How Big of a System for X many Simultaneous Recordings

[dranderson402 31]

I was wondering how big of a system I would need when recording multiple shows at the same time with the option to automatically convert the streams to mkv on the fly is turned on.

 

There are days where I would be recording up to as many as 4 shows at the same time. This was never a problem with my Mythtv setup on Ubuntu, but I am wanting to transition to emby. I'm tired of maintaining 2 different systems but I wasn't sure if my old Mythtv server would be enough to be my new emby server and handle all the recording needs.

 

I've been running emby server on my everyday computer which is an AMD FX-8320E Vishera 8-Core 3.2GHz with 16Gb Ram. I checked the task manager while it was recording one stream and ffmpeg was using about an average of 24%. I'm sure that would be a lot less if I wasn't converting on the fly, but the space savings for the recordings is nice. 2.3Gb instead of over 6Gb is a big and welcomed difference.

 

My mythtv server is an i5-4460 3.2 GHz with (I think) 8Gb ram.

[maegibbons 1287]

As you rightly surmise record-transcoding uses a lot of CPU resource.

 

I would be going for a system with a quad core  I7 processor which will give you 8 virtual cores.

 

Go for something with a clock speed > 3ghz also.

 

That should do it.

 

Krs

 

Mark

[dranderson402 31]

I would be going for a system with a quad core  I7 processor which will give you 8 virtual cores.

 

 

My AMD is 8 actual cores. Does Emby work better with Intel? Just curious.

[Guest asrequested]

Transcoding live TV recordings is less intense than transcoding playback, as it can only transcode as the stream continues. With playback, it will transcode ahead, to create a buffer. I often record 4 shows at once with transcoding. I have an i7 6700k and I no longer use HWA. It works with no issues at all. How many shows might you be recording, simultaneously? I'd say you're perfectly fine with what you have.

[dranderson402 31]

....How many shows might you be recording, simultaneously? I'd say you're perfectly fine with what you have.

 

At the most probably would only record 4 shows at once.And that would only happen maybe once a week. Otherwise the bulk would be 2 or 3.

 

When you say I'd be fine with what I have, are you referring to my AMD system or the i5? I'm currently running on the AMD system but would like to move it to the i5 which is what Mythtv is currently on.

[maegibbons 1287]

Well your I5 is also a quad core with reasonable clock spead so you should be ok with a max of 4 streams

 

Krs

 

Mark

[Guest asrequested]

At the most probably would only record 4 shows at once.And that would only happen maybe once a week. Otherwise the bulk would be 2 or 3.

 

When you say I'd be fine with what I have, are you referring to my AMD system or the i5? I'm currently running on the AMD system but would like to move it to the i5 which is what Mythtv is currently on.

 

Either should work ok for transcoding recorded tv. One show should only use one thread/core. If it were me, I'd probably give the AMD a shot. It has more cores. But, the i5 does have QuickSync. That's an old CPU, it's a bit hit and miss to see how well ffmpeg will utilize it. I'm presently moving away from HWA in the server. CPU transcoding is more stable and arguably gives better results. 

[dranderson402 31]

Thanks everyone.

 

I built the AMD system as my personal desktop for everyday use so I didn't want to use it for Emby. I figured since I was moving my DVR over to Emby I would repurpose that i5 for Emby. I'll give it a test run before I move everything over and if it can't handle the transcoding on the fly I will just turn that off. I have the space. Mythtv saved the huge raw ts files and I always had enough space. So I should be fine if I had to do the same with Emby.

 

So thanks again.