Hardware transcode sessions limit on GPU fail back to CPU in emby?

[chef 3808]

After researching some basic information about using hardware transcoding with media servers, I got my hands on a GTX 1660 Ti.

 

Working pretty great, I'm happy with it

 

 

 

I understand the GPU will only alow two hardware transcoded streams while in a "locked" state. 

 

I know that there are driver hacks that can change this, but this question is geared towards a stock, locked state.

 

 

PLEX will not fail back to CPU hardware transcoding if two streams on an accelerated GPU are used up.

 

This seems like a no-brainer thing to do. 

 

Does Emby start new hardware transcoding streams back on the CPU if the GPU's limit has been reached?

 

If not, wouldn't this ability put a leg up over the competition, and is it something that would be considered as a unique feature in Emby?

[Guest asrequested]

This is something I'm intending test, now that I've jammed the 1060 in my server. But I'm getting unreliable GPU transcoding, so I want to get that sorted, first. I'm hoping the new server release will help.

 

I'm getting everything from green screen to it not working at all.

Edited July 15, 2019 by Doofus

[chef 3808]

This is something I'm intending test, now that I've jammed the 1060 in my server. But I'm getting unreliable GPU transcoding, so I want to get that sorted, first. I'm hoping the new server release will help.

 

I'm getting everything from green screen to it not working at all.

 

You've set the GPU to be used in the Transcode settings of Emby?

 

I ask just in case you where using other settings prior to the install of the 1060.

Edited July 15, 2019 by chef

[Guest asrequested]

You've set the GPU to be used in the Transcode settings of Emby?

 

I ask just in case you where using other settings prior to the install of the 1060.

Yeah. I primarily want it for HEVC stuff. I thought that hardware acceleration would be faster than my Threadripper, but it's almost exactly the same. Except that only using the CPU I can transcode everything. With the GPU, d3d11 doesn't work at all, and I get a range of results when using NVENC/NVDEC. In some cases if enable both decode and encode, it doesn't use the GPU at all. In others, it works (as well as the CPU). In other cases, I get green screen. I am familiar with the green screen decoding issues. I would get that using CUDA in mpv. The mpv guys told me it was a parsing issue. But NVDEC in mpv would work correctly, because they used their own parsing. But everything would decode using NVDEC. This doesn't appear to work as well in the Emby. I'm sure softworks will figure it out. I need to do more testing. As of right now, I have all hardware decoding disabled, and only have NVENC enabled. Software to hardware. That appears to be more stable. But I need to throw more things at it.

[chef 3808]

Jason at BMB did this! Which is a lotta lengths to go through! He did it with Ryzen 3900X (crazy man!).

 

But, still there was no fail over to CPU transcoding. He used a lotta streams for that unlocked Quattro. Definitely worth a watch.

 

 

I'll test the 1660 ti and see how many transcoding streams I can get, and see what happens to the CPU once the GPU is maxed out.

 

If Emby uses CPU after the GPU is maxed out, then that is a selling feature and could be used to entice new Premiere supporters for sure.

[Luke 40068]

Yes, we do automatically fallback to CPU when an attempt with the GPU fails.

[Guest asrequested]

 

I'll test the 1660 ti and see how many transcoding streams I can get, and see what happens to the CPU once the GPU is maxed out.

Should be an easy test. Three simultaneous transcodes. The third should be software. I'll have to test it with basic h264 media.

[Sammy 786]

@@chef

 

How's the testing coming along? I'd like to get a less spendy 1060 and unlock the stream count for transcoding.

[chef 3808]

@@chef

 

How's the testing coming along? I'd like to get a less spendy 1060 and unlock the stream count for transcoding.

I'm happy with it. I got the MSI 1060. When I plugged it in, Emby gave me a bunch of advanced options that weren't available with the on board graphics.

 

I was able to choose my gpu for certain codecs.

 

I haven't unlocked extra sessions yet. I did see a couple threads online that examined how to do it for windows, but haven't tried it yet.

 

I've been able to definitely stream more streams with gpu encoding enabled, and allow the CPU to take over when the sessions are full.

 

To be honest, the only thing I've noticed, is that while media is being transcodes, the CPU is pretty much idle, untill my mom and dad log on and start watching something while the sessions are full with my son watching something and my daughter watching something.

 

But the streams are perfect, and there is no laggy weirdness for my mom and dad watching over the internet at 1080p 5mb/s (which is more then enough for them).

