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Cheap ways to add hardware H.264 Transcoding to an old server


ProperlyFormattedDataFile

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ProperlyFormattedDataFile

Hi,

I'm currently running Emby on an old Linux Phenom II X3 system, which works well enough, but really only has enough power to handle one 1080p transcode at once.  I'm looking for cheap ways to upgrade the system to support hardware accelerated transcoding for 2 simultaneous streams.

 

Short of replacing the motherboard/cpu/ram, I was curious if there are any particular low cost graphics cards that support hardware transcoding that are recommended for use with Emby.

 

 

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ProperlyFormattedDataFile

What do you consider 'low cost'?

 

It's all relative really, but ideally less than $100.  I should add that my primary use for Emby is as an OTA DVR.  I'd want the hardware transcoding support primarily to support watching live content and run cron jobs to transcode at higher quality.

 

Here are some of the ideas I've been considering.  This would all be on Linux, though I do have a spare Windows 10 license I could use if I had to.  I'd be curious if folks here have experience with them.

 

Used Geforce 745/750: ~$50 on ebay, maxwell based card that claims to be able to handle 2 simultaneous streams (https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-gpu-support-matrix)

 

Something AMD?: The emby/vaapi docs are a bit vague on what's actually supported here.  AMD cards as far back as the 7000 series have some kind of hardware encoding support (https://wiki.libav.org/Hardware/vaapi), but I don't see it mentioned a lot in these forums aside from people who are having trouble getting AMD systems working, and if it did work, I have no idea if the quality is any good.

 

Intel: The options here seem more likely to work, but more expensive.  I could pick up a refurbished haswell i3 system for about $130, or get a new celeron g4900 CPU/MB/RAM combo for about $150.  The latter seems a bit more future proof, as it does H.265 as well as H.264.

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lorac

A GeForce 1050 video card would do this for you.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

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Guest asrequested

A GeForce 1050 video card would do this for you.

 

This ^

 

You can pick up a used one, on ebay. Or a new one on Amazon for around $130.

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ProperlyFormattedDataFile

Thanks!

 

What's the advantage of a 1050 over the older (cheaper) generations?  Is it just future proofing with the H.265 support, or is the H.264 encode speed/quality better too?

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