Best practice for no Transcoding?

[chrisputer 0]

I'm having a small issue with trying to manage my cloud costs with emby. I have a few users (family) that have really bad internet (WISP Internet) and cannot really get more than 5mbps on a good day. Most of my 1080p content is @15mbps. So, the server is having to transcode down to the bandwidth but the problem is that I'm only runny a dual-core cloud server (Google if you have to ask). It can handle a single stream but not much beyond that. And then completely bogs down if it has to do anything else. I'm contemplating upgrading the thing to a 100+ core monster and creating an LQ version of my library. Has anyone done this or can anyone give me some advice on how to solve this?

I don't want to switch from GoogleCloud for reasons to due to latency any my storage.
GC's peering is also phenomenal. 

[vdatanet 1549]

Multi-version movies may be your solution. It works for me. The version that can be played without transcoding is automatically selected. My father can't direct play 4K content because he has not enough internet bandwich, 1080p version is played automaticall in his case.

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Movie-naming#multi-version-movies

 

I rip myself both versions and I upload them to the server, but you can't use Emby's Convert feature.

Edited September 28, 2019 by vdatanet

[Q-Droid 630]

As mentioned above you can create lower quality versions in place using the Emby Convert feature. The built-in mobile profile will play on just about any device without transcoding and the convert allows custom bitrates. The LQ version can be kept in the same folder as the HQ versions. If you don't want to alter your CPU config you could run conversions at off-hours.

 

You can even define a library level conversion job that runs as new media is added but be careful because the current version of Emby has a bug that goes into an infinite conversion loop when the media has multiple sound tracks. For now it's best to use the individual option.

[rbjtech 4218]

As the suggestions above, all you can really do is to reduce both resolution and bitrate to suit and let multi-version do its thing - if 5 Mbit/sec is the max then I'd suggest 3 Mbit for h264 video and aac stereo audio.  I used to convert my media to 720p 3Mbit h264/aac and for the average viewer they couldn't tell the difference, but now internet d/l and u/l speeds are ever increasing, I no longer have need to do this (with 1080p anyway).

[adamstewiegreen 147]

On top of all the other advise I'll add one more thing, if any of the movies need subtitles make sure they're either burned in or available as .srt files, because otherwise the video is going to be transcoded.

[ebr 14897]

On top of all the other advise I'll add one more thing, if any of the movies need subtitles make sure they're either burned in or available as .srt files, because otherwise the video is going to be transcoded.

 

While that is good advice it is not entirely true that all non-text subs will require transcoding.  This will depend on a lot of factors and the platform being used.  Some of them will be able to handle graphic formats like PGS fine.  However, obtaining srt subs is still a good practice just to cover everything.

[Happy2Play 8215]

While that is good advice it is not entirely true that all non-text subs will require transcoding.  This will depend on a lot of factors and the platform being used.  Some of them will be able to handle graphic formats like PGS fine.  However, obtaining srt subs is still a good practice just to cover everything.

 

Isn't Theater the only app/client that doesn't need to transcode graphical subtitles?

[ebr 14897]

Isn't Theater the only app/client that doesn't need to transcode graphical subtitles?

 

No, the Shield can display PGS subs as well - as long as everything else about the item will allow direct play.  Also EMC and Kodi.