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[Hendrik]

New in Media Center 25 (25.0.17 and newer), we can now leverage the Video Encoding hardware present in modern graphics cards.
This allows much faster encoding of videos, either for handhelds, streaming, or any other purpose, and allows systems with a slower CPU to provide streaming services to remote clients, like JRemote or Panel.

At this time, we support encoding into H.264, which is the most widely used and supported video format today.
Both Panel and JRemote automatically use a H.264 based format for streaming, and if you want to benefit from the accelerated encoding for DLNA, you should pick an H.264 format as well (ie. a H264-TS variant, for example).

In the initial version of this feature, we support encoding through NVIDIA NVENC, available on practically all NVIDIA Graphics Cards from the last decade, and with Intel QuickSync, available since the Sandy Bridge generation (HD2500/HD3000 GPUs).
It should be noted that while old Graphics Cards are theoretically supported, newer cards will generally produce higher quality video streams - and especially with Intel, some older cards which no longer receive driver updates might run into unsolved bugs.

To enable hardware accelerated encoding, we've restructured the Settings -> Encoding page, so all that spare space can be put to use.
Right now there are only two options:
- Use Hardware Video Encoding if available
- Favor Quality over Performance in Hardware Encoding mode

For most cases, the Hardware Encoders are so fast that Quality should always be preferred, however if you find yourself streaming to many clients at the same time, you might need to speed it up even further and use Performance mode instead.

How does the Quality compare to using a Software encoder?
It depends. As mentioned above, newer hardware will produce a higher quality encoded video. On relatively recent hardware, for Live Streaming scenarios (ie. to JRemote/Panel or DLNA), the Hardware Encoders are really quite good, in comparison.
However, if you want the absolute highest quality when encoding a video for archival, then the software encoder might be higher quality - although also much slower.

In the future, we'll be introducing new options during MC25 to further fine tune encoding of videos, both for the Hardware Encoders and the software encoder, as well as work on further improving the performance by off-loading more tasks to the GPU.

We're also looking into supporting the encoding capabilities of AMD graphics cards in a future update.

[JimH]

This is a big deal.  Thanks, Hendrik!

[jmone]

6. NEW: Support for Hardware Encoding of H.264 for Video Conversion and Streaming, for NVIDIA using NVENC, and Intel using QuickSync.

Nice!  You need to enable this in "Tools--> Options--> Encoding--> Video Encoding"  Doing some comparative tests and so far it looks about 25% quicker for me.    From what I see my CPU drops from 50-75% to 15% (i7-8700k) and my GPU Decoding jumps from 53% to 64% and GPU Encoding from 0 to 21%.  Encoding time on my 6min test video dropped from 4min to 3min (UHD 150mbps 50p AVC Camcorder footage)

I'm currently doing a much longer encode (Billy Lynn 4K) to see if it can be faster than real time in which case it will be good for streaming to handhelds (as the current SW encoding can not do real time on my system for this title).

I'm currently doing a much longer encode (Billy Lynn 4K) to see if it can be faster than real time in which case it will be good for streaming to handhelds (as the current SW encoding can not do real time on my system for this title).

The good news is the HW Encoder is also used for streaming as well as the "convert format" option.  This should really help lower end setups acting as a Video Media Server to clients (DLNA etc).  I had no issues with the transcoding at all. 

One thing I did notice using the Convert Format option on Billy Lynn was how different the two resultant files were.  The SW Only encode was about 1/4 of the size and when I looked at it, it had a VBR running from 200kbps to 10mbs.  The HW encode was much more like a CBR @ around 10mbs (using the MKV H254/AAC 1080p AutoFPS).  I did not see this file size difference on my Camcoder footage, they were both about the same.  I'll try on a couple of other HEVC UHD Discs.

[Dmytro]

Hi Hendrik,

Thanks for doing this, seems like a big deal indeed.

I have just tested it on my iPhone XS using JRemote 3.28, and it did not work for any of the .mkv files. Resolution did not matter, as well as 'Favor Quality over Performance ...'.
The video screen would pop up, stay black for about 10 sec and then disappear back. Server GPU would show about 50% load for about 5 sec after the video screen disappeared.

