Hello, I run a single server that I use to run my NAS and also Plex Media Server and the hardware is showing signs of age. While I upgrade this, it seems like it makes sense to optimize for HW transcoding. It seems like the most current thing I can optimize for is 4k Transcoding with HDR Tone Mapping.
My last server lasted 5 years, so thats probably the time frame I’m looking at. What generation HW is recommended?
My options are something in the 8-10th gen which seems pretty easy to get. So I could go with an i3 in the 9th gen or even a used xeon in the 10th gen (Xeon W-1290). but it seems like i will not get Tone mapping.
The other options are something with Ice Lake (Desktop CPU probably not server) which can do Tone mapping. So I’ll lose ECC memory as an option. But it’s probably reasonably priced since its for consumers, or trying to get a used Rocket lake Xeon.
I would love some recommendations from folks about what I should get and pitfalls to be Wary of.
I could go with something that’s 8-10th gen and I would get 4K transcoding for H.265/HEVC Main10/10-bit , but tone mapping would probably be in software.
The other option is something that’s ice lake or later. I’m hoping to buy used CPUs here, so targeting the latest generation is probably not the best option.
I have an i3-7100 that does OK, including tone mapping, but I want to follow the thread and see what develops.
I am very curious to know if there are visible differences in Quick Sync quality across generations. “They” say that once you hit 6th gen quality is OK, but I have never seen a detailed comparison.
Thanks BanzaiInstitute. That’s good info. Im surprised that your machine does tone mapping. Is that done by the CPU in this case instead of hardware acceleration? The wikipedia page for QuickSync seems to suggest that tone mapping support was only added with Ice lake and later Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia
All I know is the i3-7100 can do 3 4k HDR remuxes → 1080p SDR simultaneously and Tautulli showed the hardware indicator. I tried the same files on a 10700KF (F = no GPU) and it could not do even one.
Hello, was like you, my skylake NUC was unable to transcode 4k with igpu so was looking for an upgrade. My eyes was on HardWare Tonemapping so i didn’t take a comet lake nuc10 because believe that HW was after IceLake, so was waiting for a NUC11.
I just install my server on a nuc i5-1135g7 and it’s seems fine. a 4kHDR transcode to 720p (no subtitle burn) take 10% buffering and 3% after that.
i have a synology behind the nuc to handle the files
I have a series 6 I7-6700HQ and a GTX 1070. Is it because of the series 6 lack of HDR support that I can not get tone mapping to work or should it still work due to the GTX 1070?
Only Linux has driver support for Intel iGPU’s 7XXX and newer to support HW HDR tone mapping that Plex was able to leverage. 11th gen and later is still being worked on.
