Transcoding with Nvidia 2070 S recently stop working

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.41.8.9834
Player Version#: 1.109.0.329-ea562b95

I assume somewhat recently something changed in Plex and now GPU transcoding with my 2070 Super no longer works.

Before downloading each of these logs through Plex, I stopped the service and deleted the log folder. I then attempted to playback This Is the End (2013) a 1080p Bluray Remux @ 25.8Mbps at original quality for a few seconds before changing the quality to Convert to 1080p HD (High) 20 Mbps. The player then quits, sometimes giving an error.

Plex Media Server Logs_2025-07-06_09-25-07.zip (12.1 KB)
Plex Media Server Logs_2025-07-06_09-26-29_debug.zip (32.7 KB)

I've gotten these errors
  • Playback Error: There was an unexpected error during playback. Please visit our forums if you continue to experience problems.
  • Unknown error occurred: 4294967280
  • And its just closed the playback entirely
My setup

Currently running Nvidia driver 550.163.01 but I’ve also tried 575.64 with the same results.

My setup is a little unusual; Plex is in an Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS VM with a Proxmox 8.3.5 host. The 2070 Super is fully functional in the VM, I’m fairly certain the passthrough is not the issue. The only thing that’s not working is the GPU transcoding through Plex.

My client is a Windows 10 Pro machine, I’ve also tried Plex web on Firefox with the same result.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some details to provide, feel free to ask for more.

2

Can you see the Plex Transcoder utilization in the nvidia-smi output during a transcode ?

3

I used the linux watch command to view both the nvidia-smi and nvidia-smi -q -g 0 -d UTILIZATION commands.

I saw in the utilization the 1080p 20Mbps setting doesn’t do much. I set the delay to 200ms and didn’t see any increase. However, it does occasionally generate a couple seconds for the player, I don’t know if these are transcoded.

The nvidia-smi without arguments listed a Plex process for a few seconds consuming ~150-200MB.

However, I accidentally found something odd while testing this. The ‘Convert Automatically’ setting on Plex web will transcode successfully. I even tested this with a different movie (Thor Love & Thunder) 1080p @ 50Mbps, the convert automatically still worked.

I also tested the other transcode options to make sure the 1080p 20Mbps setting wasn’t the issue, only the ‘Convert Actually’ option functions.

4

Question: Are you setting the quality before starting playback (in player quality setttings) -OR- are you attempting to change it after playback starts.

Plex/web has a long-standing issue of not properly restarting when the quality is decreased

150-ish MB on 1080p is the the right amount of GPU memory. Approx 600 for 2160p

5

I had my quality set to maximum and then changing it as it was playing.

I set my quality to 1080p 20Mbps before starting it and it worked. I also tried pausing the video and changing the quality, that did not work.

6

You experienced the known Plex/web problem.

The engineering suggested workaround, until they finish the new client,

  1. Set quality in Plex/web settings BEFORE start of playback
  2. Start Playback
  3. If you must increase quality, increase only once.
7

Dang, this only started somewhat recently, used to work perfectly.

8

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