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Transcoder Monitoring

The Transcoder monitoring dashboard shows how video transcoding performs on the server: whether the transcoder is stable, keeps up with real time, and how many output tracks it produces.

Unlike input monitoring, this is not about incoming signal quality, but about how the transcoder itself runs — CPU, GPU, quality profiles, logo and text burn-in. Frequent restarts and overload directly affect availability of transcoded stream versions for subscribers.

The recommended workflow: start with the heatmap of streams with the most transcoder restarts, then select a specific stream in Stream name (or click a row on the map) — the Stream transcoder details group appears at the bottom.

Transcoder Restarts

The Top N streams with transcoder restarts on server panel is the main entry point for diagnostics.

This is a heatmap (state timeline): streams with the most restarts are listed vertically, time runs horizontally. Cell color shows the transcoder_restarts metric value for each interval:

  • green — less than one, normal, transcoder is stable;
  • yellow — 1 and above, at least one restart occurred;
  • orange — 2 and above, repeated restarts;
  • red — 5 and above, critical instability.

Frequent restarts mean the transcoder cannot maintain a steady state: it crashes due to input errors, resource shortage, parameter changes, or an internal failure. Streams with the most restarts over the selected period rise to the top.

At the top of the dashboard, select Server name — a single server or All for a summary across the entire infrastructure.

Use Cases:

  • See a red or orange band, click the stream row, and drill down in the dashboard below
  • Over several days, notice the same stream regularly in the top — look for a systemic cause (server overload, unstable source, overly heavy transcoding profile)
  • Correlate restarts with issues on input monitoring — transcoders often crash because of broken input

Set up alerts: watch CPU load, scheduler load, and GPU on the Server Stats dashboard — transcoding is directly dependent on server resources.

Stream Transcoder Details

After selecting a stream, the Stream transcoder details group shows transcoder configuration and runtime metrics.

Hardware Acceleration Type

The Transcoder hardware type table shows what the transcoder runs on for the selected stream — the transcoder_hw metric:

  • cpu — software transcoding on the processor;
  • gpu and other values — hardware acceleration on a GPU or dedicated device.

When investigating server load complaints, check whether streams were moved to CPU instead of GPU in bulk. For GPU restarts — check temperature and utilization on the Server Stats dashboard.

Restarts

The Transcoder restarts graph shows the number of transcoder restarts per interval (increase(transcoder_restarts)).

Normal is zero. Any growth means the transcoder periodically crashes and comes back up. The screenshot shows a typical recovery pattern: a long period of frequent restarts, then the line drops to zero — the transcoder stabilized (source fixed, load reduced, or stream restarted manually).

Correlate spike times with input errors for the same stream and with the Output frames count graph below — if there are restarts but no frames, the transcoder is not producing output.

Overload

The Transcoder overloaded graph is an overload indicator (transcoder_overloaded).

A non-zero value means the transcoder could not process input in real time. This precedes restarts and quality degradation: frames are dropped, latency grows. Normal is zero across the entire interval. On growth — reduce the number of simultaneous transcodes on the server, lighten the profile (resolution, bitrate, number of qualities), or add GPU capacity.

Target Video Standard

The Target video standard (if configured) table shows which standard the transcoder is configured for (transcoder_target), when target is set in configuration.

An empty value or "No data" means no explicit target is specified. Useful when diagnosing international PAL/NTSC projects or verifying the stream is set to the required output format.

Number of Output Qualities

The Transcoder qualities panel shows how many output video tracks the transcoder produces (transcoder_qualities).

A value of 1 means a single quality (one profile). More than one means adaptive or multi-bitrate transcoding. Each additional quality multiplies CPU/GPU load; when the server is overloaded, consider reducing the number of qualities.

Logo and Text Burn-In

Two panels show whether burn-in options are enabled:

  • Transcoder burn logo (transcoder_burn_logo) — on / off, logo burned into the frame;
  • Transcoder burn text (transcoder_burn_text) — on / off, subtitles or custom text (date, time) burned into the frame.

Both options increase transcoder load. With transcoder_overloaded and frequent restarts on a stream with on, check whether the overlay is too heavy.

Output Frames

The Output frames count graph shows the rate of transcoded frame output (increase(transcoder_frames)).

This is the main indicator that the transcoder is actually working. A stable non-zero line with zero restarts is normal. Zero with an active input stream means the transcoder is not delivering video, even if the process appears to be running. A sharp appearance of frames after a long zero matches the moment when restarts stopped.

Announces

The Transcoder Announces graph shows input and output transcoder announces (transcoder_announces by input / output type).

Announces reflect stream parameter changes: new resolution, codec, track structure. Growth in input without output may mean the transcoder received new input parameters but has not yet started stable output. Simultaneous input and output spikes are a normal reaction to a source change. A prolonged zero on both lines with a working transcoder means input and output are stable.

Use Cases:

  • Transcoded version "stuck": check Output frames count and Transcoder restarts — if there are no frames, look at input and overload
  • Load grew after adding a second quality: compare Transcoder qualities with transcoder_overloaded and CPU/GPU graphs
  • Mass restarts on the server without input issues: check total number of transcoded streams and the multiplexer — the server may be overloaded overall
  • Complaint about missing logo: confirm Transcoder burn logo shows on for the relevant stream