Quicksync/nvenc use in Plex - OK?

[PeterWeyland]

I have a FreeNAS server 11.1u4 with the stock Plex plugin pointed at a couple of Tb of movies. Is it safe/reliable/advisable to use the Intel quicksync or Nvidia nvenc? I chickened out selecting it until checking with the community first.

I just stream movies via the Sony PS4 Plex client to a TV so transcoding should be rare, but nice to know if it can be used.

CPU : Intel® Core™ i7-2600K

GPU : Nvidia Geoforce GTX 750Ti 2Gb

 

[scrappy]

Sadly, it looks like hardware acceleration is not yet available for Plex on FreeBSD/FreeNAS.

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

 

[PeterWeyland]

Sadly, it looks like hardware acceleration is not yet available for Plex on FreeBSD/FreeNAS.

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

Hey thanks so much for finding that link, I really appreciate it!

According to that I shouldn't see the option without coughing up money, but its defintely there.. I'll try enabling quicksync & see what happens. Looks like I can pull the nvidia card out & stop wasting electricty on it.

 

[scrappy]

Hey thanks so much for finding that link, I really appreciate it!

No problem!

Let us know if it works.

 

[bestboy]

You could try https://emby.media instead of Plex. I hear it has very good hardware encoding support, but I do not know about FreeBSD.

 

[Kennyvb8]

https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399


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[johnpupu]

https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399


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is this issue deleted ?

 

[Kennyvb8]




is this issue deleted ?



Erhm not a issue but feature request ;)
And no. Went the private the other day


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[johnpupu]

Erhm not a issue but feature request ;)
And no. Went the private the other day


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OK, thanks.

Look forward to receiving updates.

 

[pschatz100]

I have a FreeNAS server 11.1u4 with the stock Plex plugin pointed at a couple of Tb of movies. Is it safe/reliable/advisable to use the Intel quicksync or Nvidia nvenc? I chickened out selecting it until checking with the community first.

I just stream movies via the Sony PS4 Plex client to a TV so transcoding should be rare, but nice to know if it can be used.

CPU : Intel® Core™ i7-2600K

GPU : Nvidia Geoforce GTX 750Ti 2Gb

If you are just streaming movies from FreeNAS to a client device for playback, then Quicksync and NVENC won't do anything at all. On systems that support this functionality (FreeNAS does not...), it helps with encoding and decoding of video content. If transcoding is rare, then you wouldn't see much benefit - even on a supported system. It is an issue for your playback device.

 

[Henri Claytor]

The ability to use hardware trancoding is now available since the last plex server update, YMMV, but it's a start.

 

[Kennyvb8]

The ability to use hardware trancoding is now available since the last plex server update, YMMV, but it's a start.

What does YMMV stand for ?




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[Henri Claytor]

What does YMMV stand for ?




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YMMV means "your mileage may vary"

 

[pschatz100]

The ability to use hardware trancoding is now available since the last plex server update, YMMV, but it's a start.

The ability to use nVidia nvenc would depend upon being able to install nVidia drivers in FreeNAS, then supporting the feature. I don't see this happening because FreeNAS is a NAS appliance which doesn't use advanced graphics. Simply put, support for installing nVidia drivers and using advanced nVidia features is outside the scope of FreeNAS.

The ability to use Intel Quick Sync would depend upon your CPU. Xeon processors whose names end in "0" do not have onboard graphics - those that end in "5" have it. In my case, I have a Xeon e3-1240v2 cpu so I do not have onboard graphics. Most Core i3, i5, and i7 processors will support Quick Sync. Of course, the Core i5 and i7 systems do not meet the recommended specification for FreeNAS as they do not support ECC memory.

For those of you with FreeNAS installations on Core i3, i5, or i7 systems, if you see the option - give it a try and let us know if it works.

Keep in mind that hardware accelerated transcoding does not do as good a job as software transcoding, and doesn't do anything at all if you are not transcoding ;). Therefore, you might be better served by updating your playback devices so that more of your content can be direct streamed. I know that many late model TV's and Roku devices do a pretty good job on playback.

