I cannot seem to get my iGPU to work w/ Plex. Previously I had a 12100 and Plex transcoding was working great, but I recently upgraded to a 13500 and unraid 6.12.1 (not sure if the 13500 iGPU was working before the unraid update) and I cannot get the iGPU to work.

 

I've tried:
- switching containers (Hotio -> LSIO -> Official)

- updated unraid from 6.12.0 to 6.12.1

- updated plex-pass claim code

- changed transcoding settings

- restarted server multiple times

- plugged in HDMi cable

- (re)installed and verified the iGPU plugin and the /dev/dri extra parameter

- added/removed the unraid 6.12 i915 blacklist settings

- enabled iGPU in BIOS

- tried adding HardwareDevicePath="/dev/dri/renderD128" to Plex settings

- verified card0 and renderD128 exist in /dev/dri

- tried transcoding w/ Jellyfin, which shows GPU activity in the unraid web GUI (unlike Plex), but also stresses my CPU to 60%+ so I don't think that's fully working either.

 

 

I am lost on what to do next. Everything worked w/ the 12100 so what gives now? Is it possible the card0/renderD128 is from the 12100 and not the 13500 (i.e. it's not the proper dri files)?

 

edit: Uploaded Diagnosticsdiagnostics-20230621-1250.zip

 

 

edit2: It appears that hw transcoding does work for some files, but not others?

Edited June 21, 20233 yr by stuhby

I'm having some problems with plex hardware transcoding since moving to 6.12.0 a few days ago. Was working well on unraid 6.11.5.

 

Checkign the logs in plex, I see 

[Req#d9b/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Failed to initialise VAAPI connection: -1 (unknown libva error).

and

[Req#ab55/Transcode/1qakjznm3xolwgd9qrw632z3] Transcode runner appears to have died.

 

Works ok if I disable hardware transcode in plex config - but CPU goes up (as expected). 

 

Hardware is Dell Poweredge T630 with Nvidia Telsa P4. Currently using nvidia driver 535.43.02 but had the same problem with latest version 535.54.03. 

I thought I had fixed this a few days ago by updating permissions to 0777 on /tmp which is set as the /transcode container path - but the problem is back.

An update - things seem be working for the most part - but I think some files cause hw transcode issues. I've moved to plex 1.32.4.7195 which release notes say something about fixing a transcode issue for linux users (I can't find those notes now to quote exact wording). I'm not sure if its an Unraid v6.12.x issue or plex at this point.

If I start playback via the app.plex.tv domain, most files will play ok. If I change the quality setting to something that needs transcode, it stops playing. I can see in the plex dashboard that the GPU will briefly show 1 process for a second, then go back to 0 processes. 

My transcoding is doing the same thing. Some files are playing OK, but others will briefly show GPU activity and then stop and use the CPU.

There is a bug in the latest version of PMS were if you try to transcode 4k HDR with tone mapping the transcoder kills over. This is with intel iG

PUs...nvidia still works fine.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/hdr-tone-mapping-with-hw-transcoding-not-working-for-12900k-cpu-on-pms-version-1-32-5-7210/845595

Edited June 27, 20233 yr by david279

Yup, this seems to be exactly it. When I disable HDR tone mapping, my files hw transcode via intel iGPU. Guess I just have to wait for Plex to update to fix the bug.

Edited June 27, 20233 yr by stuhby

Plex has had these issues with later Intel iGPU and HDR for several years now. 

 

Best is to find a earlier release that works for you, then stay there for awhile.

 

I've stopped chasing the latest Plex updates.  They keep breaking stuff as they rush to roll out the newest enhancements.

It seems the new versions of Plex did not fix this yet... for me it's mostly HEVC Dolby Vision files that only hw transcode when I disable HDR Tone Mapping. With HDR tone mapping it doesn't work.