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GPU Transcoding (Intel QuickSync and nVidia NVENC)

witteschnitte

By witteschnitte
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pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted (edited)
Hey guys, first off big thanks to the emby team for providing this excellent peace of software!

 

Now to my case!

 

I've got the i3 2120t CPU - the integrated Intel HD 2000 GPU should support QSV - but I can't get QSV running.

The newest build of Zeranoe's ffmpeg is installed on my server and emby is pointing at it.

The Server runs Windows 8.1.

 

Before I lose more words: here are the serverlog, the transcodelog and a capture of my transcoding options.

 

cheers
Edited by pappaq
Luke Emby Team

Luke 42077

Posted
Posted

 

Hey guys, first off big thanks to the emby team for providing this excellent peace of software!
 
Now to my case!
 
I've got the i3 2120t CPU - the integrated Intel HD 2000 GPU should support QSV - but I can't get QSV running.
The newest build of Zeranoe's ffmpeg is installed on my server and emby is pointing at it.
The Server runs Windows 8.1.
 
Before I lose more words: here are the serverlog, the transcodelog and a capture of my transcoding options.
 
cheers

 

 

Hi, try this version of ffmpeg and see if it makes a difference:

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Resources/tree/master/ffmpeg/windows

 

Thanks.

  • Like 1
Luke Emby Team

Luke 42077

Posted
Posted

Have you tried without qsv enabled?

pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

Have you tried without qsv enabled?

Yep, works just fine.

pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

Yep, works just fine.

Do you have an idea what is probably wrong with my configuration? I've got enabled the iGPU and have installed the newest drivers I could find but emby won't transcode with QSV enabled.

Luke Emby Team

Luke 42077

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure yet. That's why we call it an expiremental feature for now. There are some situations and environments where it may not work and we are looking for community help in order to trace down why.

pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

I'm not sure yet. That's why we call it an expiremental feature for now. There are some situations and environments where it may not work and we are looking for community help in order to trace down why.

It seems like the HD2000 GPUs don't support Open CL and therefore no ffmpeg with QSV enabled. I'm buying a newer CPU for my socket 1155 mobo and will report back, if it works with a HD4000 chip.

Luke Emby Team

Luke 42077

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the update and the info !

Heckler

Heckler 147

Posted
Posted (edited)

Not gonna read 45 pages of comments (skimmed a few), so apologies if this has already been covered... Just don't have the time for hundreds of comments, especially at this time of year.  :)

 

Will this work with HEVC x265, as the vast majority of stuff I am adding is being done in this codec, the superiority of it over everything else became very clear at the end of last year and I no longer use anything else.  I can get 1080p quality rips in a filesize that's half of a 720p rip using x264.. and that's moving from stereo AAC to 5.1 AC3 too.

 

But the transcoding of x265 does make for a greater strain on the server, and trying to stream 2 x265 streams at the same time is very difficult on a quad core AMD FX@4.2ghz.

 

I've noticed massive improvements in the quality of the browser streams of x265 stuff in recent builds... so the option to move some of the transcoding to a GPU or making it more efficient with QS is something I find very appealing.

 

Is it possible, or still something that may come later?  if it is... any links to guides to show me how to set it up properly.  I noticed options for this kind of thing in the latest official build... can I just switch them on, or do I need something extra?

Edited by Heckler
pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

Not gonna read 45 pages of comments (skimmed a few), so apologies if this has already been covered... Just don't have the time for hundreds of comments, especially at this time of year.  :)

 

Will this work with HEVC x265, as the vast majority of stuff I am adding is being done in this codec, the superiority of it over everything else became very clear at the end of last year and I no longer use anything else.  I can get 1080p quality rips in a filesize that's half of a 720p rip using x264.. and that's moving from stereo AAC to 5.1 AC3 too.

 

But the transcoding of x265 does make for a greater strain on the server, and trying to stream 2 x265 streams at the same time is very difficult on a quad core AMD FX@4.2ghz.

 

I've noticed massive improvements in the quality of the browser streams of x265 stuff in recent builds... so the option to move some of the transcoding to a GPU or making it more efficient with QS is something I find very appealing.