.mp4 files play well, but I doubt they get decoded at all, as the server CPU/GPU loads would just stay flat at 0%.

Media Center 25.017 x64, INTEL® NUC KIT NUC7i3BNH with Intel HD Graphics 620 (Kabu Lake).

[jmone]

FYI - I've been testing on my main PC with an nvidia 1070 and it is working well.  I can stream all content up to and including UHD 50/60fps in much better than real time. 

Nice Work.

[Hendrik]

One thing I did notice using the Convert Format option on Billy Lynn was how different the two resultant files were.  The SW Only encode was about 1/4 of the size and when I looked at it, it had a VBR running from 200kbps to 10mbs.  The HW encode was much more like a CBR @ around 10mbs (using the MKV H254/AAC 1080p AutoFPS).  I did not see this file size difference on my Camcoder footage, they were both about the same.  I'll try on a couple of other HEVC UHD Discs.

The HW encoder sticks to the specified bitrate much more strictly, which for a 1080p encode is 10mbit, so thats just fine. (The software encoder drops the bitrate down on simple scenes where its not really required).

I will also work on improving the video scaling performance, either by multi-threading it (which can be a bit hard), or moving it to hardware scaling (or both). This is likely a strong limiting factor when encoding a 4K source video to any lower resolution.

If I encode a video that doesn't require scaling (ie 720p to 720p), then interestingly audio processing is  already quickly approaching to be a limiting performance factor.

[jmone]

Makes sense, I'm also now testing some BD 1080 AVC conversion comparisons as the 150mpbs UHD AVC Cam footage was about the same for both HW and SW, but the UHD HEVC I tested (both a 59.94 and a std 23.976) both showed a 4x file size difference between HW and SW conversions.  It just takes awhile! 

[jmone]

WOW - conversion of AVC material is blindingly quick.  You can do a whole movie in 10 minutes.  Attached is my results, and the real size discrepancies are with HEVC material (not resolution).  HEVC conversion is also much much slower than with AVC (I'm using a 1070 in these tests).

[JimH]

jmone,
Thanks for the testing and the reports.  I'll move it to a separate thread so I can move it to the public board. 

Jim

[kwm1800]

Any chance supporting AMD solutions such as VCN?

Though, I think I kinda know the answer already, since very few programs support AMD these days...

[mwillems]

This is huge!  The CPU load when encoding/streaming to Gizmo seems to drop by more than half.  Great stuff.

[lepa]

Seems to work like charm. Thanks for this!

[Manfred]

I tested some h.264 decoded videos. With RO HQ GPU utilization on a GTX 1070 drops from ~50% to ~16%. Greener Planet 

I have a lot of non H.264 videos, should one convert those to H.264?

[Hendrik]

I have a lot of non H.264 videos, should one convert those to H.264?

Not unless you have a specific reason to do so. Keeping video as-is is always best for quality.

[tzr916]

Wow, Panel may just become something that I actually can use now for watching recorded Tv shows on handhelds. Previously, watching shows would peg my cpu at 100%,  but now mpeg4 shows are 0% cpu and Mpeg2 shows are 35% cpu (setting to 720p since comcast channels are mostly 720p to begin with).

Now, if we can just figure out how to log into Panel as a different User (View>User>) other than the Server

Anyways, many thanks. This is a BIG one!

[muzicman0]

Just keep in mind that the GTX lines have a limit of 2 encodes at 1 time.  This is because of Nvidia licensing.

I just checked, and you have to get to at least a Quadro P2000 before encoding is unlimited concurrent sessions. 

Will it fall back to software encoding if needed?  I won't ever have more than 2 at a time, but I can see this becoming an issue if someone uses it to serve lots of clients.  Oh, and multiple GTX cards also won't increase the limit.

