Jellyfin Docker FAQ

July 9, 2025 · View on GitHub

Q1. How do I configure Jellyfin to use hardware transcoding (transcoding using GPU instead of CPU)?

A1. In order to get hardware transcoding working for your GPU, you need to configure the container as follows:

Nvidia GPU

  1. Install the Unraid plugin Nvidia Driver from CA (Community Applications). Please ensure the driver version you select is at least 470.57.02.
  2. Go to Unraid web UI > Docker tab > left-click Jellyfin container and select Edit.
  3. Click on the toggle for ADVANCED VIEW (top right).
  4. Go to Extra Parameters: and enter a value of --gpus all.
  5. Click on Add another Path, Port, Variable, Label or Device and select Config Type of Variable.
  6. Set Key: to NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES and Value: to all, or if you want to pass through a specific card then specify the GPU ID, e.g., GPU-02ac791e-6f42-b14f-3c14-8a4db2a01b8d (can be found in the Nvidia Driver plugin—see step 1).
  7. Click on Add.
  8. Click on Add another Path, Port, Variable, Label or Device and select Config Type of Variable.
  9. Set Key: to NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES and Value: to all.
  10. Click on Add.
  11. Click on Apply to apply the change.

Once you have done the above, it's time to enable hardware transcoding in Jellyfin:

  1. Log in to Jellyfin Web UI and go to the Administration/Dashboard.
  2. Go to Server/Playback; you should then see the Transcoding section.
  3. On the dropdown for Hardware acceleration:, select Nvidia NVENC.
  4. Tick the preferred options for Enable hardware decoding for:
  5. Click Save at the bottom of the screen to enable.
  6. Test playback and monitor CPU usage.

Note: To help debug further, it is highly recommended to also install the Unraid plugin GPU Statistics. This will then give you stats on your GPU and will enable you to easily see when the GPU is being used for transcoding.

Q2. I am attempting to set up Jellyfin from scratch but I'm getting prompted for login credentials. What are the default credentials to log in?

A2. This is a bug in the Jellyfin Web UI. On initial startup, it should be running the wizard to set up credentials for the admin account. If this is not happening and you are instead seeing the login prompt, then you need to go to the following URL instead to force the use of the wizard, which will walk you through the setup process: http://<ip of your host>:8096/web/index.html#!/wizardstart.html