JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 So I want to clarify something here, I've seen a few people state they are transcoding at 30+Mbps. This in reality is a HUGE waste of resources since most of the file's you're transcoding in the first place are going to be anywhere from 8Mbps to 15Mbps, you don't gain anything by transcoding them to a higher bitrate. What you do though is waste bandwidth, cpu, and memory doing so. FFMpeg is highly efficient and in most cases even with 1080P content you would not see any degradation over source running in the 6Mbps range for transcoding. Now if you were say running straight BR ISO' then yeah run it up higher to get as close to original source quality. But if you're just using run of the mill MKV's don't waste the bandwidth/resources, just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrostByte 5041 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 (edited) So I want to clarify something here, I've seen a few people state they are transcoding at 30+Mbps. Maybe I'm misunderstanding that setting on the server, but I thought that was a threshold based on what your network can handle so any file with an overall bitrate > 30Mbps was transcoded to a lower bitrate and anything below 30Mbps wasn't transcoded and thus streamed. I don't think the server is actually transcoding anything below 30Mbps going up to 30Mbps Edited May 6, 2015 by FrostByte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassistgak 6 Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 Thanks for the input Jeremy. I can definitely agree that 30mbps is extreme. But for myself i like to push things to the limit for testing as a way of future proofing, (last thing i want is to have the better half complaing when that BR iso is not working. Just a thought: It would be great if perhaps different mbps profiles could be set on the server, for different file types on each device. Obviously still have the option to change that on the client, but a default mbps starting point would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 Maybe I'm misunderstanding that setting on the server, but I thought that was a threshold based on what your network can handle so any file with an overall bitrate > 30Mbps was transcoded to a lower bitrate and anything below 30Mbps wasn't transcoded and thus streamed. I don't think the server is actually transcoding anything below 30Mbps going up to 30Mbps I think we may be talking about 2 different things, I'm talking about client side transcoding settings i.e. you're watching a video in the browser click the gear and select a resolution/bitrate setting. I think you're talking about the max bitrate setting in the server for streaming, which if you are yes you are correct that tells the server the maximum bitrate you can support externally and forces it to transcode anything above that to keep it under that threshold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I think we may be talking about 2 different things, I'm talking about client side transcoding settings i.e. you're watching a video in the browser click the gear and select a resolution/bitrate setting. I think you're talking about the max bitrate setting in the server for streaming, which if you are yes you are correct that tells the server the maximum bitrate you can support externally and forces it to transcode anything above that to keep it under that threshold. That just confused me, unless me being up late has messed with my memory, where in the server do you set max transcode ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the input Jeremy. I can definitely agree that 30mbps is extreme. But for myself i like to push things to the limit for testing as a way of future proofing, (last thing i want is to have the better half complaing when that BR iso is not working. Just a thought: It would be great if perhaps different mbps profiles could be set on the server, for different file types on each device. Obviously still have the option to change that on the client, but a default mbps starting point would be awesome. I can understand where you're coming from with this, but if the file is under 30Mbps you can't add data to the stream, i.e. it takes more cpu to compress down to that Say from 50Mbps to 30 (the real test if you could) than to upconvert to that from say a 10Mbps source. Another way to think of this is that when you use say winrar, it's always much more work to compress the files, than to uncompress them, same situation here. So if you have a source that's lower than 30mbps you're not going to see what the actual load on your cpu is going to be compared to say starting with a 50Mbps source transcoding it down to 30. Edited May 6, 2015 by JeremyFr79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 That just confused me, unless me being up late has messed with my memory, where in the server do you set max transcode ? Server->Playback->Streaming->Remote Client Bitrate Limit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyFr79 228 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 And actually I mis-stated there a bit, that setting sets the absolute limit for external streaming i.e. you can use that to prevent too many streams from overloading your upstream bandwidth on your internet provider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrostByte 5041 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 @JeremyFr79 ahh, I knew I was the one up too late all along Oh, and I'm telling my wife we need a new computer because of Emby no matter what Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drashna 46 Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 The ffmpeg process will use all available CPU usage to