Help deciding on a system for Emby Server

[bobhays 2]

I have a FreeNAS that stores all my media files. Right now it's also running the Emby plugin. The problem is the CPU is an old Pentium that can handle at most 1 1080p x264 -> 720p x264 at the medium transcoding speed. (maybe 2 streams at a faster speed). I have a couple 4k HEVC movies that I can't stream anywhere because there is no way the server can handle the transcode.

 

My goal is to get a system that has hardware support for 4k hevc streams. I'm not sure if I should be going with quicksync, NVENC, or amd's VCE. Which one has the best support in emby?

 

Now for the OS part, If I decide to run it off of NVENC or VCE can I add the graphics card to my freeNAS or do I have to run it on a separate system? (I'm assuming separate because of drivers and stuff)

 

Since that most likely means I need a separate system should I run it on W10 or Linux? I want to run it on linux so that I don't have to deal with windows updates and annoyances on a system that should be on 24/7 but if windows support is better I'd also prefer to deal with less headaches.

 

Any advice? Thanks guys!

 

P.S: Unrelated to this topic, when I stream online the only quality option I have is 720p - 3mbps. I used to have many options like 480p, 360p, etc. but now there's only one. Any idea what caused this?

 

EDIT: I think the only other option is to encode the videos in 1080p h264 and have them as an alternative version to stream which I'm strongly considering because if I'm watching it in 4k it will be locally so I dont need to transcode.

Edited March 9, 2017 by bobhays

[Ballistic 8]

If you can, i would avoid transcoding. It's resource intensive, thus expensive and does not scale.

 

If i really had to do this; i would keep it simple and use CPU transcoding as GPU transcoding is not that mature yet. 

Get a ~300 dollar i7/Xeon CPU and you should be able to trascode 6 to 8 streams at the same time. If that is no enough, go for a Dual Xeon E5-2670v1 system. 

[bobhays 2]

If you can, i would avoid transcoding. It's resource intensive, thus expensive and does not scale.

 

If i really had to do this; i would keep it simple and use CPU transcoding as GPU transcoding is not that mature yet. 

Get a ~300 dollar i7/Xeon CPU and you should be able to trascode 6 to 8 streams at the same time. If that is no enough, go for a Dual Xeon E5-2670v1 system. 

The only way to completely avoid transcoding is to reencode the video files at lower bit rates in h264. The problem is then I have to go through the whole library and batch transcode the files and it takes up more storage space which is why I was looking for a transcoding solution.

 

The reason I was looking for hardware transcoding is that I have a 4th gen i7 and it takes ~50% to decode a 4k hevc video and I'm slowly gaining more and more hevc content so that's pretty important. I understand most of my content won't be 4k but that means that the i7 can only handle 2 streams at 4k. If I can get hw transcoding setup I can achieve the same results with a $100 gpu (gtx 1050) and use less power too.

[Guest asrequested]

This article will offer some insight in HEVC support.

 

http://techgage.com/article/intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-performance-z270-chipset-overview/

[bobhays 2]

This article will offer some insight in HEVC support.

 

http://techgage.com/article/intel-kaby-lake-core-i7-7700k-performance-z270-chipset-overview/

Thanks for the article, all my research regarding HW transcoding for media has told me the following

 

Don't use AMD VCE, not because it's bad, but because nothing really supports it.

 

Intel Quicksync requires 7th gen processors for 10bit HEVC encode/decode. I don't know how many streams it supports at once. Also necessary for 4k Netflix and other streaming services (not Youtube)

 

Nvidia gtx 1050 and greater support 10bit HEVC encode/decode but no B frames, so potentially slightly larger files. 2 encoding sessions at a time, don't think decoding counts against the limit but not confirmed.

 

The advantage of going with an nvidia based transcoder is that I can potentially add a 2nd card for more streams, but idk if Emby will support multiple cards, and I need to confirm that decoding doesn't count as one of the sessions.

 

The advantage of quicksync is B-Frame support, problem is I can't expand it and I don't know how many streams it supports. Also since I'd need to build a system anyways this would be cheaper. (idc about Netflix).

 

 

This weekend if I get the chance I'm going to test the NVENC streaming with a friends 1060. I will report back on if decoding counts as a session, if not that means it will support 2 full transcoding streams.

