Old and new Windows client problems.

[davidb7170 15]

I just posted in my similar thread, found a solution, go take a look. long story short, I rolled back to the most recent driver that was WHQL Certified, made the Empy App operate properly, and also cleared up an issue I had with Hand Brake.

Dave

[pwhodges 1833]

Sadly that driver didn't do it for me....

Paul

[softworkz 4534]

I don't know the story in detail, so the following might be not 100% accurate, it's just the rough state of my current knowledge:

At some recent time (1-3 yrs), Windows started to not assign GPUs to the desktop environment by default - if the drivers support it and no monitor is conntected. This is done to allow a GPU to be exclusively used for AI tasks or to be used for remote desktop session rendering (maybe eventually also for assignment to VMs). For RDP, this seems to bring something (a successor or extension) like RemoteFX to all Windows SKUs and GPUs (RemoteFX used to be limited to server OS and special GPUs/drivers).

It seems that Intel drivers have started to support this but they haven't got it right yet. I can't say whether this is causing the issues you are experiencing, but I thought it would be worth to at least try to rule this out.

Other things you could try would be:

• Connect monitors to both, onboard and discrete GPU
• Disable onboard GPU completely and use the A380 as the only GPU
• Make onboard GPU the primary GPU and connect the monitor to the onboard GPU

 

[pwhodges 1833]

So maybe I can use the onboard video for the monitor, but still use the GPU for encoding?  I also recall some stuff a couple of years ago about no longer needing to put a dummy monitor plug on the GPU output to use it.

I'll experiment some more later today.

Paul

PS - I suspect I might have done something untoward in the registry at some point, which is my own fault, of course!  But I would hope that complete uninstallation and reinstallation of the driver would sort that.

[softworkz 4534]

12 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

So maybe I can use the onboard video for the monitor, but still use the GPU for encoding?

Yes, you have a free choice in Emby Server which GPU to use.

I have onboard Intel, an Nvidia card and an AMD card installed and can use all three in the server.

15 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

I also recall some stuff a couple of years ago about no longer needing to put a dummy monitor plug on the GPU output to use it.

This is generally not needed - correct. 

The only thing that can happen is that RDP "takes" a GPU, then the server can't use it.

 

16 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

PS - I suspect I might have done something untoward in the registry at some point,

You don't remember what is was?

[pwhodges 1833]

This is not the server machine (that uses an Nvidia); the client will presumably just display on the desktop, whichever graphic device it is linked to, and have nothing to do with a GPU which is not displaying (the client itself never transcodes, right?)

I tried clearing out some Emby Theatre registry entries, thinking that maybe some old ones were upsetting the new client.  Nothing related to the Intel driver - so that can't be the explanation of the RDP problem, nor, I believe, the Emby client problem that comes and goes with it even though not obviously related.  OTOH, I had no problem with the RDP until the day that had both the latest driver installed and the new Emby client, but that RDP problem now happens with older drivers as well.  I'm not sure that I have found a fully consistent narrative yet...

Paul

[softworkz 4534]

 

12 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

This is not the server machine (that uses an Nvidia); the client will presumably just display on the desktop, whichever graphic device it is linked to, and have nothing to do with a GPU which is not displaying (the client itself never transcodes, right?)

You said this:

2 hours ago, pwhodges said:

So maybe I can use the onboard video for the monitor, but still use the GPU for encoding? 

Which made me assume you would be running the server on the same machine. The client never transcodes (de+en-coding) and never en-codes.

Client GPU Interactions

For the client, there are multiple kinds of GPU usage:

1. Decoding
2. Filtering (scaling, deinterlacing)
3. Rendering (including tone mapping, color conversion and scaling)

For 1 and 2, it uses either the primary GPU (default) or the GPU you have configured in the Video Player options
For 3, it is using the GPU which drives the monitor on which the video is shown (where the largest part of the app window is located.

Depending on the quality preference in the settings

• High Quality: only 3 is used
• Balanced: 1,2 and 3 is used (2-scaling only when needed to reduce the data, final scaling still done by 3)
• Energy Efficient: 1 and 2 only

23 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

I tried clearing out some Emby Theatre registry entries, thinking that maybe some old ones were upsetting the new client

The new app doesn't use the registry for anything. Which "Emby Theatre registry entries" are you referring to? Of course, Windows-specific registry settings may still affect it.

26 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

but that RDP problem now happens with older drivers as well

Which RDP problem is that?

Are you trying to run the app from inside an RDP session?

 

[pwhodges 1833]

This machine is where I transcode offline using HandBrake.

There are loads of Emby.Theatre entries in the registry, and they are created on install.  If the client isn't using them, it must be Windows Store.

Since this problem arose on updating the driver, when the A380 is being used for the desktop, then (a) Emby client doesn't work, and (b) independently, if I RDP out to another machine (e.g. the server running Emby server, when I am updating it), then there is a black screen for 15 seconds before the remote screen is shown.  I have not observed either of these effects without the other being simultaneously present.

-----------------

Anyway, following your suggestion, I now have the desktop running from the onboard, with Emby and RDSP both working perfectly, and HandBrake is using the GPU for AV1 encoding (though it seems a little slower than before for some reason).  So everything is fine for now.

Paul

[softworkz 4534]

3 hours ago, pwhodges said:

There are loads of Emby.Theatre entries in the registry, and they are created on install.  If the client isn't using them, it must be Windows Store.

The client stores all of its local settings under the "AppData" tree (exact path visible on the "About" page). 
Windows store doesn't play any role in how the app is working. The app is not depending on the store (which is essentially just another store app). The store only cares about updating, but the app would also run on a machine where the MS store is not even installed.

3 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Since this problem arose on updating the driver, when the A380 is being used for the desktop, then (a) Emby client doesn't work, and (b) independently, if I RDP out to another machine (e.g. the server running Emby server, when I am updating it), then there is a black screen for 15 seconds before the remote screen is shown.  I have not observed either of these effects without the other being simultaneously present.

Okay, then it's pretty unlikely related to the app at all.

4 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Anyway, following your suggestion, I now have the desktop running from the onboard, with Emby and RDSP both working perfectly, and HandBrake is using the GPU for AV1 encoding (though it seems a little slower than before for some reason). 

Possibly the primary graphics adapter gets priority for memory transfers.

4 hours ago, pwhodges said:

So everything is fine for now.

Glad to hear that!

[pwhodges 1833]

30 minutes ago, softworkz said:

 (exact path visible on the "About" page).

Well, part of it anyway!

[softworkz 4534]

2 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Well, part of it anyway!

Your user name is too long  

[davidb7170 15]

7 hours ago, pwhodges said:

Well, part of it anyway!

I found mine went over the display space as well, so I highlighted the text and copied to notepad, then it was all viewable...