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Video encoders/decoders are parts of GPUs, not CPUs. Only CPUs with integrated GPU have these pieces of hardware. AMD is pretty comparable in that regard: http

Video encoders/decoders are parts of GPUs, not CPUs. Only CPUs with integrated GPU have these pieces of hardware. AMD is pretty comparable in that regard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Core_Next https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Core_Next but I don’t have computers with AMD APUs or GPUs, and don’t have a hands-on experience with these features.

joshstrange 6y ago
Hmm, looks like Plex doesn't have support for Video Core Next yet: https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-add-support-for-amds-video-core-next-encoding/226861/35 https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-add-support-for-amd... I'm still probably 3-6mo away from a new server build so I'll just re-evaluate then I guess and honestly I might just go with another storage server and leave my intel/QS server as-is and just go with a AMD that plays nice with UnRaid.
- DenseComet 6y ago
  Plex supports Nvidia GPUs for hardware transcoding, so you could pick up a cheaper Nvidia GPU and stick it in the build, but that will probably not be possible for small builds.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    I wanted AMD but quicksync for a Plex server is just so good. I bought an I7 NUC10 for this role and it’s great. Virtualised OS, Docker for Plex and it’ll do 11x transcodes (1080p to 720p) in hardware while also hosting several other machines. The first time you pass though the GPU to the Vm, then into Docker is a bit of a head scratcher, but it’s actually fine and works well. It has a maximum of 64gb ram and is tiny. With an nvme drive (Samsung Evo) it is really really fast. The next best option as far as I was concerned was the NUC8, and while I’d love to have the PSU onboard and no brick, a Mac Mini is a lot of money. The Nuc8 is a better option than the 10 for anything that’s needing actual graphics. The 10 has a very anaemic GPU compared to the 8, but has 2 more CPU cores when comparing i7s.
    - joshstrange 6y ago
      I hadn't considered a NUC to run the plex server, right now I enjoy managing everything through UnRaid but I'm not opposed to another device that would manage plex alone. QuickSync is CRAZY good, I stumbled onto a post about it a month or so ago and thought "Ehh, I'm probably already using it, w/e" then saw I needed to run some commands and mount a device in my plex docker container to actually enable it and I was blown away by how little load there was on the CPU. I know there has been some grumbling about QS not producing the best output but that seems to be mainly related to the earlier iterations of it, I have not noticed any issues. It kills me how long I waited to try this, it literally took <10min to setup and has been a huge performance boost. To everyone else: If you have an Intel CPU that supports QS and you are running Plex in a docker container then I HIGHLY recommend you look into enabling HW acceleration (both in plex settings and by mounting a device, /dev/dri, into your container). Here [0] are the directions I followed. Make sure you read the instructions, the first time I tried to follow this I misread the instructions and thought my CPU didn't support it or there was some other issue but it couldn't have been easier when I actually stopped and read instead of skimming. [0] https://forums.unraid.net/topic/77943-guide-plex-hardware-acceleration-using-intel-quick-sync/ https://forums.unraid.net/topic/77943-guide-plex-hardware-ac...
      - lostlogin 6y ago
        This is similar to my experience. There are some great guides on Reddit too. I found it a bit tricky in a VM as the ESXi default kept taking over and breaking it. I figured this out by poking about from within the container and discovered it had two GPUs and was picking the wrong one. Once I’d deleted the card VMware made (which means you can’t see the console in ESXi GUI interface, but can still ssh in) it all started working. As you say, it’ll do a lot of work, CPU usage is almost nil and I can’t see a quality issue. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/749hnc/hardware_transcoding_with_plex_docker/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/... > I hadn't considered a NUC to run the plex server Mine is more of a Docker host. Home Assistant absolutely flies on that hardware (it was previously on a Synology 918). It has a few other well used containers too - Wireguard, several Minecraft and some administrative tools. There are several testing machines for pfsense and some Linux machines I wanted to play with too.
- Const-me 6y ago
  Which OS are you running there? If it’s Windows, does your software have an option to select MS Media Foundation for video encoding/decoding? In my experience, GPU vendors, all 3 of them, are including reasonably well-made media foundation hardware transforms as a part of their GPU drivers. MF API is vendor agnostic. Apart from a few bugs I found in Intel’s drivers (it was about h265 hardware encoder, Intel neglected to react), the same API works with all capable hardware.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    Plex works so well with Ubuntu that I have become a huge proponent of this method. I’m not sure if it’s their developers having a bias for the OS, but the Ubuntu version always seems to work well.
  - joshstrange 6y ago
    UnRaid (syslinux under the hood IIRC) and I'm running Plex in Docker. I've seen guides on doing a GPU passthrough to the docker container so I know it's possible to do. That might be my next build, a AMD CPU and a GPU for Plex, it will depend on where UnRaid AMD support is at the time (it has had issues in the past from what I've seen on the forums) but I really want my next build to use AMD.

joshstrange 6y ago

Hmm, looks like Plex doesn't have support for Video Core Next yet: https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-add-support-for-amds-video-core-next-encoding/226861/35 https://forums.plex.tv/t/feature-request-add-support-for-amd... I'm still probably 3-6mo away from a new server build so I'll just re-evaluate then I guess and honestly I might just go with another storage server and leave my intel/QS server as-is and just go with a AMD that plays nice with UnRaid.