[Hendrik]

Yes, it'll fall back to software if hardware refuses to work for whatever reason.
The main concern with that particular limit is seeking from a remote, because the way seeking is implemented in most cases, it'll actually open a new session at the new point in time, so for a short period you'll have two sessions from one user - until the second one is cleaned up and closed in the background. I've been thinking on this and how to improve it, but its a complicated problem with HTTP being stateless and all that.

Not that I would ever recommend such a thing  but you can lift that limit if you are really determined and dig around on the interwebs.

[Hendrik]

Split off a decoding question to here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,120163.0.html

[DeaneG]

Yes, it'll fall back to software if hardware refuses to work for whatever reason.

Is there a way to tell? I just tried transcoding an ATSC-jtv recorded TV show, and it seemed slower, if anything, than before. I do have video hardware encoding and decoding turned on.

[Hendrik]

The only way currently is to check the log file. Turn logging on, convert a file, and then check the file for entries around CFFmpegTranscoder::CreateVideoStream and CFFmpegTranscoder::AVLog

[JimH]

Is there a way to tell? I just tried transcoding an ATSC-jtv recorded TV show, and it seemed slower, if anything, than before. I do have video hardware encoding and decoding turned on.

Try timing both.

[muzicman0]

This applies to Nvidia GPU's:

If you are on Windows 10, task manager will have a Performance tab, under that, a GPU section, in the GPU section will be an Video Encode graph.  If hardware encoding is working, you will see something above 0%.

I am not sure what GPU you are using.  I imagine Intel has something similar, but not really sure. 

That does bring up a good question though...if you have both Nvidia and Intel (would be very common), do you default to NVENC, or how is that determination made?

[Hendrik]

NVENC is preferred if available.

[DeaneG]

It looks like my setup is using the GPU after all, with a moderate transcoding speed increase. The Win10 Task Manager's Performance tab GPU graph shows about 28% GPU encode utilization during encoding with 22% CPU utilization from the Media Center 25 process, vs 0% GPU encode and 93% CPU without the hardware encode option turned on. It's a GTX970 GPU.

[Hendrik]

I'm working on some more improvements that should allow it to speed it up further by removing more bottlenecks - and then use more of the hardware encoder, so that percentage can go up.
Right now its probably limited by video scaling performance, since that is single-threaded.

[DeaneG]

I wonder if the scaler is smart enough to skip rescaling if output size is the same as input size. You'd think so. I'll time a video transcode which does not need rescaling later today

[Hendrik]

I wonder if the scaler is smart enough to skip rescaling if output size is the same as input size. You'd think so. I'll time a video transcode which does not need rescaling later today

If its the exact size, then it'll not scale.

[muzicman0]

Hardware Acceleration still doesn't apply to live TV, I assume?  Would love it if it did, then I could ditch my Plex server.

[tzr916]

Hardware Acceleration still doesn't apply to live TV, I assume?  Would love it if it did, then I could ditch my Plex server.

Can you give some examples of how you would play live tv outside of the MC Server that could use HA / transcoding? I don't see any Tv options in Panel. Are there other apps/ways to do it?

[muzicman0]

I just use a client install of media center. Typical use case is traveling, in a hotel, etc.

[RoderickGI]

Or even just a low powered MC Client PC in another room of the house where the MC Server is located.

I would hope that HA on the Server does, in fact, apply in that situation, when the Client requires transcoding. That seems like a primary use for the capability. Transcoding an interlaced signal to standard H.264 format makes a lot of sense. A Live TV stream is just another stream a Server may serve to a Client.

New in Media Center 25 (25.0.17 and newer), we can now leverage the Video Encoding hardware present in modern graphics cards.
This allows much faster encoding of videos, either for handhelds, streaming, or any other purpose, and allows systems with a slower CPU to provide streaming services to remote clients, like JRemote or Panel.

But I haven't tested that HA is actually used. Run some tests, and note the GPU usage on the Server for different Client requirements.

[muzicman0]

In the past (prior to hardware acceleration), live TV was not able to be transcoded.  I have been asking for this for quite some time.  It's literally the ONLY reason I have a plex server.

