IS hardware accel decoding a paid feature? #5058

osnapitsjoey · 2025-06-18T12:38:10Z

osnapitsjoey
Jun 18, 2025

I've added the correct env variables to get intels quicksync to work to encode videos for better streaming outside of the home, but it always fails saying "h264_qsv: failed to transcode", and im wondering if this is a prism issue, a me issue, or an unraid issue.

lastzero · 2025-06-18T12:52:31Z

lastzero
Jun 18, 2025
Maintainer

@osnapitsjoey It's free! If you have problems with Intel QSV, I suggest upgrading to our preview build, and then trying again:

https://docs.photoprism.app/release-notes/#development-preview

Also see:

Videos: Hardware driver installation for "intel" CPUs fails due to missing libmfx-dev #4967

3 replies

osnapitsjoey Jun 18, 2025
Author

okay so i installed it. I'm still getting this

/opt/photoprism/bin/photoprism start time="2025-06-18T10:02:37-04:00" level=info msg="convert: ffmpeg encoder h264_qsv selected" time="2025-06-18T10:02:37-04:00" level=info msg="h264_qsv: transcoding /photoprism/storage/cache/media/0/0/0/000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4 to avc" time="2025-06-18T10:02:38-04:00" level=warning msg="h264_qsv: failed to transcode /photoprism/storage/cache/media/0/0/0/000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4 [144.047398ms]" time="2025-06-18T10:02:38-04:00" level=info msg="libx264: transcoding /photoprism/storage/cache/media/0/0/0/000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4 to avc" time="2025-06-18T10:02:39-04:00" level=info msg="libx264: created 000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4.avc [1.540609676s]"

📂 Volume Mounts (Paths)

Name	Container Path	Host Path	Mode	Required	Description
Data Dir	/photoprism/storage	/mnt/cache/appdata/photoprism	rw	✅	Storage for cache, index, DB
Storage Path	/photoprism/originals	/mnt/user/Pictures	rw	✅	Path to your photo library
Photo Import Folder	/photoprism/import	/mnt/user/Storage/Joe/photo_import	rw	❌	For import functionality

Name	Variable	Value	Required	Description
Offensive Uploads	PHOTOPRISM_UPLOAD_NSFW	true	❌	Allow uploads that may be NSFW
Flag Offensive Photos	PHOTOPRISM_DETECT_NSFW	false	❌	Flag potentially offensive photos
Website Title	PHOTOPRISM_SITE_TITLE	PhotoPrism	❌	Display title
Website Caption	PHOTOPRISM_SITE_CAPTION	Browse Your Life	❌	Display caption
Website Description	PHOTOPRISM_SITE_DESCRIPTION	My life	❌	Meta description
Website Author	PHOTOPRISM_SITE_AUTHOR	Joe Smith	❌	Author name
Initial Admin Password	PHOTOPRISM_ADMIN_PASSWORD	***	✅	Admin login password
DB Type	PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DRIVER	sqlite	✅	Can be sqlite or mysql
MySQL DSN	PHOTOPRISM_DATABASE_DSN	(empty)	❌	Required if using MySQL
Autoindex Delay	PHOTOPRISM_AUTO_INDEX	180	❌	WebDAV autoindex delay (sec)
Autoimport Delay	PHOTOPRISM_AUTO_IMPORT	180	❌	WebDAV autoimport delay (sec)
Face Recognition Score	PHOTOPRISM_FACE_SCORE	5	❌	Quality threshold (1–100)
Video Transcode	PHOTOPRISM_FFMPEG_ENCODER	intel	❌	Transcoding backend
Quick Sync Init	PHOTOPRISM_INIT	intel	❌	Hardware init
Settings Hidden	PHOTOPRISM_SETTINGS_HIDDEN	false	❌	Hide settings from users
On-Demand Rendering	PHOTOPRISM_THUMB_UNCACHED	false	❌	High CPU/memory usage
Thumbnail Size Limit	PHOTOPRISM_THUMB_SIZE	2048	❌	Pre-rendered max size (px)
On-Demand Size Limit	PHOTOPRISM_THUMB_SIZE_UNCACHED	7680	❌	Max size for on-demand thumbs
Converted Image Size Limit	PHOTOPRISM_JPEG_SIZE	7680	❌	Max converted JPEG size (px)
Thumbnail Quality	PHOTOPRISM_JPEG_QUALITY	90	❌	Quality level for thumbs
Darktable Presets	PHOTOPRISM_DARKTABLE_PRESETS	false	❌	Use darktable presets
Resample Filter	PHOTOPRISM_THUMB_FILTER	lanczos	❌	Resampling filter method
Enable Experimental Features	PHOTOPRISM_EXPERIMENTAL	false	❌	Toggle beta features
UID	PHOTOPRISM_UID	99	✅	Linux UID
GID	PHOTOPRISM_GID	100	✅	Linux GID
Custom Storage Path	PHOTOPRISM_STORAGE_PATH	/photoprism/storage	❌	Override storage path

Setting	Value
Restart Policy	--restart=unless-stopped
Network Mode	bridge
Shell	sh
Privileged	false
Container Name	PhotoPrism
Image Repository	photoprism/photoprism:preview

am i missing any variable?

graciousgrey Jun 20, 2025
Maintainer

/photoprism/storage/cache/media/0/0/0/000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4 to avc" time="2025-06-18T10:02:39-04:00" level=info msg="libx264: created 000bf603eec024990eb913e01487682a72b14d78.mp4.avc [1.540609676s]

This looks like it worked. Can you play this video?

lastzero Jun 25, 2025
Maintainer

@osnapitsjoey Intel QSV hardware transcoding should generally work, but it requires a suitable device and service permissions with the right UID/GID:

Videos: Hardware driver installation for "intel" CPUs fails due to missing libmfx-dev #4967 (comment)

In my experience, driver compatibility issues between the Linux host and the container in which PhotoPrism runs can also cause problems. Nvidia transcoding is generally easier to configure. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide personal assistance with this within the scope of our community support.

Our Troubleshooting Guide explains how to enable trace log more, so you can see the exact error log message that FFmpeg returns:

https://docs.photoprism.app/getting-started/troubleshooting/docker/#viewing-logs

A new stable release will be available within the next week. It will include the fixes and improvements from the current preview build. However, since you've already tested it, you may be having a different problem.

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IS hardware accel decoding a paid feature? #5058

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osnapitsjoey Jun 18, 2025

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lastzero Jun 18, 2025 Maintainer

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osnapitsjoey Jun 18, 2025 Author

📂 Volume Mounts (Paths)

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graciousgrey Jun 20, 2025 Maintainer

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osnapitsjoey
Jun 18, 2025

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lastzero
Jun 18, 2025
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osnapitsjoey Jun 18, 2025
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graciousgrey Jun 20, 2025
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lastzero Jun 25, 2025
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