Auto quality always low bitrates

[Luke 36999]

Is 6 mbps really that low for a remote connection? Is this chrome on android?

[bfir3 113]

I also have experienced the same thing as OP, being set to 1.5mbps on Auto quality on my local network and also remote clients connecting in (for multiple users local and remote). I changed the quality manually to 10mbps, and it works fine, but I would like to be able to rely on the auto playback as well. I wonder why multiple users are affected by this around the same time. Did anything change with regard to how auto quality works or any other connection/network related changes that could affect this?

[Luke 36999]

There were recent changes to the android and iOS apps to use device api's for this so you should start to see some higher values on Auto now.

[bfir3 113]

Don't think that was the issue for me. For me, I always play media through the browser in the normal web client. Most of the time I'm local to the server, sometimes I watch remotely. Never had any issues with auto being set to 1.5mbps before 4.2 but now if I leave it on auto it always sets to 1.5mpbs.

 

I just verified as I was writing this post. Loaded an episode, checked the settings, saw it on 720 - 10mbps which was manually selected by me previously when watching something. I changed this setting to Auto, and the player reloads the video and shows 1.5. This is definitely not the intended functionality, but maybe we are overlooking something here. Maybe this will be helpful:

 

 

Quality set to Auto. Player loads video at 1.5mbps. This is on a client on the same local network as the server.

 

 

Quality set to 10mbps manually, player loads video with DirectPlay.

 

So I'm not sure what's going on, but I think it's worth figuring out. Here are my settings for clarity:

 

 

[bfir3 113]

And a bit more detective work leads me to here:

 

 

Looks like it's just a hardcoded value that's being returned for some reason or another. Personally, I wouldn't want the web app to decide on the max bitrate being 1.5mbps if it can't figure it out properly. In the case where it doesn't know an appropriate max bitrate, I think it makes more sense to leave the max bitrate unset and play at highest quality. The user can make changes as necessary. For now I can edit the value of 1500000 to 140000000.

 

edit: Changed the value in the apiclient.js and tried playing some videos with Auto quality...it works!

 

 

Huzzah! Hope this one gets fixed soon.

Edited August 16, 2019 by bfir3

[samuelqwe 313]

Looks like it's just a hardcoded value that's being returned for some reason or another. Personally, I wouldn't want the web app to decide on the max bitrate being 1.5mbps if it can't figure it out properly. In the case where it doesn't know an appropriate max bitrate, I think it makes more sense to leave the max bitrate unset and play at highest quality. The user can make changes as necessary. For now I can edit the value of 1500000 to 140000000.

Honestly, it depends on the context. On local network, sure, defaulting to max bitrate would probably be fine. However, when watching a video remotely, a default bitrate of 1.5mbps makes sense. If you can’t figure out the internet speed, then having a lower default to make sure the video will most likely playback remotely is a logical choice.

[bfir3 113]

Honestly, it depends on the context. On local network, sure, defaulting to max bitrate would probably be fine. However, when watching a video remotely, a default bitrate of 1.5mbps makes sense. If you can’t figure out the internet speed, then having a lower default to make sure the video will most likely playback remotely is a logical choice.

 

I suppose that's true. 1.5mbps seems a bit too low for my tastes though. Most videos won't look very good unless they are being played on a small screen with a low resolution. Maybe 5mbps would be more suitable for 2019.

[samuelqwe 313]

I suppose that's true. 1.5mbps seems a bit too low for my tastes though. Most videos won't look very good unless they are being played on a small screen with a low resolution. Maybe 5mbps would be more suitable for 2019.

Something a bit higher would probably work too. 3-5 mbps would probably be a bit better. Most internet connections nowadays could probably accommodate that for most people.

[bfir3 113]

Another thing I just noticed, if you look in the screenshot that shows Auto quality with 1.5mbps, it says 720p - 1.5Mbps, but the transcoded video resolution shows 720x360. This might be another issue to look at.

[cptlores 23]

Is 6 mbps really that low for a remote connection? Is this chrome on android?

 

No it is a win10 machine. But regardless should not auto try to direct stream as much as possible within the bandwidth limits set?

[Luke 36999]

Yes. We're using a chrome api to get your estimated bandwidth and that's what it's giving us.

[cptlores 23]

Well, it's clearly not estimating correctly. The server is on 500/500 and the external windows 10 web client used for the test was on 200/200, both fiber. Manually overriding I had no problem direct streaming the 35Mbit source.

But regardless of this high bitrate test. The main problem is that I now see a lot of 1.5-2Mbit transcoded streams on 4-6Mbit source files that should be direct streamed in auto, since that would be much better both for the client and for my server.

[Luke 36999]

Thanks for the info.

[loeffelpan 12]

Yes. We're using a chrome api to get your estimated bandwidth and that's what it's giving us.

When you use Chrome API to detect the bandwith, could this ever work in Firefox or Safari?

 

For me it’s working in Win10 Firefox as I described in opening post. And mi issue with iOS is maybe related to any limitations in iOS to get network information. Therefore it falls back to 1,5Mbps as default.

 

Please improve this in further version to work on iOS, too. And maybe increase the fallback to 3 Mbps.

Edited September 10, 2019 by loeffelpan

[morbificagent 0]

And a bit more detective work leads me to here:

 

 

Looks like it's just a hardcoded value that's being returned for some reason or another. Personally, I wouldn't want the web app to decide on the max bitrate being 1.5mbps if it can't figure it out properly. In the case where it doesn't know an appropriate max bitrate, I think it makes more sense to leave the max bitrate unset and play at highest quality. The user can make changes as necessary. For now I can edit the value of 1500000 to 140000000.

 

edit: Changed the value in the apiclient.js and tried playing some videos with Auto quality...it works!

 

 

Huzzah! Hope this one gets fixed soon.

 

Hi there,

 

instead of changing the file itself i suggest changing the settings in the gui.

Looking at the file shows that it first looks if endpoint "IsInNetwork". The returned value than is 14e7 in my case what should be enough ;-)

 

So changing the value "Hosting -> Local Networks" to 0.0.0.0/0 will make that EVERY client is recognized as "local / inNetwork" and so it will allays select the max Bitrate/Direct Play (if possible).

 

Yes i know, so it will never really "test" the speed and will be forced to max Bitrate of the file, but i think this could be the better solution to most users as if we change the file itself it could be overwritten with the next update so you always have to track it.