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I use VMs to serve Plex and the software I run around Plex to make it fun and useful. I have a few NUCs that run ESXi, and in turn, my aforementioned VMs. The l

I use VMs to serve Plex and the software I run around Plex to make it fun and useful. I have a few NUCs that run ESXi, and in turn, my aforementioned VMs. The last time I rebuilt the box, I was considering going back to bare metal for Plex (at least), but the ability to treat the VM as effectively ephemeral but also backed up in case something happened is very useful. It is also theoretically portable if I got a second one and externalized it. I also like to think that virtualizing the machines lets me better carve the otherwise-overpowered host machine and allow it to decide how best to use it's resources, but I haven't actually sat and verified that is what happens. I use a VM on my work machine to get around Docker Desktop licensing on macOS. I also use VMs on my work and personal machines to test out new-to-me OSes that I want to play with but don't necessarily want to run full time. And once upon a time, I used VMs heavily to write and test Chef cookbooks, but those days are mostly over for me.

chrisjc 4y ago
Is Plex still able to take advantage of your GPU through virtualization? Perhaps my understanding is outdated, but I remember a time when the GPU was somewhat limited when virtualized since it potentially needed to be shared as well be exposed through a common layer. Maybe this doesn't matter for all use cases, but for Plex especially when it's doing transcoding, I'd imagine it's very important.
- MikeKusold 4y ago
  My i7-8700t supports GVT-g which lets me split up the igpu for passthrough. I have a Windows VM with HW accel and a Linux VM with HW accel running off a single optiplex micro. Both vms are doing lots of video encoding.
- discardedrefuse 4y ago
  No the OP, last time I tried GPU pass through I needed some specific settings on the mother board (beyond the normal virtualization stuff) that I didn't have. So I didn't get very far. On the other hand, I was able to very easily get GPU pass through working on Emby inside and LXC container.
  - _joel 4y ago
    SR-IOV I'm pretty sure. I think you can get away with that with direct PCI passthrough, but it's been a good few years since I did that for realsies.
- chucksta 4y ago
  You are correct, the gpu needs to be passed through. However transcoding can generally be avoided if you pay attention to how you're getting your source material. Also if you aren't transcoding 4k, 1080 is almost trivial now.
- xienze 4y ago
  I don't use transcoding for Plex at all. I've found it much better to stream directly to a client like Infuse and have it use the client's native hardware decoding. Now granted, this is only really feasible if you're streaming within your own house, but it works great. Plex can be run on any dinky little system that way and have no trouble serving up full bitrate UHD rips.
  - addingnumbers 4y ago
    Direct streaming is great but I wish you could enforce it natively from the server side. The challenge is getting your friends and family to change the default prefer-transcoding behavior every time they fire up a new client. I know you can use tricks like tautulli events to terminate transcode streams but they're difficult to deploy and a bad UX for the users even at their best. Better to have Plex tell users something like "This content can't be played at your preferred bitrate X, would you like to use more data to play at full bitrate Y? Yes/No/Always"

chrisjc 4y ago

Is Plex still able to take advantage of your GPU through virtualization? Perhaps my understanding is outdated, but I remember a time when the GPU was somewhat limited when virtualized since it potentially needed to be shared as well be exposed through a common layer. Maybe this doesn't matter for all use cases, but for Plex especially when it's doing transcoding, I'd imagine it's very important.

MikeKusold 4y ago
My i7-8700t supports GVT-g which lets me split up the igpu for passthrough. I have a Windows VM with HW accel and a Linux VM with HW accel running off a single optiplex micro. Both vms are doing lots of video encoding.
discardedrefuse 4y ago
No the OP, last time I tried GPU pass through I needed some specific settings on the mother board (beyond the normal virtualization stuff) that I didn't have. So I didn't get very far. On the other hand, I was able to very easily get GPU pass through working on Emby inside and LXC container.
- _joel 4y ago
  SR-IOV I'm pretty sure. I think you can get away with that with direct PCI passthrough, but it's been a good few years since I did that for realsies.
chucksta 4y ago
You are correct, the gpu needs to be passed through. However transcoding can generally be avoided if you pay attention to how you're getting your source material. Also if you aren't transcoding 4k, 1080 is almost trivial now.
xienze 4y ago
I don't use transcoding for Plex at all. I've found it much better to stream directly to a client like Infuse and have it use the client's native hardware decoding. Now granted, this is only really feasible if you're streaming within your own house, but it works great. Plex can be run on any dinky little system that way and have no trouble serving up full bitrate UHD rips.
- addingnumbers 4y ago
  Direct streaming is great but I wish you could enforce it natively from the server side. The challenge is getting your friends and family to change the default prefer-transcoding behavior every time they fire up a new client. I know you can use tricks like tautulli events to terminate transcode streams but they're difficult to deploy and a bad UX for the users even at their best. Better to have Plex tell users something like "This content can't be played at your preferred bitrate X, would you like to use more data to play at full bitrate Y? Yes/No/Always"