{"id":2003,"date":"2022-07-11T20:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T01:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lab.rapternet.us\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2022-06-06T20:57:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T01:57:06","slug":"enabling-quick-sync-for-plex-on-unraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lab.rapternet.us\/?p=2003","title":{"rendered":"Enabling Quick Sync For Plex on Unraid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Quick sync is a great way to handle hardware transcoding in plex, and also comes on most intel CPUs, so using it becomes more a why wouldn’t you question. In my plex installation, I hadn’t even realized that I was leaving this performance on the table, so here’s how I enabled it and got it to run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I have a Xeon E3-1245, with the specs below for the GPU on it. As can be seen, it does support Quick Sync video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CPU Specifications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The process to enable it is pretty simple. We first need to check if \/dev\/dri exists. If not, we need to run a modprobe i915 command, which will create the device and enable us to use it. We do need that \/dev\/dri to be accessible to everyone in order for our container to access it, so chmod 777 it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

root@ShadowOfIntent:~# cd \/dev\/dri\n-bash: cd: \/dev\/dri: No such file or directory\nroot@ShadowOfIntent:~# modprobe i915<\/strong>\nroot@ShadowOfIntent:~# cd \/dev\/dri\nroot@ShadowOfIntent:\/dev\/dri# ls\nby-path\/  card0  renderD128\nroot@ShadowOfIntent:\/dev\/dri# chmod -R 777 \/dev\/dri<\/strong>\nroot@ShadowOfIntent:\/dev\/dri# ls -lah\ntotal 0\ndrwxrwxrwx  3 root root       100 Jun  2 14:05 .\/\ndrwxr-xr-x 16 root root      3.6K Jun  2 14:05 ..\/\ndrwxrwxrwx  2 root root        80 Jun  2 14:05 by-path\/\ncrwxrwxrwx  1 root video 226,   0 Jun  2 14:05 card0\ncrwxrwxrwx  1 root video 226, 128 Jun  2 14:05 renderD128\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Now that we have the quick sync device enabled and ready, we just need to add it to the docker container. Note this is a device type config, not a path type input (trust me, the path doesn’t work, I missed the device detail on my first attempt at enabling it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Adding the Quick Sync Device<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The docker command below is how unraid ended up creating the container<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Command:\nroot@localhost:# \/usr\/local\/emhttp\/plugins\/dynamix.docker.manager\/scripts\/docker run -d --name='OfficialPlex' --net='bridge' -e TZ=\"America\/Chicago\" -e HOST_OS=\"Unraid\" -e 'ADVERTISE_IP'='http:\/\/192.168.1.211:32400\/' -e 'PLEX_CLAIM'='claim-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' -e 'ADVERTISE_IP'='http:\/\/YYY.YYY.Y.YYY:32400' -p '32400:32400\/tcp' -p '3005:3005\/tcp' -v '\/mnt\/user\/Settings\/Plex\/temp\/':'\/transcode':'rw' -v '\/mnt\/user\/':'\/data':'ro' -v '\/mnt\/cache\/Settings\/PlexMediaDocker2\/':'\/config':'rw' --device='\/dev\/dri' 'plexinc\/pms-docker:1.24.5.5173-8dcc73a59'\n\nThe command finished successfully!<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Now to keep the settings working over reboots, we do need to update the \/boot\/config\/go script to include the modprobe and chmod commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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With my old CPU, I was able to hardware transcode h264 content, but not h265 4k content. This limits the usefulness of it, however its still extra performance for my primarily h264 library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I’m unable to currently use hardware transcoding for h265 content, having the infrastructure there for my next hardware upgrade will be useful. I will also be able to make use of the hardware transcoding for my current library which only has 2 4k \/ h265 videos in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n