Switch off transcoding?

[berndbausch 0]

Bear with me, I am a total newbie as far as Emby is concerned.

 

I installed Emby on an Odroid C+, which I normally use as a general backup/DNS/DHCP server in my home network. The goal is a library of home videos to which the family has access at all times.

 

First, I have to say that it blows me away that it just works out of the box. But I would like to not transcode videos

 

So far I have done tests with an MP4 file I created with ffmpeg without any options: ffmpeg -i myvideo.avi myvideo.mp4. I viewed the file from a Firefox browser, on a Windows 10 PC and on an Android phone. I expected no transcoding, but I see ffmpeg using up 75% of the CPU. An MTS file (footage directly from the camera) causes a similar load. I have not been able to try my old DV avi files yet.

 

So my initial tests show that it works, but I wonder:

 

Is it possible to configure Emby not to transcode at all?

Is it possible to configure an external viewer such as VLC? [EDIT: Yes it looks like it can be done depending on the viewing app, but I have not found if and how it's possible with the default browser app]

 

In other words, is it possible to move the decoding load to the client side?

Edited May 24, 2020 by berndbausch

[Luke 39654]

 

 

Is it possible to configure Emby not to transcode at all?

Hi, there's nothing you need to do. Emby will already direct play whenever possible.

 

Regarding this example, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

[berndbausch 0]

Thanks, Luke. I can see media info, but no stats. Also, my thinking is that VLC, for example, can decode anything, so that Emby can just stream the raw file.

 

This is what I see under "media info":

 

Video

 

Title 480p H264

Codec H264

Codec Tagavc1

AVC Yes

ProfileHigh 4:2:2

Level 30

Resolution 720x480

Aspect Ratio4:3

Anamorphic Yes

Interlaced No

Framerate 29.97

Bitrate 1,679 kbps

Bit Depth 8 bit

Pixel Format yuv422p

Reference Frames1

NAL4

 

Audio

 

Title Und AAC stereo (Default)

Language und

Codec AAC

Codec Tagmp4a

ProfileLC

Layout stereo

Channels 2 ch

Bitrate 119 kbps

Sample Rate 32,000 Hz

Default Yes

Containermp4

Path /home/bbausch/Videos/turmbauer.mp4

Size 33MB

Edited May 24, 2020 by berndbausch

[Spaceboy 2565]

Thanks, Luke. I can see media info, but no stats. Also, my thinking is that VLC, for example, can decode anything, so that Emby can just stream the raw file.

 

This is what I see under "media info":

 

 

 

 

 

Video

 

Title 480p H264

Codec H264

Codec Tagavc1

AVC Yes

ProfileHigh 4:2:2

Level 30

Resolution 720x480

Aspect Ratio4:3

Anamorphic Yes

Interlaced No

Framerate 29.97

Bitrate 1,679 kbps

Bit Depth 8 bit

Pixel Format yuv422p

Reference Frames1

NAL4

 

 

Audio

 

Title Und AAC stereo (Default)

Language und

Codec AAC

Codec Tagmp4a

ProfileLC

Layout stereo

Channels 2 ch

Bitrate 119 kbps

Sample Rate 32,000 Hz

Default Yes

Containermp4

Path /home/bbausch/Videos/turmbauer.mp4

Size 33MB

check the stats for nerds feature accessible via the cog in the osd during playback

[Luke 39654]

Yes please do that. It will tell you the transcoding reason.

[berndbausch 0]

Thanks for inviting me to the nerd circle, Luke and Spaceboy I get "video profile not supported" (full stats below) and guess that the web-based player is unable to deal with H264 High 4:2:2 and/or AAC LC. I can research what ffmpeg options are required to generate a supported video.

 

Still it would be nice if I could use Emby as a video library that just streams the raw bits to an external player. It seems that some Emby client apps like Emby Theater allow this, but I had hoped that it can be done with the default web interface.

 

In case you are interested, here are the detailed "stats for nerds":

 

Playback Info

Player: Web Video Player

Play method: Transcode

Protocol: http

Stream type: HLS

 

Video Info

Video resolution: 720x540

Dropped frames: 0

Corrupted frames: 0

 

Transcoding Info

Video codec: H264

Audio codec: AAC (direct)

Bitrate:2.4 Mbps

Transcoding progress: 49.8%

Transcoding framerate: 32 fps

Reason for transcoding: Video profile not supported

 

Original Media Info

Container: mp4

Bitrate: 1.8 Mbps

Video codec: H264 High 4:2:2

Video bitrate:1.7 Mbps

Video framerate: 29.97003 fps

Audio codec: AAC LC

Audio bitrate: 119 kbps

Audio channels: 2

Audio sample rate: 32000 Hz

[Luke 39654]

 

 

just streams the raw bits to an external player. It seems that some Emby client apps like Emby Theater allow this, but I had hoped that it can be done with the default web interface.

Web apps are not able to launch external programs on the machine.