Log/Report of what codecs were used for transcoding?

[TeamB 2356]

The reason there are so many opinions on this is because there are a lot of ways you can approach these terminologies, a lot of people mush all the different classes into the one thing and it is not really possible to do that and keep a clear picture.

What I mean by this is trans-mux vs trans-code these two actions happen to different things, one is applied to a container of streams and the other is applied to the streams, when you start to try to use the terms interchangeably you will end up with confusion. You dont trans-code a container, you trans-mux it.

The other issues is the transport, which one of these is DirectPlay vs DirectStream

Server(SMB) -> TCP -> Client(SMB)
Server(HTTP) -> TCP -> Client(HTTP)
Server(NFS) -> TCP -> Client(NFS)

You are transferring  a file over a network using a protocol, all the same???

The next issue is how Emby works internally. There are a few ways Emby can serve up a stream.

- It can respond with a direct PATH, this is usually the path to the library item directly, i.e. if you used real paths to a network storage device and mapped the path in your Emby server this path can potentially be also used by clients, some path substitution can allso be applied to do a replace so clients can access the file located on a network share or file server.

- It can respond with a STATIC=True in a HTTP stream url that will tell Emby to Byte for Byte send the file to the client, historically this used to bypass ffmpeg and all processing, it would load the media file directly and send it to the client, a little like you were serving the file from a web server.

- It can run the file though ffmpeg and trans-mux the file on the fly

- It can run the file though ffmpeg and transmux and if needed trans-code any streams that need it on the fly

Given all the above you can see how and why there are so many opinions on how a single word (DirectPlay vs DirectStream vs Trans-code vs Trans-mux) is interpreted.

Edited April 14, 2023 by TeamB

[TeamB 2356]

5 hours ago, HawkXP71 said:

Just my two bits, but Im more "concerned" as to why transcode (v:direct a:ac3) isnt called directstream?

because the audio was transcoded

[HawkXP71 99]

On 4/14/2023 at 4:16 PM, TeamB said:

because the audio was transcoded

BUt, just above DirectStream is defined as video -> copy + audio is transformed/transcoded...

[TeamB 2356]

4 hours ago, HawkXP71 said:

BUt, just above DirectStream is defined as video -> copy + audio is transformed/transcoded...

yep, and as i said it is all over the place when it comes to interpretations of the terms.

in the support link above it is stated even if audio is trans-coded that is still directstream, remember when someone mentioned there has been lots of heated debate about this in the past, well i get the feeling there is about to be some more

the playback reporting plugin reports what the server did to the data when the media item was played back, it does not try to interpret this in any way, it reports what happened. if the server trans-coded a stream audio or video that is what it reports.

 

[rbjtech 4330]

13 hours ago, TeamB said:

yep, and as i said it is all over the place when it comes to interpretations of the terms.

in the support link above it is stated even if audio is trans-coded that is still directstream, remember when someone mentioned there has been lots of heated debate about this in the past, well i get the feeling there is about to be some more

the playback reporting plugin reports what the server did to the data when the media item was played back, it does not try to interpret this in any way, it reports what happened. if the server trans-coded a stream audio or video that is what it reports.

 

For reference, one of the reasons to keep it saying 'DirectPlay over DirectStream' is actually not technical at all - it's to match the (incorrect) status of what 'Plex' are reporting.     

Anyway - it's probably a can of worms we do not want to open further on this topic .. 

[HawkXP71 99]

On 4/18/2023 at 4:02 AM, rbjtech said:

For reference, one of the reasons to keep it saying 'DirectPlay over DirectStream' is actually not technical at all - it's to match the (incorrect) status of what 'Plex' are reporting.     

Anyway - it's probably a can of worms we do not want to open further on this topic .. 

Its not a bug.. its a feature