 

Is it possible, or still something that may come later?  if it is... any links to guides to show me how to set it up properly.  I noticed options for this kind of thing in the latest official build... can I just switch them on, or do I need something extra?

Without NVENC or QSV enabled it should work fine. The only hardware that supports H265 are the newest generation of nvidia cards and Kaby lake CPUs

Heckler

Heckler 147

Posted
Posted (edited)

Without NVENC or QSV enabled it should work fine. The only hardware that supports H265 are the newest generation of nvidia cards and Kaby lake CPUs

Not quite sure what you mean there... it does work as it stands... using media centre in W7 on the server is native, so no transcoding... streaming to the phone/tablet/tv box or TV... or to the browser on another PC also works, but transcoding is using 95%+ of the CPU just for a single stream.

 

I can understand the browser not supporting it yet as I think that's webm... but any way to streamline transcoding and making it more efficient would be great... just need to know how so I can test it out.

 

As it stands, I can only stream one x265 file at a time... a second file can only be played natively sans any transcoding or the system just grinds to a halt... All of my x264 video is fine... and there's plenty of it still as it's gonna take me a very long time to replace hundreds of TV shows and a couple of thousand movies with x265.

 

As it stands, I'm running low on HD space on my media server (16TB) and have roughly 3-4 months left before I'm maxed out... New hard drives for storage are still ridiculously expensive when you need to replace them with 6TB or larger drives (pointless replacing 2-3TB ones with 4TB as the gains in space for the price are simply not worth it)... So with space at a premium, replacing existing 1080p/720p rips with higher quality but smaller 1080p ones... will help me extend my storage space.

 

I was planning on a gaming rig upgrade next year... waiting for the next gen socket from AMD to see what they do (better VFM with AMD), so a new vid card would also be in the pipeline to replace my AMD 280X... and nVidia was a contender.

 

Current vid card in my mediaserver is only a 1GB AMD 5670... which is more than enough at the moment for what it does... will swap the 280X into it after the upgrade for more grunt.

Edited by Heckler
eTomm

eTomm 6

Posted
Posted

Not quite sure what you mean there... it does work as it stands... using media centre in W7 on the server is native, so no transcoding... streaming to the phone/tablet/tv box or TV... or to the browser on another PC also works, but transcoding is using 95%+ of the CPU just for a single stream.

 

I can understand the browser not supporting it yet as I think that's webm... but any way to streamline transcoding and making it more efficient would be great... just need to know how so I can test it out.

 

As it stands, I can only stream one x265 file at a time... a second file can only be played natively sans any transcoding or the system just grinds to a halt... All of my x264 video is fine... and there's plenty of it still as it's gonna take me a very long time to replace hundreds of TV shows and a couple of thousand movies with x265.

 

As it stands, I'm running low on HD space on my media server (16TB) and have roughly 3-4 months left before I'm maxed out... New hard drives for storage are still ridiculously expensive when you need to replace them with 6TB or larger drives (pointless replacing 2-3TB ones with 4TB as the gains in space for the price are simply not worth it)... So with space at a premium, replacing existing 1080p/720p rips with higher quality but smaller 1080p ones... will help me extend my storage space.

 

I was planning on a gaming rig upgrade next year... waiting for the next gen socket from AMD to see what they do (better VFM with AMD), so a new vid card would also be in the pipeline to replace my AMD 280X... and nVidia was a contender.

 

Current vid card in my mediaserver is only a 1GB AMD 5670... which is more than enough at the moment for what it does... will swap the 280X into it after the upgrade for more grunt.

 

I am following the h265 topic too in ffmpeg and I could not find yet any evidence that there is an encoder ready to use for it apart the x265 that is still in heavy development. In everycase your problem seems related to streaming, and streaming h265 as h264 should be supported from ffmpeg. I would check a bit more, but was like this even the last time I read something.

pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

Not quite sure what you mean there... it does work as it stands... using media centre in W7 on the server is native, so no transcoding... streaming to the phone/tablet/tv box or TV... or to the browser on another PC also works, but transcoding is using 95%+ of the CPU just for a single stream.

 

I can understand the browser not supporting it yet as I think that's webm... but any way to streamline transcoding and making it more efficient would be great... just need to know how so I can test it out.

