PlayOn requires a bit of hardware power to do the recordings, but exactly how much is a little tougher, and with the recent addition to now supporting FullHD (1080p), the requirements have jumped immensely. While we have a good idea on what is required using straight CPU power, when using GPU hardware acceleration, it becomes a little unclear what is required for a good recording experience.
My Findings
I have tested across multiple hardware and want to share my results, and am looking for others to share as well, especially when it comes to 1080p so we can with confidence help others make sure they are purchasing hardware that is capable enough.
Celeron J1900
I wanted to get a machine dedicated for performing recordings overnight that would be very efficient using as little electricity as necessary. I started with a Gigabyte machine I had laying around that had a Celeron J1900. Using the PlayOn’s CPU tester, it said it could do SD (540p), but I found that in most cases, with the Intel hardware acceleration enabled, it could handle HD (720p). It was jittery in scenes where the entire scene changed when the camera does a pan over a scene, which doesn’t happen often.
This worked for a while, and I was happy, until I noticed that FullHD support was added. Almost wish I hadn’t noticed this as the HD image was acceptable, but for some movies, it would be nicer to have the more full image. The Celeron J1900 is obviously way underpowered to accomplish this, as it could not handle HD without issue.
This led me on a hunt as to what was required. PlayOn support recommends a CPU with at least a CPU Passmark score of 10,000. And while that is likely very accurate when fully using only the CPU, using the GPU hardware acceleration I believe this CPU requirement is somewhat lower.
Ryzen 5 1600
My desktop is powered by a Ryzen 5 1600 with Vega 56 graphics. The CPU alone can handle the FullHD recordings with ease, and if I enable the GPU hardware acceleration, the CPU usage falls considerably to less than 30% usage on average. But, my desktop is not power efficient, using over 150W in either configuration for performing this recording. I wanted something more efficient, plus, I primarily use Linux on my desktop, and currently have Windows on it solely for PlayOn when I wanted to perform a recording.
Core i7-5600U
I also had an old 12” Dell laptop with a i7-5600U processor which the LCD had failed, but could still be used with an external display. While not small like the Gigabyte machine, it isn’t as large as the desktop, and have the U class CPU, it should be fairly efficient. I found it was able to successfully record content at both HD and FullHD. The hardware though seemed as if it had an issue, as it produced color artifacts at the bottom of the video. What was causing this is unknown, but the videos appeared to be recording and producing solid recordings other than the artifacts so I figured this was a good baseline, and that something with more power, should be good enough for FullHD recordings. The i7-5600U has a Passmark score of 3031.
Intel N100
This led me to purchase a mini PC with the Intel N100 chipset. It is super low power with a TDP of 6W. It is a 4 core CPU based on Alder Lake (Intel 12th Gen) and has a Intel GPU capable of AV1 decoding based on the Xe platform. With a Passmark score of 5638, well above the i7-5600U, it should have been capable of recording FullHD without issue, or so I thought. While it can produce recording, all while only sipping 10W of power on average, the recordings produced aren’t perfect and notice some slight glitching on intense scenes where the camera is panning or moving, like flying through the sky. But for 99% of the time, it is a smooth recording. This was with using the Intel GPU hardware acceleration. A step up to the Intel N300 should produce a perfect recording with it having 8 cores giving it Passmark score 8475, This would be with the Intel GPU hardware acceleration enabled.
Ryzen 5 4500U
Finally I tried it out on my primary laptop which contains an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U, which has 6 Zen 2 cores (no SMT) and a Passmark score of 10985. This like my desktop primarily runs Linux, and I setup Windows just for PlayOn. It is able to produce a perfect recording with or without GPU hardware acceleration. I haven’t monitored the power usage, but the 4500U is configured for a TDP of 15W in the laptop, so it shouldn’t be using much over 30W.
Conclusion
I am hoping this post will help others in determining hardware to purchase for their PlayOn setups, if they are like me and looking to have a near dedicated machine and desire something as efficient as possible. Based on what we know, and what can be found on the market, there are plenty of mini-PCs container AMD 4000U series hardware, that can be gotten for under $300 and we know that 6 Zen 2 cores get the job done. A quad-core with SMT having 8 threads with the GPU acceleration, should be enough as well, as the 4500U was under 50% utilized with it enabled.
Future Plans
My current plan is that I will record most things with the N100 mini-PC, but for some items, that are important, like an action movie, I will use my laptop with the Ryzen 5 4500U.
Summary
- Celeron J1900 – Passmark 1151 – Records SD. Uses minimal power.
- Core i7-5600U – Passmark 3031 – Records HD and FullHD, but had artifacts for me
- Intel N100 – Passmark 5632 – Records HD. FullHD was jittery.
- Ryzen 5 1600 – Passmark 12291 – Records FullHD. Power hungry.
- Ryzen 5 4500U – Passmark 10985 – Records FullHD. Fairly efficient.
