Home Media Server Transcoding

[Zalosath]

Hi,

I'm running a Jellyfin instance on my server and I'm currently going through the process of transcoding all of the files on it, I'm using Tdarr for this. I have around 2400 items to transcode, each no shorter than 25 minutes, so as you can imagine, it's taking absolutely ages. In the past day it's only done around 7 transcodes (including some larger 25GB files and some smaller 200MB files). I'm using a 5600G for the transcoding, it's constantly pinned at 100% usage, to no surprise.

 

My question is, is it worth just getting a GPU for transcoding? I know that the CPU is better, it's just way too slow for my use case.

Or should I just switch over to a high-power Intel CPU?

 

Either option is fine with me, or any others that you can think of, let me know your thoughts, cheers.

[ChrisLoudon]

44 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

My question is, is it worth just getting a GPU for transcoding? I know that the CPU is better, it's just way too slow for my use case.

Or should I just switch over to a high-power Intel CPU?

Hi buddy,

 

My Plex server stores all of my media files in their original format and I transcode 'on-demand' based on the player that's being used.

 

If I'm watching a 4K Bluray on one of my home TVs or PCs then there's no tanscoding required but if I'm watching something on a tablet or phone, then it will transcode as necessary.

 

I haven't used Jellyfin but from what I understand its pretty much the same as plex.

 

I don't think there is any need to transcode anything ahead of time unless it it is likely you will need to fall back on a transcoded copy of a file most of the time.

 

My Plex server uses an old i7 3770K to run the bowels and GTX1650 for on-the-fly transcoding and I have no issues. GPU is dirt cheap and doesn't even require supplemental PCIe power.

 

If you need more streams to be transcoded simultaneously (large family accessing at the same time) then get your hands on an old Quadro from eBay.

[Zalosath]

27 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy,

 

My Plex server stores all of my media files in their original format and I transcode 'on-demand' based on the player that's being used.

 

If I'm watching a 4K Bluray on one of my home TVs or PCs then there's no tanscoding required but if I'm watching something on a tablet or phone, then it will transcode as necessary.

 

I haven't used Jellyfin but from what I understand its pretty much the same as plex.

 

I don't think there is any need to transcode anything ahead of time unless it it is likely you will need to fall back on a transcoded copy of a file most of the time.

 

My Plex server uses an old i7 3770K to run the bowels and GTX1650 for on-the-fly transcoding and I have no issues. GPU is dirt cheap and doesn't even require supplemental PCIe power.

 

If you need more streams to be transcoded simultaneously (large family accessing at the same time) then get your hands on an old Quadro from eBay.

Thanks for your input!

 

What you said makes sense, so it could be worth getting a GPU for on-the-fly transcoding as you say.

The issue for me right now is that all of my files are mp4's and they're MASSIVE. The current effort is converting them to mkv h265 for minimal CPU transcoding when it's required, and also to reduce the file sizes. For reference, converting a 40GB MP4 to an MKV reduced the file size to 24GB, it really adds up for me, especially with a large number of files.

 

I can't say this isn't entirely my fault to begin with, when I was adding media way back when I thought "oh let's use mp4, no transcoding required for any devices!", little did I know that I would run into storage issues. For reference, I only have 6TB of storage, which I am looking to upgrade sometime soon.

 

What quadro might I be looking at for this? I really have no experience in this area!

[ChrisLoudon]

16 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

Thanks for your input!

 

What you said makes sense, so it could be worth getting a GPU for on-the-fly transcoding as you say.

The issue for me right now is that all of my files are mp4's and they're MASSIVE. The current effort is converting them to mkv h265 for minimal CPU transcoding when it's required, and also to reduce the file sizes. For reference, converting a 40GB MP4 to an MKV reduced the file size to 24GB, it really adds up for me, especially with a large number of files.

 

I can't say this isn't entirely my fault to begin with, when I was adding media way back when I thought "oh let's use mp4, no transcoding required for any devices!", little did I know that I would run into storage issues. For reference, I only have 6TB of storage, which I am looking to upgrade sometime soon.

 

What quadro might I be looking at for this? I really have no experience in this area!

No worries.

 

My advice would be to always TRY and keep your media files stored in their original format (where possible). I'm only saying this as a home cinema enthusiast so as screen sizes go up and prices go down, what looked great on a 55" might start to look a bit blocky on a 65... 77.... you get the point.

 

If you start reducing file size and quality at source then you might run into quality issues at some point down the line. That being said, H265 is pretty damn good. On another note, if (like me) you are a bit of an audiophile then the container you use is quite important. MP4 doesn't support Dolby TrueHD whereas MKV or M2TS does. Just something to be mindful of.

 

If you want to compare transcoding capabilities of pretty much every GPU on the market, have a look at this link:

 

https://www.elpamsoft.com/?p=Plex-Hardware-Transcoding

 

It only specifies PLEX but I think it will apply to Jellyfin as well.

 

As a final thought, physical media is on the way out so having your media stored in the highest bitrate with the best audio format possible is definitely going to pay dividends. Netflix, Amazon et-al use highly compressed video streams and max out with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams. They may decide to increase bitrates and add lossless audio codecs but I doubt that will happen any time soon.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Zalosath]

1 hour ago, ChrisLoudon said:

No worries.

