Is the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB suitable for emby server?

[Skintigth 0]

Hello everyone! 

I'm thinking in build a media server using emby, I wan't to have the lowest energy cost so I could leave it on all the time.

MVP Idea
My idea is to use a RPi 4 with 8GB of ram but I have seen in the forum that it has some decoding and encoding problems but I really don't know what that means in this context, I know the file should be encoded to be playable but my videos are already playable so I don't know why emby needs to encode them again. Also I have found this thread  that says the raspberry pi could use hardware encoding and this reddit post that says the same but with a lot more steps.

Future of the idea (could ignore)
Also I'm thinking of use this server as a personal cloud using owncloud so I could have my media and another files on demand.
I want to "stream" comics (cbr/cbz) from my server to an android app.

Software Installation
Install Open Media Vault or Raspibian
Install Emby server on it using the Debian package

The hardware I'm planing to buy
Raspberry Py 4 8GB
HDD Dock station

The RPi could be changed for a mini PC but I'll really love to use a PI over a PC because of the cost it's less than half and the energy consumption.
AWOW Mini PC Celeron 1.2 - 2.2 GHz 4 core 6GB ram 128 ssd Intel HD Graphics 500
Beelink U57 Core i5 2.7 - 3.1 GHz 2 core 8 ram 128 ssd Intel Iris Graphics 6100

My personal context:
I have used Kodi for a long time and know how to manage my library.
- all my video files are MKV (720p and 1080p) and most with included subtitles and dual audio, the rest have STR files.
- near 3TB of multimedia + 100GB of comics files.
I have an emby server running in a Linux Machine with the files previous mentioned.
- Use kodi in the same machine
- Use roku stick on the bedroom
I'm a linux used so I'm not scared of some commands or use the terminal if needed
I don't care about 4K or +60 FPS because I don't have a TV with that capabilities and don't think in buy one in a couple of years.

[mastrmind11 717]

if your media is all streaming friendly, then a pi will work fine.  you'll run into problems if you have something that requires transcoding unless you tinker with it and get hardware transcoding working.  though you mention most of your files have included subtitles, which might require transcoding depending on the format.  easiest thing to do is to turn on subtitles for a subset of the files and see if your existing server transcodes.  if so, those files will be an issue on the pi.

[Skintigth 0]

how could I know if my actual server transcode the files with subtitles?

[Luke 37008]

1 hour ago, Skintigth said:

how could I know if my actual server transcode the files with subtitles?

Hi, you could try it. It depends on what app you're playing from and what format the subtitles are. Generally speaking, text-based subtitles such as srt will not require transcoding, so you'll be fine here. If you have PGS or VOBSUB subtitles, then in some cases they may need transcoding.

[Skintigth 0]

On 10/6/2020 at 10:41 AM, Luke said:

Hi, you could try it. It depends on what app you're playing from and what format the subtitles are. Generally speaking, text-based subtitles such as srt will not require transcoding, so you'll be fine here. If you have PGS or VOBSUB subtitles, then in some cases they may need transcoding.

I have bee using this files with my linux server and works great transmitting to a roku, so I don't know how to know if there is transcoding and I don't want to buy the RPi before being sure. 
Wham i'm asking is to know if there is some log that indicates which file is being transcoded.

[Happy2Play 8242]

Nerd stats on the Roku, the server dashboard will tell how the media is being played.  A ffmpeg will be made in the logs folder for the method being used except for when the item is Direct Playing.

[plittlefield 44]

@Skintigth how are you getting on with the Pi 4?

I have just purchased one myself along with a small SSD to have a play.

Is installation of Emby Server on a Pi as simple as using the Ubuntu Server for Pi image and then the arm deb file for emby-server?