 

[Kennyvb8]

The ability to use nVidia nvenc would depend upon being able to install nVidia drivers in FreeNAS, then supporting the feature. I don't see this happening because FreeNAS is a NAS appliance which doesn't use advanced graphics. Simply put, support for installing nVidia drivers and using advanced nVidia features is outside the scope of FreeNAS.

The ability to use Intel Quick Sync would depend upon your CPU. Xeon processors whose names end in "0" do not have onboard graphics - those that end in "5" have it. In my case, I have a Xeon e3-1240v2 cpu so I do not have onboard graphics. Most Core i3, i5, and i7 processors will support Quick Sync. Of course, the Core i5 and i7 systems do not meet the recommended specification for FreeNAS as they do not support ECC memory.

For those of you with FreeNAS installations on Core i3, i5, or i7 systems, if you see the option - give it a try and let us know if it works.

Keep in mind that hardware accelerated transcoding does not do as good a job as software transcoding, and doesn't do anything at all if you are not transcoding ;). Therefore, you might be better served by updating your playback devices so that more of your content can be direct streamed. I know that many late model TV's and Roku devices do a pretty good job on playback.

But the majority uses use Plex in a jail or VM along with FreeNas
To have Ability to expose hw to jail and VM would mean we could install drivers. Special in VM if byhve got full passthrough.
Could also be used with cuda rendering for movie edit etc.
Seems half-baked that we can't atm install and use what ever we want in our servers. Hence the reason people often try other server software.


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[pschatz100]

But the majority uses use Plex in a jail or VM along with FreeNas

I am not certain this is correct. Yes, Plex is a popular plugin but I don't think most FreeNAS users are that concerned with it. I happen to be a very heavy Plex user myself, but I prefer that the developers focus on stability and other NAS issues.

To have Ability to expose hw to jail and VM would mean we could install drivers. Special in VM if byhve got full passthrough.
Could also be used with cuda rendering for movie edit etc.
Seems half-baked that we can't atm install and use what ever we want in our servers. Hence the reason people often try other server software.

I suspect that what the jails and VM's can do is really defined by the FreeBSD operating system, not FreeNAS. If a person has the skill, they can do a lot of very good customization in FreeNAS. But at the end of the day, it is a NAS appliance and a very good one. Adding complexity to support non-NAS tasks is probably not in the best interests of the system.

It is not possible to design one application that will be the best at everything for everybody. As you said, there are other systems out there that people can try. If you want to start editing and rendering movies, then a NAS isn't really the right solution.

 

[Kennyvb8]

I am not certain this is correct. Yes, Plex is a popular plugin but I don't think most FreeNAS users are that concerned with it. I happen to be a very heavy Plex user myself, but I prefer that the developers focus on stability and other NAS issues.

I suspect that what the jails and VM's can do is really defined by the FreeBSD operating system, not FreeNAS. If a person has the skill, they can do a lot of very good customization in FreeNAS. But at the end of the day, it is a NAS appliance and a very good one. Adding complexity to support non-NAS tasks is probably not in the best interests of the system.

It is not possible to design one application that will be the best at everything for everybody. As you said, there are other systems out there that people can try. If you want to start editing and rendering movies, then a NAS isn't really the right solution.

You do know there are more than 1-2 developers right? People with all sorts of skills. Else they can always request from others. Who says that they can't do both features and stability ? It's two different teams as well.

Yea it's a Nas but a Nas with features. Else it wouldn't survive on only been a Nas. They have ATM flexible features and so on. Which makes it perfect for many. This is simply passthrough of what hardware the server runs on. Freebsd has it so why not FreeNas?



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[Kennyvb8]

But
I'm not here to debate with you weather it's a good or bad or must-have.
People like it. People Wanner use it. Let them decide. The developers can then take a position and do or not.


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[LimeCrusher]

The ability to use hardware trancoding is now available since the last plex server update, YMMV, but it's a start.

Has anybody tested if the FreeNAS PlexMediaServer plugin has been updated consequently and supports the feature ? I have a hard time guessing from the FreeNAS issue Tracker.

 

[gt2416]

@LimeCrusher Even with the Plex version that supports it, it still wont work on FreeNAS, However 11.2-u1 has added gpu drivers as well the ability to pass those devices to an iocage jail. So we have to wait till then.
The ticket description directly references that these features will work for the Plex plugin.

https://redmine.ixsystems.com/issues/33399