New Emby Server on Virtual Machine or dedicated NUC?

[fr0sty 0]

Hi all,

 

I starting clean with emby server after retiring my Windows 7 WMC + Emby setup. it worked great but time to move on!

 

I recently setup UNRAID and setup the Emby Docker but I am really disappointed with the CPU usage when transcoding - 60% on 1 thread on a E3 Xeon

 

So my thinking now is to either set up emby as a virtual machine on a my Esxi Box or just buy a Intel Nuc (i7?) and setup a dedicated Emby Server maybe even install Next PVR on the same box.

 

I just wanted to get users thoughts as most discussion on Virtual Machines is over a year old.

 

Thanks!

[Luke 42079]

hi there, can we take a look at an example? please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[Volfan6415 19]

So I have my Emby server as a dedicated Linux vm with 8 cores on my esxi server and it works great


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Edited January 2, 2018 by Volfan6415

[Luke 42079]

So I have my Emby server as a dedicated Linux vm with 8 cores my esxi server and it works great

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the feedback !

[fr0sty 0]

Hi admins,

 

Thanks for this I will play a movie and take some logs.

 

At this stage I am just testing transcoding via the web browser. If there is anything specific that may help please let me know

[Xorp 48]

I run Emby in a VMware virtual machine, and usually everything is fine, trancodes high bitrate 1080p AVC (original 40 mbit Blu-ray backups) no problem. But it chokes on 4K HEVC transcoding. If you want to transcode 4K HEVC, you'll probably need to run baremetal with hardware acceleration.

[xyz 3]

I've noticed something similar. I have emby running in a container in a vm running rancheros, during transcoding rancher shows ~400% cpu usage. If I go look at the resources being consumed by the host in vsphere I see ~4ghz / 16ghz being consumed. I haven't really looked into it any further than that as I generally prefer not to transcode when possible and when I do it's at a sufficient FPS.

 

Trying more than one simultaneous transcode may display different behavior but I doubt it since supposedly ffmpeg consumes everything until it's done. I do have it set to throttle but I think I saw someone mention that doesn't do anything at the moment. (Suppose for testing it'd be worth turning that off as well)

[moviefan 187]

I tried running Emby Server on Windows 2012 via ESXi host right after it's initial release for several years.

 

Switched back to normal user-run application on Windows 7 VM about two years ago and I would never F with the whole server installation or VMs anymore.

 

VM performance impact was substantial for me and I experienced all sorts of strange behavior issues as well over time.  Was really inconsistent for anything requiring transcoding; and even just basic menu navigation was slower and choppy at times without explanation.

 

Based on what you describe above as your needs, I would recommend going with a NUC or something similar, unless you will require heavy amounts of remote users that can't be supported in a box that small.

 

If you were to go the VM route, what Emby client would you use?

Edited January 3, 2018 by moviefan