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Auto-quality does not work well, can I force quality settings on users


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Posted

I keep seeing instances where someone causes a transcode due to quality settings, but the user has no issue if they manually set quality to maximum supported.
This happens to me testing even within a Gigabit LAN network. I'm not sure how the test is conducted, but it very often results in less quality than the client can actually handle.

I now have users logging in to different devices, getting set to a lower quality quite often. Is there a way I can remotely change the quality selection for these users, or at least per device? I know there are ways to change User settings, but typically those quality options are under 'Playback' which I understand to be per-device.

Is there anything I can do other than keep telling them to set this to max every time?

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, podonnell said:

I keep seeing instances where someone causes a transcode due to quality settings, but the user has no issue if they manually set quality to maximum supported.
This happens to me testing even within a Gigabit LAN network. I'm not sure how the test is conducted, but it very often results in less quality than the client can actually handle.

I now have users logging in to different devices, getting set to a lower quality quite often. Is there a way I can remotely change the quality selection for these users, or at least per device? I know there are ways to change User settings, but typically those quality options are under 'Playback' which I understand to be per-device.

Is there anything I can do other than keep telling them to set this to max every time?

No. Auto is auto in name only and is basically just 4-7mpbs depending on device and needs to be change by the user on every device used.

It's a topic that has been discussed a lot lately, for now the Emby teams fix has been to raise the "auto" to 12mpbs and lower it to 1mpbs for cellular in the latest beta.

Edit:
Forgot to add that to lessen the times you have to explain it to people you can instead make a library called fx. "1nfo" (1 instead of I so it gets in front) and put a picture in there made in paint that explains the situation and then more pictures that show how to raise the quality.
It has helped a little for me, the elderly and less tech savvy part of my family still ignore it though.
 

Edited by yocker
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  • 1 month later...
podonnell
Posted

This is troubling me again. Users switch over to a new device and 'auto' is set on again, causing a needless transcode.

I don't love having to reach out every time to remind them, is there truly no way to programatically set this value for them based on the device? If they were to change the setting from Auto to another value, surely that would be stored somewhere in the database? Or is this all client side?

yocker
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, podonnell said:

This is troubling me again. Users switch over to a new device and 'auto' is set on again, causing a needless transcode.

I don't love having to reach out every time to remind them, is there truly no way to programatically set this value for them based on the device? If they were to change the setting from Auto to another value, surely that would be stored somewhere in the database? Or is this all client side?

You can set LAN networks to "0.0.0.0/1" or change "0.0.0.0" to the IP of the user if they never change IP.
This is will effectively make all connections or the connection specified to be seen as local and given the highest quality by default.

Just note that changing to "0.0.0.0/1" makes it so admin account will be accessible from the internet, this may or may not be a problem for you depending on if you have that disabled anyway or how much you trust your admin password and/or Emby.

Edited by yocker
podonnell
Posted
10 minutes ago, yocker said:

You can set LAN networks to "0.0.0.0/1" or change "0.0.0.0" to the IP of the user if they never change IP.
This is will effectively make all connections or the connection specified to be seen as local and given the highest quality by default.

Just note that changing to "0.0.0.0/1" makes it so admin account will be accessible from the internet, this may or may not be a problem for you depending on if you have that disabled anyway or how much you trust your admin password and/or Emby.

Interesting... Is that this section?
image.thumb.png.3a5153767861568b8d2d62b1b6488321.png

Specifically, if I have a user that has a static IP, I can enter this here, and it will consider future connections as LAN and 'auto' is a higher amount by default?

yocker
Posted (edited)

Yes, that where you add the IP's you want to be recognized as local.

Edit: I made a mistake.

If you know their IP and are going to use that it will most like be "IP/24" and not /1.
So:
0.0.0.0/1 if you want all IP's to be known as local.
IP/24 if you want a single IP to be known as local.

The /number is a subnet mask, you can learn more about it here https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html

Edited by yocker
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podonnell
Posted
2 hours ago, yocker said:

Yes, that where you add the IP's you want to be recognized as local.

Edit: I made a mistake.

If you know their IP and are going to use that it will most like be "IP/24" and not /1.
So:
0.0.0.0/1 if you want all IP's to be known as local.
IP/24 if you want a single IP to be known as local.

The /number is a subnet mask, you can learn more about it here https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html

Awesome, thank you. I am familiar with subnetting but I never ever get it right. :D

Very helpful.

Posted
Quote

0.0.0.0/1 if you want all IP's to be known as local.

Keep in mind that every single feature in the server that varies it's behavior based on whether a connection is remote or local will be impacted by this, so it will likely lead to unwanted side effects.

Happy2Play
Posted
2 hours ago, podonnell said:

it will consider future connections as LAN and 'auto' is a higher amount by default?

Basically, yes it will play the media as is as nothing is considered REMOTE and if you get stuttering and freezing it is due to ISP and or bandwidth issues.  As that will/should be the first thing anyone here will say for troubleshooting is reset your Network configs.  

 

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podonnell
Posted
1 minute ago, Luke said:

Keep in mind that every single feature in the server that varies it's behavior based on whether a connection is remote or local will be impacted by this, so it will likely lead to unwanted side effects.

Good to know. Things like cached images or such? I figure the most intensive thing would be video playback. What else should I be aware of?

Happy2Play
Posted (edited)

But you are opening an entire subnet using CIDRs not just one IP address.

So, for example if I have 192.168.0.2 as an address and put 192.168.0.0/24 in the LAN field I have opened it up to 254 addresses that will be considered LOCAL.  Or even more depending on the value you use as you can make the entire countries IP addresses be considered local.

And the other issue is every network/IP not listed within the LAN field will be considered REMOTE. 

So my example all the rest of the 192.168.1-254.x will be REMOTE along with all other networks.

Edited by Happy2Play
yocker
Posted (edited)

Hmm yeah don't know why i wanted to add subnet to the "personal" IP. I know better than that.

0.0.0.0/1 to consider all local.
Simple IP like x.x.x.x to consider that IP local..

Edited by yocker
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Happy2Play
Posted

Yes you just have to remember 

Comma separated list of IP addresses or IP/netmask entries for networks that will be considered on local network when enforcing bandwidth restrictions. If set, all other IP addresses will be considered to be on the external network and will be subject to the external bandwidth restrictions. If left blank, only the server's subnet and common private IP subnets (10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/24, etc.) are considered to be on the local network.

So you could potentially make stuff on your network Remote if you have multiple networks in your Home.  Like my Hyper V machine fall under a different network than my Emby server it 172 and 192.

Happy2Play
Posted (edited)

Or another example say my parents WAN address is Local per entry in LAN setting will by default make my LAN REMOTE unless you add your LAN subnet also ie 192.168.x.0/24 assuming your LAN is 192.  As populating that field removes default common subnets.

Edited by Happy2Play
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podonnell
Posted

So to clarify on that, if I put any value there, I would also need to include any actual LAN networks, otherwise those will be considered remote?

I would at most be using a few static IPs of known hosts.

Posted

Yes it's best to leave it at the blank default unless you have some kind of odd network setup that requires it. Otherwise once you configure it, you're going to have to manage it manually going forward, and when you forget to do that, it may cause you think the software isn't working properly.

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