Jump to content

Feature to Force DirectPlay Only Without Any Detection and Disable All Transcoding


gordan
Go to solution Solved by gordan,

Recommended Posts

misguided belief that capability detection can be made to be always perfect

 

I don't think anyone believes that.  Luke and I certainly don't.  We just want to be sure we make it as good as it can possibly be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PrincessClevage

Right, but since I already know my machine is incapable of transcoding, my only hope of getting Emby to serve up my files is via direct streaming since that's the only thing my machine can handle. To me at least, this is the disconnect in this whole thread: if I already know this up front, I want to be able to tell Emby that in a setting so it doesn't even bother to try and simply pumps out a stream and we all hope for the best.

 

In a practical sense, when Emby transcodes, my entire machine freezes because the CPU is jammed at 100% and I lose access to everything on it because Emby is sucking up all the cycles and I can't break into to stop, especially if I'm accessing Emby from a remote location - I can't even break in with Teamviewer to kill the ffmpeg process because there's no CPU left.

 

One of the advantages of Emby is that it can run on an ancient machine because its system requirements are so minimal. When transcoding gets into the mix, that's no longer true, and I think it's the reason this issue keeps coming up.

Disable transcoding at the emby server layer per user.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Disable transcoding at the emby server layer per user.

 

Yea until we actually go through all the apps one by one to add a direct play option, doing this is an easy way to accomplish the same thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, you can disable transcoding, but you cannot disable auto-detection. With auto-detection still enabled, if it erroneously thinks the target device can't handle it, it will refuse to send anything instead of direct playing. So no, it doesn't achieve anything like the same thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, you can disable transcoding, but you cannot disable auto-detection. With auto-detection still enabled, if it erroneously thinks the target device can't handle it, it will refuse to send anything instead of direct playing. So no, it doesn't achieve anything like the same thing.

 

That is no longer true. In that situation now it will attempt to play on the device regardless of whether the app thinks it will work or not.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
PlayNice

I would also live the option for direct play for movies and live tv m3u list as i have a plex server with these features and they are ysed all the the time to have this option that works correctly would be amazing i will will transfer my 6 plex servers over and get my 7000 facebook media share group to do the same until this option is availbe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would also live the option for direct play for movies and live tv m3u list as i have a plex server with these features and they are ysed all the the time to have this option that works correctly would be amazing i will will transfer my 6 plex servers over and get my 7000 facebook media share group to do the same until this option is availbe

 

Hi, welcome. Please see posts #152 and #153. Thanks !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
alm7878

The per user configuration at the server level is one approach, but what about a way to configure this per device?  The Devices page already allows us to change the display name, so perhaps other configuration options could be added here.  In addition to forcing direct play (disable auto-detect, disable transcoding, etc.), it would also be advantageous to be able to force transcoding.  That way I could get around the interlacing artifacts on my Amazon Fire TVs without setting the bitrate low enough to force transcoding.  Of course, the YMMV and “supported systems only” disclaimers like is already in place for hardware acceleration could be provided.

 

Just a thought...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The per user configuration at the server level is one approach, but what about a way to configure this per device?  The Devices page already allows us to change the display name, so perhaps other configuration options could be added here.  In addition to forcing direct play (disable auto-detect, disable transcoding, etc.), it would also be advantageous to be able to force transcoding.  That way I could get around the interlacing artifacts on my Amazon Fire TVs without setting the bitrate low enough to force transcoding.  Of course, the YMMV and “supported systems only” disclaimers like is already in place for hardware acceleration could be provided.

 

Just a thought...

 

Yes it makes sense, we just haven't gotten there yet. But in the meantime, if you want to prevent transcoding, you can at least do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

This has been an interesting thread to follow.

 

My current setup is a synology DS1817+ for all media storage, apart from tv recordings which are handled by my mediaportal server, with a HTPC running mediaportal client for each TV. My networking is wired gigabit throughout. I've also been trying out an NVidia Shield TV in my home cinema room, which has been working great with Kodi (or SPMC, as Kodi locks up too much for me).

 

I recently got a HDHomeRun in the black friday sales, to try out as a possible way to get rid of the need to run a windows machine for media portal server 24/7

 

But, I like/need the all-in-one UI that emby/plex offers if it's going to be accepted as a replacement for mediaportal by my "user base" (ie - my family!)