[zigzagtshirt 55]

If you can, i would avoid transcoding. It's resource intensive, thus expensive and does not scale.

 

If i really had to do this; i would keep it simple and use CPU transcoding as GPU transcoding is not that mature yet. 

Get a ~300 dollar i7/Xeon CPU and you should be able to trascode 6 to 8 streams at the same time. If that is no enough, go for a Dual Xeon E5-2670v1 system. 

 

The only way to avoid transcoding completely is to have someone else give you the media files already encoded to work with all of your clients.  If that's not the case then you'll need to spend time transcoding them prior to putting them on your server.

 

I got to the point of thinking "why bother" so now I just put my files on my server without wasting time messing with them.  I'd rather spend my time watching and enjoying.  If they happen to need transcoding then Emby will take care of that.

 

My two cents.

[bobhays 2]

The only way to avoid transcoding completely is to have someone else give you the media files already encoded to work with all of your clients.  If that's not the case then you'll need to spend time transcoding them prior to putting them on your server.

 

I got to the point of thinking "why bother" so now I just put my files on my server without wasting time messing with them.  I'd rather spend my time watching and enjoying.  If they happen to need transcoding then Emby will take care of that.

 

My two cents.

This is what I'm trying to do for 2 reasons. 1. It's just easier like you mentioned, 2. I get to keep the original files without losing quality and I don't have to use extra space on multiple versions.

 

The thing is I'm trying to get an emby system that can handle this stuff without costing too much. I don't care too much about streaming quality anyways since my upload can't handle very high bitrates so GPU encoding is perfect (if it works). I'm gonna give it a try this weekend.

[legallink 187]

From the other perspective, space is cheap and the experience is by far soooo much better if the files are pre-transcoded. I've done both and the system working relatively stress freee because it's just serving up the correct file is a ton better.

 

I keep the oringsl uncompressed file and a file encoded for the majority of front ends that play on my server. That way if one or two need a transcode then no big deal.

[bobhays 2]

From the other perspective, space is cheap and the experience is by far soooo much better if the files are pre-transcoded. I've done both and the system working relatively stress freee because it's just serving up the correct file is a ton better.

 

I keep the oringsl uncompressed file and a file encoded for the majority of front ends that play on my server. That way if one or two need a transcode then no big deal.

What bit rate do you keep your pre-transcoded files?

 

The biggest issue I have (since like you mentioned space is pretty cheap), is that not compressing it enough means that I will need to buffer on slow internet, compressing it too much will mean sacrificing quality. The solution seems to be dynamically transcoding based on internet speed (i.e transcoding on the fly) which is the alternative solution.

 

That being said, if I transcode it before hand I can get much better quality at the same bit rate so maybe I should set it to 3 - 4.5 mbps h.264/VP9, and downsample audio to stereo, that should work for most platforms and internet settings. I also wouldn't need a dedicated Emby server, I could just run it off of my freeNAS. Ughhh looks like it's time to re-re-encode all my files. (I already did this once but then deleted it because of Emby on the fly transcoding).

 

How does Emby handle multiple versions of the same file? How am I supposed to set it up in the folder structure?

 

EDIT: Found it here, pasting link for future reference: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Movie%20naming#multi-version-movies

Edited March 11, 2017 by bobhays

[legallink 187]

@@bobhays

 

Sorry about the slow response, I wasn't following the thread.  I try to keep my pre-transcoded files somewhere between 3 - 7 mbps (depends on the movie at hand).  However, that is because I have a 50 mbps upload from my server, and I don't plan on my users doing much on the mobile front, as in the U.S., mobile data is expensive, and wifi/lan speeds, that is pretty attainable for all my users.

 

Dynamically transcoding based on internet speed can be done, but of the options available, is by far the most expensive option.

 

For audio, I put multiple formats/versions there to allow for lesser compatible clients to get what they need without transcoding, and more capable clients to have full range.  So, I do AAC, AC3, and whatever uncompressed format there is (Atmos, TrueHD, etc.).  I have some apple tv's in play, and for them, to avoid transcoding I have to put the AAC track first in the lineup.  Roku's, web, and android are all able to pick up the AC3 and higher files based on user preferences/settings.