[RoderickGI]

Hmm, I may have read your posts on that, and the responses. My apologies, I forgot.

I'll have to check what my Server and Client does when I watch Live TV on my Client. Which isn't often.

[Hendrik]

This would only accelerate transcoding processes that were already possible before, we've not added new ones.
Not sure how much effort transcoding live tv would be, especially in time-shifting mode its not much different to file playback, sort of.

[tzr916]

I just use a client install of media center. Typical use case is traveling, in a hotel, etc.

Ah yes, when you are not on the home network.

[muzicman0]

Have a couple questions.  I just was testing some stuff with hardware acceleration (h.264).  At 720p, it is using more than 80 Mbps.  At 1080p, it is closer to 50 Mbps...this begs 2 questions:

1. Why is 720p using higher bandwidth than 1080p?
2. Why is the bandwidth that high at all???  1080p60FPS should be closer to 20-25Mbps, and 720p should be less.

I let it run for quite a bit thinking that maybe it was bursting data to the client, and would go lower eventually, but it never did.  Or at least not within a couple minutes.  I was reading the bandwidth from the Server, not the client, and as soon as I pressed stop on the client, the bandwidth went to basically 0, so there didn't seem to be any other tasks using Ethernet bandwidth.

[Hendrik]

Looking at the bandwidth of network access is misleading you, since it encodes into a buffer to deliver to the client in the future. As such, 720p can encode faster, so it'll run faster, and appear to use more bandwidth.

[stanzani]

Thank you! (why do not have a KUDO button in the forum ?)

[tyler69]

Hello, I've just read on Intel iGPUs and stumbled across a statement which says that QuickSync kicks in only if a display is attached to the iGPU. My googling has led to mixed results. Can somebody knowledgeable please shed some light on that matter?

[muzicman0]

Hello, I've just read on Intel iGPUs and stumbled across a statement which says that QuickSync kicks in only if a display is attached to the iGPU. My googling has led to mixed results. Can somebody knowledgeable please shed some light on that matter?

In my experience, that is true.  I typically will buy some HDMI EDID emulators for this when headless.  ~$10 USD on Amazon for a pack of 3.

[Hendrik]

This is correct. The GPU needs to be active. But all modern GPUs have encoding capabilities, so what card do you have? It could just do the same job quite possibly. NVIDIA is strong there, AMD is "ok", unfortunately we don't support AMD encoding yet, but it's definitely planned for the next video encoding push.

[tyler69]

Thanks for the responses!

I currently use an HTPC with an Nvidia GPU, so this issue does not affect me. However, I plan to exchange my aging Synology NAS (which is connected to the HTPC) with a (probably Windows-based) server. Hence I was looking for what iGPU can be used to handle let‘s say transcoding when I am away from home. The server/NAS is and will be headless.

So I understand that I will need an HDMI EDID emulator? Is that the only possibility to get QuickSync to work an a headless computer? Any downsides to this approach?

[Hendrik]

If its a headless computer with the Intel GPU being the only GPU present, then it should theoretically work out of the box, since the primary GPU is always enabled.

[tyler69]

Thanks Hendrik. So just to ensure that I understand correctly. If the only GPU is the iGPU, the below is not valid (read: QuickSync will work even if no display is attached)?

Hello, I've just read on Intel iGPUs and stumbled across a statement which says that QuickSync kicks in only if a display is attached to the iGPU. My googling has led to mixed results. Can somebody knowledgeable please shed some light on that matter?

[Hendrik]

Indeed, it should work, since Windows always needs a "GPU", and if there is none thats actually connected to anything, the primary (or only) one is initialized anyway and can be used.
At least in theory it can work, one needs to use some care when developing for that, but I hope that the QuickSync encoding library (which comes from Intel themselves) manages that.

[tyler69]

Thanks again!

[muzicman0]

You may be right, but I know in our software, if we are using Intel for hardware acceleration, we have to have a display attached, or at a minimum an edid emulator. If not, it doesn't work. And this would be on a pc with only Intel.