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Weekend Project: Setup Help?


andrewbee

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andrewbee

Skills:

Decent knowledge with Windows and Mac

Zero knowledge with Linux/Ubuntu etc

Very very average networking skills

Top notch Resilience and willingness to learn WARNING: COMPLETE NOOB ALERT! 

 

I am currently running Emby on my workstation which is an Alienware Aurora R4 (4930K, GTX 690) and having that switched on all day with my dual monitors and other stuff hasnt been kind to my Electric bill.

 

Trying to workout the best possible, stable and economical setup has been quite challenging but its the ultimate goal here.

 

I have the following:

Intel NUC5i7RYH (256gb SSD and 16GB)

Intel NUC5i5RYH  (128GB and 8GB)

A 2010 Macbook Pro 17" i7(8gb RAM max, hard drive upgraded to SSD)

 

1 unused Windows 8.1 licence

 

local Clients:

Sony Bravia TV 2014 (needs an HTPC or Streamer box to enjoy the full emby experience)

Ipad

Workstation

 

Remote Clients:(still needs to be setup, will cross that bridge once all local clients are sorted)

1 laptop user

1 TV user connected to a PC

 

Networking:

R7500 - AC2350 Nighthawk X4: The router is located on the 1st floor but the most used local client will be the TV located downstairs(ground floor) with only wireless access to the home network.

 

Question 1: Do you think the Intel NUC5i7RYH is more than capable of handling 5 HD streams steadily. Its relatively new hardware and I have never tinkered with such boxes until now(well this weekend). I plan on having this as the server PC connected to my usb3 hard drive. I hope this can work as an always on PC as oppose to buying a NAS?

I did try using the Mac as the server. I dont know about Linux but honestly, Emby Server on Windows is the most stable package I have experienced so far. The Mac was just 'difficult' to remain stable and wasn't a fan of KODI's interface. I can only hope this improves with time.

 

Question 2: I think this is a no brainer but I assume in order to handle 5+ streams, it would be wise to have the server PC connected with an ethernet cable to the router and have it feed to the clients. I was hoping to avoid this so I only keep one NUC as the SERVER and Client for the TV(wired directly-hdmi), have that with the hard drive downstairs and connected wirelessly to the home network to stream to other clients. bear in mind the router and NUC are both certified 'AC'.

 

Question 3: I really would like to have Emby Theater as my main client for the Sony TV but  that is only available on Windows. So Is it wise to use one of the Linux builds as the main OS for my Server PC and give the TV PC(Intel NUC5i5RYH ) the Windows licence. This is certianly unknown territory for me. So I was wondering, if this was the better option, how easy will it be to install and tinker without too many uber technical linux hurdles or should I just install Windows 10 technical Preview??

 

The other option will be to return the Intel NUC5i5RYH  and get an android TV box or ROKU. I am just not sure what the interface looks and feels like. Would be nice to see a Youtube video demo. Also, how much metadata it parses and the subtitles support for these boxes as I sometimes run into a few encoded files in my library that require special treatment in the MadVR settings of Emby theater to display its subtitles without invoking MPC or VLC as the external player.

 

Thats All for now. Will appreciate any advice that will give me optimal experience and possibly save me money. Thanks.

 

554bfeeef001c_NUC.jpg

Will begin installation later this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

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techywarrior

The NUC will struggle to transcode that many streams simultaneously. If a lot of the media can be direct played then the NUC will be "ok". What format is your media in? Most likely the biggest problem will be the audio so the server will at least need to transcode the audio stream.

 

I'd recommend having the server be something a bit more robust as the NUC is using a low power CPU it's not really the same as a higher wattage i5. And definitely use Ethernet on the server, and as many clients as feasible.

 

The Roku is great for Emby on a TV. I haven't used an Android box for Emby but the new app Ebr has been showing off looks really nice.

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andrewbee

The NUC will struggle to transcode that many streams simultaneously. If a lot of the media can be direct played then the NUC will be "ok". What format is your media in? Most likely the biggest problem will be the audio so the server will at least need to transcode the audio stream.

 

This was one of my primary concern. I did quite a bit of investigation and 5 streams will be my max load at any given time. 2 remote clients, the others being local, I was hoping that the local devices will be able to direct play (DLNA) with little draw on CPU power and mainly remote clients taking all the juice. On a normal day, it will be 1 local client and 1 remote client.

 

As for format, they are mostly mkv containers. Will have to look further in to let you know whats inside. All clients support my library natively, including the TV.

Edited by andrewbee
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techywarrior

For a time I ran Emby server on an i5 NUC and it was able to handle transcoding 2 streams at the same time. The computers on your local network shouldn't require any transcoding unless you are playing the media in the web browser. Figure out how many full fledged computers on the local network would be playing content via Emby Classic, Kodi, or Emby Theater and remove that number from your total client count. All of those devices will direct play anything you have. Now, depending on exactly what is in the container there is a good chance that a Roku can direct play everything too. Not sure on Android since it seems like different devices and OS versions could play different things directly so you would need to know more before considering that. The remote clients will almost always need to transcode unless you have a ton of upload bandwidth and can stream upstream at full bitrates.

 

It sounds like you may be alright with the NUC if you only anticipate having 1 remote client streaming at a time.

 

Still recommend using Ethernet as much as you can, or at least for the server.

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andrewbee

For a time I ran Emby server on an i5 NUC and it was able to handle transcoding 2 streams at the same time. 

Was that steady or did it struggle? May I ask what you switched too?

