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Emby transcoding because 'bitrate exceeds limit'


avitali

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avitali

Hi, I've been using Emby for a few weeks now. I've noticed that, pretty often, when users stream, the server transcodes the file, even though it would be compatible with the client. The reason given is always something along the lines of 'media bitrate exceeds limit'.

Can somebody of you explain to me why this happens? It seems to me that most files should just direct play. I've used Jellyfin, where everything direct plays (which can be both good and bad...) and neither I, nor my users have ever had issues direct playing (caused by bitrate limitations). It just seems weird Emby does this, and I cannot understand why...

I've attached the logs of two instances where this occurred as txt-files.

Emby-logs-1.txtEmby-logs-2.txt

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Happy2Play

The playback set to "Auto" being conservative and using the hardcoded remote fallback value of 3Mbps.

If you set the Playback quality to anything besides "Auto" it works, correct?

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avitali

For my own user, under Playback, I have set 1080p - 60mbps. Since I've set it that way, I don't have the issue anymore. But still, before setting it, the quality was lowered at times, and at times not. I don't really understand why this happens...

Is there any way to set settings server-side so that emby only transcodes when necessarily needed? Most of my media is 8-10 mbps, and 3 mbps just seems unnecessarily low.

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Happy2Play

Emby already only transcodes, when necessary, but from a REMOTE standpoint it can be conservative and fallback to hard coded value for any number of reasons when set to Auto.

Note playback quality is a per device setting and we would need to see a specific example if you have value set at 1080p - 60Mbps and you are getting a low value.

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avitali

Well, it's more for remote users I asked. Since I've set the quality at 1080p - 60 mbps it works fine for me.

Is there any way to mitigate the issue of the stream transcoding? What are reasons why this would happen?

I just wondered why it would default to 3mbps, even when through a remote connection, as this seemed unnecessary to me - especially as my goal is to provide a high quality stream

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The default for auto on a remote connection will generally be on the conservative side. If you raise the quality setting, that may help avoid transcoding.

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avitali

Can I change the default for auto? As in, can I set global quality settings which are higher than the default is?

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avitali

I'd love to see that. As I connect through cloudflare (when I'm home as well, almost never use the local address), pretty much all my connections are 'remote' connections. The limit just seems arbitrary - is it possible to just abandon it entirely?

The only limit which would make sense imo is if bandwidth isn't high enough... which server or client could detect

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