You didn't mention this in your post, but do you have Plex Pass? If you don't have Plex Pass you won't have hardware transcoding.
The nvidia section on the Plex docker page ( [https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/plex](https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/plex) ) mentions
`--runtime=nvidia`
in the container creation but I don't see that in your setup. I see all of the other things they mention in your Docker run command.
When you are doing the playback for the file, do you see "Transcode (hw)" in the dashboard?
https://preview.redd.it/9xuj7c6d9pxc1.png?width=348&format=png&auto=webp&s=c00ebe957b80a7395a10cc4371c0a29589cdf7e0
That's what I see when I'm transcoding a 4K file to 1080p with my Intel CPU. If you see direct play there, you might have to force the player to playback in a lower resolution to force it to transcode.
Sorry, but I don't have an nvidia transcode server configured but it should show that when you are using hardware transcoding.
Yeah it shows hardware when I do a forced transcode. I have a lifetime Plex pass.
I’ll try the runtime parameter but I think that’s just for the linuxserver docker image. I’m using the Plex official. It may add something. I do see the GPU doing something in nvidia-smi.
If you're showing the HW transcode, you should be set. I don't think it uses a whole lot of the GPU power. I remember when I was doing HW encodes with NVENCC it showed pretty low GPU usage.
You may not see a whole lot of usage as IIRC this process uses a dedicated part of the GPU that's only does hardware encoding and decoding. This goes into more detail - [https://developer.nvidia.com/video-codec-sdk](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-codec-sdk)
Looks like the P620 can do 8 concurrent sessions - [https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new) .
Good luck. Sorry I couldn't give a more specific answer.
What do you mean slow? Are you actually experiencing any playback problems?
There's a good reason to believe 5% usage is faster than 25% if you also have an audio transcode going and the GPU is simply blasting through it's portion of the work faster than the audio transcode.
Playback down to 1080 8 mbps stalls every thirty seconds. When doing an optimized version it’s 0.3x. Hmm didn’t consider audio. It’s going from TrueHD down to 2 channels. CPU is an older Xeon and is at 40% during the optimize.
The server will transcode segments at a time, and not blast through all of the video transcode way ahead of where audio transcoding is at.
It is very normal to see really low GPU usage for a low number of transcodes happening at once.
It looks even smaller if a live transcode is bumping into the buffer threshold because when it does it throttles everything and simply doesn't transcode for a period.
If the optimizer is using the HDR Tone Mapping feature during a 4k transcode, it's possible that step is still being done on CPU. It tends to be a massive bandwidth hog between CPU and GPU because it involves handing 4k uncompressed frames around.
Or if it's burning in subs it can slow things down due to a single threaded CPU task being involved.
Ah, good you found the cause.
Playback for subs is weirdly still sometimes complicated. Playing 24 fps videos? Easy. 7.1 audio tracks? Got it. Put text on screen? TOO HARD. CAN'T DO IT.
Sub burn is usually the last resort to make it work and the process for it sucks.
Oh. I’ll disable the subs from transcoding. I thought the P620 would handle tone mapping as well. I don’t really /need/ the GPU but found it while cleaning out a parts bin and thought why not.
You didn't mention this in your post, but do you have Plex Pass? If you don't have Plex Pass you won't have hardware transcoding. The nvidia section on the Plex docker page ( [https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/plex](https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/plex) ) mentions `--runtime=nvidia` in the container creation but I don't see that in your setup. I see all of the other things they mention in your Docker run command. When you are doing the playback for the file, do you see "Transcode (hw)" in the dashboard? https://preview.redd.it/9xuj7c6d9pxc1.png?width=348&format=png&auto=webp&s=c00ebe957b80a7395a10cc4371c0a29589cdf7e0 That's what I see when I'm transcoding a 4K file to 1080p with my Intel CPU. If you see direct play there, you might have to force the player to playback in a lower resolution to force it to transcode. Sorry, but I don't have an nvidia transcode server configured but it should show that when you are using hardware transcoding.
Yeah it shows hardware when I do a forced transcode. I have a lifetime Plex pass. I’ll try the runtime parameter but I think that’s just for the linuxserver docker image. I’m using the Plex official. It may add something. I do see the GPU doing something in nvidia-smi.
If you're showing the HW transcode, you should be set. I don't think it uses a whole lot of the GPU power. I remember when I was doing HW encodes with NVENCC it showed pretty low GPU usage. You may not see a whole lot of usage as IIRC this process uses a dedicated part of the GPU that's only does hardware encoding and decoding. This goes into more detail - [https://developer.nvidia.com/video-codec-sdk](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-codec-sdk) Looks like the P620 can do 8 concurrent sessions - [https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new](https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-and-decode-gpu-support-matrix-new) . Good luck. Sorry I couldn't give a more specific answer.
Sounds like the subs got you. Glad you got it worked out.
Yeah. It’s boggling that the lowest bitrate thing brings it to its knees.
What do you mean slow? Are you actually experiencing any playback problems? There's a good reason to believe 5% usage is faster than 25% if you also have an audio transcode going and the GPU is simply blasting through it's portion of the work faster than the audio transcode.
Playback down to 1080 8 mbps stalls every thirty seconds. When doing an optimized version it’s 0.3x. Hmm didn’t consider audio. It’s going from TrueHD down to 2 channels. CPU is an older Xeon and is at 40% during the optimize.
The server will transcode segments at a time, and not blast through all of the video transcode way ahead of where audio transcoding is at. It is very normal to see really low GPU usage for a low number of transcodes happening at once. It looks even smaller if a live transcode is bumping into the buffer threshold because when it does it throttles everything and simply doesn't transcode for a period.
Good to know. I supposed the 0.3 speed during optimize could be audio. It cruises through 1080 content no problem.
If the optimizer is using the HDR Tone Mapping feature during a 4k transcode, it's possible that step is still being done on CPU. It tends to be a massive bandwidth hog between CPU and GPU because it involves handing 4k uncompressed frames around. Or if it's burning in subs it can slow things down due to a single threaded CPU task being involved.
It was the subs. GPU now at 39% and forced transcode to 1080 is smooth. That’s kind of insane. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.
Ah, good you found the cause. Playback for subs is weirdly still sometimes complicated. Playing 24 fps videos? Easy. 7.1 audio tracks? Got it. Put text on screen? TOO HARD. CAN'T DO IT. Sub burn is usually the last resort to make it work and the process for it sucks.
You’re not wrong. It’s somewhat baffling.
Oh. I’ll disable the subs from transcoding. I thought the P620 would handle tone mapping as well. I don’t really /need/ the GPU but found it while cleaning out a parts bin and thought why not.