DenseComet 6y ago
Plex supports Nvidia GPUs for hardware transcoding, so you could pick up a cheaper Nvidia GPU and stick it in the build, but that will probably not be possible for small builds.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  I wanted AMD but quicksync for a Plex server is just so good. I bought an I7 NUC10 for this role and it’s great. Virtualised OS, Docker for Plex and it’ll do 11x transcodes (1080p to 720p) in hardware while also hosting several other machines. The first time you pass though the GPU to the Vm, then into Docker is a bit of a head scratcher, but it’s actually fine and works well. It has a maximum of 64gb ram and is tiny. With an nvme drive (Samsung Evo) it is really really fast. The next best option as far as I was concerned was the NUC8, and while I’d love to have the PSU onboard and no brick, a Mac Mini is a lot of money. The Nuc8 is a better option than the 10 for anything that’s needing actual graphics. The 10 has a very anaemic GPU compared to the 8, but has 2 more CPU cores when comparing i7s.
  - joshstrange 6y ago
    I hadn't considered a NUC to run the plex server, right now I enjoy managing everything through UnRaid but I'm not opposed to another device that would manage plex alone. QuickSync is CRAZY good, I stumbled onto a post about it a month or so ago and thought "Ehh, I'm probably already using it, w/e" then saw I needed to run some commands and mount a device in my plex docker container to actually enable it and I was blown away by how little load there was on the CPU. I know there has been some grumbling about QS not producing the best output but that seems to be mainly related to the earlier iterations of it, I have not noticed any issues. It kills me how long I waited to try this, it literally took <10min to setup and has been a huge performance boost. To everyone else: If you have an Intel CPU that supports QS and you are running Plex in a docker container then I HIGHLY recommend you look into enabling HW acceleration (both in plex settings and by mounting a device, /dev/dri, into your container). Here [0] are the directions I followed. Make sure you read the instructions, the first time I tried to follow this I misread the instructions and thought my CPU didn't support it or there was some other issue but it couldn't have been easier when I actually stopped and read instead of skimming. [0] https://forums.unraid.net/topic/77943-guide-plex-hardware-acceleration-using-intel-quick-sync/ https://forums.unraid.net/topic/77943-guide-plex-hardware-ac...
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      This is similar to my experience. There are some great guides on Reddit too. I found it a bit tricky in a VM as the ESXi default kept taking over and breaking it. I figured this out by poking about from within the container and discovered it had two GPUs and was picking the wrong one. Once I’d deleted the card VMware made (which means you can’t see the console in ESXi GUI interface, but can still ssh in) it all started working. As you say, it’ll do a lot of work, CPU usage is almost nil and I can’t see a quality issue. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/749hnc/hardware_transcoding_with_plex_docker/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/... > I hadn't considered a NUC to run the plex server Mine is more of a Docker host. Home Assistant absolutely flies on that hardware (it was previously on a Synology 918). It has a few other well used containers too - Wireguard, several Minecraft and some administrative tools. There are several testing machines for pfsense and some Linux machines I wanted to play with too.
Const-me 6y ago
Which OS are you running there? If it’s Windows, does your software have an option to select MS Media Foundation for video encoding/decoding? In my experience, GPU vendors, all 3 of them, are including reasonably well-made media foundation hardware transforms as a part of their GPU drivers. MF API is vendor agnostic. Apart from a few bugs I found in Intel’s drivers (it was about h265 hardware encoder, Intel neglected to react), the same API works with all capable hardware.
- lostlogin 6y ago
  Plex works so well with Ubuntu that I have become a huge proponent of this method. I’m not sure if it’s their developers having a bias for the OS, but the Ubuntu version always seems to work well.
- joshstrange 6y ago
  UnRaid (syslinux under the hood IIRC) and I'm running Plex in Docker. I've seen guides on doing a GPU passthrough to the docker container so I know it's possible to do. That might be my next build, a AMD CPU and a GPU for Plex, it will depend on where UnRaid AMD support is at the time (it has had issues in the past from what I've seen on the forums) but I really want my next build to use AMD.