Transcoding eats CPU

[Devil Wears Sharfik]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently running 4 servers Win11x64, 12GB RAM, i7-7700, integrated intel hd660 graphics. Each server has started sync-play "stream" to other 12 PC  inside local subnet. This system emulates host and 12 viewers, connected to the same group via sync-play. Viewers' PC connected to TVs around the building, to show students across the university info about upcoming events and other educational stuff. 

 Server 1, 2 and 3 works fine, but 4th server struggle a lot of CPU usage (95-100%) with ffmpeg processes. During this time, video freezes both on server and clients in the group. I have tried different hardware configs and almost every setting with encoding/transcoding, bitrate, speed over quality and etc. Each server plays a playlist of 1-16 videos, over 1 min length each, 720-1080 resolution, max size 40mb. I have just started to use Jellyfin around 1 week ago, so I can easily miss some obvious things. Could you please guide me to the right direction to solve this issue, or link me to thread with already founded solution.

[Efficient_Good_5784]

Are all the servers exactly the same? Or at least, do they all share the same CPU and/or GPU components?

Likewise, the videos are the same on all servers right?

[Oddstr13]

Jellyfin (alone) does not sound like the right tool for the task at hand.

I'd suggest you look into something more traditional, such as Icecast 2 (often used for internet radio streams – one in, many out).
There is also ErzatsTV which can use the Jellyfin library as a media source, but I haven't tested out this software myself yet, so I don't know how well it fits with your use case.

[Devil Wears Sharfik]

1. Servers are exactly the same, CPU, GPU, RAM, Disk, motherboard all from 1 vendor. Videos are the same too for all servers.

2. Before Jellyfin, I have tried 5-6 other solutions, but our network and IT security instructions locking connections for DLNA cast, and this subnet we are using for TV is locked from internet access. Jellyfin was the first software I have found, that works 100% locally without any limitations, ADs, and so on. Last 10 years, local IT guy was using VLC running on EACH PC locally, using sharing folder with videos. And when our marketing department rolls a new request to change playlist (1-3 times a week), he manually connected to all PCs via RDP to update playlist and restart media player.

Thanks for pointing Icecast 2, I will definetely check it out. But since my 3 out of 4 servers are working smoothly, I would prefer to stick to Jellyfin by far.