 

As it stands, I can only stream one x265 file at a time... a second file can only be played natively sans any transcoding or the system just grinds to a halt... All of my x264 video is fine... and there's plenty of it still as it's gonna take me a very long time to replace hundreds of TV shows and a couple of thousand movies with x265.

 

As it stands, I'm running low on HD space on my media server (16TB) and have roughly 3-4 months left before I'm maxed out... New hard drives for storage are still ridiculously expensive when you need to replace them with 6TB or larger drives (pointless replacing 2-3TB ones with 4TB as the gains in space for the price are simply not worth it)... So with space at a premium, replacing existing 1080p/720p rips with higher quality but smaller 1080p ones... will help me extend my storage space.

 

I was planning on a gaming rig upgrade next year... waiting for the next gen socket from AMD to see what they do (better VFM with AMD), so a new vid card would also be in the pipeline to replace my AMD 280X... and nVidia was a contender.

 

Current vid card in my mediaserver is only a 1GB AMD 5670... which is more than enough at the moment for what it does... will swap the 280X into it after the upgrade for more grunt.

Ok, what I tried to say was, that if you want to transcode x265, hardware accelerated, you need the proper hardware. And when you say it doesn't transcode HEVC to x264 please have a look at the emby dashboard, when you stream to the browser. It does transcode to x264 and that eats up lot of CPU power.

  • Like 1
Heckler

Heckler 147

Posted
Posted

Ok, what I tried to say was, that if you want to transcode x265, hardware accelerated, you need the proper hardware. And when you say it doesn't transcode HEVC to x264 please have a look at the emby dashboard, when you stream to the browser. It does transcode to x264 and that eats up lot of CPU power.

 

I think I misunderstood, as I thought you were saying that x265 was supported via the browser. Was asking about android boxes in another thread and someone linked to a little W10 based box that according to specs is x265 ready in hardware... Which may be a solution for one of the TV's to ease the pressure on the server and allow 2 x265 streams at the same time.

 

But anything that can ease the burden on my server until such a time I can upgrade it (won't be for a few years as I only did it 2yrs ago)... at best, I'll upgrade the quad core CPU to a 6 core... although a quad 4.2ghz replaced with a 6 core 3.5ghz probably won't actually improve speeds and I'd be better of with a new vid card if some of the transcoding could be offloaded to that.

pappaq

pappaq 8

Posted
Posted

It seems like the HD2000 GPUs don't support Open CL and therefore no ffmpeg with QSV enabled. I'm buying a newer CPU for my socket 1155 mobo and will report back, if it works with a HD4000 chip.

I've got the new CPU installed and voilà it works like a charm. Problem solved.

 

Some stutters here and there which I will check on later, but all in all it works now.

  • 2 weeks later...
bxsteez

bxsteez 3

Posted
Posted

I've been poking around the forums to see if this has been answered so forgive me if I've missed it.  I'm trying to transcode a 10bit HEVC file using the my GTX 1070 and I keep getting errors of No NVENC device in the ffmpeg log.  I'm not sure why since I'm sure the 1070 supports hw decoding of 10bit HEVC.  I try to play it on my Nvidia Shield and the file doesn't even play. Should this be possible? 

Waldonnis

Waldonnis 148

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've been poking around the forums to see if this has been answered so forgive me if I've missed it.  I'm trying to transcode a 10bit HEVC file using the my GTX 1070 and I keep getting errors of No NVENC device in the ffmpeg log.  I'm not sure why since I'm sure the 1070 supports hw decoding of 10bit HEVC.  I try to play it on my Nvidia Shield and the file doesn't even play. Should this be possible?

 

The 1070 should support both hardware decoding and encoding of 10bit HEVC, but if it's giving you an error saying that it can't find an NVENC device, then the problem may be somewhere else.  Double-check the driver installation for starters, as this is the most common reason for that type of error in my experience.  You can also try transcoding a non-HEVC file (h.264 is easy) using the hardware encoder to make sure the issue isn't specific to ffmpeg's nvenc_hevc encoder.

