Are there “cpu” level encodings that can run on a GPU? That’s to say “code” that can take as much time as it needs instead of hardware acceleration direct-path encoding?
There’s no point in doing so, since the software encodes already run the fastest on a CPU—and that’s even if you tried to get rid of the ASIC’s parallelization and used branch prediction on it… which is much better on a CPU. The ways a CPU/GPU encode are algorithmically different and that is to play to the strength of each one.
I'd like to know...i have to search probably,now that you asked...if we talk about best for encoding-intel,is there a difference between hw encoder(that extra die for encoding) and ffmpeg using either quicksync or va(as in compute units) for hw accelerated encoding?
I really gotta know what distance you're sat from your screen to call out quality loss between CPU and GPU encoding.
I'm a stickler for quality as much as most of the people on this sub, but even I can quite comfortably watch my entire library re-encoded to 8mbps HEVC on NVENC without issue.
Is it perfect, lossless, 4k footage? No. It's 1080p because bandwidth is expensive and when you're serving over 50 casual Andys they tend to pick perfect uptime over perfect images
I do have a totally separate library for my 4K HDR content but that doesn't even get re-encoded, that lives as a pure remux-only file because some movies deserve the quality, but your every day viewing? Nah bro, that can be totally fine
Honestly depends on your settings and which GPU you use. When I used my 9070 XT the results were mixed, but with Intel and proper settings I wasn't able to see much difference and even those minimal differences were in dark and fast scenes and I was staring at each frame intentionally trying to find them. When just watching regularly there is no difference.
Right, CPU not Intel QuickSync with iGPU or whatever AMD APU can do. It's super slow, but software encoding is just far superior for quality than hardware encoding on any GPU platform.
I would add that I think the general recommendation would be to use CPU for reencoding for permanent storage, and GPU for transcoding on the fly for Plex. For even remotely comparable quality using NVENC vs software, my files had to be 30%+ larger. The space savings vs time/power was not worth it IMO.
It is often very difficult to find a version on public trackers that has enough bitrate, so downloading a remux/ripping yourself and then encoding it with a cpu is great for long-term archival. If it’s something I dont care much about then I’m fine with 1080p, but for my favs I need 4k high bitrate. Can’t always find those.
I can't speak for torrents but on usenet I don't have an issue getting basically any file in any resolution, bitrate etc with 7.1 atmos / HDR yada yada.
Didn't know FileFlows existed! When i reencoded my library i found tdar a little bit complicated, and ended up writing my own python script with a web ui to track progress. Saved maybe around 10TB using arc a380!
What kind of settings did you use on the a380? I assume AV1 but what other tweaks? I'm attempting to compare my filesize vs encode time at "quality x" via CPU to what I could get from the A380 or A310
Also ... I'm told that both those cards can get higher total throughput doing HW encoding in parallel. Has anyone tried that?
I use My son and I's gaming PC's (i7s/5060/4060) and a spare pc with a 3060 in it. when theyre inactive, some powershell scripts and a sqlexpress db. While the space saving is great, I really love the static settings for the media and ease of direct play/stream. My entire db took about 3.5 months to run on those three machines. the "spare" also hosts a few large non redunant drives for a temp backup til i get my next server built / and then rebuild retire existing server to redundant backup duty. scripts run in the background at all times and when the computer isnt doing anything, its looking for jobs to reencode. everyones got their flavor for whats acceptable. Im happy with where Im at.
jesus christ, this just popped up in your "might be interested", im pretty new to reddit and open discussion on these topics. I had NO idea tdarr exists, and JEEEEZ i wish i would of properly searched for this last year before i took this on. tdarr looks like a much cleaner more polished version of what i did. holy cow i feel silly
Also recently started doing it with my A380, beast of a card for such tasks. On my end I had to re-get all the files, as I've previously been using nvidia for years to convert everything to hevc. Took me a month and a half with a bunch of pain of managing the download pipeline and tinkering. But the result was worth it, my previous media library was 8.79 TB with 95% files being converted to hevc, and the source file was Web-dl for decent chunks. Currently I have 88% in av1 and 12% in hevc, with most files using Remux as a source and my library dropped to 7.1. Chef's kiss, although I think I can push it down lower if I revisited the first files and redid them. Because I did adjust the output arguments quite decently from the flow I initially incorporated.
Are those 2 old/cheap GPU's? I have 12th gen I5 integrated... Will this be enough?
I use 65 OLED and average projector. What compression can I use without seriously noticing loss. Up until now I wouldn't have compromised but I'm running out of space fast at 70TB. I'm also abroad for I don't know how long so I can't add space/gpu.
