I thought this video was rather interesting, because at 12:27, the presenter crunches the numbers to find out how many years it would take for a new computer purchase to be more environmentally friendly (in regards to total CO2 expended) compared to using a less efficient used model.
Depending on the specific use case, it could take as little as 3 years to breakeven in terms of CO2 if both systems were at max power draw forever, and as long as 30 if the systems are mostly at idle.
This should be a well know, but often misunderstood thing. Lots of reddit selfhosting threds urge people to buy a new mini-pc for its “low power draw” when usually its the same or 1-2watts less then a laptop from 2012. However performace to watt is much higher, so if you need massive preformance new is much better, if your system is idling most of the time anyway, basically no diffrence in buying old
For my first server, after moving on from 2 raspberrys to a Proxmox host, I went with an embedded Asrock MB, passively cooled so you know it wasn’t drawing much power, still had multiple SATA ports and with the right sticks I could get 32GB RAM in.
Seems better to me than a minipc where you have no expandability, especially no chance for RAID.
You just can’t buy too old or the inverse happens and the performance per watt drops. I think you’re right that 2012 is about the cutoff. Maybe 2007 for certain items, like my 2007 iMac. But if you’re getting back to the Pentium 4 era you’ve gone too far and need to turn back around.
Oh god, P4? Yea, those were just 100 watt light bulbs.
Sans the light
My first computer was 33htz. Ran Windows 3.1. And Warcraft 2.
So yeah. The perfect computer.
Well, I would hope for 33 MHz at least… ;-)
No, the graphics from Intel back in 07-10 were crap. 2012-2013 would be my bare minimum, usb3 if only for loading a new OS.
What are you using graphics on a server for instead of just CLI?
Transcoding video for streaming.
How much video is really needed for transcoding?
I ask because I need to get a video card for transcoding to a 65" 4k TV. I’m converting all my DVDs to MKV and using Jellyfin as my server and client. It transcodes lighter stuff fine (cartoons, old TV shows), but better movies get some artifacts that don’t occur if I have the TV play the same file from a thumb drive.
I’ve read Jellyfin’s recommendation, but it’s really just “use at least this video chipset”, not a particular card, so I’m trying to determine what card I should get.
You don’t really want to live transcode 4K. That’s a tremendous amount of horsepower required to go real time. When you rip your movies you want to make sure they’re in some format that whatever player you’re using can handle. If that means that you use a streaming stick in your TV instead of the app on your TV that’s what you do. I think you could technically do it with a 10th+ gen Intel with embedded video. I know that a Nvidia 2070 super on a 7th gen Intel will not get the job done for an upper and Roku. So all of my 4K video is either h264 or HEVC so it all direct plays on my flavor of Roku.
Server to TV should be local, why are you transcoding? I watch 4K files on my 4K TV without issues, with Kodi because I don’t need Jellyfin for that.
I use Jellyfin to stream when I’m outside my home, and transcoding 4K is what takes a lot of resources.
It’s transcoding because Jellyfin decided it needs to transcode for some reason, frustratingly. I’ve converted to formats/codecs I know the TV supports, and yet Jellyfin still transcodes, with a message about the TV not supporting the codec (yet if I play the file on the TV from a thumb drive, it works fine with the crappy built-in media player). I’m using the Jellyfin client on the TV because it’s easy to install without a Samsung account, and I don’t think I can get Kodi on it (besides my experience with Kodi is not great, it’s sluggish on real hardware, I can only imagine how bad it would be on an underpowered garbage TV and I don’t know if a client exists).
From a bigger picture perspective, I think Jellyfin as a client will be better for my family. It’s a simpler interface with less to get them in trouble.
I’ll need transcoding for other/non-local devices anyway, so I still have to address the issue (annoying iPad for example).
If you have any advice about troubleshooting why it’s transcoding, I’m all ears. This is the first I’ve gotten Jellyfin to work after multiple attempts over the years, across multiple servers and clients, so my experience with it is limited. I’m just glad it works at all - it’s the first I’ve gotten to work other than Plex.
Thanks - at least now I know it shouldn’t be transcoding.
I’ve encountered some unexpected transcodes or playback failures that seem to stem from app compatibility problems. Most TV/streaming stick apps for Jellyfin are maintained by only 1-2 volunteers so you can get some funky bugs given the enormous number of possible combinations of codecs, server settings, client hardware configurations and client versions even for just a single TV/streaming device platform
Subtitles can provoke transcoding. I’m not sure if it’s when they’re embedded or not but may be a starting point.
Well TBH my familiarity with Jellyfin is rather limited, I installed it, it works, I don’t mess with it.
The only problems I’ve had is when some friends had trouble logging in, which was solved with a cache and cookies cleanup. At least the only problems I know of: turns out my friends don’t complain when it doesn’t work.
I know that Jellyfin CAN serve without transcoding (you can disable it on a per-user basis IIRC), but as to why it decides you can’t, I have no idea. Have you tried filing a bug report? Sometimes it’s a bug, sometimes they give you a solution. Sometimes both.