transcode as quick as possible, unless you have throttling enabled. My Emby Server PC is a Quad-Core Q6600 2.4Ghz with 8Gb ram and I don't have any issues transcoding to my Now TV and Roku boxes. Slight issues with 1080p videos transcoding to Nexus Player and Amazon Fire TV. Maybe, but in my case, it seems to use all available CPU for the most part, and cause the playback to be VERY inconsistent (pausing/buffering nearly constantly, to the point that it's entirely unwatchable, even on the very low resolution settings). However, loaded up process lasso and took a look. It looks like the MediaBrowser Server app, AND ffmpeg are being ran at the "below normal" CPU priority. Using ProcessLasso to FORCE this to "Normal" looks to have completely fixed the issue for me. I'm not sure why it would be set to below normal, but it's clearly impacting performance of the server. I'm not sure what I can post to help identify the issue in my case, but I'm more than willing to grab anything from the system, or even let a dev take a hands on look at my system. Because installing and configuration Process Lasso is a hack. The issue needs to be fixed in the code. So anyone else still having this issue, I'd recommend try to see if Process Lasso (or similar) fixes this issue for you. Also, a suggestion, could you limit the number of threads that ffmpeg uses, instead of defaulting to "0" (all). This would help prevent it from eating all available CPU power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted May 10, 2015 Share Posted May 10, 2015 Just throwing an update out there, I finally installed the second CPU in my system, and oh boy what a difference. Besides the overall server feeling snappier, Emby is really loving having 8 cores More testing to come, but the initial testing shows very promising results. Loving it! 8 cores is where its at aparently when it comes to remote transcoding and multiple users. Best 12$ I ever spent 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassistgak 6 Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 thanks for the update Nagatech. Looking forward to the results of testing. $12.upgrade!! awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 thanks for the update Nagatech. Looking forward to the results of testing. $12.upgrade!! awesome. As far as Testing the dual xeon with 32GB of ram is working great. So Far I've gotten 4 users streaming @ the same time with no issue! I feel it's like a new server 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drashna 46 Posted May 13, 2015 Share Posted May 13, 2015 As far as Testing the dual xeon with 32GB of ram is working great. So Far I've gotten 4 users streaming @ the same time with no issue! I feel it's like a new server Glad to hear it! Also, out of curiousity, what are you using for GFX? A dedicated card? or? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pir8radio 1292 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 (edited) The ffmpeg process will use all available CPU usage to transcode as quick as possible, unless you have throttling enabled. My Emby Server PC is a Quad-Core Q6600 2.4Ghz with 8Gb ram and I don't have any issues transcoding to my Now TV and Roku boxes. Slight issues with 1080p videos transcoding to Nexus Player and Amazon Fire TV. @@bassistgak Just to show you what @@CBers is saying FFMPEG will use as much CPU as it can (to a certain extent) Here is an example of my server streaming Penguins of Madagascar 1080p MKV to a single web client. This is a 2.4 Ghz Xeon 10 core 20 thread processor and its getting beat up across the board. I 'think' the only reason FFMPEG isn't consuming 100% is because the hard drives where ffmpeg is pulling the video file from is the bottle neck, in other words ffmpeg cant pull the video any faster from the drive to convert it. Edited May 16, 2015 by pir8radio 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagetech 66 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I know what you mean. Even with my 8 Core setup, Trying to push more than 4 users is a stretch. I'm confident the developers will find a way to optimize ffmpeg. Patience is key everyone! From what I gathered reading around the forums, the there is a dev build with some possible fixes for it already being tested, so a good fix for a more stable and efficient ffmepg is most likely around the corner! Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drashna 46 Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 I know what you mean. Even with my 8 Core setup, Trying to push more than 4 users is a stretch. I'm confident the developers will find a way to optimize ffmpeg. Patience is key everyone! From what I gathered reading around the forums, the there is a dev build with some possible fixes for it already being tested, so a good fix for a more stable and efficient ffmepg is most likely around the corner! Cheers! Yup, definitely. But in the meanwhile, it's frustrating. Mostly because Emby is just so freaking awesome. It is by far the best media server I've found, and the entire UI is just absolutely fantastic (and constantly growing better!). That it has issues with ffmpeg in some circumstances, while the rest of the experience is suburb is what makes it frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatharry 84 Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Is there a way to transcode audio only and just direct copy the video. If the bitrate selected is equal or greater then the video bitrate. into a different container eg mkv to mp4. it would save alot of cpu when using browsers. At the moment i think it is transcoding h264 to vp9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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