Please talk to me about NVENC.

[Hitsville 37]

Ok all though i'm all in Emby for my personal use, my users are still currently on Plex. I'm doing some media encoding and general server organization and then those users will be getting the option to buy their relative Emby mobile apps....or pay for Netflix.

 

So with that out of the way... I have always been an Intel QS guy on my Plex server. Although my HTPC has a GTX 1030 (I think.)

 

That's the box that I'm currently using as my 24/7 Handbrake encoder (I have a lot of files to convert  ) 

Its the first time though that I have actually paid any attention to the capabilities of NVENC. So as a test I moved my Emby Server to that box.

 

Now I know that unlike with QS I will be limited to two transcodes with the Nvidia card. 

BUT, am I right in thinking that whereas Plex just gradually transcodes the files all through the playback (regardless of software transcoding or Hardware assisted) Emby seems to do all the transcoding up front? 

I just played an episode of Arrow and watched stats for nerds to see the transcoding progress. Seemingly about 8 minutes into the episode stats for nerds reported 100% progress and indeed ffmpeg went idle. 

 

So assuming that i'm not missing something with that, it leads to the main question. 

Although  as impressed as I am with NVENC compared to QS I did feel initially that the two streams limit may be a deal breaker, but am I right in thinking that because of the way Emby does the transcoding upfront the two instance limitations would only really be an issue if 3 users all started streams within a few minutes of each other (a very infrequent event.) 

If all that stands up I may purchase a GTX 1030 for the server as well and abandon QS altogether. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by Hitsville

[Guest asrequested]

Presently, ffmpeg runs wide open, i.e. converts as fast as it can. The next release will have a throttling option. But I think what you're getting at is that once a transcode is finished, can another one begin? Yes. So if you have two users transcoding, one finishes, then another one can be initiated. Your GPU can do 2, simultaneously.

[Luke 42092]

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/62657-36040-transcode-throttle-is-back/?view=getnewpost

[Hitsville 37]

Yeah sorry I do tend to go around the houses. 

That's pretty goddam awesome and personally I like the transcoding being done upfront. 

Plus it's backed up by an i7-7700k for those rare occasions.

But even on my Galaxy S7 using Emby and a self encoded HEVC via NVENC it's night and day superior to Plex using the original high bit rate remux and QuickSync. (of the same episode.)

Time to pull the trigger on another GTX 1030.

 

Thanks as always guys. 

[Guest asrequested]

@@Luke, what's the status of failover to CPU? Has that been worked out, yet?

[Luke 42092]

We've had that for a long time already.

[Guest asrequested]

We've had that for a long time already.

 

Ha! Well that's awesome! I'm a bit out of touch on that

 

It wasn't working the last time I tried.