All Mobile Devices - Emby app should detect screen resolutions for proper playback

[Richard Branches 231]

Many people like me use Emby with low powered phones/tablets or with low screen resolutions so the app should work as the Youtube app, where the available qualities depend on the resolution of the screen.

 

Emby currently shows 4K - 120 Mbps as the max quality in settings:

 

 

Since my phone screen is limited to 480p then this is what my phone should display in quality settings, nothing beyond:

 

 

This is what Youtube app detects and shows on my phone while playing a video, and this is what Emby on all mobile apps should display, auto and manual qualities the device support depending on screen resolution:

 

 

This must apply to local playback and internet playback. on local playback, "Auto" should detect the screen resolution of the phone and work within that range while on internet playback, "Auto" must take into account first the limitation of the upload speed we set on playback -> streaming, then the resolution of the screen and work within that range.

 

The question is: Will all my content be transcoded? the answer is: it depends on the screen resolution of the device and the video resolution, the higher the screen resolution, the less transcoding is needed, the idea is to provide a smooth playback for devices with low screen resolutions.

[Luke 37066]

Hi yes this makes sense on the surface, but it's not quite as simple as you might think. For instance, you might have a smartphone with only 720p resolution, but it can direct play up to 1080p via client-side downscaling.

[ebr 14913]

Yeah, most people will not want to tax their servers with a process their client device can easily handle (downscaling to proper resolution).

[Richard Branches 231]

Downscaling should be the solution, but in reality it doesn't work for every device out there, especially for low powered phones, like mine, by the way, Emby app is so heavy, it freezes frequently and playing music is a pain...

Edited March 12, 2018 by delacosta78

[ebr 14913]

Downscaling should be the solution, but in reality it doesn't work for every device out there...

 

But it does for most of them and, for those that don't, there is an easy fix by simply selecting the rate you want.  That gives us the most flexibility.

[Richard Branches 231]

But it does for most of them and, for those that don't, there is an easy fix by simply selecting the rate you want.  That gives us the most flexibility.

 

That's what I had to do, reduce the quality.... by the way, I had an LG G3 phone that broke and I had to reduce the quality for some 1080p videos because playback wasn't smooth, I even had to reduce the quality to match the screen on my computer to have a smooth playback... go figure, that's why the app should work as Youtube.

Edited March 12, 2018 by delacosta78

[Richard Branches 231]

Hi yes this makes sense on the surface, but it's not quite as simple as you might think. For instance, you might have a smartphone with only 720p resolution, but it can direct play up to 1080p via client-side downscaling.

 

I understand, if implementing this is not an option then saving a bitrate per video independently may help with those that won't play smooth while keeping the auto setting as default.

[Richard Branches 231]

Downscaling works as long as the video bitrate is not higher than the device support, otherwise we have to bring it down by selecting one by one until we notice playback is smooth, that's the point, bitrate matching, Emby app should detect it, I guess that's hard to implement right?

[Luke 37066]

There's no api for us to determine the device supported bitrate, so that's why we just limit on network bitrate.