Hey everyone, I’m building a new server to run Jellyfin (with a few other services like Pi-hole) and I’m stuck on GPU or CPU transcoding.

My main concern is smooth 4K HDR transcoding for 1 stream. I’ve been reading mixed advice online – some people say a strong CPU with good single-core performance can handle it, while others recommend a dedicated GPU.

Should I focus my budget (~$1000AUD/$658USD) on a good CPU, or spend some of it on a dedicated GPU?

  • DiplomjodlerEnglish
    2•7 months ago

    Do you have it installed with docker?

    • @[email protected]English
      4•7 months ago

      Yes, I have it installed as a Docker container in a Debian 12 machine. My Docker compose file is something like this:

        jellyfin:
    container_name: jellyfin
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin
    group_add:
      - "105" 
      - "44"
      - "102"
    devices:
      - /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128
      - /dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0

      The group numbers were obtained following Jellyfin’s documentation.

      You also need to configure Jellyfin from Menu > Playback. In “Hardware acceleration” I selected “Intel QuickSync (QSV)”. I have selected all but AV1 (not supported by my CPU) from “Enable hardware decoding from:” and from “Hardware encoding options:” I have enable all 3 of them.