 

Yeah! Was certainly a good purchase.

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by chef

[Sammy 786]

I'm considering this card as my case is a tight fit.

 

My issue is as much with transcoding as it is with MCEBuddy hogging all my CPU ticks when ComSkip and especially HandBrake is active. Playback on Emby becomes unwatchable even over the local network when this happens.

[chef 3808]

That card looks pretty great, good price and it has OC mode which is always a good thing.

 

Are you running Windows?

[Sammy 786]

That card looks pretty great, good price and it has OC mode which is always a good thing.

 

Are you running Windows?

 

Yup.. Still Win7x64.

[Sammy 786]

So how does one hack it for more simultaneous transcode streams and hopefully fixing the MCEBuddy issue?

[chef 3808]

I'm on win 7 64 too, there is a reddit post but I haven't tried it.

 

https://amp-reddit-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/ahf0l1/tutorial_on_setting_up_unlimited_transcodes_for/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FPleX%2Fcomments%2Fahf0l1%2Ftutorial_on_setting_up_unlimited_transcodes_for%2F

 

 

I'm not sure if this is the right hack or not.

Edited August 20, 2019 by chef

[chef 3808]

[lightsout 156]

I'm considering this card as my case is a tight fit.

 

My issue is as much with transcoding as it is with MCEBuddy hogging all my CPU ticks when ComSkip and especially HandBrake is active. Playback on Emby becomes unwatchable even over the local network when this happens.

Here's the link to the hack.

 

https://github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch

 

I use it on win 10 not sure about win 7.

 

That card should be alright. If you can swing the 1060 6gb it's quite a bit better card. Not just the ram but processing power.

 

They also have a single fan model. Then again I have a 1050ti 4gb in my server and it suits me well. I got it for the same reason you mention. When using MCE buddy and other software my CPU cycles were getting eaten up.

 

I also use handbrake and allow the GPU to do the encoding. Gets like 150fps.

[Sammy 786]

Here's the link to the hack.

 

https://github.com/keylase/nvidia-patch

 

I use it on win 10 not sure about win 7.

 

That card should be alright. If you can swing the 1060 6gb it's quite a bit better card. Not just the ram but processing power.

 

They also have a single fan model. Then again I have a 1050ti 4gb in my server and it suits me well. I got it for the same reason you mention. When using MCE buddy and other software my CPU cycles were getting eaten up.

 

I also use handbrake and allow the GPU to do the encoding. Gets like 150fps.

 

BINGO!

[chef 3808]

BINGO!

Wait! Does that mean it works on windows 7??

 

Edit: oh sweet there is a win7 version there. That is fantastic!

Edited August 21, 2019 by chef

[Sammy 786]

1050 Ti or 1060?

 

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

[chef 3808]

1050 Ti or 1060?

 

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

Which ever one has more cuda cores and higher gigs of memory.

[lightsout 156]

Which ever one has more cuda cores and higher gigs of memory.

Funny with the two cards. The 1060 has more cores but the 1050ti has more vram.

 

I don't like the limited vram with 3gb. Even with my 1050ti when I tested a bunch of streams the vram was the limitation.

 

Are you willing to go used. The 6gb 1060 is a better buy.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333302366016

[Sammy 786]

Funny with the two cards. The 1060 has more cores but the 1050ti has more vram.

 

I don't like the limited vram with 3gb. Even with my 1050ti when I tested a bunch of streams the vram was the limitation.

 

Are you willing to go used. The 6gb 1060 is a better buy.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333302366016

 

So you're better off with more vRAM than cores?

 

That seems to be a pretty nice find there, (Whiteboy714)! Thanks!

[Guest asrequested]

I've got that same 1060 laying around and not being used.

[Sammy 786]

I've got that same 1060 laying around and not being used.

Hmm.. What are you saying? 

Edited August 21, 2019 by Sammy

[Sammy 786]

Now I'm wondering if this is even worth it..

 

This morning's discussion:

 

Wife: "Why are there commercials in this show?"

Me: "Because it's recorded but if you press the up button you can choose the next chapter to skip them all" [i used to use MCEBuddy to strip commercials but had a bunch of content truncated and chopped out so now I only create chapters for easy skipping in Emby to alleviate her prior complaint.]

Wife: "That's too much, I'm not going to do that."

Me (under my breath): "UGH"

 

LOL

 

So maybe I don't need a GPU after all if I just quit using MCEBuddy! But I use the chapters all the time so NO!