Need help with new build (high end HTPC to help with streaming to family and friends)

January 23, 2016

I have a nice collection of BluRay Rips on several Synology rackstation NAS (about 75Tb). The synology acts as a file folder system as I do NOT run emby on my NAS. I have a separate HTPC in my house that I use specifically for transcoding my movies so I can watch them on my tv.

My family which consists of 3 different households wants to be able to use Roku 3/4 to stream movies from my Synology to watch at their respective households. I have tried doing this with giving them each an account and letting them log to Emby server through my HTPC. However, my HTPC cant handle the transcoding of the bluray to my family members. So I decided to build a dedicated HTPC that could run Emby server and allow them to watch the movies I have on my Synology.

The questions I have relate to this setup:

1. Based on the above do you guys agree that this would be the best route to take? - A separate dedicated HTPC that would handle my family?

2. If yes to #1 - I would suspect that transcoding BluRay I definitely want a high end system - if you have experience with what I am doing that is working for you I would like to know what setup you have.

3. If there is a better option to accomplish this goal - I am open to suggestions.

thanks for your time and I appreciate any advice.

January 23, 2016

Id suggest confirming that you have a sufficient internet connection for the task and an ISP that isn't going to flip when you start serving up that much data before buying hardware. I'm assuming you don't care about the legal issues.

From there, sure, your plan seems reasonable though if you're getting a server to handle three transcode sets why not make it handle four users and just have the one box?

There are a number of forum users with similar setups so Im sure you can get some hardware advice.

January 23, 2016

the data amounts are really not an issue as my ISP is not bean counting my data usage. So I am good there. I can create several users - but would one HTPC with enough processing power be able to transcode 4 users at once? or would I need to limit access to one or two users max? I would suspect a dual processing board would be the way to go-

I would welcome some suggestions here. Hopefully those with these types of setups will chime in

thanks DS

January 24, 2016

So first things first.

You've left out a lot of needed information here.

What is your upstream data rate on your internet connection?

At a bare minimum you'll need 4-6 (ore more) Mbps upstream per user for 1080p, So if you're wanting to serve 4 people you're talking about needed 16-24Mbps upstream, an in reality more than that since it's bursting the data out to the clients so they an buffer. Figure closer to say 35-40Mbps just to ensure there are no issues. And that JUST to serve the video that's not including any overhead your normal internet usage may add.

As for transcoding there's a lot of variables that come into play there. For 4 people you could probably get by fine with a high end I7 processor especially if you use quicksync acceleration to do 4 transcodes of 1080p content.

January 24, 2016

@@JDCaduceus 4 users at once wont be a difficult task, but the other people that are trying to help you need to know the bottlenecks outside of the new "setup". First question was upstream or outbound internet bandwidth, if you don't know this, speedtest.net will quickly give you the numbers asked here. Also you will probably want to at least have an idea of how fast the other households internet connections are.. Otherwise they may not be able to view HD streams, they may have to view the bluerays at a lower resolution to fit those streams over their internet connection. The hardware part of your question is the easy part..

You say "the data amounts are really not an issue as my ISP is not bean counting my data usage" so I would assume you have cable, comcast/xfinity possibly? But what package?

Edited January 24, 2016 by pir8radio

January 24, 2016

understood - my fault sometimes I take for granted and forget I have to lay a good foundation to get a good response. My internet upload runs around 28mps (cox ultiimate) Most of the time all 4 family members will not be on at the same time so it is highly unlikely I will be transcoding 4 streams at once - there is a strong possibility that I will have 2 or maybe 3 on at once.

What settings (Emby streaming rates) would you suggest I put for the family members to decrease download/transcoding issues for each family member?

If you think i7 can handle that then my costs just decreased significantly - was looking at 3 or 5 Xeon family with 12-18 cores and a daul processor server board. But sounds like way way overkill for what I want.

Thanks Pir8radio and Jeremy - now that you know more - what do you guys think? both hardward and emby settings for family members? How do I thread this needle here?

January 24, 2016

understood - my fault sometimes I take for granted and forget I have to lay a good foundation to get a good response. My internet upload runs around 28mps (cox ultiimate) Most of the time all 4 family members will not be on at the same time so it is highly unlikely I will be transcoding 4 streams at once - there is a strong possibility that I will have 2 or maybe 3 on at once.

What settings (Emby streaming rates) would you suggest I put for the family members to decrease download/transcoding issues for each family member?

If you think i7 can handle that then my costs just decreased significantly - was looking at 3 or 5 Xeon family with 12-18 cores and a daul processor server board. But sounds like way way overkill for what I want.

Thanks Pir8radio and Jeremy - now that you know more - what do you guys think? both hardward and emby settings for family members? How do I thread this needle here?

IF they're all using Roku's using the default Roku stream rates ought to work fine. I have several family that use Rokus and keeping them around 3.5-4.5mbps works just fine. As I said before a current gen I7 should get the job done for you especially now with the Quicksync transcoding capabilities. As for hardware I'm probably not the best guy to ask since everything I run is enterprise grade. My personal Emby Server has 4 CPU's 32 cores 64threads and 128GB of RAM. Overboard??? yeah probably, but better to have more than I need than not enough

January 25, 2016

Jeremy,

Well do you mind giving me the specs of your personal server? case Motherboard Processors ram etc? I am like you - I build in excess

Also what is the new quicksync feature you mention? Is that something in Emby?

Edited January 25, 2016 by JDCaduceus

January 25, 2016

Jeremy,

Well do you mind giving me the specs of your personal server? case Motherboard Processors ram etc? I am like you - I build in excess

Also what is the new quicksync feature you mention? Is that something in Emby?

