Hardware transcoding

MovieClaw plays files directly whenever it can, and only transcodes what your player can't decode, telling you the cost first. Players that decode everything, like Infuse, always play direct. Without hardware transcoding, software transcoding still works, but it's heavy on the CPU.

On startup MovieClaw runs a one-second test encode. Whether hardware transcoding works, and what's missing if it doesn't, shows up on the Playback (播放) settings page and in the startup log.

Intel / AMD iGPU

Run ls /dev/dri on the host first. You should see something like renderD128. ARM boxes and machines without an iGPU usually don't have it.

services:
  movieclaw:
    # ...everything else stays the same
    devices:
      - /dev/dri:/dev/dri

NVIDIA GPU

NVIDIA GPUs don't use /dev/dri. Install the NVIDIA driver and the NVIDIA Container Toolkit on the host, then add:

services:
  movieclaw:
    # ...everything else stays the same
    runtime: nvidia
    environment:
      - TZ=Europe/London
      - NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all
      - NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all

Transcoding on a Mac

Docker on macOS runs inside a virtual machine and can't reach the Mac's GPU. Instead, the MovieClaw Transcoder menu bar app lets an always-on Apple Silicon Mac, like a Mac mini, transcode for your server with VideoToolbox. The server can stay on your NAS. The Mac doesn't mount anything. It reads the source over the network and sends the result back.

1. In MovieClaw, turn on remote transcoding under Settings → Playback (播放).
2. Download MovieClawTranscoder-macos-arm64.zip from GitHub Releases, unzip it, and drag the app into Applications. It needs macOS 12 or later.
3. Open the app, pick your MovieClaw server from the list it finds on your network (or type the address, ideally a LAN one), and click connect and pair.
4. The app opens an approval page. Check the pairing code and approve it with an admin account. You can see and revoke the Mac later under Settings → Devices (设备).