Is there any plan for Plex supporting GPU Transcoding and if yes, to what GPU’s Will it be limited?
You’re asking in the wrong place… have a look at this thread: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/250946/plex-media-server-hardware-transcoding-preview-3-1-6-0-3720#latest
There are early releases available which are work in progress so we know it is in the works. As with all Plex future plans don’t expect any eta 
I’ve run the different Betas of this for a while now and can say it works well on a Haswell CPU. I run an i3-4330 in my NAS and it can easily handle at least 3 Transcode streams with the HW transcoding enabled in Plex. I just tested this and 3 streams runs nicely with that CPU using HW transcoding.
(Tested it by opening the Web App on two machines and setting the original to lower than the file’s resolution. Then opened the third stream on my tablet, again setting a lower resolution.)
So to answer the original question…
Thanks for all the answers!
@“MikeG6.5” Do you know if this Will run on a 2009 Mac Pro?
I’ve updated it to a single 6-core Xeon X5680 and a AMD Sapphire Radeon 6780 HD.
Will it use the GPU for transcoding of just the CPU?
@Patrick1610 I have no idea, one way or the other. I don’t own any Mac devices at all, so would have no way to even test it out. I run PMS on an off-the-shelf NAS. (Asustor AS-7004T) Of course I have the NAS optimized for Plex, as well as my media as optimized as possible to Direct Play most of the media for local streaming. Usually the only time I get any transcoding is remote streams. (Unless I specifically force transcodes for testing.)
@Patrick1610 said:
Thanks for all the answers!@“MikeG6.5” Do you know if this Will run on a 2009 Mac Pro?
I’ve updated it to a single 6-core Xeon X5680 and a AMD Sapphire Radeon 6780 HD.
Will it use the GPU for transcoding of just the CPU?
I’m not sure what sort of codec support that gpu has, but if it is supported it will work. Worst case scenario you go out and buy a R460 and get a great boost.
I stopped caring about GPU transcoding. The circumstances where it can be set up to actually work are too restrictive (and exclude my setup) and even when it works, the quality is less than CPU transcoding. Considering the size of my screen, I’m not willing to sacrifice video quality by shifting money from CPU to GPU.
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.
Off-Topic from the thread, but… this is my favorite setup currently !
Odroid-C2 running the Plex for Kodi add-on
@hthighway said:
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.Off-Topic from the thread, but… this is my favorite setup currently !
Odroid-C2 running the Plex for Kodi add-on
Agreed. It’s awesome. Got a eMMC in the post to replace my old and slow microSD card. Can’t wait.
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.
Assuming that one’s primary use for Plex is on a TV screen with a HTPC, and that one cares enough to bother building a set-top Plex client from scratch rather than using the myriad of other cheaper, easier choices.
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
@chyron8472 said:
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
My $40 Odroid-C2 + flirc dongle and any remote disagrees with that …
@hthighway said:
My $40 Odroid-C2 + flirc dongle and any remote disagrees with that …
Isn’t your Odroid acting as a HTPC?
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.Assuming that one’s primary use for Plex is on a TV screen with a HTPC, and that one cares enough to bother building a set-top Plex client from scratch rather than using the myriad of other cheaper, easier choices.
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
My odroid uses CEC so just uses my AVR remote. Works fine…
@kegobeer-plex said:
@hthighway said:
My $40 Odroid-C2 + flirc dongle and any remote disagrees with that …Isn’t your Odroid acting as a HTPC?
I guess I could have read the comment incorrectly…
It seemed the author, to me, was stating that Kodi running on an Odroid-C2 would be terrible and one needed HTPC with a remote. But I suppose the comment could have been agreeing that the Odroid-C2 running Kodi is not terrible
@danjames92 said:
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.Assuming that one’s primary use for Plex is on a TV screen with a HTPC, and that one cares enough to bother building a set-top Plex client from scratch rather than using the myriad of other cheaper, easier choices.
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
My odroid uses CEC so just uses my AVR remote. Works fine…
Again… assuming one desires to bother with all of that just to use Kodi, as opposed to buying a device that works out-of-the-box, with an easy-to-install Plex app; and assuming one doesn’t bother using Plex on a phone or a non-touch laptop/desktop PC.
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.Assuming that one’s primary use for Plex is on a TV screen with a HTPC, and that one cares enough to bother building a set-top Plex client from scratch rather than using the myriad of other cheaper, easier choices.
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
My odroid uses CEC so just uses my AVR remote. Works fine…
Again… assuming one desires to bother with all of that just to use Kodi, as opposed to buying a device that works out-of-the-box, with an easy-to-install Plex app; and assuming one doesn’t bother using Plex on a phone or a non-touch laptop.
Yes but for under £60 you can direct play all the things. The setup is minimal really.
@chyron8472 said:
Again… assuming one desires to bother with all of that just to use Kodi, as opposed to buying a device that works out-of-the-box, with an easy-to-install Plex app; and assuming one doesn’t bother using Plex on a phone or a non-touch laptop/desktop PC.
Are you under the impression that because the word Kodi was used that it isn’t acting like a Plex Client?
Running Kodi, with the new Plex for Kodi Add-on, it what is be referenced here.
@danjames92 said:
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
@chyron8472 said:
@danjames92 said:
If you cared about quality at all you wouldn’t be transcoding and you’d use a Odroid C2 running LibreELEC with the Plex for Kodi addon, the best picture quality output from a device so far, better than Pi3.Assuming that one’s primary use for Plex is on a TV screen with a HTPC, and that one cares enough to bother building a set-top Plex client from scratch rather than using the myriad of other cheaper, easier choices.
Kodi is terrible on anything other than an HTPC with a remote.
My odroid uses CEC so just uses my AVR remote. Works fine…
Again… assuming one desires to bother with all of that just to use Kodi, as opposed to buying a device that works out-of-the-box, with an easy-to-install Plex app; and assuming one doesn’t bother using Plex on a phone or a non-touch laptop.
Yes but for under £60 you can direct play all the things. The setup is minimal really.
I don’t think you understand my meaning. I don’t think very much of Kodi because I use Plex a lot outside of my living room TV set.
@hthighway said:
@chyron8472 said:
Again… assuming one desires to bother with all of that just to use Kodi, as opposed to buying a device that works out-of-the-box, with an easy-to-install Plex app; and assuming one doesn’t bother using Plex on a phone or a non-touch laptop/desktop PC.Are you under the impression that because the word Kodi was used that it isn’t acting like a Plex Client?
No, I’m not. I’m of the opinion that there are easier, similarly priced solutions; and that Direct Play isn’t an issue if you encode your media properly beforehand when it comes to the desire to avoid transcoding.
I also don’t care for Kodi much. Plex Add-on or not, the Kodi user interface comes with certain limitations on usability.
