Channels Transcoding

[millgeek 2]

I just recently started playing with the channels. I have been using XBMC for years, but as I have been moving to XBMB3C, I thought that I would experiment with using MB3's TWIT and Revision 3 channels instead of the XBMC/Kodi add-ons. As I experimented, I noticed that the video playback was listed in XBMB3C as transcoding. Quick check of my server confirmed it. Thinking it might be an XBMB3C thing, I switched over to MB Theater and discovered the same thing: all channels video is being transcoded.

 

I can't speak to the video in all of the channels, but I know that the Revision 3 feeds are all mp4, so how why would it need to be transcoded for XBMB3C? Is there a way to force direct play for channels, or do I need to make a profile for XBMC, or is transcoding just the way it has to be? 

 

Thanks for any help or feedback anyone can offer.

 

 

[Beardyname 197]

Due to the fact that the server handles the downloading of the said channel and then pushing it to the client, unless the item is downloaded first I'm not sure you can change this. Does it also happens for content downloaded if you enable the "Enable channel content downloading for:" in plugins --> channels ?

[millgeek 2]

Good question. I setup the Revision 3 Channel to download and unfortunately, even after downloading, the server is still transcoding. What would be the best way to verify that server is actually sending the downloaded video and not pulling the stream still to verify what is being transcoded?

[Luke 40066]

That's getting off topic. in order to avoid transcoding, two criteria have to be met. the client has to be able to natively play the media, and the channel plugin has to provide enough media info for MBS to determine that. Most of the channels are only providing the url, hence the transcoding because it's the only way to ensure it will be playable.

[millgeek 2]

I'm not sure how that is getting off-topic. I wanted to avoid transcoding the video coming from the channels. Beardyname quite wisely pointed out the problem that you expanded upon and should have been obvious to me: the channel plugin only has the URL and so the server is transcoding the video that it is sending off to the XBMB3C client. However, if part of the point of the download capabilities built into select channel plugins is to relieve the need of the server to transcode the stream while providing the central server tracking, then the downloaded video should not be getting transcoded either. After all, you can download that MP4 video from Revision 3 any way you want, XBMC/Kodi is not going to have any issue with direct play if the server and/or the channel plugin is properly pointing at the downloaded video, and I am wasting resources because I will be downloading everything twice, once with scheduled channel content download and then again as a stream while unnecessarily burdening the server with transcoding. Hence, what would be the best way to verify that the server is actually sending the downloaded video and not pulling the stream still to verify what is being transcoded?