required.
The algebra shows us 2900/2000 will allow you at most 14.5 Mbps (1.45 * 10Mbps) for a single session if no audio or subtitle transcoding is required.
No hardware acceleration is being detected in the logs.
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.974 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.975 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
The input is MPEG2,
PMS does not see an audio codec - forcing transcoding. (you should Analyze this piece of media and examine again)
Something is missing in the transcoder invocation. i need lto look at other things. I don’t remember what normal French television broadcasts look like (apologies as it has been a few years since on-continent)
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.969 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item -1
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.970 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: : no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.970 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: : no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts//
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.970 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: : codec is unavailable for analysis
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.970 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: : codec is unavailable for analysis
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.970 [6656] ERROR - Unable to find title for item of type 5
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.971 [6656] DEBUG - MDE: : selected media 0 / -1
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.971 [6656] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session 9f24339c-5c0c-4bb7-b24b-6eb06ca709bc ()
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.972 [6656] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session 9f24339c-5c0c-4bb7-b24b-6eb06ca709bc at offset -1.0 (state=3)
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.972 [6656] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7c3c150:9f24339c-5c0c-4bb7-b24b-6eb06ca709bc
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.974 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.975 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.978 [6656] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT='\\?\C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder' FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='C\:\\Users\\HTPC\\AppData\\Local\\Plex\ Media\ Server\\Codecs\\4b51335-1293-windows-i386\\' XDG_CACHE_HOME='C:\Users\HTPC\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\' XDG_DATA_HOME='C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe -noaccurate_seek -ignore_unknown -scan_all_pmts -1 -rw_timeout 30000000 -fflags +discardcorruptts+fillwallclockdts -i http://192.168.1.49:5004/auto/v2.1 -map 0:V? -codec:V copy -map 0:a? -codec:a copy -copypriorss:a 0 -map 0:s? -codec:s copy -segment_format mpegts -f ssegment -individual_header_trailer 0 -segment_time 1 -segment_start_number 0 -segment_time_delta 0.0625 -segment_list http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/9f24339c-5c0c-4bb7-b24b-6eb06ca709bc/acd533e7-2456-47c1-859f-2f036e75d905/seglist -segment_list_type csv -segment_list_size 2147483647 -segment_list_separate_stream_times 1 -max_delay 5000000 -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 media-%05d.ts -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/9f24339c-5c0c-4bb7-b24b-6eb06ca709bc/acd533e7-2456-47c1-859f-2f036e75d905/progress
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.986 [6656] DEBUG - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 11544@ChuckPA Thank you for the comment, I highly appreciate. I know the Kabini might be running short a little but I would like to prove the concept before changing the hardware.
Waiting for your feedback on “other things”…
I cannot help with how Windows manages the graphics device. I’m the Linux guy
If you look in the log just above the transcoder, it does not see anything . To me, this implies there are no drivers (?)
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.974 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
May 13, 2018 20:07:53.975 [6656] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
An interesting point also found with a user… Is the server Claimed?
@ChuckPA said:
An interesting point also found with a user… Is the server Claimed?
Yes, the server must be signed into a plex.tv account with Plex Pass.
Windows requires that a monitor is connected to the GPU.
(if you have a ‘headless’ machine, you can use a HDMI dummy plug)
If you run Plex server as a Windows system service, in general only hardware encoding is possible.
I don’t see AMD cpu’s listed as officially supported in here:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/
So your system configuration might not be able to use hardware transcoding at all.
@ChuckPA ok thank you for your help !
@OttoKerner Yes the server is logged into my account with plex pass. The server has a monitor (TV) connected via hdmi. I don’t run pms as a service.
Wow that would explain why transcoding works on my intel laptop. Any way to make sure the cpu is the problem before buying new hardware?
Thank you for your assistance
I guess using an external gpu would solve my amd issue?
Maybe an nVidia or one of the newer AMD ones, but I’d try that first.
Make sure you have a ‘money back’ guarantee for the graphics card.
Would like to thank @OttoKerner and @ChuckPA for you help and time, issue is now fixed !
I installed in my server a GT730 GPU, buffering was a little better but not perfect. I then ran an Ethernet cable and everything is running smoothly now.
For future users, server on wifi is a big no no.
Long live Plex !
@mbcollin said:
For future users, server on wifi is a big no no.
Amen!