 

FYI, 10bit pixel formats weren't supported in ffmpeg's NVENC implementation until fairly recently (circa August, I believe).  I also don't know if the few issues with the submitted patch were ever resolved (I think there was an issue with yuv420p10, but it's been a few weeks since I read about it) or how much of it was accepted.  It may be a work in progress still, since it seems there may have been more involved to add Main10 support.  Either way, I would try one of the latest static Zeranoe builds manually to see if the problem is with ffmpeg or on the driver side.  If you're not too handy with ffmpeg options, just let me know so I can PM or post some command lines that may be useful for testing this.

 

Sadly, I don't have a Pascal card (yet!) to double-check this.  Hoping that will change soon.  I've been researching some potential computer upgrade options (1070 or 1080 is leading that race) over the past few weeks, which is why I know about that 10bit patch info.  Wacky timing!  :D

 

Edit: One more thing - can we see the media info on the file in question?  I doubt it's the file, but just to eliminate a few more potential factors...

Edited by Waldonnis
bxsteez

bxsteez 3

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

The 1070 should support both hardware decoding and encoding of 10bit HEVC, but if it's giving you an error saying that it can't find an NVENC device, then the problem may be somewhere else.  Double-check the driver installation for starters, as this is the most common reason for that type of error in my experience.  You can also try transcoding a non-HEVC file (h.264 is easy) using the hardware encoder to make sure the issue isn't specific to ffmpeg's nvenc_hevc encoder.

 

FYI, 10bit pixel formats weren't supported in ffmpeg's NVENC implementation until fairly recently (circa August, I believe).  I also don't know if the few issues with the submitted patch were ever resolved (I think there was an issue with yuv420p10, but it's been a few weeks since I read about it) or how much of it was accepted.  It may be a work in progress still, since it seems there may have been more involved to add Main10 support.  Either way, I would try one of the latest static Zeranoe builds manually to see if the problem is with ffmpeg or on the driver side.  If you're not too handy with ffmpeg options, just let me know so I can PM or post some command lines that may be useful for testing this.

 

Sadly, I don't have a Pascal card (yet!) to double-check this.  Hoping that will change soon.  I've been researching some potential computer upgrade options (1070 or 1080 is leading that race) over the past few weeks, which is why I know about that 10bit patch info.  Wacky timing!  :D

 

Edit: One more thing - can we see the media info on the file in question?  I doubt it's the file, but just to eliminate a few more potential factors...

I am definitely not handy with ffmpeg but I did keep poking around the world of google and I read that the build is hardcoded to 8bit or 10bit.  Is that still true?  I was able to transcode h264 file without an issue and I'm pretty sure it was being done by the GPU.  It's just the yuv420p10le pixel format that gives me trouble

 

 

 

I attached the media info. 

 

EDIT:  I thought I attached the file but forgot to click attach this file lol

post-1416-0-61072800-1482033059_thumb.png

Edited by bxsteez
Waldonnis

Waldonnis 148

Posted
Posted

I am definitely not handy with ffmpeg but I did keep poking around the world of google and I read that the build is hardcoded to 8bit or 10bit.  Is that still true?  I was able to transcode h264 file without an issue and I'm pretty sure it was being done by the GPU.  It's just the yuv420p10le pixel format that gives me trouble

 

 

 

I attached the media info. 

 

You can compile ffmpeg for both, but it's a serious pain to do so and probably why none of the mainstream builds have bothered to do so.  Mostly, that applies to the software encoders, though, as ffmpeg itself doesn't care.  "libx264" and "libx265" encoders are actually library versions of the x264 and x265 stand-alone encoders, and both definitely require special compilation for 10 and 12bit support.  What I'm not sure is just how NVENC's interface to ffmpeg is implemented, but it's likely that it shouldn't need special compilation - just that the code is in ffmpeg to talk to the driver properly when it comes to new options.

 

yuv420p10le may indeed be an issue, as I don't think that part of the patch was accepted (it worked, but there were some technical implementation reasons that caused it to be rejected).  It may have since been worked on, but I would have to dredge the mailing list and commit logs again to find out.  If it's still not suported, it sucks since yuv420p10le is pretty widely used.

 

If you want to double-check that the GPU was used in your successful test, look for the ffmpeg command line in the transcode log and see if you can find any reference to NVENC in there (either a -vcodec or -codec option...or maybe something in the stats output that mentions nvenc).  "Speed" isn't a bad indicator as well, since CPU/software transcoding would be significantly slower and pretty obvious (especially if the source was HEVC 2160p).

