Jack Burton 98 Posted August 14, 2016 Posted August 14, 2016 (edited) Wondering if anyone can give me some advice here. My PC isn't the best, and I'm looking to try and increase Emby's performance. Basically if Emby is unused for any period of time, when it boots up (both for the server and in Emby Theatre), it takes anywhere from 2-8ish minutes for the content to load. Based on my hardware, this is probably normal, but I'd like to give things a boost if i can. All my media is stored on external drives (would love to upgrade to internals but it would require a whole new PC, also $$$). Is there a danger in changing the priority in task manager, say from normal to high for the server and Theatre? Also, I'm trying to find some info on the downside to changing the hard disk policy to better performance instead of quick removal. I understand there's potential for data loss if removed incorrectly, but my drives are always connected. I guess the biggest concern would be having better performance selected and there being a power failure. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanx! Edited August 14, 2016 by Jack Burton
pir8radio 1312 Posted August 14, 2016 Posted August 14, 2016 (edited) Leave it on all of the time.. just kidding. when you say "it boots up" do you mean a fresh boot, wake from sleep, or hibernation? If fresh boot, do you have emby set to do a library scan at boot up? Edited August 14, 2016 by pir8radio
Jack Burton 98 Posted August 14, 2016 Author Posted August 14, 2016 Leave it on all of the time.. just kidding. when you say "it boots up" do you mean a fresh boot, wake from sleep, or hibernation? If fresh boot, do you have emby set to do a library scan at boot up? The server is always running. By "boots up" I mean chrome or theatre has been closed, and I reopen either one after some time. It seems like the server goes idle when not in use, so opening chrome or theatre takes awhile to load media. I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact that my media is on external drives which slows things down
pir8radio 1312 Posted August 14, 2016 Posted August 14, 2016 (edited) Are your external drives are setup in windows power settings to stay awake? Here is some more info: http://superuser.com/questions/309689/how-to-keep-external-usb-drives-from-sleeping-windows-7 If they are going to sleep and the above (Disable USB and Power settings) doesn't work, there is an application I have used for external drives in the past: https://keepalivehd.codeplex.com/ Will keep the drives running, some external drive controllers have built in firmware that shuts the drive down when inactive. Edited August 14, 2016 by pir8radio
Jack Burton 98 Posted August 15, 2016 Author Posted August 15, 2016 I use a program that writes to each drive every 5 mins so they're always awake. My guess is its just a lot of info to pull off the drives so I was wondering about changing to the better performance option in the hard disk priority. I just don't want to lose data if the power goes out or something
rui no onna 1 Posted August 15, 2016 Posted August 15, 2016 Until you start playing back content (or the Emby Server is running a library scan), it shouldn't really be scanning your external drives. Personally, best performance upgrade I've experienced for MediaBrowser is to use SSD for metadata. The SSD really helps the HTPC feel more like an appliance than a PC.
pir8radio 1312 Posted August 15, 2016 Posted August 15, 2016 Until you start playing back content (or the Emby Server is running a library scan), it shouldn't really be scanning your external drives. Personally, best performance upgrade I've experienced for MediaBrowser is to use SSD for metadata. The SSD really helps the HTPC feel more like an appliance than a PC. agreed if you are storing all of your meta data WITH the media, emby has to pull all of that info off those slow drives.. I store my metadata on an SSD and moved the emby cache folder to a RAM drive. @@Jack Burton I was just asking about the drives in case that added wake-up delay was a factor..
Jack Burton 98 Posted August 16, 2016 Author Posted August 16, 2016 Awesome that might work! All my metadata is stored with the media on externals. I don't have an ssd but I'm sure there'd still be a noticeable difference if I move it to my internal drive. Thanx!
chef 3810 Posted August 16, 2016 Posted August 16, 2016 (edited) agreed if you are storing all of your meta data WITH the media, emby has to pull all of that info off those slow drives.. I store my metadata on an SSD and moved the emby cache folder to a RAM drive. @@Jack Burton I was just asking about the drives in case that added wake-up delay was a factor.. Actually @@pir8radio the part about storing the cache on a ram drive is very interesting. How are you doing that? Edited August 16, 2016 by chef
rui no onna 1 Posted August 16, 2016 Posted August 16, 2016 Awesome that might work! All my metadata is stored with the media on externals. I don't have an ssd but I'm sure there'd still be a noticeable difference if I move it to my internal drive. Thanx! Honestly, I doubt it'll make a huge difference. The thing that makes SSDs faster is small block random read/write performance. An internal HDD is still an HDD so that's probably around just 1-2 MB/s random 4K. 1
chef 3810 Posted August 16, 2016 Posted August 16, 2016 Honestly, I doubt it'll make a huge difference. The thing that makes SSDs faster is small block random read/write performance. An internal HDD is still an HDD so that's probably around just 1-2 MB/s random 4K. That was what I was going to mention. The ways to speed up emby would be a faster processor, and maybe more RAM. But even then, just a faster processor will make a huge difference. You can buy cheap used CPUs on eBay. Just watch the LGA socket type when shopping. Make sure it fits your motherboard. You can buy 8 Core Processors for under 250 bucks. They have a low Hz but will make a substantial difference.
pir8radio 1312 Posted August 16, 2016 Posted August 16, 2016 (edited) Actually @@pir8radio the part about storing the cache on a ram drive is very interesting. How are you doing that? I'm using RAMDisk it allows you to save the memory disk to hard disk automatically... So it acts as a hard drive. I have a 10 gig ram drive where the cache is located.. It consumes 10 gig of my RAM while the drive is running but I have 48 gigs of ram, and with the ram disk running I am only using 20 gigs of ram right now 10 for drive and windows/applications is using another 10, still have 27 or so gigs free.. Works well, super fast.. Probably an overkill Edited August 16, 2016 by pir8radio
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