Transcode with LG TV App

[James Weber 1]

I have noticed recently that the LG TV App Version 1.0.19 seems to be transcoding most all videos when a remote user starts playback. Looking through the ffmpeg logs and server logs it seems the reason is due to ContainerBitrateExceedsLimit due to the client player setting MaxStreamingBitrate=1500000. I checked with the remote user and the LG TV App is set to Auto on two different TV's. The same user also has a Fire TV at the same location and that seems to only transcode when needed for Audio or Container etc and I do not see a reference to MaxStreamingBitrate issues.

 

My server connection is 500/500 Fiber and their connection is 300/10 Cable. I tested with an LG TV locally but it sees the internal network and direct streams without issue. Maybe due to never crossing the firewall. 

 

I saw a few other posts about transcoding and it seems when the client cannot determine the speed it falls back to 1.5Mpbs (This was from the web client I think). Has there been a change in the LG TV app recently that changed to the Google API's for speed checking? 

 

I am not sure how the app is checking speed so not sure how to debug yet. I have an enterprise firewall that could be blocking ping depending on how the Emby app is using it. 

 

I called the Remote user and had them set the streaming rate to 10+ Mbps and they started direct streaming. 

 

 

Anyway just need to know if there is something I need to change on my side for the speed test to succeed or if it is an app issue.

 

 

The transcoding is really making the rack server fans spin up

[Luke 37010]

Hi, auto will generally be conservative. You can always customize the quality setting in the LG app.

[James Weber 1]

@@Luke

 

But 1.5Mbps seems very low on both of these connections with plenty of bandwidth when a Fire TV running the Emby app will not transcode from the same location. Telling users to change a setting so my server does not transcode is not a great option and turning their transcoding off is also not great. 

 

I get that it is conservative but setting it to 1.5Mbps every time seems like a fallback not a successful speed check, also does not explain why the Fire TV with Emby app will direct stream from the same house when set to Auto  

[Luke 37010]

 

 

does not explain why the Fire TV with Emby app will direct stream from the same house when set to Auto  

When you're inside the local network, we start high so that you can direct play as much as possible.

 

In the LG app, there's no LG api to give us bandwidth information.

 

It's something we'll continue to look at improving. Thanks for the feedback.

[James Weber 1]

@@Luke

 

Both devices are remote at the same house. Two are LG TV's that always set maxbitrate at 1.5Mbps when Auto and a Fire TV that is not doing this. All using the same connection remotely to my server. None of these are local connections.

 

There is something wrong with the LG TV App that is always setting Auto at 1.5Mbps regardless of actual bandwidth. As mentioned my upload is 500+Mbps and their download is 250-300Mbps. No other streams and speed was checked minutes before trying to stream from the LG TV app.

[Luke 37010]

Thanks for the info. We are continuing to work on improving it.