 

I do compile my own ffmpeg with 10/12bit support locally, but can't redistribute it due to license restrictions on one of the audio encoders that I include in my build.  If the problem isn't only with the yuv420p10le pixel format, I may be able to prune out the audio encoder and build a binary to test with, but it may take a few days for me to get that set up and done (stupid holidays).

 

Oh, one other thing - can you run the command below and PM the output to me?  I'm mostly curious to see what I would have to work with and what's been implemented so far if I snag a new Pascal card this month, but am also trying to think of a way to work around the apparent limitation (more info is always a good thing):

ffmpeg -h encoder="nvenc_hevc"
bxsteez

bxsteez 3

Posted
Posted

 

You can compile ffmpeg for both, but it's a serious pain to do so and probably why none of the mainstream builds have bothered to do so.  Mostly, that applies to the software encoders, though, as ffmpeg itself doesn't care.  "libx264" and "libx265" encoders are actually library versions of the x264 and x265 stand-alone encoders, and both definitely require special compilation for 10 and 12bit support.  What I'm not sure is just how NVENC's interface to ffmpeg is implemented, but it's likely that it shouldn't need special compilation - just that the code is in ffmpeg to talk to the driver properly when it comes to new options.

 

yuv420p10le may indeed be an issue, as I don't think that part of the patch was accepted (it worked, but there were some technical implementation reasons that caused it to be rejected).  It may have since been worked on, but I would have to dredge the mailing list and commit logs again to find out.  If it's still not suported, it sucks since yuv420p10le is pretty widely used.

 

If you want to double-check that the GPU was used in your successful test, look for the ffmpeg command line in the transcode log and see if you can find any reference to NVENC in there (either a -vcodec or -codec option...or maybe something in the stats output that mentions nvenc).  "Speed" isn't a bad indicator as well, since CPU/software transcoding would be significantly slower and pretty obvious (especially if the source was HEVC 2160p).

 

I do compile my own ffmpeg with 10/12bit support locally, but can't redistribute it due to license restrictions on one of the audio encoders that I include in my build.  If the problem isn't only with the yuv420p10le pixel format, I may be able to prune out the audio encoder and build a binary to test with, but it may take a few days for me to get that set up and done (stupid holidays).

 

Oh, one other thing - can you run the command below and PM the output to me?  I'm mostly curious to see what I would have to work with and what's been implemented so far if I snag a new Pascal card this month, but am also trying to think of a way to work around the apparent limitation (more info is always a good thing):

ffmpeg -h encoder="nvenc_hevc"

My logs have the following

[h264 @ 0000000002f07a40] Warning: not compiled with thread support, using thread emulation
[dca @ 0000000001bfe600] Warning: not compiled with thread support, using thread emulation
[h264_nvenc @ 0000000001c0f2e0] Warning: not compiled with thread support, using thread emulation
[aac @ 0000000001c0dc60] Warning: not compiled with thread support, using thread emulation
Output #0, mpegts, to 'E:\transcode temp\transcoding-temp\7a6cdf6e9860bc210f8e0d799d16128d.ts':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.60.100
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (h264_nvenc) (Main), yuv420p, 3840x2160 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 39459 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 90k tbn, 23.98 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.68.100 h264_nvenc
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 39459629/0/39459629 buffer size: 78919258 vbv_delay: -1
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (24 bit), 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.68.100 aac
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (h264_nvenc))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (dts (dca) -> aac (native))

I am going to try the command you mentioned tonight and report back

Waldonnis

Waldonnis 148

Posted
Posted

Yep, looks like it was using the hardware encoder, which is a good sign.  At least we know that it does work on something and communicates with the card/driver.

 

Depending on what the encoder supports, I can generate a small test video file (with just colour bars) to try other pixel formats like yuv444p10le or yuv422p10le.  If it only supports the Main10 profile, though, it won't work because that profile is restricted to 4:2:0 chroma sampling.  I'll dig in some of NVidia's docs and see what I can find (either way, I'm adding some new samples to my sample library).

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