HW transcoding stopped working after 4.9.3.0 update

[Reaper47 11]

Hi. I'm running Emby in Docker on Debian. I'm using Intel i5 8500 with QuickSync for transcoding. I had everything configured nicely and working on previous Emby version. After updating to 4.9.3.0 it stopped working.

On Transcoding page it shows as if hardware acceleration is available:

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But once I start playback it falls back to software:

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On the other file I tested "Stats for Nerds" showed HW transcoding icon, but there was no tonemapping and in logs I can see it is falling back to software:
 

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Playback was on Emby Web in Brave browser. Logs attached.
 

2_ffmpeg-transcode-88b65a00-b581-4570-a4ae-ded178385be6_1.txt embyserver.txt 1_ffmpeg-transcode-90f88052-ff1d-44af-aca3-f6f2b6dcf317_1.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we’ll take a look at it. Thanks.

[jhoff80 94]

Same issue in an LXC on proxmox.  4.9.3.x (betas and stable) don't work for hardware transcoding on an A310.  Rolled back to 4.9.1.90 and everything works perfectly again.

[mhutchison 5]

I might have some insight on this to help out. On an i5 9500T UHD 630.

I have been tearing my hair out trying to find the right combination of distro, Emby version and drivers for a month off and on so I can get it off my Windows machine. 

Last thing I tried tonight was go back to LMDE, installed all of Intel Compute Runtime packages (first time doing it, not sure if it helps) installed the latest Emby version and low and behold no HW transcoding.

Then decided to disable QuickSync so only the encoders are VAAPI. Tonemapping using QuickSync, VAAPI disabled. 

WA LA!

CPU usage indicates having the encoders go through VAPPI isn't as big of a hit (if any) as transcoding through VAPPI.

Using VAAPI for the encoders might be a stop gap right now.

[Wynter 3]

Same issue here, had to use the NEOReadDebugKeys=1 and OverrideGpuAddressSpace=48 to get it working up until now but after the 4.9.3.0 update if hardware tone mapping is on with my Intel ARC 380, it just skips hardware encoding.  If I turn tone mapping off it will hardware encod.  Went back to 4.0.1.90 and it works ok there.

[Q-Droid 989]

I can confirm this. Also on a Coffee Lake CPU, i5-9600k and release 4.9.3 stable falls back to software transcoding.

Edit to add: So far this is with HDR content. HW works when tone mapping isn't needed.

This one is the previous stable release - 4.9.1.90:

 

This one is the current stable release - 4.9.3.0:

 

Edited January 26 by Q-Droid

[mhutchison 5]

8 hours ago, Wynter said:

Same issue here, had to use the NEOReadDebugKeys=1 and OverrideGpuAddressSpace=48 to get it working up until now but after the 4.9.3.0 update if hardware tone mapping is on with my Intel ARC 380, it just skips hardware encoding.  If I turn tone mapping off it will hardware encod.  Went back to 4.0.1.90 and it works ok there.

How do you get to the dev/debug options?

[mhutchison 5]

7 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

I can confirm this. Also on a Coffee Lake CPU, i5-9600k and release 4.9.3 stable falls back to software transcoding.

 

How do you get this layout?

[Lessaj 467]

Install the Diagnostics Plugin and there's a new section on the left side bar near the bottom called User Sessions.

[Q-Droid 989]

1 hour ago, mhutchison said:

How do you get to the dev/debug options?

For the Emby server it's under Manage Server -> Logs -> Settings.

 

Edited January 22 by Q-Droid

[mhutchison 5]

4.10.0.1 Beta Released!

QSV working again!

[Q-Droid 989]

Oh well. Emby 4.9.3 is the stable release so I guess I'll wait until the next one and check again. I'm glad I saw this thread before updating my primary instance to 4.9.3.

 

[mhutchison 5]

58 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

Oh well. Emby 4.9.3 is the stable release so I guess I'll wait until the next one and check again. I'm glad I saw this thread before updating my primary instance to 4.9.3.

 

Unfortunately for me, for whatever reason, even though 4.9.1.90 is the latest release for me with QSV, CPU is weirdly high. But, the new beta is absolutely perfect, other than Collections not automatically getting images since like 4.8.x.x.

[Q-Droid 989]

By the way, this problem is not restricted to the Docker images for Emby 4.9.3.0 (as the title might suggest). The host RPM installation has the same problem with HW tone mapping for Intel QSV.

 

[Reaper47 11]

For 4.10.0.1 beta there is a temporary fix for this using Diagnostic Plugin:

Not marking this as a solution yet, since I haven't tried it for 4.9.3.0 (running 4.10.0.1 beta at the moment), but if anyone uses 4.9.3.0 and has this issue, please try this and report.

[mhutchison 5]

On 1/27/2026 at 2:17 PM, Q-Droid said:

By the way, this problem is not restricted to the Docker images for Emby 4.9.3.0 (as the title might suggest). The host RPM installation has the same problem with HW tone mapping for Intel QSV.

 

Yup. LMDE bare metal for me. 

[Q-Droid 989]

45 minutes ago, Reaper47 said:

For 4.10.0.1 beta there is a temporary fix for this using Diagnostic Plugin:

Not marking this as a solution yet, since I haven't tried it for 4.9.3.0 (running 4.10.0.1 beta at the moment), but if anyone uses 4.9.3.0 and has this issue, please try this and report.

No dice. HDR to SDR still falls back to software transcoding.

[seanbuff 1313]

On 28/01/2026 at 09:17, Q-Droid said:

By the way, this problem is not restricted to the Docker images for Emby 4.9.3.0 (as the title might suggest).

Thanks, title updated for accuracy.

[Reaper47 11]

10 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

No dice. HDR to SDR still falls back to software transcoding.

Thank you for testing. So it seems that for now the solution is to either downgrade to previous stable or update to beta and use that Diagnostic Plugin workaround.

Edited January 29 by Reaper47

[Luke 42077]

On 1/29/2026 at 6:23 AM, Reaper47 said:

Thank you for testing. So it seems that for now the solution is to either downgrade to previous stable or update to beta and use that Diagnostic Plugin workaround.

HI, yes we are looking into it. Thanks.