Wow, I never considered that too many cores may be the issue. I will for sure try that.
I believe my cpu is compatible, but I believe this is not iGPU transcoding. Pretty sure my server does have an iGPU (although I've never actually plugged in a screen so I can't be sure). I will research passing through either of those.
I also read that it's possible to use a different server for just transcoding. I have an old laptop I've been considering setting for that, but it's network speeds are shite.
Oh well that's definitely not possible for me (unless idrac counts)