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new server build help


nadforever

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nadforever

so i have someone who wants to start a Emby  server.   i have been out of the game so long that not up on the new tech and all that. I am sure i can get something motherboard wise for a windows 10 based computer.

I am not sure have many streams he will do. probably no more than 3. her currently has a apple TV and some some smart tv's that we can get the emby app on.

I am just looking for something basic that will be able to push 4k streams to the apps.

and maybe upgradable so when he decides he really likes it and wants to add more content with needing more hard drives. 

I just seen looking through other posts about "driver Bender" which seems nice and make everything look like its on one drive, even though you can tell Emby to lookin in more than one location for the same area.

will ITX computers with onbaord GPU be enough to do this or should I look into some slightly bigger?  as well as have the SMALL ITX case for the server itself and then just get a network drive/NAS to hold the  media files?

I run my server off my gaming rig desktop. which i know can handle what ever video I throw at it. as well as i have friends that i have giving access to my server and play the movies at there house...but that is all besides the point.

 

THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

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Hi, any modern computer should do the job nicely. Having a GPU that can be used for Hardware Transcoding is a big bonus as well.

Drive Bender or Stablebit Drivepool are both great solutions for data.  I personally use Drivepool but other highly respected members here use Drive Bender. 

Something to keep in mind is that you really don't want to transcode 4K videos as it's problematic in general. Anything with HDR that transcodes will look washed out on a non HDR system because they use different color spaces.  In that case you want 2 versions of the file.  So a normal movie library and a 4K movie library.  Do that and you life is much easier.

The 4K videos can be used all around the house where they can direct play (play natively) and if you share with a friend then decide to give them access to the 4K library or not depending on your bandwidth. 4K video can suck up the bandwidth so you have a choice to control this.  Also if someone can't play the 4K movies directly you remove their access and just give them access to the 1080 version which will hopefully direct play.  If not and something needs to transcode it will do it from the 1080 version so you don't have color saturation issues.

It sounds like you'll be fine on the choices you're making but feel free to ask about anything you're unsure of.

 

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BAlGaInTl

Is there a budget?

How technically adept is this person?

Is the server going to do anything besides be an Emby server?

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nadforever
On 10/20/2020 at 11:59 PM, cayars said:

Hi, any modern computer should do the job nicely. Having a GPU that can be used for Hardware Transcoding is a big bonus as well.

Drive Bender or Stablebit Drivepool are both great solutions for data.  I personally use Drivepool but other highly respected members here use Drive Bender. 

Something to keep in mind is that you really don't want to transcode 4K videos as it's problematic in general. Anything with HDR that transcodes will look washed out on a non HDR system because they use different color spaces.  In that case you want 2 versions of the file.  So a normal movie library and a 4K movie library.  Do that and you life is much easier.

The 4K videos can be used all around the house where they can direct play (play natively) and if you share with a friend then decide to give them access to the 4K library or not depending on your bandwidth. 4K video can suck up the bandwidth so you have a choice to control this.  Also if someone can't play the 4K movies directly you remove their access and just give them access to the 1080 version which will hopefully direct play.  If not and something needs to transcode it will do it from the 1080 version so you don't have color saturation issues.

It sounds like you'll be fine on the choices you're making but feel free to ask about anything you're unsure of.

 

Thanks!!

 

On 10/21/2020 at 11:35 AM, BAlGaInTl said:

Is there a budget?

How technically adept is this person?

Is the server going to do anything besides be an Emby server?

Budget not sure yet. im sure he dosnt wanna spend thousands, but I think a server for just his normal use doesn't need to be crazy priced..

tech wise not sure on that. I believe he would be maybe low to mid level.

and no I am trying to make it to be a server only and what he uses to download and or transfer his collection of dvd and or bluray over.

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If your putting together an Emby server then I would imagine at some point your going to think Hmmm it would be nice to watch the outside of my house or share it with someone who doesn't live with you. I think the is inevitable for most people.

So I would build it with transcoding of 1080p in mind.  So here is a big guide it doesn't cover AMD hardware but from what I can tell it is not so readily supported (at least of Linux which is were most servers end up running anyway)

You could go a buy an off the shelf box which would play/transcode 10+ 1080 streams

But as you say you may want to expand that forum covers all aspects of building a sever

 

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Q-Droid
21 minutes ago, m0t0k0 said:

If your putting together an Emby server then I would imagine at some point your going to think Hmmm it would be nice to watch the outside of my house or share it with someone who doesn't live with you. I think the is inevitable for most people.

So I would build it with transcoding of 1080p in mind.  So here is a big guide it doesn't cover AMD hardware but from what I can tell it is not so readily supported (at least of Linux which is were most servers end up running anyway)

You could go a buy an off the shelf box which would play/transcode 10+ 1080 streams

But as you say you may want to expand that forum covers all aspects of building a sever

 

Those are good links and ought to be pinned somewhere.

IMO the Intel CPUs are the path of least resistance for the best experience and bang for your buck. Kaby Lake (7th gen) and newer can do the job.

 

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