Question about possibility of forcing Emby to use gpu for UHD discs

[hawkguru 4]

So when I run a 4K MKV, Emby correctly uses the GPU via ffmpeg....but when a disk, it uses CPU via FFMPEG, any potential tricks to make it force to use GPU for the UHD discs too? Thanks. 

[rbjtech 5284]

You'll need to provide more details on the formats used, but I suspect if you are trying to direct play from an ISO container or maybe a transport stream (m2ts etc) then the CPU is needed to extract the data into a suitable container in the first instance.   With an MKV, it is already in a suitable container to then process via the GPU.

Edited June 12, 2025 by rbjtech

[hawkguru 4]

Thank you for your thoughtful answer @rbjtech, i had to think a bit before responding. 

 

First, I was all wrong - GPU is being used with even a UHD disk. I dont know what happened last time maybe windows updates were running, and i barely saw any gpu usage.  However, i am so new to media servers that i figured out it was partially my fault because i was using web-browser to test things out, now trying the emby theater it is so much more efficient in play stuff. I did a bit of research too and basically though re using web browser to play, and I read that there are limitations in how a video can be unpacked/etc on a web browser. But with that said playing a UHD remux vs a UHD disk on web browser the remux does seem to be more efficiently transcoded due to reasons you mentioned i believe. So with that said I'd like to ask you several more question @rbjtech(or anybody else that likes to pitch in):

1) I find the emby theater so much more efficient than using web browser to play - so as an emby pass member, if I share my library, and my friends don't have emby premium can they still download the client app for windows and use it to actually watch my collection without being emby pass members?

2) Related to the above question - are there alternative effective ways of accessing/sharing emby library if the person on the other hand doesn't have access to emby theater for whatever reason (i mean like on pcs/windows in case you are on windows I am not sure)? I read online some people use kodi - is Kodi an effective/efficient way of playing/accessing someone's library?

3) I've heard there is this 3 transcode limit of nvidia cards or something of that sort, if I remove that limit, will the GPU be even able to more effectively transcode even single medias, or is that mainly pertaining like u multiple different media files being transcoded?

4) If I share with a friend, can I force their account to always use direct play no matter what?  Not that I am inclined to do that but just wanted to know. 

if you or any had any other general advice about playback please do share. 

[Luke 42078]

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1) I find the emby theater so much more efficient than using web browser to play - so as an emby pass member, if I share my library, and my friends don't have emby premium can they still download the client app for windows and use it to actually watch my collection without being emby pass members?

Hi, if you have Emby Premiere, then yes.

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2) Related to the above question - are there alternative effective ways of accessing/sharing emby library if the person on the other hand doesn't have access to emby theater for whatever reason (i mean like on pcs/windows in case you are on windows I am not sure)? I read online some people use kodi - is Kodi an effective/efficient way of playing/accessing someone's library?

We have apps for pretty much whatever device they want to use.

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3) I've heard there is this 3 transcode limit of nvidia cards or something of that sort, if I remove that limit, will the GPU be even able to more effectively transcode even single medias

Not that I'm aware of.

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If I share with a friend, can I force their account to always use direct play no matter what?  Not that I am inclined to do that but just wanted to know. 

You can do this with user permissions, but it will cause them to get an error message when they try to play something that requires transcoding.

[rbjtech 5284]

13 hours ago, hawkguru said:

1) I find the emby theater so much more efficient than using web browser to play - so as an emby pass member, if I share my library, and my friends don't have emby premium can they still download the client app for windows and use it to actually watch my collection without being emby pass members?

 

Yes, the license they use on their (free) client is approved using your server license.   There is a limit on how many but it's a decent amount.  See the premier license pages for full details.

13 hours ago, hawkguru said:

2) Related to the above question - are there alternative effective ways of accessing/sharing emby library if the person on the other hand doesn't have access to emby theater for whatever reason (i mean like on pcs/windows in case you are on windows I am not sure)? I read online some people use kodi - is Kodi an effective/efficient way of playing/accessing someone's library?

 

As Luke says, there are lots of clients but they all have different capabilities vs the hardware that is being used to playback.  Yes Kodi is one of the most capable clients (ie could direct play the 4K HDR with HD Audio for example) IF a) you have the upload bandwidth b) the client had the download bandwidth to stream the file and c) the client was capable of playing 4K HDR and HD Audio.    Otherwise Emby would transcode it to play.     As you has ascertained, browsers are one of the worst options because they do not even play hevc unless you have add-on's installed.

13 hours ago, hawkguru said:

3) I've heard there is this 3 transcode limit of nvidia cards or something of that sort, if I remove that limit, will the GPU be even able to more effectively transcode even single medias, or is that mainly pertaining like u multiple different media files being transcoded?

Yes, but this is easily overcome (google it), 4K transcoding (+tonemapping) is heavy on resource - so depending on what Nvidia card it is - then you may be limited to only 5 or 6 4k sessions anyway before you max the memory on the card (that is the usual limitation).     

13 hours ago, hawkguru said:

4) If I share with a friend, can I force their account to always use direct play no matter what?  Not that I am inclined to do that but just wanted to know. 

Yes, but this is usually not wise, as if any one of the dependencies fail, then it will not play at all.  With transcoding as an option, then at least it will play.

To conclude :-

Playing back a 4K native UHD Disk (known as a Remux) is VERY demanding on remote systems as the bandwidth requirement is very high (70-100Mbit/sec typically) and also HDR or Dolby Vision + HD Audio codec support (TrueHD or DTS-HD) is needed on the client.   Unless you and the client have all those available with capacity to spare, it will highly likely be transcoded - then requiring GPU to reduce the bandwidth (transcode to 4k if you are lucky, or down to 1080p or worse), GPU to tonemap (HDR>SDR) and reduce the HD Audio to compressed Audio.    The better option - is to simply have a lower quality version that is '4K streaming' quality - ie about 20-30Mbit with Dolby Digital+ Audio.    That is far more likely to stream ok - as this is what the commercial streamers use.

 

Edited June 13, 2025 by rbjtech