Just recently learned there is a preview 64bit version of PMS for Windows and I’m curious what the benefits of upgrading to this would be? I’m currently running the latest released version on Windows 10 (latest updates there too). I do have a somewhat large library, 1000 4KHDR movies, 8000 1080p movies, 60,000 TV episodes and ~200,000 MP3’s on a 100TB disk array (locally attached via SAS, RAID6). Performance is acceptable, CPU: 8086k@5.2Ghz, 32GB DDR4 (about to install a 1080Ti for HDR->SDR tone mapping to transcode my 4KHDR content).
I’m debating on upgrading but I’m very much in a “if it ain’t broke” mentality as I stream to a large number of users and don’t want to risk screwing that up for no good reason, but if there is a compelling one I would upgrade. Thus far it seems that I would just hold off and in the future when I next rebuild this server I’d go to 64bit then, migrating my current database over at that time.
So, are there any compelling reasons to upgrade? If there is a thread that I’m just missing my apologies but I searched and couldn’t find anything.
It has been in the public releases since 1.29.0.6244 in September 2022 (Announcement thread).
As mentioned by @JaysPlex , you get hardware accelerated HDR to SDR tonemapping.
Another benefit is the use of zero-copy transcoding on Nvidia GPUs. Transcoding, whether HDR or SDR, is more efficient, as less data is moved across the system bus.
You can install the 64-bit version over the 32-bit version. The installer will detect and remove the 32-bit version.
If you fall back from 64-bit to 32-bit, you must first uninstall the 64-bit version (standard Windows uninstall). The installer for the 32-bit version has not been updated and does not know to look for the 64-bit version.
Well I’m glad I asked then as I have another thread open about HDR->SDR tone mapping and am installing a GTX 1080Ti for this feature as I have around 1000 4K-HDR movies (and nearly that many TV episodes) that I want to be able to transcode for friends. I’ve been doing this via software transcoding, which works okay for a single stream (8086k@5.2Ghz) but as it crushes my CPU, making my server/desktop near unusable, I need to switch to hardware as soon as I get the card (a friend is donating it to me).
So it looks like I’ll be taking the plunge and upgrading soon then. Thanks much for the input guys, you too @FordGuy61 - your reply was helpful as well!
