DS918+ HardwareTranscoding HEVC?

[LoungeSounds 0]

Hello,

 

I am new to Emby and am testing it out against Plex. I have installed the Synology package from the package centre and set hardware transcoding to Intel Quick Sync with all boxes ticked under hardware decoding. I have tested a HEVC encoded movie: "Atlantis 2001 Animation" 1080p with a bitrate of around 4500. When the movie is played the CPU usage jumps to around 90-100%  (The same film in Plex uses around 10%), I have also tried the VA API option as suggested in another post but experience the same performance.

 

Is there something that I am not doing? I also downloaded the FFMPEG by cytec from the community repository to see if that made a difference but no dice :-(

 

NAS is a DS918+ : CPU J3455 (Apollo Lake) 4 core : 8GB Memory + 128GB Read SSD Cache

 

Emby version is: 3.3.1

 

FFMPEG by cytec was 3.4.1 (Now uninstalled as it made no difference)

 

I guess I must be doing something wrong as Plex handles my HEVC collection without issue.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

[LoungeSounds 0]

Sorry I should add that I am playing the movie through Chrome on my PC using the auto quality setting (which sets to 1080p 60 - I thought chrome could only handle 720p!)

[LoungeSounds 0]

So after some tinkering, HW transcoding appears to be working using the VA API. CPU usage is around 20-30% (With one stream). Not sure why the Intel Quick sync option is not working as I'm still maxing out the CPU using that option and the log seems to say something like missing device, I'm fairly sure Plex uses Quicksync though for HW transcoding on Apollo lake. 

 

To get it to its current state I stopped everything and re-installed the cytec FFMPEG package - then I restarted Emby and now hardware transcoding seems to be working after a fashion.

 

Does anyone know why the quick sync option might not be working - are there additional settings/steps somewhere?

 

Thanks again.

[Luke 37116]

Hi, we have not yet added quick sync to our synology ffmpeg builds, but the vaapi option should work pretty well in the meantime. thanks.

[solabc16 379]

Hi @@LoungeSounds

 

Glad you've got it working, VA-API is the way to go (for now at least) and works pretty well - take a look at this thread, starting around here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/48771-va-api-pixelation-on-ds416play/?p=504854

 

Is there something specific you want to use QuickSync for? (.i.e. something you can't do or isn't working properly with VA-API)

 

Best

- James

[LoungeSounds 0]

Hi, Thank you for the fast responses. So I guess Quicksync will be implemented for Synology FFMPEG at some stage if it is already done for other platforms? 

 

I don't know much about VA-API so am unaware of any performance gains or losses (or quality) over Quicksync (perhaps someone could chip in with any detail?)

 

I'm finding it difficult to find the time to do proper testing against Plex due to work commitments but hopefully will find the time soon.

 

My use setting is quite minimal with perhaps a maximum of 5 concurrent streams from friends and family, which will be limited to 720p (or auto if not all bandwidth is used and direct play is possible) as my upload speed is only 20mb.

 

So far Emby looks really good but there are some things that I find important missing for me (not in any order):

 

1. TautTulli (I guess everyone mentions this)

2. Alexa integration - Free in Plex but paid for in Emby?

3. The Plex app on Android TV seems a little more mature and has voice integration from the home page (I use a Shield TV and am lazy with typing) 

 

Against Plex is the fact that you have to pay for Apollo Lake (quick sync) hardware encoding, although this may change in the future?

 

So at the end of the day, I am weighing up the pros and cons of buying a lifetime pass for either solution.

 

Anyway once I have the time I will play further.

[LoungeSounds 0]

Forgot to add! Do I need the CyTec FFMPEG package installed if I continue to use VA-API?  It might just have been a coincidence that re-installing this enabled VA-API in Emby when I was having my initial issues! Thanks

[Luke 37116]

Forgot to add! Do I need the CyTec FFMPEG package installed if I continue to use VA-API?  It might just have been a coincidence that re-installing this enabled VA-API in Emby when I was having my initial issues! Thanks

 

Hi, no, everything is self contained in the Emby install package. Thanks !