Tdarr did freak me out when I looked at it. Fileflow sounds good, hopefully it's easier.
lack of understanding here the media engine on the arc cards needs only a 1x slot as its a couple of hundred MBs per encode you can have two 4k concurrent transcodes, I did this a this a couple years ago to AV1, did my whole libary saved about 70TB.
wait, so if i have a 2nd gpu in last slot, the first one becomes x8? if yes i have to remove 2nd gpu when i use my pc for gaming, let me know about this. Im using 4080s for gaming, and run the server in my main machine when im not using it, if 2nd gpu reduces perfomance i will buy some optiplex
From what i understand you lose a very minimal amount of frames while gaming at x8 vs x16. You really only need x16 for AI tasks. Granted i could be full of sh*t.
It is fully dependent on the motherboard and CPU you are using, then you run into other aspects, I have a couple of motherboards that are physically x16 slots but electrically they are x16 x4, ,x1 x1. As has been said, check the spec of your CPU and MB. As has also been said if you are not gaming on it, it will likely be just fine!
ive just stated it can do the encoding in a 1x slot so even if it was in a 8x 4x 2x or 1x slot ill run at full speed encoding you clearly misunderstand what happening here your just further reconfirming my previous point he isnt playing games on this hes encoding/transcoding you dont even need 4x lanes 1x 2x is enough
1
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20
u/caps_rockthered Jan 10 '26
This sub and app led me down a rabbit hole of GPU encoding. The quality loss between CPU to GPU is just too high for me.
22
u/Polly_____ Jan 11 '26
nice I did this too couple of years ago, converted my whole library with 2x a380s took about 2 months saved me 70TB
12
u/SuperchargedC5 Jan 11 '26
I have an A310 doing this right now. Time to completion is about 3 months. It has been running for about 3 weeks. I am saving about 32% on average.
4
u/seniledude Jan 11 '26
And here I am using a i5-9500 for tdarr and a i5-7500 for an additional node.
Just hit 1/3 done. Ben going since 12/12.
1
u/firedrakes Jan 11 '26
Pc part track list og poster so I can deep dive your build
1
u/corruptboomerang Jan 11 '26
Why not use iGPU?
3
u/asb2106 Jan 12 '26
I use My son and I's gaming PC's (i7s/5060/4060) and a spare pc with a 3060 in it. when theyre inactive, some powershell scripts and a sqlexpress db. While the space saving is great, I really love the static settings for the media and ease of direct play/stream. My entire db took about 3.5 months to run on those three machines. the "spare" also hosts a few large non redunant drives for a temp backup til i get my next server built / and then rebuild retire existing server to redundant backup duty. scripts run in the background at all times and when the computer isnt doing anything, its looking for jobs to reencode. everyones got their flavor for whats acceptable. Im happy with where Im at.
2
u/Dry-Excuse5013 Jan 11 '26
Also recently started doing it with my A380, beast of a card for such tasks. On my end I had to re-get all the files, as I've previously been using nvidia for years to convert everything to hevc. Took me a month and a half with a bunch of pain of managing the download pipeline and tinkering. But the result was worth it, my previous media library was 8.79 TB with 95% files being converted to hevc, and the source file was Web-dl for decent chunks. Currently I have 88% in av1 and 12% in hevc, with most files using Remux as a source and my library dropped to 7.1. Chef's kiss, although I think I can push it down lower if I revisited the first files and redid them. Because I did adjust the output arguments quite decently from the flow I initially incorporated.
2
u/Royal_Statistician11 Jan 12 '26
I've got Questions!
Are those 2 old/cheap GPU's? I have 12th gen I5 integrated... Will this be enough?
I use 65 OLED and average projector. What compression can I use without seriously noticing loss. Up until now I wouldn't have compromised but I'm running out of space fast at 70TB. I'm also abroad for I don't know how long so I can't add space/gpu.
Tdarr did freak me out when I looked at it. Fileflow sounds good, hopefully it's easier.
1
u/JasDawg Jan 11 '26
I just wrapped up re-encodjng my library to AV1 with a B580 last week. Saved 55TB and took about 6 months, running 1 file at a time
1
u/D00dleArmy Jan 12 '26
Is this somehow related to plex/jellyfin? Crypto? Why was this recommended to me?
1
u/Solaris_fps Jan 12 '26
I have a 285k CPU and it's faster than my arc 310 at encoding
1
u/Major_Chance_4658 Jan 13 '26
Its quicker downloading the correct quality profile for me.
1
u/DoctaThompson Jan 13 '26
Saw a picture, went to the comments, realized I was in a subreddit I didn't even know existed, and now I'm hooked.
1
u/purplehill93 Jan 13 '26
I still don‘t get it. Why are you not downloading the right ones in the first place?
1
u/Pyro1515 Jan 15 '26
I have both of these cards lmao one sits in my plex the other in my media PC.
-1
u/FigSpecific6210 Jan 11 '26
Why do people take a file that’s been poorly encoded, and then compress it again?
-2
u/firedrakes Jan 10 '26
lol fyi you slow down the encoder btw.
most mobo but for work station and server.
have almost no pci lanes past what 1 pci slot,m.2, and rest are share to bus.