Remote desktop for media usage?

[Dunuin]

Hi,

Right now I use a small Intel Atom without dedicated GPU to watch my media (emby, youtube) and browse the web from my TV.
But my new Proxmox server came with a Geforce 710 I'm not really using because I use the onboard GPU to be able to use VNC via IPMI.
So I thought it might be a good idea to setup a Win10 VM which could make use of the Geforce 710 and faster CPU so I could remote access the faster VM from my smartphone, tablet and the slow PC connected to my TV.

But I'm not sure how to do that so watching videos will be possible.

1.) I read that SPICE would be great for watching videos/gaming but it is not possible to PCIe-passthrough the GPU so the guest can't use hardware acceleration. I don't really need 3D performance because I'm not planning to game on it, but I would like to be able to use the hardware accelerated video decoding/encoding for media playback. Also I wasn't able to find out if it is possible for SPICE to use a GPU on the host system for acceleration.

2.) I could passthrough the GPU to the guest and use windows remote desktop or VNC to connect to the guest. That way the guest system could fully use the GPU but I've read both protocols aren't designed to display videos so it would stutter and display artefacts while playing back media.

3.) There is moonlight, RDNA, steam link and so on made for remote accessing videos and games but I don't want to stream single videos or games. I've got an emby server for media streaming and a GamingPC for remote Gaming. I want a access a complete desktop and not single services.

Isn't there any open source remote desktop server possible running from inside the VM with GPU hardware acceleration that is just streaming a non laggy and good quality video signal to another computer?

 

[Stefan_R]

Short answer: not really.

Long answer: Streaming protocols you mention in 3.) can certainly be used for full-desktop streaming as well, so that's an option - though all of these services that I know of will most likely introduce compression artifacts or a slight delay. Probably your best shot though. Option 2.) will certainly not work, RDP and VNC are not cut out for the task. Option 1.) with SPICE will not support video acceleration with GPUs AFAIK, but there is an option to at least allow for better video streaming via an extension that can optionally be enabled in the VM's settings in PVE ("Spice Enhancements").

 

[nook24]

I literally have the same question. I want to use a Windows 10 VM to watch Streaming services like Amazon in HD.
Unfortunately the video playback though SPICE is a bit laggy and had some frame drop issues - at least for me.

Is it possible to use SPICE via an unix socket and to disable any crypto stuff i don't need on localhost?

Host System: Debian 10 (5.4.55-1-pve / Proxmox), AMD Ryzen 5 3400G, 16GB RAM, amdgpu driver, SPICE client: virt-viewer 7.0-2

VM: Windows 10, VirtIO and Spice drivers installed. Resolution: 1080p. KVM Settings: SPICE (qxl,memory=128), streaming-video=all

I also read that Windows 10 had some changes to to graphic stack, but this post was from 2015. Anyway I will try if Windows 7 can resolve this issue this evening.

 

[nook24]

I've tested Windows 8.1. It has the same (poor) video playback performance as Windows 10.

 

[r.jochum]

Have a look at nomachine, i played 1080p over WAN with it but i had a little flickering. You need to passthrough the gfx though.

 

[nook24]

I've tested NoMachine real quick. The video playback was worse than using SPICE. Probably because I have no GPU I could pass through. I guess if I had a GPU to passthrough, also SPICE would work fine.


However, for now I use my PS4 to watch Amazon Prime in HD. So i can avoid Windows and any Amazon Hardware.

 

[Dunuin]

Probably because I have no GPU I could pass through. I guess if I had a GPU to passthrough, also SPICE would work fine.

1.) with SPICE will not support video acceleration with GPUs AFAIK,

Option 1.) with SPICE will not support video acceleration with GPUs AFAIK

Spice wouldn't use passthroughed GPUs.

 

[Soviet31]

Have a look at on premise R-HUB HD video conferencing servers or remote support servers. It plays over 1080 px without any flickering as it provides HD video quality.