Start emby with a custom ffmpeg

[hackthis02 130]

I've been trying for what is probably an embarrassingly long time to get emby to use the default ffmpeg on my Odroid UX4. 

The closest I've gotten was to run 

sudo ./opt/emby-server/bin/emby-server -programdata /var/lib/emby -ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg -ffprobe /usr/bin/ffprobe -restartexitcode 3 -updatepackage emby

But even when I get that to run it still shows that it's using the default ffmpeg at /opt/emby-server/bin/ffmpeg. I'll admit I'm not fluent with Linux, so if anyone could point me in the right direction.

[Luke 42077]

That really should work just fine. See the command line at the beginning of the server log, and use the same command line but just change the values.

 

What are you trying to accomplish? You're going to lose new features that we've added to ffmpeg.

[hackthis02 130]

That's basically what I didn't get that command. I'm not sure if it's my setup or what but I have hardware transcoding enabled but the emby ffmpeg still uses a lot more CPU then the OS one. So I wanted to switch and see how it worked.

[Luke 42077]

Can we look at some examples? thanks.

[hackthis02 130]

Here are the logs from the server, emby's ffmpeg, and the OS ffmpeg

Both are transcoding the same file using the same line. The only difference is the os version doesn't have the -profile:v high setting. 

 

The thing I noticed was the line

Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264)) - emby

vs.

Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (h264_v4l2m2m) -> h264 (libx264)) - OS

embyserver.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-1b69d3e9-7165-4f81-b723-093e4987bec3.txt

OS ffmpeg.txt

Edited November 9, 2018 by hackthis02

[Luke 42077]

In the emby log it looks like you did not enable any hardware transcoding. did you try turning on vaapi?

[hackthis02 130]

I did not, I had Exynos V4L2 MFC Encoder enabled, which is what I thought the Odroid UX4 used. When I select vaapi it says but unchecks soon as I play a video.

embyserver.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-550d5350-d74e-40ac-a232-605099fc8f36.txt

[Luke 42077]

Ok for that i think you will have to bring your own ffmpeg. i'm not sure our ffmpeg build is including those libs. At least not at this point. We are including vaapi.

[hackthis02 130]

Okay, but that leads me back to my original question. When I give emby custom ffmpeg to use it still uses the included ones.

[Luke 42077]

What makes you think that?

[hackthis02 130]

In htop it's showing /opt/emby-server/bin/ffmpeg rather then /usr/bin/ffmpeg.

[Luke 42077]

What about the server log?

[hackthis02 130]

They show the same. No mention of /usr/bin/ffmpeg

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hmm ok. I'm not entirely sure this is possible then.

[hackthis02 130]

So are you saying it's an issue with my setup or with the current build of Emby?

[Luke 42077]

I'm saying due to recent changes in the server it might be very difficult to launch with a custom ffmpeg, at least on linux. It's not really something we've been putting much effort into actively testing.

[hackthis02 130]

That's fair. So do I have any options?

[hackthis02 130]

That's fair. So do I have any options?

[hackthis02 130]

I finally figured this out. For any other uses that need the info I was able to select a custom FFMPEG by editing /opt/emby-server/bin/emby-server

[Luke 42077]

Why do you still want to do this?

[hackthis02 130]

I don't need it anymore. Just putting the information out there for anyone else that might.