 

So, I've been trying out emby and plex to see how they fare

 

I found the transcoding checkboxes in the user settings and have turned them all off. The "stats for geeks" tells me it's using DirectPlay in the emby windows 10 theatre app, I'll try it later on from my shield tv. But it seems okay so far.

 

I also have an amazon firestick with an ethernet adaptor, so will give that a go too. Putting a shield TV on every TV seems a bit excessive, when I only need video streaming capability, so I've been looking for a cheaper alternative to the shield TV

 

My suggestion for enabling/disabling transcoding would be to do it at device level, as I know I will never need it from my shield TV, but it could be any user logged in to that in order to get their watched status'/etc. A possible workaround could be to create a user per device and forego the watched status/progress that I'd get with having users for people.

 

Anyway, for now, Emby is certainly beating Plex IMO as a viable alternative for my current mediaportal client/server setup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've just tried out live tv and a movie on the fire tv stick. The live TV (ITV HD) needed remuxing, which used next to no CPU on my NAS. The movie played direct. So, more than happy with that.

 

Also, the live TV interface is quite nice. If I could get a MediaPortal "skin" so it looks exactly the same as my current system, I think I'd get a thumbs up from my users!

 

 

Next "job" is to watch something in the cinema room  :D

 

Edit: direct stream worked great on the shield tv, no dropped frames

Edited by sixgun
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Dizzy49

This has been an interesting thread to follow.

 

I found the transcoding checkboxes in the user settings and have turned them all off. The "stats for geeks" tells me it's using DirectPlay in the emby windows 10 theatre app, I'll try it later on from my shield tv. But it seems okay so far.

 

I also have an amazon firestick with an ethernet adaptor, so will give that a go too. Putting a shield TV on every TV seems a bit excessive, when I only need video streaming capability, so I've been looking for a cheaper alternative to the shield TV

 

My suggestion for enabling/disabling transcoding would be to do it at device level, as I know I will never need it from my shield TV, but it could be any user logged in to that in order to get their watched status'/etc. A possible workaround could be to create a user per device and forego the watched status/progress that I'd get with having users for people.

 

Anyway, for now, Emby is certainly beating Plex IMO as a viable alternative for my current mediaportal client/server setup.

 

I have now replaced all 3 of my dedicated HTPCs.  I tried Fire Sticks, Fire "Pendant" and the Fire Cube.  The Fire Stick had some issues with some 2160p content via WiFi, but when I added an Ethernet adapter it was great.  So far the only issue I have had was with a 90GB 4K file.  It SHOULD have transcoded it, but I didn't for some reason.  It just chokes and dies.

The Pendant is great, no issues with adapter.

I'm disappointed with the cube a bit.  It is essentially the pendant with an Alexa speaker.  The Ethernet is not actually built in, it uses an adapter like I use on the stick and pendant!  I do really like the ability to control everything with the one remote though!

 

Overall, my opinion is that you just shouldn't stream 2160p/4k content via WiFi, and the fact that all the Fire devices are WiFi first annoys the living crap out of me.  That is poor design, and not having the ethernet adapter in the cube is lazy design.  They are encouraging compression when it doesn't need to be.

 

Anyway, the fire devices are great devices and work awesome with Emby.  I have some minor issues with HDHomeRun locking up in Emby so I just use it to record and watch live TV via the HDHomeRun app directly :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thelanranger

Our hesitation here is definitely not the time it would take to implement a bypass.  It is the usability for the majority of users.  I understand that you guys are not in that majority and, being so, you have come up with a workaround that accomplishes exactly what you need right now.  Well done :).

You're doing the opposite though. For starters, you have no idea how many people would benefit from the ability to force DirectPlay, you're only presuming that the "majority of users who are too ignorant to know what it is" would not see a performance benefit when enabled. You're also assuming that there is, in fact, a majority. 

 

While I understand that you're viewing this as a "feature that you have to support" rather than "a necessary option in certain situations", the more options that you can provide the user, the better your system will be. If you deem an option to be 'Advanced', hide it in an 'Advanced' section. If you deem it ultra-advanced, put it in an .ini file or registry key. But if you can implement something in less time that it takes to talk about it on the forums just do it. This kind of dev response is why people are leaving Plex to move to emby in the first place; lack of features they desire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedback. We are listening, and we do have these kinds of settings in server-side user permissions, where the admin can manage them. Have you checked those out?

 

Ini files are difficult for things store apps where there is no such thing, so that often leaves us with difficult choices of whether to put it in the interface or not. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...