Plex Hardware Transcoding on AMD help please

[yakuzah]

So I am very new to UNRAID. I wanted a robust media server and built my first server using my AMD system as the core. All is built and working fiine, but I need hardware transcoding on my Plex server.

 

I have Plex as a docker, and I am trying to get hardware transcoding working. I have read all previous posts regarding appending i915.alpha_support=1 to my syslinux.cfg file rebooting and testing 'modprobe i915' from the command line. I am fine and comfortable making changes to syslinux and modprobe on the command line works without error.

 

However, I do not have a /dev/dri, so I am unable to chown or chmod the directory and subsequently add the extra parameters to the docker to allow for hardware transcoding!

 

Firstly are the commands discussed in multiple posts relevant for AMD? Or are these Intel specific, please? Also if why do I not have a '/dev/dri' and how to I enable something so this directory appears please?
 

At this point I am at a dead end and I am looking for any help and assistance from the community so I can transcode in hardware.

 

Any help would be appreciated.  I would really like to get this working if possible as all my family use Plex and anymore than two streams kills the server as it cannot cope with transcoding.

 

Any files or logs let me know

 

Thanks in advance

[saarg]

It's only available for intel CPUs that are supported by the i915 module.

 

[yakuzah]

23 minutes ago, saarg said:

It's only available for intel CPUs that are supported by the i915 module.

 

Thanks saarg, so even if you used a AMD module it would not work?

[unevent]

AMD GPU on Windows only last I heard.  Intel CPU with Quick Sync on most platforms.

 

edit: https://forums.plex.tv/t/amd-for-hw-transcoding-or-intel-nvidia-only/234695/5

 

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by unevent

[yakuzah]

6 minutes ago, unevent said:

AMD GPU on Windows only last I heard.  Intel CPU with Quick Sync on most platforms.

 

edit: https://forums.plex.tv/t/amd-for-hw-transcoding-or-intel-nvidia-only/234695/5

 

 

Damn..   that's a real shame. Renders my Plex installation on my UNRAID server pretty useless for more than one stream.Unless I invest a lot of cash on an Intel Rig wth Nvidia card Plex is not going to be able to service video content to my family in my house.

[Hoopster]

5 hours ago, yakuzah said:

So I am very new to UNRAID. I wanted a robust media server and built my first server using my AMD system as the core. All is built and working fiine, but I need hardware transcoding on my Plex server.

 

This page from Plex will give you the full rundown on the various hardware transcoding scenarios and what is supported:

 

https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/

 

As you already know now, AMD GPUs are not supported on Linux.

 

Additionally, even with Plex Docker/unRAID only Intel CPUs with integrated graphics supporting Quick Sync Video can easily be utilized.  There are no nVIDIA graphics drivers bundled with unRAID to allow discrete nVIDIA GPUs to be used for Plex hardware transcoding.  A special unRAID build would have to be produced and maintained in order to support this.

 

The bottom line is that, currently,  only Intel iGPUs supporting QSV can be used for Plex hardware transcoding on unRAID.

 

For software transcoding you follow the general recommendation of 2000 passmarks per 1080p stream that you wish to simultaneously transcode and 2000 more for unRAID OS and other system overhead. So, for example, on my Xeon E3-1245v5 CPU with a passmark score of 10,400, I could have four simultaneous transcoded streams + the unRAID overhead.

 

Check out the passmark score for your CPU to see what it would be able to handle

 

Of course, transcoding (hardware or software) is only necessary if your content will not direct play to your media clients.  If you encode your media in formats your media clients can handle natively, you don't need to worry about transcoding within your home network.  Most transcoding that is done from my network is for remote/mobile clients.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by Hoopster

[yakuzah]

Thanks for excellent reply. I'll have to live with what I have I guess

 

[John_M]

2 hours ago, yakuzah said:

I'll have to live with what I have I guess

 

Plex has an Optimize function. You can use it to generate optimised versions of your media files (i.e. ones that don't need to be transcoded in real time) by doing a one-off transcode, which can be slower than real-time if necessary, and storing the result. Optimised media files need very little CPU power for Plex to serve but, of course, they occupy space on your array.

 

You don't say which AMD processor you're using. Any Ryzen has enough processing power to software-transcode in real time (the entry level R3 1200 has a passmark of 6771). Previous generation Athlons and A-series APUs are less capable, and the ultra-cheap A6-6400K (with a passmark of 2299) that I have in one of my servers struggles with real-time transcoding but is fine with optimised media.

[yakuzah]

The processor is an A10 5800 4 cores and 4 threads.  It has an APU as well.

 

I know the optimize function. I have never understood how to watch the converted version though, Plex documentation just states that Plex server will automatically use the best version, which seems a tad strange to me

 

[pwm]

9 minutes ago, yakuzah said:

Plex documentation just states that Plex server will automatically use the best version, which seems a tad strange to me

 

No stranger than having Plex decide that it needs to transcode.

[yakuzah]

Agreed, but how does Plex know which one to use? Did the server detect that the video is buffering and then pay the alternate file?

[John_M]

The Plex server is made aware of the capabilities of the player when the user asks it to serve up the media. It therefore knows which containers, codecs, levels and numbers of audio channels are supported. In any case, on the client I use you can manually override the server's choice of which version of the media you want it to deliver.

 

Your processor has a passmark of 4638 so it will easily transcode a single stream in real time. It's a shame Plex can't yet make use of the integrated Radeon graphics to accelerate the transcoding process though as it's somewhat more powerful than Intel's integrated graphics.

 

FWIW I rip DVDs and Blu-rays to MKV files, then have Plex optimise SD material using the Original Quality preset, which converts the MPEG-2 video to MPEG-4 and the AC-3 audio to AAC. For HD material I use the Optimized for TV preset, which reduces the video bit-rate and sorts out the tricky high bit-rate multi-channel audio tracks. If I particularly need it I might do a second pass on HD material using the Optimized for Mobile preset. The Plex server keep track of how many different versions of each title it has and actually displays the number in its web interface.

[yakuzah]

Thanks very much for all your advice. That's been really helpful.  I'll look at conversion were needed.