CPU Performance issues when using Emby in WMC

[Blue407 0]

Morning All

 

I'm new to Emby, my previous HTPC used an old 1.x version of MediaBrowser in WMC.

 

So I installed Emby server a couple of months ago on my Windows 2008 R2 server. Installed and configured it and then left it alone as had too many other things to do.

 

My Lounge HTPC failed so I have rebuilt it with Windows 7 and WMC again, this time thinking I will use the new Emby client in WMC. The client seems to work ok, but as soon as I pick a movie to play, whether it be SD or HD the CPU on my server hits 100% and the movie stutters on playback.

 

With MB it accessed the movies from UNC shares on my server (Actually I had drive mappings setup to every server share), this meant the server was just sharing files, almost zero CPU required, just disk activity.

With Emby it seems to be transcoding every movie, whilst I need this for iPad's, iPhone's, Kindle fire etc, for my HTPC's I just need direct forwarding of the movie, like file share previously.

 

Any way to switch off transcoding for LAN using HTPC's? and revert back to simple file sharing with no overhead?

Does transcoding offload to GPU? (My server has very basic graphics card as previously not required)

 

Any advice,suggestions, ideas fully appreciated

[Deihmos 147]

It is transcoding because it cannot access the files directly.

[Blue407 0]

It is transcoding because it cannot access the files directly.

IS there a way around this, other than going back to MB 1.x interface in WMC?

 

Is it better if using full Emby interface instead of WMC on client HTPC?

I have a GB network connection & switch, so no issue getting data around quickly.

If its this bad with only one client running, what happens when 2 clients are running plus iPad and a laptop for example?

 

Can the transcoding be offlined to GPU? (Wondering if instead of the server doing the Transcoding, I instead put Emby Server on one of the faster HTPC's and access the files over UNC/Drive mappings...

 

If it helps, here's my Server specs:-

 

2.93 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo

64 kilobyte primary memory cache

3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache

64-bit ready

Multi-core (2 total)

Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board ^b Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5QLD PRO Rev X.0x

Serial Number: 103229740002424

Bus Clock: 266 megahertz

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0305 07/30/2009

Drives 20063.77 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity

2747.15 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

 

OCZ-VERTEX2 [Hard drive] (60.02 GB) -- drive 2, s/n OCZ-N3F13QZH938Z2541, rev 1.33, SMART Status: Healthy

SAMSUNG HD154UI [Hard drive] (1500.30 GB) -- drive 9, s/n S1XJJ1LS434541, rev 1AG01113, SMART Status: Healthy

SAMSUNG HD154UI [Hard drive] (1500.30 GB) -- drive 11, s/n S1XJJ1LS434541, rev 1AG01113, SMART Status: Healthy

SAMSUNG HD154UI [Hard drive] (1500.30 GB) -- drive 12, s/n S1XJJ1LS434541, rev 1AG01113, SMART Status: Healthy

SAMSUNG HD154UI [Hard drive] (1500.30 GB) -- drive 10, s/n S1XJJ1LS434541, rev 1AG01113, SMART Status: Healthy

SAMSUNG HD203WI [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 1, s/n S1UYJ1BZ300159, rev 1AN10002, SMART Status: Healthy

ST3500630AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 8, s/n 6QG2G5XA, rev 3.AFM, SMART Status: Healthy

ST3500630AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 7, s/n 6QG2G5XA, rev 3.AFM, SMART Status: Healthy

ST3500630AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 6, s/n 6QG2G5XA, rev 3.AFM, SMART Status: Healthy

WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0 [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 4, s/n WD-WMAZA1430438, rev 51.0AB51, SMART Status: Healthy

WDC WD20EARS-22MVWB0 [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 5, s/n WD-WCAZA6183981, rev 51.0AB51, SMART Status: Healthy

WDC WD20EARS-22MVWB0 [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 3, s/n WD-WCAZA6191136, rev 51.0AB51, SMART Status: Healthy

WDC WD20EARS-22MVWB0 [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCAZA6162327, rev 51.0AB51, SMART Status: Healthy

 

Memory Modules ^c,d 8192 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

 

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB

Slot 'DIMM1' has 2048 MB

Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB

Slot 'DIMM3' has 2048 MB

 

Local Drive Volumes          

c: (NTFS on drive 2) * 59.91 GB 19.08 GB free    

d: (NTFS on drive 0) 2000.40 GB 30.86 GB free    

e: (NTFS on drive 3) 2000.40 GB 235.92 GB free    

f: (NTFS on drive 5) 2000.40 GB 60.17 GB free    

g: (NTFS on drive 7) 2000.40 GB 51.75 GB free    

h: (NTFS on drive 1) 2000.26 GB 937.76 GB free    

i: (NTFS on drive 12) 1500.30 GB 113.14 GB free    

j: (NTFS on drive 11) 1500.30 GB 10.08 GB free    

k: (NTFS on drive 10) 500.11 GB 500.00 GB free    

l: (NTFS on drive 8) 500.11 GB 500.00 GB free    

m: (NTFS on drive 4) 2000.40 GB 189.24 GB free    

n: (NTFS on drive 9) 2000.40 GB 49.52 GB free    

q: (NTFS on drive 6) 2000.40 GB 49.64 GB free    

* Operating System is installed on c:

 

Display ATI Radeon HD 2400 [Display adapter] 

Edited August 18, 2015 by Blue407

[Deihmos 147]

Something is not setup correctly. You need to use unc paths on the server and the client pc must be able to access them.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Deihmos

[Blue407 0]

Something is not setup correctly. You need to use unc paths on the server and the client pc must be able to access them.

 

Thanks for your suggestion.

How do I go about checking this? Is there a guide to follow for this?

 

At the moment, I have configured Emby on the client to use VNC player, I have installed the old version that the client suggests is used. When I play a movie VNC shows the file path for example:-

 

http://192.168.1.15:8096/mediabrowser/videos/1e926........

 

So its definitely not using UNC paths.

[ebr 14959]

Right on the page where you setup your library, there are two ways to solve the problem.  The best one is to use the recommendation that is right there when you set it up:

 

 

Click that Path Substitution button and fill in strings that will map your local drives to the proper UNC shares.

 

 

Note:  My library is setup with the second option - just use the UNC share names in the first place.  That is because the media shares are over the network anyway. If your media drives are actually local to the Emby server machine, it is a better approach to use local reference in the library definition and then the Path substitution for the clients.

 

Don't use mapped drives in any scenario.

[Blue407 0]

Thanks Admin, I will take a look at those settings. I think you've spotted what I missed  I will check, test and report back!

[Blue407 0]

Good news, this seems to have fixed the high CPU usage on the server and no stuttering on the client