 

Also, noob question...what is Emby Classic? I have only seen theater and the Web Client. Also what will you classify as a ton of Upload bandwidth.

 

Thanks for the advice.

Edited by andrewbee
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techywarrior

When I ran the NUC as the server it was running Windows Media Center as well as Emby server. I never noticed any issues transcoding two streams at once but I don't recall now if I ever tried two full rez BD transcodes at the same time. I initially switched to running Emby on my unRAID server but Embyy was too unstable for me. I then put it on a spare parts machine that I put together from stuff in the closet. The main thing I found annoying with Emby on the NUC was that the HD access time was slow (I had a 2.5" laptop drive in it not an SSD) and that made everything just feel slower then when it was on my previous server (which mostly turned into the "new" server). My current server is an older i3 but it works better then the newer i5 partly because of the HD and also because the i5 is more thermally constrained.

 

Emby Classic is the Windows Media Center addon version of Emby. WMC is a great interface for the TV (since it was designed for that) and Emby Classic ties into it really well. It's fully designed for control with a remote. Eventually Emby Theater will eclipse Emby Classic but for me it's still the best Emby experience. (I haven't tried the Kodi plugin in a while but that has made huge strides lately too)

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andrewbee

I will definitely try Emby Classic as the TV client. Will install Windows on the NUC i7 later this evening and Setup Emby Server on it. Gradually stress test it and report any findings. I think this is a more capable NUC especially paired with an SSD and RAM but only real world experiment will tell. Thanks for the advice.

 

Welcome any other ideas especially anybody with a similar NUC setup.

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andrewbee

:(

 

I might just have to throw in the towel with Emby. I have a good number of iOS mobile and tablet users all with the same Video Apps and I have been tinkering with trying to get the Server to direct stream or play my media from my workstation to these DLNA capable devices for the last two weeks. I just dont know what to do anymore at this point. I was really hoping the new server release would resolve all my problems.

I cannot get it to do a simple local DLNA/uPNP streaming task to my mobile devices(which support all the codecs in my library) without transcoding. Its pointless trying to invest in NUC clients when transcoding to an iPad can sometimes hits 90+% on a 6core i7 chip,

 

There is no clear guide on what to do to setup DLNA profiles. I dont know if I have to setup profiles for every single iPad, iphone or android device or every single Video App or user that joins my local network, inorder to have the server direct stream. That just sounds very inefficient. Information is very scattered and can be unclear at times.

 

I understand how busy the admins, developers and moderators are, so I just had a long think on how much progress I have made this past few days in trying to DIY this, not to mention, the cost incurred for a goal that doesnt seem feasible anytime soon.

 

I had a setup with Serviio that still works and its just very unfortunate that I have to drop the idea of having a goregous presentation in favour of core functionality. Infact I got so desperate, I tried studying the xml sheet of the dlna profiles used in Serviio but that was way over my head.profiles.xml

 

I guess these NUCs will be going back and I can only hope these eventually get resolved

Edited by andrewbee
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xnappo

You should give Emby for Kodi a shot, and using Kodi for playback on your clients so you don't need to transcode.

 

OpenElec is very easy to install on a NUC and works great.

Edited by xnappo
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andrewbee

I tried using Kodi a few weeks back on my macbook pro and was thrown off but this was still when it was when it just came out of Beta. I had a look at Kodi's progress in the forums yesterday and I must say, its looking really sweet now. Might eventually give it a go later on.

---

 

I have decided to keep using my Workstation as a server because thinking about how I intend to scale the users and streamers on my network, its best to camp Emby on it. I will just invest over time in making the computer more energy efficient, like updating my graphics card(currently gtx690) etc.

 

The Intel NUC5i7RYH is amazing and perhaps a bit too much for an HTPC. I think the Intel NUC5i5RYH is the sweet spot. Right now I have Emby (WMC) classic running on the NUC i7 and its snappy and hardly breaks a sweat. Boot time is about 7secs. You could probably use it as a server but I wouldn't go higher than 2-3 users or streams with it.

 

Will be returning the Intel NUC5i5RYH or might sell to anyone interested. The i7 is perfect for me as it got the right amount of power for my other applications and just as portable.

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Vidman

:(

 

I might just have to throw in the towel with Emby. I have a good number of iOS mobile and tablet users all with the same Video Apps and I have been tinkering with trying to get the Server to direct stream or play my media from my workstation to these DLNA capable devices for the last two weeks. I just dont know what to do anymore at this point. I was really hoping the new server release would resolve all my problems.

I cannot get it to do a simple local DLNA/uPNP streaming task to my mobile devices(which support all the codecs in my library) without transcoding. Its pointless trying to invest in NUC clients when transcoding to an iPad can sometimes hits 90+% on a 6core i7 chip,

 

There is no clear guide on what to do to setup DLNA profiles. I dont know if I have to setup profiles for every single iPad, iphone or android device or every single Video App or user that joins my local network, inorder to have the server direct stream. That just sounds very inefficient. Information is very scattered and can be unclear at times.

 

I understand how busy the admins, developers and moderators are, so I just had a long think on how much progress I have made this past few days in trying to DIY this, not to mention, the cost incurred for a goal that doesnt seem feasible anytime soon.

 

I had a setup with Serviio that still works and its just very unfortunate that I have to drop the idea of having a goregous presentation in favour of core functionality. Infact I got so desperate, I tried studying the xml sheet of the dlna profiles used in Serviio but that was way over my head.attachicon.gifprofiles.xml

 

I guess these NUCs will be going back and I can only hope these eventually get resolved

you probably need to wait for the official ios emby app to be released for better ios support
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