My Emby Server is a Dell R810, running (4) Intel Xeon L7555 Processors (1.87Ghz 8 Core/16 Threads) 128GB of DDR3 FBDIMM Memory, (2) 15k 146GB SAS drives (mirrored for OS and software) (1) 15k 300GB SAS Drive (WIndows Page File) (3) 10k 900GB SAS Drives (RAID5-Emby cache/metadata/transcoding)

Mind you this is a wholly dedicated server to Emby, all media is stored on a separate SAN setup in the rack currently consisting of a main file server with (24) Drives and (2) 8 Bay QNap Enclosures for a total of 40 storage drives running in 4 different RAID arrays yielding around 75TB of storage total from nearly 100TB of actual disks.

Quicksync is support to use the integrated GPU on Intels "consumer" chips to do the work for transcoding thus freeing up the main CPU to do other things.

January 25, 2016

January 25, 2016

gtocha - so you did a Dell build and not a custom build? What motherboard or Dell propietary? Thanks for the intel - I have 4 Synology servers running 48 drives on raid 1 for 125tb of space - I need a dedicated emby server and I think reading your specs I like what you have. how did you set up your hard drives on the server to interact with yoru SAN setup? You have 6 drives on your server 1 drive for just cache, metadata and transcoding? I have all of my metadata and cache for each movie file on my synology - so I would not need that feature.

How much did this run you for the dell? What OS are you using on the dell? I love it! Do you have a monitor that is part of your rack system to allow you to configure the dell?

Edited January 25, 2016 by JDCaduceus

January 25, 2016

Ok.....

Yes the Dell is all propietary as all Dell's are (servers anyways)

The Dell is running WIndows Server2008R2 (been too lazy to upgrade it to 2012R2 like my other servers)

I used to work manage data centers for a large internet company and as such got to take home some pretty sweet hardware when it came time to de-commission it at no charge so I didn't pay a dime for the Dell.

As for connectivity, I'll try to explain this best I can.

The main fileserver is running Windows Server 2012R2, it has a total of 6 Gigabit network connections, 4 of these are used for ISCSI connections to the QNAP arrays 2 connections each forming a true 2Gbps Bonded connection between the server and each san. So I get 225MBps of read/write performance to each QNAP because they are each on dedicated ISCSI links that's simultaneously so I can read/write 225MBps to each Qnap at the same time for a total of 450MBps read/write between the 2 arrays and the server. The final 2 gigabit connections are running a bonded connection back to my main network switch, the Dell also has a 2Gbps bonded connection to the same switch.

Yes I have a monitor and KVM for configuration etc of all the servers in the rack though most everything I normally do via Remote Desktop.

January 25, 2016

I realized I didnt' touch base on the metadata portion....

The reason I store the metadata on the Emby Server is for a couple of reason. The metadata and cache files are typically very small files 1-4k each. The RAID's I have setup for media are formatted and tuned for large files. By placing 100's of thousands of "itty bitty" files on these arrays would eat away a ton of storage on those arrays. So by keeping them on a dedicated array on the server itself I can have that array tuned for small files so that 1.) I'm not losing storage that i don't need to, and 2.) I get far better read/write performance as well.

The other reason I store all the data on the Emby server instead of within in the media folders is it eliminates one network leg for the data. The data is readily available to the server on an array that can feed up 400+MBps vs pulling it accross the network at 110MBps. This yields better response and load times in browser's and clients etc. It's all about performance and providing the best and fastest experience I can to myself and my users.

January 25, 2016

very nice - well I have a different setup than you, as I am sure most do. So what do you suggest I do to increase processing my movie files for my family? Aside from getting an R810 or R820? If all of my movies are stored on 4 Synology Rackstations (running 2 R3614xs+ with two expansion (R1214)) and are stored in filesharing of the folders (not via ISCSI) on my network. All of the metadata is contained within each movie file. Each synology has 4 Gig bonded connection to my switch

I like the idea of adding an R10 to my rack and just using the R810 as the dedicate server to transcode for all my media and run Emby on Windows Server - thoughts? Just buy the best R810 I can afford and load it up with RAM and use that machine. I can always remote into it after setup.

Would like your input.

Thanks again

January 25, 2016

The 810 is definitely a robust server, if you could get a great deal on one then I'd say go for it, but I also think you could do better with newer hardware in terms of power consumption and efficiency. The e3 and e5's are impressive processors these days. As for RAM emby doesn't require a whole bunch in all reality. If you are JUST running Windows and Emby and nothing else 16GB of memory would be more than enough. I never see usage above about 10 or 12GB total.

Edited January 25, 2016 by JeremyFr79

January 25, 2016

jusst did a search on R810 and prices are all over the place depending on packages (processors, ram and HD configs) - just need to do research. One question are you running two Dell Servers on your rack? One for outsourcing to your users and one for you internally? Are those power supplies on the WAN disconnect?

January 25, 2016

Ok so in the pic I posted above it's as follows.

Custom built HTPC - handles all TV recording (8 tuners total) and runs the Theater room on the other side of the wall.

Dell PowerEdge 1950 - Router - runs PFSense Firewall/Router and handles all the firewall/routing/etc for the house. Curenntly running 5 VLANS (main, iscsi,security cameras, guest wireless, VPN)

(2) Leviton 120 volt 15amp PDU's

Cisco UCS Server - Server 2012R2 - DC/DNS this runs all DNS for the house and is the Domain controller.

Dell R810 - Emby Server

(2) Qnap TS-879u - each has (8) 3TB Hitachi Ultrastar drives each running in RAID 5

Supermicro Chassis with dual Xeon L5520 CPU's 48GB RAM, 9x3TB RAID 6, 3x1TB RAID 5, 12x1TB RAID 6

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Need help with new build (high end HTPC to help with streaming to family and friends)

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