Recommended Specs - CPU maxing out

[casminkey 19]

Hello, I had a rather old Core2Duo CPU running Emby (or MediaBrowser) for years and it's worked great. Recently, I've found problems playing movies in 1080p with the CPU maxing out. So I recently upgraded to a newer PC with an iCore5 processor with a fresh Windows 7 install, but it's still maxing out. Any suggestions why?

 

Do I still not have the CPU power to decode the movies at such a high resolution? Or maybe another suggestion for a fix?

 

Anyone know if there's a better format I can re-encode the movies in to save on the processing power when the movie is playing?

 

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. 

[JeremyFr79 228]

What you're probably seeing is the CPU maxing out while doing transcoding.  It will do that at first to buffer as much (sometimes the whole movie) as it can to get the work out of the way.  You can adjust this in the dashboard under trasncoding setttings.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

It's likely transcoding.  What client are you using when this happens.

[casminkey 19]

What you're probably seeing is the CPU maxing out while doing transcoding.  It will do that at first to buffer as much (sometimes the whole movie) as it can to get the work out of the way.  You can adjust this in the dashboard under trasncoding setttings.

It was set to Auto. When I set it to 'Higher Speed' it seems to play fine although the CPU is still a straight 100%. Anything else, it skips and locks up every couple of seconds, CPU is at 100%.

 

Enable Throttling is checked.

 

 

It's likely transcoding.  What client are you using when this happens.

I've been testing on another PC using it through Chrome in the web interface, although I would usually use Emby Theater. I haven't tested it that way yet, I didn't think there would be a difference but when I remoted in to my PC with Emby Theater and played a movie, CPU didn't budge past 5%.

 

I'll have to do a real test and see how it works. Perhaps the new server is working great.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

I've been testing on another PC using it through Chrome in the web interface, although I would usually use Emby Theater. I haven't tested it that way yet, I didn't think there would be a difference but when I remoted in to my PC with Emby Theater and played a movie, CPU didn't budge past 5%.

 

I'll have to do a real test and see how it works. Perhaps the new server is working great.

 

That makes sense.  Without setting up an external player a browser is probably the single most limited playback option.  It's the one most likely to need transcoding of most video and audio types in common use.

[casminkey 19]

If I still have problems playing from Emby Theater, should that indicate my PC running Emby Theater needs to be upgraded as well? This is also a rather old desktop. It's got an upgraded video card to output hdmi, but it's nothing fancy.

 

I'm not familiar how the Theater and server work together and where the processing power comes into play.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1154]

It was set to Auto. When I set it to 'Higher Speed' it seems to play fine although the CPU is still a straight 100%. Anything else, it skips and locks up every couple of seconds, CPU is at 100%.

 

Enable Throttling is checked.

 

 

I've been testing on another PC using it through Chrome in the web interface, although I would usually use Emby Theater. I haven't tested it that way yet, I didn't think there would be a difference but when I remoted in to my PC with Emby Theater and played a movie, CPU didn't budge past 5%.

 

I'll have to do a real test and see how it works. Perhaps the new server is working great.

 

Browsers like Chrome will almost always transcode. They use h264 video with AAC (2 channel) audio. If you don't match the specs exactly they transcode. Even if you have 5.1 or 7.1 audio and an AAC stereo track, if the stereo track isn't the first audio track, it will often transcode the other audio streams. Same with mobile devices. 

 

What you can do while playing something in Chrome is reduce its bitrate. The stuttering can be due to network saturation and not the transcoding. Especially if you're on WIFI.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Koleckai Silvestri

[casminkey 19]

I watched a full 1080p movie through Emby Theater and didn't skip once. Seems like the transcoding settings did help.

 

Thanks! I really appreciate everyone's help on this one.