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SOC for Emby Server


Meowstopher

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Meowstopher

I know there are many other threads on this topic, but it's a lot to parse and I'm not sure what's up to date.

 

I'd like to purchase a reasonably efficient SOC to host a NAS and Emby Server. The Emby Server will primarily host content to be streamed to an Apple TV, though it may get some use streaming to mobile or browsers.  I don't expect it'll have to handle more than 2 streams at a time (and just 1 the vast majority of the time). 1080p@60 is fine for now, but room to grow in the future would be nice.

 

I've been looking into the RockPro64 (I have a Rock64 for other purposes and it's been a good workhorse), but there seem to be some insurmountable hardware encoding compatibility issues.  I'd rather spend < $100 on the SOC itself.

 

Any recommendations? What SOCs are you all using that are working well?

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Meowstopher

Thanks! I'll wait and see if JaScoMa replies.

 

In the meantime, I know the Pi4 has hardware h.264/5 decode, but the specs are, in some cases, underwhelming compared to some competitors. I believe AppleTV support h.264, but I'd like to re-encode my content to h.265 to save space. Does anyone have experience transcoding h.265 to h.264 (or other AppleTV formats) on a Pi4?

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Jdiesel

I would suggest getting an Intel NUC or mini PC instead. Something like this

 

https://www.newegg.com/intel-boxnuc7cjyh1/p/N82E16856102203?item=N82E16856102203

 

Add another $20 for 4GB of ram and $30 for an SSD and you are set. Through Linux on it and it will rip for Emby. Much more flexibility than a RPi or AmLogic SOC. I know that is almost double you budget but I think you would be happier off with and Intel CPU and Quicksync.

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vdatanet

I would suggest getting an Intel NUC or mini PC instead. Something like this

 

https://www.newegg.com/intel-boxnuc7cjyh1/p/N82E16856102203?item=N82E16856102203

 

Add another $20 for 4GB of ram and $30 for an SSD and you are set. Through Linux on it and it will rip for Emby. Much more flexibility than a RPi or AmLogic SOC. I know that is almost double you budget but I think you would be happier off with and Intel CPU and Quicksync.

 

I agree. In addition, Apple TV requires transcoding in many cases, so a NUC is more desirable than a RPi or ArmLogic.

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Meowstopher

Thank you all for the input. I'll check out the NUCs - a little pricier than I'd prefer, but better to pay a little more upfront than waste money on something that won't work.

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Jdiesel
JaScoMa

For the RockPro64, sadly its only software encoding based; see https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/66675-36078-transcoding-rockpro64/?hl=rockpro

That being sad, I've had up to 5 streams running on my local network (2 ROKU's (one wireless), nvidia Sheild, Xbox One S and the web interface (wireless)) and the RockPro handled it without any issues.

 

The streams consisted of 2 Blu-Ray ripped MKV's while all the rest were h.264 encoded files (HandBrake contstant quality 20CF) with pass-thru audio settings.  I've tested 10-bit h.265 encoded files and it played those fine, but just as one stream.  Will encode a few more over and see how many I can stream at once.

 

The only issue I've had with the RockPro64 is Blu-Ray MKV rips which the original files were VC-1; it kept buffering the files.

I've also installed Emby server on my Sheild as well as a QNAP TS-451+ NAS.

The QNAP (with a Celeron processor) was able to play the VC-1 MKV's without any issues, but the CPU temp ran up to 150 degrees and the system fan was at high tilt; not something I like my NAS to do.

The nVidia sheild had the buffering issue with the files as well and the one issue is the that sheild only has 12GB of RAM.  When playing MKV where transcoding is required, it'll crash as the transcoding eats up this memory quickly.  Purchasing extra RAM is required if you're transcoding a lot.

 

This setup works great for me as I only have internal network streaming of either MKV or pre-endoded h.264.

Hope this helps.

 

EDIT: Even though it took a couple days to encode 30 minutes, I used Handbrake and encoded a h.265 10-bit video (20 CRF and Very Slow Encoder).  Was able to stream this to a single client without any issues.  Bitrate ended up being 6.27Mbps and it had to transcode for unsupported audio.

Edited by JaScoMa
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