Plex on ProxMox Tutorial WITH nVidia Hardware Encoding

Looking back, this should have likely been two videos, but its too late now. All in this one post, we're going to install Plex into a ProxMox virtual machine, configure ProxMox for PCIe passthrough, configure our virtual machine to allow the nVidia drivers to install, and setup hardware encoding in Plex.

But first... What am I drinking???

Ft. George (Astoria, OR) Magnanimous (completely been saying it wrong all these years...) A 7% Winter-inspired IPA. This is an annual release for Ft. George, and this year the flavor is ever so slightly different. Still solid, but less 'Christmas Tree-y', and a little hint of lemon. Still delicious, but not quite the same as years' past.

For a full list of commands needed, download files here:

Sources:

Plex Repository:

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Music:
Bossa Antigua by Kevin MacLeod

Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
01:46 - Plex Install
06:20 - Plex Mount Network Share
09:22 - CPU Transcoding
11:19 - PCIe Passthrough - ProxMox settings
16:37 - PCIe Passthrough - VM Settings
22:24 - Hardware Transcode Results / Outro

[annihilatorg]

Well that sorts my activity for this evening. Thank you for having a REAL walkthrough of this process where so many others miss the most common failures.

[TechnoTim]

Nice work! Love NVENC for encoding/transcoding!

[mikehipp]

I've been enjoying a similar setup with an old Quadro K4200 passed through! First time I've ever been ahead of your videos instead of following them!

[sutty]

Thanks for this video. So clear and even in 2024 was followed perfectly. Added a Quadro P2000 to my ML350 Gen10 today and after setting up Proxmox and Plex over the weekend. I followed this today and it worked first time, no issues.

[neonicacid]

Jeff - At 5:22, you can usually just triple-click to select the whole line. Saves a bit of time instead of having to manually drag over the whole selection on a long command.

[LesKingBNE]

I love these home server videos. Perfect for this platform.

[yobdrzl]

FYI for anyone having any mount issues. Not sure why, with my latest version of Ubuntu server to this date, I had to install samba, enable and then start it just before rebooting the vm to see the mount work correctly (at least back to my synology). Thanks for the video overall though! Really has helped me!

[billychia-lungtai]

Thanks for the excellent guide. Evidently two years later it's still gold!

[RyouConcord]

LITERALLY was about to do just this, and you release a video for it. You the effin' MAN!

[claytonsingh]

When passing through a multifunction I recomend you check the "All Fucntions" box when assigning the device. It will then show in the guest as one device with two or more functions (like it does on the host).

[HannsSchulmeister]

that, my friend, went smoothly. Proxmox 8.2.2, P400, Lubuntu, Plex - I thank you very much for this.

[conorkeane]

Thanks for this Jeff, finally have a machine dedicated to Proxmox that I can pass through an Nvidia card to. I've had this bookmarked since it came out and I'm really happy it worked for me! Keep up the great work!

[wekiwa]

After watching for 18 months I've joined the Proxmox crew! Working on a new homelab server now. Found my old P1000 and enough parts to build a new toy and duplicate this video.
Two servers should address my needs - Truenas - Video Minder - Plex - PiHole on first box.

[mikediamond]

I have recently followed this tutorial and it is still valid and works so thank you very much for such a clear tutorial. I did have one issue where the nvidia drivers would not load and I had to disable secure boot in order to get them to load correctly but they are now working perfectly. If anyone else has the same problem then simply press 'Esc' on when the Proxmox logo appears to enter the vm bios and disable secure boot

[nttx]

Coincidentally, I was doing this 3 days ago. I made VM, fiddled with proxmox to get passthrough working, and then installed Plex in the VM. But just then I've noticed that I need to have PlexPass in order to use encoding. And since I really don't want to pay for watching _absolutely 100% purchased and legally owned_ movies, I've scrapped Plex. In search for an alternative, I've found Jellyfin. It's opensource, totally free, UI looks 100x better (although sometimes you need to click twice on something), it isn't bloated with PlexTV crap and - it uses ffmpeg for encoding. That means you just basically install Jellyfin, nvidia drivers, ffmpeg, and change the default encoder in Jellyfin setting to ffmpeg. No need to register, purchase or subscribe to anything. It's excellent alternative to Plex, with every function that Plex have - but for free.

[gmoneynz]

Many thanks for the excellent video and links / resources. I had been worried about moving my hypervisor from TrueNAS to Proxmox but your guidance has got me up and running. There are a few steps that myself (as a total rookie) had to adapt or side-google but that's probably a good thing as the accomplishment is even more satisfying. Can't thank you enough. All the best from NZ!

[BlitzFingers]

Just had to say Thanks! I'm a bit new to Proxmox, but this got me up and running with my Plex VM transcoding via onboard graphics. The bonus for me was the editing of the fstab file to auto-mount my shared storage. I could mount the drive from the command prompt, but this was gone after reboot. Thanks a ton for the crazy helpful content!

[dragonhead]

If you want to take the plex server to the limit, increase the RAM allotment and create a RAM disk to be used for transcoding output temp disk, it makes a huge difference

[jangrawe]

You made my day, thanks for the tutourial. My plex server is now encoding with my P2200! It only took my 5 days fixing issues... your tutourial saved my ass. Thank you so much!!!

[simonjodet]

I just purchased a Quadro P400 to enable hardware encoding. My server is an old gaming PC based on an i5 3450. When I installed the P400, I couldn't add it to the Plex VM because the i5 3450 doesn't support VT-d. Luckily I found a cheap refurbished i5 3470 on Amazon. It now works like a charm.

Thanks for the guide!