Building the cheapest 1080p-streaming system?

[butler360]

I didn't know that onboard graphics would affect transcoding.

Yeah, I lumped playing, processing, and transcoding all under the GPU, didn't I? I know it can do the first two, but I'm still unsure of transcoding. Some forums seem to suggest it's possible but now I'm looking around and seeing that they're probably talking about transcoding using a program to output a whole new file, not transcoding on-the-fly. It'd be nice to get some feedback from the PS3MS author about minimum CPU for 1080P transcoding and if the GPU is used at all.

You're on your way to building an awfully robust system there

Well, sort of. Those are in my Newegg wishlist, not shopping cart, haha. Although compared to the HP MediaSmart servers the price is quite excellent.

[shagrath]

It'd be nice to get some feedback from the PS3MS author about minimum CPU for 1080P transcoding and if the GPU is used at all.

I rarely reply to this because it's hard to answer... almost all 1080p I tested play fine on my system (core2duo 2,6ghz, no gpu involved), except 1 or 2 special times... I cannot really say if lower specs can do the same...

[meskibob]

Yeah, I lumped playing, processing, and transcoding all under the GPU, didn't I? I know it can do the first two, but I'm still unsure of transcoding. Some forums seem to suggest it's possible but now I'm looking around and seeing that they're probably talking about transcoding using a program to output a whole new file, not transcoding on-the-fly.

It is possible with PMS if you: a) have Avisynth and CoreAVC Professional, and b) have a new, CUDA-capable, nVidia graphics card. Not sure that an onboard version would support CUDA though.

[Jagged]

One thing I'd like to follow up on, though - your last sentence mentions tsMuxer not transcoding, what is it doing instead of transcoding there? What's the system chugging on, the streaming network bandwidth? In other words, the video itself is fine as it is (or if using Mencoder, it's been successfully transcoded) but my network just can't handle that big of a file? I found myself going down to 25/7/x (I don't remember the third value in the manual configuration dropdown list) in order to fluidly stream 1080p from my laptop, but I suppose that only worked because the quality was transcoded to a low enough quality that the bitrate was acceptable on the network? I'm wired from router > PS3 but I may just have to wire up the laptop tonight and see if I can change that from 25/7 to 25/2, or even 3/2 if I'm feeling lucky.

If you have an h.264 video that is compatible with the PS3 in a container the PS3 doesn't support (such as MKV), PMS will demux the audio/video streams and present them to tsMuxeR to remux into a TS container that the PS3 supports, losing no video quality and depending on the settings/audio codec, it can keep the original audio intact.

If the video isn't compatible, then you'll need to transcode the video. decoding 1080p takes a lot of CPU time, even on high end systems. mencoder_mt will help somewhat, in that it'll allow for multiple threads for decoding x264 videos.

Do you have the checkbox checked to use tsMuxeR if compatible video detected? The thing to then look at is if you hit select while the video is playing it should say in the upper righthand corner "MPEG2" or "AVC". If it says AVC it is streaming w/ tsMuxeR. If it says "MPEG2" it is transcoding the video.

In either case, streaming 1080p over wireless is going to be very choppy. Definitely try hard-wiring the laptop.

mencoder does not currently support GPU offloading. Even if it did, most onboard video cards will not be of any use for this. I believe you might be able to configure PMS to use Avisynth (and perhaps you can then use coreAVC for some acceleration). Someone else might be able to give you more info on that. But, again, you probably won't be able to use GPU offloading with the onboard video.

[Jagged]

I was just checking, and it looks like the Nvidia 9400 chipset does support CUDA (and PhsyX.. not that that matters here).

[butler360]

It is possible with PMS if you: a) have Avisynth and CoreAVC Professional, and b) have a new, CUDA-capable, nVidia graphics card. Not sure that an onboard version would support CUDA though.

Yeah, most onboard video is junk, but I've been leaning towards the 9400 IGPs because they do have CUDA, PureVideo, etc.: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_ge ... pu_us.html

So, to sum it up (correct me if I'm wrong), you may be able to use GPU assisted transcoding with some files with the right configuration but, at the same time, it probably isn't necessary with a decent CPU (something comparable to a 2.6GHZ Core 2 Duo). If you look at these benchmarks the equivalent AMD should be the X2 6400+ so I guess that would be a good base performance mark for 1080P transcoding: http://xtreview.com/addcomment-id-3115- ... hmark.html

As an aside, the one thing that's kept me interested in the 9400-series motherboards is the HDMI with 24p and 7.1 output. I really wish the PS3 did 24P streaming (unless it does, of course, haha, but I'd heard it doesn't).

[wattershed]

If you have an h.264 video that is compatible with the PS3 in a container the PS3 doesn't support (such as MKV), PMS will demux the audio/video streams and present them to tsMuxeR to remux into a TS container that the PS3 supports, losing no video quality and depending on the settings/audio codec, it can keep the original audio intact.

If the video isn't compatible, then you'll need to transcode the video. decoding 1080p takes a lot of CPU time, even on high end systems. mencoder_mt will help somewhat, in that it'll allow for multiple threads for decoding x264 videos.

Do you have the checkbox checked to use tsMuxeR if compatible video detected? The thing to then look at is if you hit select while the video is playing it should say in the upper righthand corner "MPEG2" or "AVC". If it says AVC it is streaming w/ tsMuxeR. If it says "MPEG2" it is transcoding the video.

In either case, streaming 1080p over wireless is going to be very choppy. Definitely try hard-wiring the laptop.

mencoder does not currently support GPU offloading. Even if it did, most onboard video cards will not be of any use for this. I believe you might be able to configure PMS to use Avisynth (and perhaps you can then use coreAVC for some acceleration). Someone else might be able to give you more info on that. But, again, you probably won't be able to use GPU offloading with the onboard video.

I only have a few 1080P content files handy to test out my settings with when I'm at home, though I do know the PS3 shows 'MPEG2' when running these mkv files. I have CoreAVC Professional installed as well, but I'm not sure if it's taking the reins at times when it should, and I'm not sure I know how to go about checking for it. I know it's active when I run those same 1080p mkv files on my laptop, however when it's time to stream I can't say it's active with any certainty.

I've had AviSynth on the laptop for a few days now, but I'm not so sure what I need to do with the Avisynth/MEncoder > "Video decoder settings for AviSynth engine only" screen. Because of that, the bolded (aka priority) video file engine for me right now is MEncoder, and that seems to provide better results than when either AviSynth/FFmpeg or TsMuxer is prioritized.

...continuing to look into processors as well, unsure of why higher Intel chip model numbers don't necessarily equate to higher performance, and hoping that a $120 processor and $120 motherboard get the job done.