video skipping creates new ffmpeg processes

[tofuSCHNITZEL]

I'm using subsonic 4.6 on windows server 2008 r2 sp1 with tomcat (6 I think) and iis arp proxy.

When I'm streaming a video in the browser and I use the dropdown menu to skip to a different time a new ffmpeg.exe is created under processes in the taskmanager.
Each time I skip a new ffmpeg process is started but the old ones still occupy CPU resources so I peak a full 100% on all cores pretty fast.

Do you guys know a fix for this?

[ytechie]

Usually the old ffmpegs go away after a little while. I think it's pretty much normal.

[tofuSCHNITZEL]

But the old ones still use CPU resources and if a users skips 3 or 4 times the latest process doesn't get enough CPU power and the playback gets choppy.
Is there a way to kill the old process instantly?

[GJ51]

You might try updating ffmpeg. Some users have reported better video results with later versions than what is used on the SS install.

Go to http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ and download the latest static build. Unpack the download with 7-Zip and copy the files to the C:\Subsonic\transcode folder to replace the files from the older version.

Video transcoding does take a LOT of CPU power. You do have to tune you're video playback structure to what's reasonable for your CPU. Or you can do like I did and buy a dual quad core 2.83GHz Xeon server w/ 16GB ram to handle the chore.

HTH YMMV

[ytechie]

I reported better video results after upgrading ffmpeg, using libx264 codec and using the preset "superfast". Play around with presets - they make a very big difference.

[tofuSCHNITZEL]

I already use the latest version of ffmpeg and I have a Intel Core 2 quad @ 2.66 GHz and 8 Gig of RAM (which is pretty small thinking an exchange 2010, AD, IIS, FTP, Subsonic is running on that machine)

But I will try and mess with the presets Thanks guys!

Edit:
I was wondering: Where does ffmpeg write the "temporary" flv file that is currently encoded?

[GJ51]

You can get reasonable video results with your hardware as long as the videos are not high resolution. When you run a video and see problems, open task manager and check the CPU load. Many factors go into the process that can cause problems, CPU load, hard drive activity, and bandwidth are the major bottlenecks.

I finally have smooth running video at all resolutions - but only after putting SS on a server running dual quad core XEON CPU's running at 2.83 GHz. Maybe a bit of overkill, but it will transcode and stream 3 blue ray quality videos at the same time without pauses. i use it mostly for watching Recorded TV - 1080i wtv files.

I also dropped back to version 4.5 on this system as I was having a few issues with video on Android with 4.6. Version 4.5 "feels" a bit snappier to me as well when changing menu screens. I also like the better control over the transcoding settings in 4.5. Just one man's opinion.