Nvidia drivers for transcoding

[annisman 13]

Was reading the EMBY wiki page and found this little nugget: "The minimum required driver version on Windows is 390.77" this is referring to the "hardware acceleration on Windows" page.

 

I use MadVR with MPC-BE for my playback, and like many others using MadVR I am using drivers 385.28 because the vast majority of Nvidia drivers after 385.28 do not pass through HDR properly to the display.

 

Here is what I'm talking about: https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=176013

 

It is a well documented issue.

 

Does this mean my GTX 1060 is effectively useless for transcoding/encoding ? What was it about driver 390.77 that makes it a requirement ? I'd like some clarity on this please.

[Luke 42078]

 

 

Does this mean my GTX 1060 is effectively useless for transcoding/encoding ?

 

Hi, it means we don't know because we haven't specifically tested the older drivers. If it's close enough to the version we require, then perhaps you may get lucky and it will work just fine.

 

@@softworkz may have additional insight.

[annisman 13]

Hi Luke,

 

What would be an easy way to test if my driver's will work ok ?

[Luke 42078]

I guess I would just try it. I'm not really sure what else to suggest.

[annisman 13]

Can you give me a very basic example of how I can test ? Maybe play a 4K video on a 1080p display, would that trigger a transcode ?

[Luke 42078]

Yes you can try that. If it doesn't trigger a transcode then you can use the quality setting in the video player to lower it low enough and then it will transcode.

[annisman 13]

Ok, I triggered a transcode. I know that the GPU is being used because I can see the clock speeds ramp up etc. However, even with throttling enabled my CPU hovers at around 70% usage and my GPU is only topping out at about 18%. Is this normal behavior for a transcode that is working properly ?? The process hammering my CPU is ffmpeg (or something like that)

 

My GPU is GTX 1060 and CPU is 3220 3.3GHz dual core (but 4 threads)

[Guest asrequested]

When you're transcoding, look at your server dashboard. It will tell you what is happening.

[Luke 42078]

Ok, I triggered a transcode. I know that the GPU is being used because I can see the clock speeds ramp up etc. However, even with throttling enabled my CPU hovers at around 70% usage and my GPU is only topping out at about 18%. Is this normal behavior for a transcode that is working properly ?? The process hammering my CPU is ffmpeg (or something like that)

 

My GPU is GTX 1060 and CPU is 3220 3.3GHz dual core (but 4 threads)

 

It could be,yes. We'd have to look at an example. Certain features like burning in subtitles cannot be done on the GPU so the CPU will be involved there.

[annisman 13]

I was not showing any subtitles, @ which part of the dashboard should I be keeping an eye on ?

[Guest asrequested]

I was not showing any subtitles, @ which part of the dashboard should I be keeping an eye on ?

The dashboard, where you see what player is being used.

[annisman 13]

Ok this is what I'm seeing.

 

https://ibb.co/R0GFszY

[Guest asrequested]

So that's showing that your GPU isn't doing any encoding. You said you weren't using subs, so in the transcode section of the server, select advanced and make sure NVENC encoding is enabled.

[Luke 42078]

 

 

select advanced and make sure NVENC encoding is enabled. 

 

No, just select Yes. That's all you need to do.

[Guest asrequested]

No, just select Yes. That's all you need to do.

I beg to differ. When I was testing my GTX 1060, just selecting yes had multiple failures. It was using software for a lot of things. And I was using the latest drivers.

[annisman 13]

Everything is enabled. https://ibb.co/09h9WFb

[annisman 13]

@ I will try leaving it on advanced and run it again

[annisman 13]

Is there supposed to be something to select under preferred hardware encoders ? https://ibb.co/Y3s4W2v

[Guest asrequested]

Yeah, there should be. Reboot your computer and look again.

[annisman 13]

It's been like that as long as I can remember, I've never seen any options under preferred hardware encoders.

[Guest asrequested]

Then you need to post your hardware detection log, so these guys can look at it.

[annisman 13]

Sorry, probably get asked this all the time but how to do that? thx

[Guest asrequested]

Look on your dashboard, on the left towards the bottom, you'll see logs.

[annisman 13]

Ok here it is

HardwareDetectLog.txt

Edited August 2, 2019 by annisman

[softworkz 5066]

I'm afraid but those driver versions are a hard requirement. There's no way around.

 

The technical reason is that we're interfacing with the driver's cuda interfaces and we are using features that are only available since CUDA 8.1. (current version is 10 )