Plex Re-Encoder

GPU-accelerated HEVC (H.265) re-encoding for Plex media libraries with Dolby Vision support.

Features

Encoding

• GPU Encoding — NVIDIA NVENC hardware acceleration (10-50x faster than realtime)
• CPU Encoding — libx265 software encoding when no GPU is available
• H.265 (HEVC) & H.264 — Encode to HEVC or H.264 with configurable quality
• Presets — Auto, Film, Animation, Grain, Custom with per-preset CQ/bitrate/speed
• Constant Quality (CQ) — Configurable quality level with max bitrate cap
• Resolution Scaling — Downscale 4K to 1080p, 1440p, 720p, or keep original
• Test Mode — Encode only the first 5 minutes for quick quality checks

HDR & Dolby Vision

• HDR10 — Passthrough and metadata preservation
• HLG — Hybrid Log-Gamma support
• Dolby Vision — DV Profile 5, 7, 8 support with P8.4 conversion
• DV P5 Conversion — Convert DV P5 to P8.4 using libplacebo + Vulkan
• HDR to DV Upgrade — Convert HDR10 content to Dolby Vision P8.4
• dovi_tool Integration — Automatic RPU extraction and injection

Audio

• Codec Options — Passthrough, Opus, AAC, AC3, EAC3
• Per-Stream Control — Configure codec and bitrate for each audio track individually
• Audio Filters — All tracks, first only, English only, or specific language
• Bitrate Control — Configurable per-codec bitrate (64k-640k)

Multi-GPU

• Auto Detection — Automatically detects all NVIDIA GPUs
• Auto Load-Balance — Distributes across all local GPUs and remote servers equally
• VRAM-Based Concurrency — 1 encode per 2 GB VRAM, configurable
• VRAM-Aware Assignment — GPUs with ≤2GB VRAM excluded from 4K jobs (prevents CUDA OOM)
• Idle GPU Utilization — Jobs can use idle GPUs even when max concurrent limit is reached
• GPU Selection — Auto, All Local, All Remote, specific GPU, or specific server
• OOM Recovery — Automatic re-queue on GPU out-of-memory (up to 3 retries)

Remote GPU (RRP)

• Remote Encoding — Offload encodes to remote GPU servers over TCP
• FUSE Mount — Stream input files on-demand (encoding starts immediately, only transfers bytes ffmpeg reads)
• Multi-Platform — Linux (NVENC, QSV, VAAPI) and macOS (VideoToolbox) GPU servers
• Auto-Detect Encoder — Server capabilities detected via ping (NVENC, VideoToolbox, QSV, AMF, CPU)
• HMAC-SHA256 Auth — Secure authentication with shared secret and timestamp
• SHA256 Verification — Output file integrity check
• CUDA Hwaccel — Hardware decode on NVIDIA remote GPUs
• VideoToolbox — Apple Silicon hardware encoding on macOS (HEVC/H.264)
• Live Progress — Real-time encoding progress streamed back
• Cancel Propagation — Cancelling kills ffmpeg on the remote server, disconnect auto-kills
• Auto Cleanup — Temp files removed on cancel, failure, or disconnect
• Load Balancing — Distribute jobs across multiple remote servers
• GPU Server Mode — Share your GPU with other Recode instances
• Health Check — Authenticated ping with live status dots and encoder type in GPU Target dropdown
• Per-Server Controls — Power button (green/orange/red), enable/disable per server
• Remote GPU Jobs — GPU servers show incoming jobs with client IP and filename
• Single Binary — recode-remote handles server, client, and ping
• Single Port — Everything over one TCP connection (default 9878)

Plex Integration

• Library Scanner — Scan Plex libraries and detect candidates for re-encoding
• Webhook Auto-Encode — New media added to Plex is automatically queued
• Post-Encode Rescan — Plex library refreshed after each encode completes
• Token Auto-Detection — Finds Plex token from Preferences.xml
• Library Profiles — Different encode settings per Plex library

Queue & History

• Drag & Drop — Reorder queue items by dragging
• Concurrent Encodes — Run multiple encodes simultaneously
• Pause / Resume — Pause individual encodes (SIGSTOP/SIGCONT)
• Search & Filter — Search by name, filter by codec, HDR type, status
• Pagination — Configurable page size for queue, history, and scan results
• Unlimited History — Full encode history with detailed logs
• Retry Failed — One-click retry for failed or cancelled jobs
• Discard Larger — Automatically discard encodes that are larger than the original

Automation

• Folder Watch — Monitor directories for new files and auto-queue
• Scheduled Encoding — Set active hours (e.g., encode overnight only)
• Auto-Start Queue — Queue starts automatically when jobs are added
• Library Profiles — Per-library settings for codec, quality, resolution, audio

Web Interface

• Real-Time Progress — Live encoding stats via WebSocket with interpolated progress between updates
• Smooth Progress — Preparing phase, decimal percentages, frame-based fallback, 1-second interpolation
• System Monitoring — CPU, RAM, GPU utilization, temperature, VRAM in header
• GPU Graphs — Per-GPU utilization, VRAM, and temperature charts with VRAM capability labels
• Dark / Light Theme — Toggle with header icon or in Settings
• Mobile Responsive — Adapts to desktop, tablet, and mobile screens
• Settings Modal — All settings in one place, save without closing, unsaved indicator
• System Transcodes — View all ffmpeg/Plex processes, remote GPU jobs on servers
• Find Duplicates — Detect original + encoded file pairs
• Space Savings — Total potential savings for scanned libraries
• Scan Cache — Instant re-scans with local metadata cache
• Stats Tab — Aggregate stats: files encoded, space saved, compression ratio

