Video bitrate limit above 120 Mbps without transcoding - Required to playback DJI Mavic Air 2 4k60 captures

[mlpaschal 0]

Greetings Emby Team and thank you for this amazing software!  I recently sold my Mavic Mini and upgraded to a Mavic Air 2 drone which supports 4k60 video capture at ~120 Mbps.  I'm not hurting for storage on my file server so I always record at 4k60 unless I have a specific reason not to.  I have no issues playing these HEVC encoded h.264 files directly over either my wired (gigbit) or wireless (802.11ac - Unifi HD) network.  Today I decided to add my raw drone footage folder to my Emby server so that once uploaded to my NAS I could view the raw videos on my TV via the Emby app on my Shield TV.  Unfortunately I noticed that the files were always being transcoded no matter what and my current server hardware is not capable of transcoding these files (there isn't much that can) and honestly I don't really want it transcoded anyway.

When viewing the playback stats I've found that the reason for transcoding is "Video Bitrate Over Limit".  As you can see in the attached image the video bitrate of the files from the Mavic Air 2 is ~122 Mbps which is over the maximum 120 Mbps limit.  I realize that bitrates in excess of 120 Mbps is ridiculous over kill and that my use case (raw drone footage) is an extreme edge case however there is really no technical barrier to it working.  I would really like to have the option to raise the maximum transcoding bitrate above 120 Mbps or ideally set it to unlimited.

Thanks! 

[sooty234 266]

The beta Android TV app has had the limit increased to 160Mb/s. But I agree that there should be an unlimited option. Especially on devices that have no limits. This has been argued over, several times. It's absurd that limits are applied!

Edited November 22, 2020 by sooty234

[mlpaschal 0]

Thank you sooty234!!!  I was able to download the Android TV Beta app and enable 160 Mbps playback on my Shield TV and I've confirmed it now uses direct playback.  I'm still having a couple second pause in playback every 30-60 seconds which isn't great but far better than trying to transcode with the IvyBridge cores in my Dell r720xd

I don't think it's my network as everything is hard wired gigabit.  I know it's not the NAS as I'm able to playback over SMB.  Maybe my 2018 Shield can't handle 120 Mpbs+?  Or perhaps my Emby server (Ubuntu VM with 4 Ivy Bridge cores and 16 GB RAM on a Dell r720xd) isn't able to keep up a direct stream at that bitrate?

Maybe it's time to try to find a used GeForce 1060 and pass it through to the Emby VM.  What could go wrong

[sooty234 266]

I believe there is a device limitation. I think around 140Mb/s, but I may be misremembering. 

[mlpaschal 0]

I updated to the Android TV beta on my TCL 4 series Android Smart TV in the bedroom  and experienced pretty much identical playback (pauses every 30ish seconds) to my Shield TV.  I had top running on the Emby server VM and it was less than 30% utilization.  Top on the NAS didn't even hit 1% during playback.  Starting to look like 120 Mbps HEVC is bit more than the devices can handle.

[sooty234 266]

Most streaming devices are not intended for high bitrates. The LAN ports on TVs are only 100Mb/s.

[mlpaschal 0]

The Shield TV is gigabit though.

[sooty234 266]

2 minutes ago, mlpaschal said:

The Shield TV is gigabit though.

Yes, but the device itself can't actual use all of that.

[sooty234 266]

I may be misinformed. Running a bandwidth test on my shield, this was the result.

[sooty234 266]

What server version are you on?

[mlpaschal 0]

I just updated to 4.5.2.0 today.

[sooty234 266]

That had improvements for this, but you're still seeing the pausing?

[mlpaschal 0]

I am yes.  I had updated before I posted this thread.

[sooty234 266]

They probably need to see your logs. This may now be an issue report.

[rbjtech 4223]

Even though emby is reporting it is direct playback - it is still converting the raw video to http/s for streaming and that may be where the bottleneck is.  There are a few threads on this where it used to be a massive bottleneck (@ 50 Mbit/sec) but this was fixed (in Windows at least) to no longer be an issue at ~100 Mbit/sec.  You are now pushing further and you may have seen a new limit for your infrastructure.

However, there is an option to use 'File' access - effectively bypass emby altogether.  You need to mount the shield to your nas storage - and then it will effectively playback direct from the nas, bypassing any http/s conversion.  have a search in the Beta forum, there is a lengthy thread on it - or just find the 'File' option in the Shield/Android emby playback options.  

Edited November 23, 2020 by rbjtech

[sooty234 266]

Let's just have the option to remove limitations. 

[Happy2Play 8252]

5 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Let's just have the option to remove limitations. 

Then everyone will still complain it does not work.

[sooty234 266]

27 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Then everyone will still complain it does not work.

It already doesn't work, but without limits emby can't be blamed. My system is only limited by emby. And that's my complaint.

[Happy2Play 8252]

Every system has limits but Emby tries to follow documented limits.

[sooty234 266]

I'm not saying make it the default. Still apply everything that it already does, but add unlimited to the options. That way the noobs will have what emby predicts but for the rest of us, we can pop the cork on this bad boy.

[mlpaschal 0]

1 hour ago, rbjtech said:

However, there is an option to use 'File' access - effectively bypass emby altogether.  You need to mount the shield to your nas storage - and then it will effectively playback direct from the nas, bypassing any http/s conversion.  have a search in the Beta forum, there is a lengthy thread on it - or just find the 'File' option in the Shield/Android emby playback options.  

I thought this only applied to external players?  Am I missing a setting?  I've seen that setting in the Kodi plugin but am not finding it in the Emby app.

[ebr 14905]

1 hour ago, rbjtech said:

it is still converting the raw video to http/s for streaming

Video is not being "converted" here.  http is just a delivery protocol.  The video is being delivered as is.

[Happy2Play 8252]

But the different delivery methods do create different overhead, direct file access eliminates the man in the middle.

[sooty234 266]

Not all apps can do that. But I really should put this to the test. My particular NICs might actually remove any limitations. If I find the time and remember, I'll try to.

[Carlo 4330]

I don't think you can find a disc rip presently that Emby on the Shield can't handle. Same with Theater.
I know my Shield can play anything I throw at it bitrate wise if in the correct format.

Some other Android TV platforms can struggle at higher bitrate but not that I've found with the Shield.
Of course that just on my system with my prepared media.

I'm sure raw video footage can be made with higher bitrates that the shield could struggle with but those aren't common place and would be under the control of the admin/producer of the videos.