How to configure transcoding in Emby for Gemini Lake on Synology?

[AngelSing 33]

Hello everyone,

I’m setting up an Emby server on a NAS DS224+ and have reached the transcoding section, a topic I’m not very familiar with. The NAS processor is an Intel Celeron J4125, which, according to its technical specs and what I found on Wikipedia, has the following compatibility:

• Transcoding: MPEG-2, AVC, VP8, HEVC, HEVC 10-bit.
• Decoding only: VC-1, VP9, VP9 10-bit.

My question is how to interpret this information in Emby’s settings. Each codec seems to have at least two configuration options, and there’s a priority order between them.

I recently purchased the Emby license, giving me access to the Transcoding Tests plugin. However, I found it quite overwhelming due to the number of available options. I decided to perform the file-based test and selected all the options available. Then, I assigned a folder for the tests and started the task.

This generated several files in the assigned folder and began a series of tests, but most of them are returning errors. Additionally, I noticed there are over 1200 tests, and after 2 hours, only 16 tests have been completed.

Is this normal, or did I do something wrong?

I’d greatly appreciate it if someone with experience in this topic could guide me on how to properly configure transcoding in Emby.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Carlo 4535]

If you just select a bunch of files and tests to run you will get errors.  For example, if you selected tests to extract or overlay graphic based subtitles but the file doesn't have them it will cause an error. Same with choosing to extract subrips converting them on the fly when the file has graphic subs or none at all. Doing a test for tone mapping when the file is SDR is going to give you an error, etc...

What I would do is enable every check box to enable all the decoders and encoders.  The only real question is which should be listed first VAAPI or QuickSync?
Pick a movie or show and force transcoding if needed and try it using the default order and note the FPS (frames per second) it transcodes. Then switch the order and do the same thing. If they are close to the same, leave it how it was.  If QuickSync is a lot faster than VAAPI for a particular codec, switch the order. I'd really only worry about testing the encode speed for AVC as that is what most files are going to use when transcoded anyway. If you want to test HEVC encoding the best method would probably be do to a convert media job where you can set the criteria to use, including the codec.

If you're not inclined to want to "play" just enable them all and call it a day.

[AngelSing 33]

9 minutes ago, Carlo said:

If you just select a bunch of files and tests to run you will get errors.  For example, if you selected tests to extract or overlay graphic based subtitles but the file doesn't have them it will cause an error. Same with choosing to extract subrips converting them on the fly when the file has graphic subs or none at all. Doing a test for tone mapping when the file is SDR is going to give you an error, etc...

What I would do is enable every check box to enable all the decoders and encoders.  The only real question is which should be listed first VAAPI or QuickSync?
Pick a movie or show and force transcoding if needed and try it using the default order and note the FPS (frames per second) it transcodes. Then switch the order and do the same thing. If they are close to the same, leave it how it was.  If QuickSync is a lot faster than VAAPI for a particular codec, switch the order. I'd really only worry about testing the encode speed for AVC as that is what most files are going to use when transcoded anyway. If you want to test HEVC encoding the best method would probably be do to a convert media job where you can set the criteria to use, including the codec.

If you're not inclined to want to "play" just enable them all and call it a day.

How can I monitor the FPS during transcoding to compare performance between VAAPI and QuickSync?

[Luke 39421]

Hi, you may need to compare the ffmpeg afterwards. They will usually contain fps values throughout the process.

[AngelSing 33]

28 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, you may need to compare the ffmpeg afterwards. They will usually contain fps values throughout the process.

Hello, and where can I find this ffmpeg file?

[Luke 39421]

10 minutes ago, AngelSing said:

Hello, and where can I find this ffmpeg file?

How to Report a Problem

Same place as those log files.

[AngelSing 33]

10 minutes ago, Luke said:

How to Report a Problem

Same place as those log files.

Are you referring to this file?:

One question, is the FPS that appears in statistics for nerds something else?

 

[Luke 39421]

That is the original FPS of the source video, so not an indication of how fast the transcoding is happening.