We’re going on a transcode deep dive—no scuba gear needed. Plex engineer Chris has the what, why (tonemap the HDR color space to the SDR color space, subtitle burn in), and how of transcoding, plus some tips and tricks on how to do more, faster.
But first, we’ve got an exciting announcement to make. We are proud to announce HEVC (H.265) hardware encoding will be available starting this week as a forum preview! This is a feature that has received a lot of votes over the years and we couldn’t be more excited to start getting some feedback leading up to the general release. If you are wondering what value this provides, HEVC encoding offers a better quality video at the same bit rate, allowing for a higher-quality video over the same bandwidth usage for streaming from your Plex Media Server! Additionally, this encoding preserves HDR metadata, which means no tone mapping is required!
This feature is being released as a forum preview for feedback prior to general release, and you can check the forums for more information. Please note the following: HEVC encoding is limited to hardware encoding only, and requires a Plex Pass. It can be used for streaming, transcoding, DVR recordings (if set up and configured; see here for more info), and media optimization. HEVC encoding is supported on macOS, Linux, and Windows when using HW encoding with Apple, Intel, or Nvidia devices (device support for 10 bit HEVC encoding is required).
About Chris
Plex user of over a decade turned Plex engineer, Chris works on all things playback and transcode in the Plex Media Server. When he’s not playing whack-a-mole with tone mapping bugs, he enjoys playing board games with his amazing wife and daughter.
More Support
Want a deeper dive? We’ve got you covered:
Transcoder
Using Hardware-Accelerated Streaming
Need to start from the beginning? Here’s how to get your server up and running:
Intro to Plex
Quick-Start Guide to Server Set-Up
More on Plex Media Server Installation
More from Plex Pro Week ‘24
