MacMini 2018 performance MacOS vs Ubuntu Docker

General Discussions
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Hello, i have a macmini 2018 with 10.15.6 and i’m wondering to remove macOS and switch to a full docker stack on Linux.

The macmini has a T2 chip which have encoding capabilities but most of my files are in h264 or hevc 10bits and i’m not sure the t2 can manage these codecs

I see feedback from igpu 630 which can handle multiple transcoding but following plex support, macOS api can’t handle multiple hardware transcoding.

Do you know if videotoolbox limitations apply to full h264 transcoding or is there any advantage to maintain Apple t2 for transcoding?

Thx

2

if you’re going to run Ubuntu and have the hardware for transcoding, run the native package.

It’s easier

The CPU in the mini will determine what can be transcoded… -7xxx CPUs can handle HEVC.

3

That document refers specifically to hardware accelerated encoding on macOS using videotoolbox being limited to one session; decoding is not documented as being limited to one session. However, there are at least some circumstances where, using videotoolbox for hardware acceleration, Plex can decode and encode more than one stream. Here’re three being transcoded from 1080p ~40 Mbps to 720p 4 Mbps, using hardware acceleration for both decoding and encoding. This is on a Late 2012 Mac Mini with an i7-3615QM (Intel HD 4000 graphics:

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So either the documentation is incorrect or Plex Media Server is reporting it incorrectly. I think it’s likely the former.

4

Thx for your feedback, I have tested ubuntu with a intel 8700 and no docker for the moment and i get better performance for transcoding :

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Using MacOS, both movie get less than 1.0 for transcoding :frowning:

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What could expect throttling for transcoding even if the cpu is “low” on ubuntu?

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I’m using 4K files to stress the transcoding engine and be sure, the gpu is not enough “fast” to manage all the movies one by one with enough buffer to miss the buffuring.

5

If I may,

  1. This is showing PGS (image based) subtitles. Image based subtitles must always be burned by the CPU. Intel did not provide a means to do this in hardware.

  2. Which Intel CPU is being used here? “Intel 8700” is insufficient. Is it an i3, i5, or i7 ?

6

I wasn’t aware of PGS requirement but i will try to have srt file in addition or lower quality file without PGS.

It’s an i7 8700B with a igpu uhd630. I’m just wondering if performance could be lower on macos than ubuntu or performance should similar and i can use macos or linux without loss.
My target will be rclone mount and mergerfs or unionfs with multiple docker container (one plex server for music files and other tool for media mangement requiere multiple instance in parallel) but for the moment, i’m challenging both OS for transcoding performance.

7

I have an i7-8809G (both the 8700’s 630 GPU + AMD GPU onboard).

Here is running on this NUC8 (i7-8809G CPU).
Media is on the NAS

Source media is 61 Mbps 2160p transcoding and playing into Plex/Web

Screenshot from 2020-08-17 13-29-51
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I will need your DEBUG (not VERBOSE) log files which capture the first 30 seconds of playback to see and report exactly what is happening for you.

You do realize you don’t need separate servers for each type? I have many library sections in this single server.

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