basic networking question

[perry59 7]

I've been using emby since before it was emby, always been  happy with it.

I just run the server and client off my desktop computer and watch movies there. I'm finally ready to move into the current century. I want my server to be always on and be able to stream movies the to roku on my tv, or to tablets etc.

To this end the system I have in mind is purchasing a NAS and moving my library to it, then purchasing a NUC and putting emby on it (and J River MC). The NAS will be hardwired to my router and send files wirelessly to the NUC, the NUC will then send the movie to the roku and/or tablets wirelessly.

The question I have is when purchasing the NAS do I need one that does transcoding? if the server on the NUC is transcoding seems like you want the NAS to just send the file without messing with it.

The NAS I have in mind is a synology DS218J (no transcoding) or a synology DS218. The later I would buy just for some future proofing, it has more memory and a better cpu, but it does do transcoding and I don't know if that can be turned off.

As for the NUC, no decision yet, just a minimum config of intel I5 and 4 gigs ram.

Any experienced suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Sammy 777]

Transcoding, if required, will be done on the machine running Emby Server. Run Emby on you NUC and use the NAS to store your files, pointing the Emby Library there.

[Sammy 777]

One thing about NUC's.. unless something's changed, they run Laptop CPU's and aren't a true 4 core system. Something to consider. You might want to build a SFF PC on a MiniITX MoBo.

[Tur0k 144]

I recommend that you hardwire wherever possible. That connection between the NAS and the Emby server is recommended.

 

 

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[perry59 7]

One thing about NUC's.. unless something's changed, they run Laptop CPU's and aren't a true 4 core system. Something to consider. You might want to build a SFF PC on a MiniITX MoBo.

here is one I have in mind, I would think it would be sufficient

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mini-NUC7i5BNH-Core-Version/dp/B01N4EP1N0/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=PM7ENTQCKPJPWB5VT51E&th=1

Edited November 15, 2018 by perry59

[Sammy 777]

here is one I have in mind, I would think it would be sufficient

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mini-NUC7i5BNH-Core-Version/dp/B01N4EP1N0/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_bs_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=PM7ENTQCKPJPWB5VT51E&th=1

It'll really depend on what you want to do with it. When my i5 4690k Devil's Canyon is running Handbrake during MCEBuddy Conversion, all 4 cores are pegged to nearly the max, putting the CPU in the 90% range and not allowing enough headroom for Emby to run smoothly. I schedule the conversions for when I'm not home but it runs like that for maybe six hours depending on how many recordings there were the night before. If you don't plan to do this or things such as this you should be fine with 2 cores. Of course, we're a couple generations forward now so it may be fine. Check the benchmark ratings comparing mine to this and see what you think.

[perry59 7]

It'll really depend on what you want to do with it. When my i5 4690k Devil's Canyon is running Handbrake during MCEBuddy Conversion, all 4 cores are pegged to nearly the max, putting the CPU in the 90% range and not allowing enough headroom for Emby to run smoothly. I schedule the conversions for when I'm not home but it runs like that for maybe six hours depending on how many recordings there were the night before. If you don't plan to do this or things such as this you should be fine with 2 cores. Of course, we're a couple generations forward now so it may be fine. Check the benchmark ratings comparing mine to this and see what you think.

the NUC will be for serving up music and movies ONLY

[Guest asrequested]

That GPU will have much greater support in the next server release. Then much of this will be moot.

[Sammy 777]

That GPU will have much greater support in the next server release. Then much of this will be moot.

 

For HWACC?

 

I'm thinking you're talking about the Intel Iris GPU?

 

For my HD4600 I don't think there's much coming down the line..

Edited November 15, 2018 by Sammy

[Sammy 777]

the NUC will be for serving up music and movies ONLY

 

That's what I thought in 2014. Now I'm doing a whole lot more with post-processing. At any rate, the old dog is still hanging in there 4 years on..

[Guest asrequested]

For HWACC?

 

I'm thinking you're talking about the Intel Iris GPU?

 

For my HD4600 I don't think there's much coming down the line..

Yeah, I was referring to the NUC he linked to. Once they get quick sync dialed in, the CPU will be used very little. But in your case I believe HD4600 supports quick sync. It won't be as good as the later GPUs, but you may be surprised at how well it might work.

[Sammy 777]

Yeah, I was referring to the NUC he linked to. Once they get quick sync dialed in, the CPU will be used very little. But in your case I believe HD4600 supports quick sync. It won't be as good as the later GPUs, but you may be surprised at how well it might work.

 

That's awesome. Now if MCEBuddy and Handbrake would lighten up on my CPU! (PlayOn too..)

[Guest asrequested]

That's awesome. Now if MCEBuddy and Handbrake would lighten up on my CPU! (PlayOn too..)

Have you enabled quick sync in Handbrake? And then use the quick sync encoder?

Edited November 15, 2018 by Doofus

[Sammy 777]

Have you enabled quick sync in Handbrake?

MCEBuddy loads it. Do I need to make a settings change in the Handbrake ini file? Where? How? I don't have the Handbrake GUI on this machine but could add it. Not sure if the two would talk to each other.

 

TIA

[Guest asrequested]

Not sure what mcbuddy does, but in Handbrake, you choose which one you want.

[Sammy 777]

Not sure what mcbuddy does, but in Handbrake, you choose which one you want.

MCEBuddy runs ComSkip then HandBrake on Emby Recordings placing the output in my Emby Library. It has it's own GUI and creates ini's for both ComSkip and HandBrake.

 

I'll look but I don't think there's a setting for HWACC for HandBrake. I suppose I could d/l HandBrake, load the ini created by MCEBuddy and enable QuickSync in the ini but I'm not sure if the HandBrake executable evoked by MCEBuddy is compatible.

 

If only Emby would natively incorporate ComSkip and HandBrake..

 

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[perry59 7]

maybe you guys should consider starting your own thread?

[Sammy 777]

maybe you guys should consider starting your own thread?

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

I think you'll be fine with the NUC so long as you either don't do other than serve media or wait until the next server comes out of beta to do more advanced things..

[Guest asrequested]

maybe you guys should consider starting your own thread?

Yeah, but my first response was for you. That GPU will have better support on the next server release, and should take care of your transcoding needs.

[Tur0k 144]

So TBH, @@Sammy is right they are Mobile CPUs. I run a 7th gen Intel i3 7100U NUC as a front end with Windows 10 pro. I have Emby theatre and the Netflix app on it.

 

You don’t need much from your NAS. Up until recently I have been using an old netgear readynas Ultra 4.

 

Also depending on the number of clients you have you may not need much from the server. I have been running on an old AMD Phenom X6 1090T (6 core 3.2/3.6 GHz(circa late 2010)). I only started having problems when I started doing DVR functions and chopping commercials out of the recordings.

 

Here, about 6 months ago, I went full bore on upgrading my entire server stack. I built my new server on a Ryzen 7 1700. I built it as a VMHost. It currently houses my new NAS (Freenas),

my home automation server (HomeSeer), and my unifi controller.

 

I am still in the process of moving the rest of my services over to the NAS. Once complete I am goin to mov Emby server, over to it as a Linux VM. I also want to finish building my home video security system (based on zoneminder), stand up an M$ domain controller, and have enough space for 3 other low utilization VMs.

 

 

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[perry59 7]

Ok, so it looks like my prospective setup would work fine, so long as the NUC is only used as a media server.

I still like the more powerful NAS mentioned above, but don't know if I can turn off transcoding. I'll ask that question on the synology forum (although their forum recently turned to doodoo)

I don't think it would be a good thing for the NAS to be transcoding a file that the NUC will transcode again.

Thanks for the help!