hevc not transcoding on older nexus 7

[Rey 0]

Running latest stable server and app.

 

Currently testing emby and I've found that my old Nexus 7 (2012) is streaming hevc without being transcoded to h264 first. This is an issue as playback of hevc is choppy with excessive artifacts making it unwatchable.

 

Searching through server and app settings, I found no clear way to enable or force transcoding of hevc to devices. Custom profiles for DLNA service didn't seem to affect the app streaming.

 

Transcoding indeed does work on high bitrate x264, or if I set the video quality lower than bitrate of hevc files.

 

What am I missing? Did I accidentally enable a direct play settings somewhere?

 

 

 

[Luke 37024]

Hi, it's not transcoding because that's what most people want, but you're right. Most older devices can't handle it so we need to figure out an exception for it. I will review it, thanks.

[Heckler 147]

As Luke said, older devices just can't handle HEVC, it requires a lot more grunt... it's a bit like trying to play HD mpeg files on a pentium 4... it just isn't gonna happen smoothly. 

 

My wileyfox storm phone and the nvidia sheild K1 tablet on the other hand offer flawless playback of HEVC material although I've not tried anything with a massive bitrate (but then the point of HEVC is a much lower bitrate for the same quality you get with x264). Files are on average around the 3-4k range for my HEVC stuff, some TV shows may be a little lower in the 2-3k range... compare that with bitrates in the 10-12k range in x264 and even my phone/tablet will struggle a little and I have to lower the bitrate and allow the server to transcode.

[Rey 0]

Hi, it's not transcoding because that's what most people want, but you're right. Most older devices can't handle it so we need to figure out an exception for it. I will review it, thanks.

 

Thank you for the info, I'll await a solution then likely purchase a premium sub. Is there any chance you will enable more "expert/power user" options in the future? These options could use cli, or gui to add more transcoding granularity to specific devices/users. Even if these options are hidden to keep the UI more streamlined userfriendly I'm sure many would appreciate it, myself included.

 

As Luke said, older devices just can't handle HEVC, it requires a lot more grunt... it's a bit like trying to play HD mpeg files on a pentium 4... it just isn't gonna happen smoothly. 

 

My wileyfox storm phone and the nvidia sheild K1 tablet on the other hand offer flawless playback of HEVC material although I've not tried anything with a massive bitrate (but then the point of HEVC is a much lower bitrate for the same quality you get with x264). Files are on average around the 3-4k range for my HEVC stuff, some TV shows may be a little lower in the 2-3k range... compare that with bitrates in the 10-12k range in x264 and even my phone/tablet will struggle a little and I have to lower the bitrate and allow the server to transcode.

 

I know it requires more power than the device is capable of, it's partly why I decided to check out Emby. Recently I've been updating my media library to HEVC and planned to transcode while streaming to older devices, it's why I was surprised it wasn't transcoding nor could I force it, and instead it was sending for directplay.

[Luke 37024]

Thank you for the info, I'll await a solution then likely purchase a premium sub. Is there any chance you will enable more "expert/power user" options in the future? These options could use cli, or gui to add more transcoding granularity to specific devices/users. Even if these options are hidden to keep the UI more streamlined userfriendly I'm sure many would appreciate it, myself included.

 

 

Potentially. Can you give some examples of what you're looking for? thanks.

[Rey 0]

Potentially. Can you give some examples of what you're looking for? thanks.

 

I'm very new to Emby as such I still haven't had a chance to check out it's full capabilities and feature set. Others would likely be better suited coming up with a list of potential features, but here's what I'd like to do off the top of my head.

 

My intended use case involves settings up several users across an array of devices most connecting remotely, with no more than 2 simultaneous streams. Devices range from old nexus 7 tablets, to newer phones such as the samsung galaxy s7.

 

From server side:

• Force specific users to a certain bitrate regardless of in app setting. Currently there appears to only be a single global bitrate option. This would help in load balancing and ensuring a minimum bandwidth is always available with limited network resources. It would also allow different settings based on local and remote connections.
• Enable transcoding based on video codec not just bitrate similar to how the DLNA profiles can be set. A user, device, or ip specific setting would be preferred but a global setting could used.
• Change encoding quality options based on user. A small tablet or older phone doesn't need a high quality encode, while larger format devices would benefit from a higher quality setting.

Essentially I would like to see playback settings on a per user, device, ip basis configured through the server along with an on/off for transcoding specific codecs regardless of bitrate. 

 

With those options I believe I could work around and get everything running. As stated above, I haven't had time to explore all that Emby has to offer and my feature requests may not be practical or represent others use case.

 

 

Thanks,

Rey

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