To 4K or not?

[boxer74]

So, I've got a bit of a first world dilemma. I've got 112TB of usable storage, and only 35TB used. I've decided I'd like to flip the switch and start archiving media in 4K. Unfortunately my previous server (dual E5-2667v2), while having a really high passmark, couldn't cut it with software transcoding in Plex. I learned about Coffee Lake iGPU support in the latest 6.6 release candidates and thought I should give Plex HW transcoding a shot. I bought an i7-8700K and Asus Prime Z370-A board and swapped it into my Supermicro 24 bay chassis in place of my dual Xeon setup. Plex performance has been amazing with 4K. HW transcoding is something I want to maintain, however I'm a little torn. I liked having server-grade gear with ECC memory to have that extra little protection for the 1TB or so data that is extra important to me (family photos, videos, documents, ripped music collection, etc.). I like the idea of keeping everything with unRAID but am considering moving important data to a separate small FreeNAS server. Am I really worrying for nothing? I've been using btrfs so at least all data is checksummed. I have backups. The power savings have been nice to ditch the dual Xeon setup, but just not sure how long I can trust consumer gear to last when running 24/7. Hoping the community can offer some thoughts.

[Hoopster]

6 minutes ago, aberg83 said:

So, I've got a bit of a first world dilemma. I've got 112TB of usable storage, and only 35TB used. I've decided I'd like to flip the switch and start archiving media in 4K. Unfortunately my previous server (dual E5-2667v2), while having a really high passmark, couldn't cut it with software transcoding in Plex. I learned about Coffee Lake iGPU support in the latest 6.6 release candidates and thought I should give Plex HW transcoding a shot. I bought an i7-8700K and Asus Prime Z370-A board and swapped it into my Supermicro 24 bay chassis in place of my dual Xeon setup. Plex performance has been amazing with 4K. HW transcoding is something I want to maintain, however I'm a little torn. I liked having server-grade gear with ECC memory to have that extra little protection for the 1TB or so data that is extra important to me (family photos, videos, documents, ripped music collection, etc.). I like the idea of keeping everything with unRAID but am considering moving important data to a separate small FreeNAS server. Am I really worrying for nothing? I've been using btrfs so at least all data is checksummed. I have backups. The power savings have been nice to ditch the dual Xeon setup, but just not sure how long I can trust consumer gear to last when running 24/7. Hoping the community can offer some thoughts.

You've already purchased your hardware, but there is the E-2176G Xeon with iGPU and support for ECC RAM based on the Coffee Lake architecture.

 

https://ark.intel.com/products/134860/Intel-Xeon-E-2176G-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-4_70-GHz

[boxer74]

I saw that but can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. Too soon I guess. That would be the ideal setup.

[Hoopster]

Just now, aberg83 said:

I saw that but can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. Too soon I guess. That would be the ideal setup.

Yeah, not yet in stock, but, "launched."  That is probably my next upgrade, but, I can wait a bit.

[whipdancer]

I've been running my i5-2400 for almost 8 years without a hiccup or any lost data. I have about 40tb of space used out of about 46tb total.

 

I'll be upgrading to handle 4k as well.

[boxer74]

I've got friends in IT so I've probably been letting them sway me too much with their ECC/ZFS special sauce talk... I'll probably stick with it all in unRAID for simplicity.

[jrd680]

I like the idea of keeping everything with unRAID but am considering moving important data to a separate small FreeNAS server. Am I really worrying for nothing?

 

Im kinda thinking similarly myself. Also I use Arq to backup to Backblaze B2 so I’d want to make it compatible. It seems that I could run a virtual machine to run Arq and of course I’d have a couple hard drive copies not in my server for extra relief and protection.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[boxer74]

1 minute ago, jrd680 said:

 

Im kinda thinking similarly myself. Also I use Arq to backup to Backblaze B2 so


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'd love to avoid managing another server. I think we suitable backups and checksums, unRAID is fine even without ECC. I'd hazard to guess that the majority of users on these forums are not using server-grade equipment with ECC memory.

[boxer74]

On 9/15/2018 at 9:51 PM, Hoopster said:

Yeah, not yet in stock, but, "launched."  That is probably my next upgrade, but, I can wait a bit.

Decided to pull the trigger on a Supermicro X11SCA-F board with 32GB DDR4 ECC memory. Can use the i7 and non ECC memory with this board for now and then swap out for the ECC and Xeon when it's available. The gaming board can be easily sold.

[ashman70]

Honestly, IMO 4K is a waste of time. Movies you buy aren't really in 4K but are in 2K, so unless you are shooting 4K with a 4K capable camera, it's not really worth it. I've watched 1080p movies and then the  same film in 4K on my 4K tv, I don't see a noticeable difference, perhaps it depends on the tv and the movie, but I just don't see a compelling enough reason to go 4K at this point.

[boxer74]

Futureproofing more than anything. And an excuse to have a ridiculous amount of storage space.

[Tedd]

On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:43 AM, ashman70 said:

Honestly, IMO 4K is a waste of time. Movies you buy aren't really in 4K but are in 2K, so unless you are shooting 4K with a 4K capable camera, it's not really worth it. I've watched 1080p movies and then the  same film in 4K on my 4K tv, I don't see a noticeable difference, perhaps it depends on the tv and the movie, but I just don't see a compelling enough reason to go 4K at this point.

Just how far are you sitting from this hdtv?   Are you close enough to a what is a relatively small screen, for the human eye to be able to resolve the extra resolution?  Some other reasons to go 4K are for ATMOS soundtracks and HDR. 

[ashman70]

I have a 60' tv and I am sitting five feet from it. I can already get ATMOS sound with 1080p don't need 4K for that. I will admit that on crazy expensive 4K tv's it looks fantastic, but on mine at least I can't see enough of a difference to be impressed.

[Squid]

Reminds me of this infamous quote on these threads (definitely not from me)

Quote

Personally, I haven't bothered to switch my collection of 4000+ movies from DVD to BluRay, as I just don't see much difference in the visual quality on my 70" screen.    Ageing eyes may contribute to that, but the simple fact is DVDs are plenty "good enough".    If I wanted to pause frames and study them in detail -- count the leaves on a tree, etc. -- I'm sure BluRay would be better.    But it's not a transition I'll be making anytime soon.

 

[ashman70]

Except it's just silly to say that, there is clearly a difference going from 480p to 720p or 1080p, the same cannot be said for 4K IMO. As I said, on a 3 or 4,000.00 TV perhaps the difference is obvious and I have just not seen it, but on my 60' tv I can't see it and my eyes are not THAT old, lol. Trust me on my 125' screen and projector 480p content looks like garbage compared to HD content.