Updates & Deployment

• Compiled Binary — No Python, venv, or pip required on target
• Auto-Updates — Daily GitHub check, one-click update with backup and live log
• Setup Wizard — System detection, GPU config, Plex integration, GPU Server Mode
• Bundled Tools — ffmpeg, ffprobe, recode-remote, dovi_tool, mediainfo, mkvmerge
• Multi-Distro — Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, Alma, Rocky, openSUSE, SLES, Arch, Manjaro
• Per-Distro NVIDIA — Separate driver install handlers per distribution
• Systemd Service — Auto-start on boot with restart watcher
• FUSE Auto-Setup — Installer installs fuse3 and configures fuse.conf

Quick Install

wget -qO- https://github.com/tarquin-code/plex-recencoder/releases/latest/download/plex-recode.tar.gz | tar xz && cd plex-recode && sudo bash install.sh

Then open http://your-server:9877 in a browser.

Requirements

Linux (Full Application)

• NVIDIA GPU with drivers (for GPU encoding) — CPU-only mode available
• Linux (RHEL/Debian/Arch-based distros)
• No Python required — ships as a compiled binary

macOS (GPU Server Only)

• macOS 11+ on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• macFUSE — brew install macfuse (required for FUSE mount mode)
• Uses VideoToolbox hardware encoder for HEVC/H.264

Bundled Tools (no manual install needed)

Linux:

• recode — Main application binary (compiled, no Python needed)
• ffmpeg / ffprobe — Jellyfin static build with NVENC, QSV, VAAPI, libx265
• recode-remote — RRP remote GPU encoding (server + client + ping)
• dovi_tool — Dolby Vision metadata conversion
• mkvmerge / mkvextract — MKV muxing for DV encodes
• mediainfo — Detailed media analysis

macOS (in macos/ folder):

• recode-remote — RRP server binary (ARM64, with FUSE support)
• ffmpeg / ffprobe — Jellyfin static build with VideoToolbox

Remote GPU Encoding

Recode includes RRP (Recode Remote Protocol) for offloading encodes to remote GPU servers. Supports both Linux (NVENC) and macOS (VideoToolbox) servers.

Linux GPU Server Setup

1. Install Recode on the GPU server (same installer)
2. Enable GPU Server Mode in Settings → Remote GPU, set a port and shared secret
3. Add Remote Servers on the client in Settings → Remote GPU
4. Select "Remote" targets in the GPU Target dropdown

macOS GPU Server Setup

The Mac runs as a headless GPU server only (no web UI needed):

# 1. Install macFUSE (required for FUSE mount mode)
brew install macfuse
# Approve the kernel extension in System Settings → Privacy & Security, then reboot

# 2. Copy binaries from the macos/ folder in the release package
mkdir -p ~/recode
cp macos/recode-remote macos/ffmpeg macos/ffprobe ~/recode/
chmod +x ~/recode/*

# 3. Start the GPU server
~/recode/recode-remote server --port 9878 --secret YOUR_SECRET --ffmpeg ~/recode/ffmpeg

# 4. On the Linux Recode instance, add the Mac as a remote server:
#    Settings → Remote GPU → Add Server → enter Mac IP:9878 and the secret

The encoder type (VideoToolbox) is auto-detected — no manual configuration needed. The GPU Target dropdown will show 🟢 Server Name (videotoolbox).

To run on startup, create a launchd plist:

cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.recode.remote.plist << EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key><string>com.recode.remote</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YOUR_USER/recode/recode-remote</string>
        <string>server</string>
        <string>--port</string><string>9878</string>
        <string>--secret</string><string>YOUR_SECRET</string>
        <string>--ffmpeg</string><string>/Users/YOUR_USER/recode/ffmpeg</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key><true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key><string>/tmp/recode-remote.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key><string>/tmp/recode-remote.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.recode.remote.plist

How It Works

The remote server mounts input files on-demand via FUSE — encoding starts immediately without uploading. Only the bytes ffmpeg reads are transferred. Output is returned with SHA256 verification.

Firewall

Open the RRP port (default 9878) on the GPU server:

# Linux: firewalld (RHEL/Fedora/Rocky/Alma)
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=9878/tcp && firewall-cmd --reload

# Linux: ufw (Ubuntu/Debian)
ufw allow 9878/tcp

# macOS
sudo /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --add ~/recode/recode-remote --unblockapp ~/recode/recode-remote

Configuration

On first launch, a setup wizard guides you through:

1. System capability detection (GPU, ffmpeg features, tools)
2. GPU configuration and concurrency limits
3. Plex integration (auto-detects token)
4. Default encoding settings
5. Queue behavior
6. GPU Server Mode (optional)

All settings are configurable via the web UI at any time.

Plex Webhook

Auto-encode new media added to Plex:

1. Plex → Settings → Webhooks
2. Add: http://your-server:9877/api/plex-webhook
3. New media is automatically queued using library profiles

Service Management

systemctl start recode      # Start
systemctl stop recode       # Stop
systemctl restart recode    # Restart
systemctl status recode     # Status
journalctl -u recode -f     # Live logs

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Tarquin Douglass

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE for the full text.

Third-Party

This software uses: ffmpeg (LGPL/GPL), dovi_tool (MIT), mkvtoolnix (GPL), NVIDIA NVENC (proprietary). Dolby, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Digital are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. Plex is a trademark of Plex, Inc.