Unable to get HW Transcoding working

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639
Player Version#: 8.30

CPU: Mini-PC Intel Celeron J4125 (Intel HD Graphics 600) / 8 GB Ram / 128 GB M.2 2240 SSD
OS: Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS - Minimal installation (Plex linuxserver running in official docker container)
Plex Pass: Yes
HW Transcoding: Enabled
Storage: USB Connected 500GB SSD
Network: Stock modem from the ISP (Telus) I have made no configuration changes beyond what the technician deployed when he originally set it up.
Experience: a few hours so far with Linux, Plex, Docker, fairly technically competent i.e. I can follow directions.

Issue

Last night I finally decided to take my first crack at a PMS - I managed to hobble through it for the most part.

When I tested out a stream to my iPhone 15 Pro, direct play for a 4k rip worked (no subs), but as soon as I tried a lower quality to see how transcoding would work, it started to buffer to all hell, both at 1080p/720p, on my Plex Dashboard it didn’t show that HW was being used, it also showed my CPU at near 100%, I started to look at the console but I am not quite there yet technically to know what I should be looking for.

I am a little at information overload, appreciate if anyone can steer me in the right direction, I read somewhere that it might have something to do with docker not having access to the GPU?

I have attached a log I exported from the console, not sure if it is the right one ?

Plex Media Server Log.txt (240.0 KB)

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Please post your docker/docker-compose config. You need to pass your integrated GPU (iGPU) through to the container for hw acceleration to work.

3

Apologies, I am at a bit of a loss here, been trying to find this for the last 20 minutes, and have no clue how.

4

If I may add / ask?

Why Docker on Ubuntu? PMS has full HW transcoding capability on Ubuntu with the native package (it has for well over a year now; almost 2 years)

5

How did you install the plex docker container?

6

Couldn’t tell you, in the last month I’ve read 100’s of reddit posts and this seems to be a common recommendation, I have no idea what docker is or does truthfully.

7

It was common to use docker when PMS first got tonemapping.

That no longer applies

8

I followed a YouTube video, and installed it via the terminal, but also using something called portainer, not too sure but I believe those are two of the same or interface with each other?

9

I still feel there are advantages to using docker, but that’s a bigger off topic discussion.

10

Google tells me to find the compose file in a director that doesn’t exist on my OS

11

you need to access the portainer webui and map /dev/dri on the host to /dev/dri in the container.

12

Would I do that mapping under volumes?

13

You want to add a device. I’ve never run portainer but something like this. Just don’t do /dev/dvb like in that post.

14

OK this is helpful, I am getting somewhere, was able to find that dir on the host, but not sure how to find the location of the dir in the container.

15

You don’t need to find the location in the container, just use /dev/dri. Once you add the device in portainer and restart the container the device should show up in the Transcoding settings in Plex.

16

I actually added them in verbatim as per your last message redeployed the docker and I am getting the hw tag now in my dashboard !

17

OK this is fantastic, VERY much appreciate the help, and going back to using docker at all, since I have everything working should I worry too much about using it, and redo my setup without docker? this mini-PC is pretty underpowered so my goal is to keep everything as lean as possible.

18

If you don’t use Docker, the DEB file’s installer will set all that up for you.

At this point, given you’ve got it running, it’s pretty much equal.

Docker will make auto updating PMS easier (no dpkg -i filename.deb or repository configuring to do). There’s a slight overhead increase but that’s a very fine point almost not worth mentioning

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19

Well I appreciate the help this evening, I am sure eventually through googling I might have found the solution, but this likely saved me days! Seems like a great community here :slight_smile:

20

We try to be helpful.

Sometimes ‘too helpful’ :slight_smile: lol

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