 

My advice would be to always TRY and keep your media files stored in their original format (where possible). I'm only saying this as a home cinema enthusiast so as screen sizes go up and prices go down, what looked great on a 55" might start to look a bit blocky on a 65... 77.... you get the point.

 

If you start reducing file size and quality at source then you might run into quality issues at some point down the line. That being said, H265 is pretty damn good. On another note, if (like me) you are a bit of an audiophile then the container you use is quite important. MP4 doesn't support Dolby TrueHD whereas MKV or M2TS does. Just something to be mindful of.

 

If you want to compare transcoding capabilities of pretty much every GPU on the market, have a look at this link:

 

https://www.elpamsoft.com/?p=Plex-Hardware-Transcoding

 

It only specifies PLEX but I think it will apply to Jellyfin as well.

 

As a final thought, physical media is on the way out so having your media stored in the highest bitrate with the best audio format possible is definitely going to pay dividends. Netflix, Amazon et-al use highly compressed video streams and max out with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams. They may decide to increase bitrates and add lossless audio codecs but I doubt that will happen any time soon.  

 

 

 

 

 

Great, thanks. I'll look into two things:

- Getting a GPU for on-the-fly transcoding

- Upgrading storage capacity to store the higher quality files

 

Thanks for your help!

 

FYI: Went with a Quadro P4000, let's see how it does!

[Zalosath]

22 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

No worries.

 

My advice would be to always TRY and keep your media files stored in their original format (where possible). I'm only saying this as a home cinema enthusiast so as screen sizes go up and prices go down, what looked great on a 55" might start to look a bit blocky on a 65... 77.... you get the point.

 

If you start reducing file size and quality at source then you might run into quality issues at some point down the line. That being said, H265 is pretty damn good. On another note, if (like me) you are a bit of an audiophile then the container you use is quite important. MP4 doesn't support Dolby TrueHD whereas MKV or M2TS does. Just something to be mindful of.

 

If you want to compare transcoding capabilities of pretty much every GPU on the market, have a look at this link:

 

https://www.elpamsoft.com/?p=Plex-Hardware-Transcoding

 

It only specifies PLEX but I think it will apply to Jellyfin as well.

 

As a final thought, physical media is on the way out so having your media stored in the highest bitrate with the best audio format possible is definitely going to pay dividends. Netflix, Amazon et-al use highly compressed video streams and max out with Dolby Digital Plus audio streams. They may decide to increase bitrates and add lossless audio codecs but I doubt that will happen any time soon.  

 

 

 

 

 

Out of interest, how big are your movie files? Mine are between 30 and 80GB, which is about 200 movies stored on a 16TB HDD worst case. Do you do any form of encoding on them to get them down, or just keep adding more storage?

[ChrisLoudon]

48 minutes ago, Zalosath said:

Out of interest, how big are your movie files? Mine are between 30 and 80GB, which is about 200 movies stored on a 16TB HDD worst case. Do you do any form of encoding on them to get them down, or just keep adding more storage?

Hi Buddy,

 

Nice one on the Quadro. Its not my area of expertise but I've seen others mention the P4000 as a good choice for Plex usage.

 

With regards to my media files, its pretty much my Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray collection ripped. The bulk of the files are in MKVs containing the usual VC1 or HEVC video stream alongside the original audio but I do have some m2ts files as well. I also have some old avi files for TV episodes but the bulk of my movies are all around the 50 - 80GB mark.

 

My NAS / Plex server is based on Unraid which is a neat solution as it allows for me to add storage and not be constrained by using Hard Disks of the same size and it has good redundnacy allowing up to 2 drive failures. As a backend its also pretty powerful as it runs docker containers so I have my storage solution running natively, with PLEX, Pi-Hole, OpenVPN and NZBGet running in docker containers. I also have a Ubuntu VM ready to spool up if I ever get really bored and want to tinker with Linux.

 

As previously mentioned, I'll always try and keep the file in its original format or at least the audio and video streams contained unaltered so yeh, I just add storage or delete files as required.

[Zalosath]

42 minutes ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi Buddy,

 

Nice one on the Quadro. Its not my area of expertise but I've seen others mention the P4000 as a good choice for Plex usage.

 

With regards to my media files, its pretty much my Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray collection ripped. The bulk of the files are in MKVs containing the usual VC1 or HEVC video stream alongside the original audio but I do have some m2ts files as well. I also have some old avi files for TV episodes but the bulk of my movies are all around the 50 - 80GB mark.

 

My NAS / Plex server is based on Unraid which is a neat solution as it allows for me to add storage and not be constrained by using Hard Disks of the same size and it has good redundnacy allowing up to 2 drive failures. As a backend its also pretty powerful as it runs docker containers so I have my storage solution running natively, with PLEX, Pi-Hole, OpenVPN and NZBGet running in docker containers. I also have a Ubuntu VM ready to spool up if I ever get really bored and want to tinker with Linux.

 

As previously mentioned, I'll always try and keep the file in its original format or at least the audio and video streams contained unaltered so yeh, I just add storage or delete files as required.

Hi,

 

Great thank you! I'm already running on Ubuntu with lots of stuff setup, it would be a massive pain to switch to unraid now, something I'll no doubt live to regret.

 

Thanks for clarifying the file size, I was wondering if I was going overkill with them!