# What is the transcoding setting?
**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015
**Category:** Plex Media Server
**Tags:** server-windows
**Created:** [January 16, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015 "2021-01-16T19:35:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jd1701d](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jd1701d)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015/1 "2021-01-16T19:35:49Z")
what is the simultaneous video transcode streams mean? Is it for using multiple CPU threads for the transcoding or does it mean that it will let my computer work on multiple videos/users at once?
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### Author:  [@tom80H](https://forums.plex.tv/u/tom80H)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015/2 "2021-01-16T19:49:28Z")
It’s a cap you can set. Once the server is using that maximum of parallel transcodes (multiple videos / users at once), it’ll not allow any more (resulting in some error message on a client attempting to play a file that requires transcoding.
Of course this will not increase the number of videos your CPU can transcode in parallel.
**Edit:**
From the related [support article](https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250347-transcoder/)
> ### Maximum simultaneous video transcode
>
> Set the maximum number of transcoding sessions that you will allow simultaneously. For instance, if you only want to allow two transcodes to happen at any one time (even if your computer is capable of more), you can set the value to `2` . Most users won’t see a need to change this value.
>
> > **Related Page** : [Server Settings - Bandwidth and Transcoding Limits](https://support.plex.tv/articles/227715247-server-settings-bandwidth-and-transcoding-limits/)
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### Author:  [@jd1701d](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jd1701d)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015/3 "2021-01-16T20:02:15Z")
cool, thanks!
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/what-is-the-transcoding-setting/679015/4 "2021-04-16T20:02:17Z")
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