How to choose transcoding resolution?

[maciejmlyn 0]

Hi, is there a way to choose transcoding resolution? I want transcoded media on my tv, but I can only choose bitrate and each bitrate have other resolution. Is there a way to force always full hd resolution no matter what is bitrate level?

I have other thing. Any wideo setting in web interface doesn't work. No matter what video quality I will choose, video quality is always automatically. I have emby server on 3 devices and everywhere is the same problem.

[Abobader 3464]

Hello maciejmlyn,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Luke 42078]

Hi there, when you pick the quality setting, you're setting the maximum value that you can handle at the time based on device and network connection. It's not going to try and increase resolution on existing videos .

Can we please look at an example of where you feel the quality option didn't work?

 

[maciejmlyn 0]

@LukeOk, but why I can't change server settings to changing only bitrate, not resulution? When I converting video in handbrake, I can pick 1mb/s bitrate and full hd resulution. Why I can't do the same in emby configuration.

If you look at the screen, I can pick video settings in web interface, but no matter what option from dropdown I will choose, movie is always playing directly on android tv. It works only when I playing movie on PC.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by maciejmlyn

[visproduction 315]

Mac,

First, I hesitate to comment, because I do not use the encoder.  Resizing video is more the work of a video editor or full featured encoder.  The playback already automatically fills the screen of whatever hardware / TV is playing it.  There is really no advantage to take a smaller video and encode it to a larger size when the playback will look the same.  It is a waste of effort.  

Going the other way, resizing a large video to smaller pixel sizes has some value to allow playback to download a smaller file which can be nice for mobile users. This option is sometimes named Adaptive Streaming. I think there might be a video codec that is supported for this with Emby.  Maybe someone will mention this in a comment.  Youtube automatically makes mulitple resolutions either inside one file or as different files, when they get a large HD or 4K original.  There is a recent article about this encoding here: https://bitmovin.com/adaptive-streaming/

The main control on quality is your choice of bitrate. Extra settings in ffmpeg or other encoders can make a better quality video but then encoding takes more time.  I think Emby has a lot of other quality settings.  Again, I don't use the encoder.  There is a trade off of how fast your server is, what kind of demand you can handle, what amount of cooling is available, if there is a video / graphics card that can do the encoding, instead of the CPU.  Then, what bitrate you pick and other settings you choose all affect the demand on your server and the quality of the video.

I pre-encode all my videos to the older x.264 mp4 at constant bitrate with AAC or MP3 audio.  This x.264 video plays, without need to be reencoded, on any browser without any plugin player.  A lot of people don't like this codec because the files are larger and it is not as nice quality as HEVC x.265.  I set my encoding on a notebook i7 CPU with a lot of high quality settings using AVIDemux.  It takes about 4 times the media duration to encode.  Obviously, this is not a fast enough for a server.  I get the quality I want and my server doesn't need to reencode at all.

Anyway, I think you probably already know most of this.  Just thought it might help.

Edited May 8, 2022 by visproduction

[pwhodges 2012]

Outside Emby I often encode 1080 at lower bitrates than Emby offers and am content with the results.  By contrast, I am often disappointed by the reduced resolution Emby uses when I don't think it's the best compromise/  I think a little more flexibility would be useful.

Paul

[maciejmlyn 0]

@visproduction I do not know how about you, but I do see difference between video in 480p 1 mb/s and 1080p 1 mb/s. Unfortunately emby offers by default not sd quality only for transcoding with 3 mb/s or higher. You have mentioned that Extra settings in ffmpeg or other encoders can make a better quality video but then encoding takes more time. Do you know where I can change these settings to get better video quality?

[Luke 42078]

You can check out the server transcoding options but I would leave those at defaults and just use the in app quality setting.

[visproduction 315]

Mac, I agree with Luke.  He knows the encoding options.  The higher end server you have, you could probably go higher in the bit rate choices.

What I was talking about, was to separately encode all the videos with a 3rd party encoder and then you can could choose higher quality settings which gives you a little better look for the same bit rate.  This only helps if you save the file to the video and audio codec that does not need to be reencoded to playback for your users.  That is why I mentioned video codec x.264 in .mp4 and audio codec AAC FKK LC bit rate 128 kbps or less, or HE-AAC for higher bitrates or MP3 any bitrate setting.  When you have a video like that, the video and audio codecs are acceptable and do not need reencoding. 

There are some exceptions. If your user is on a slower Internet and is not accepting the video playback at a set minimum speed, then even this mp4 video can trigger a reencoding to a lower bitrate by Emby.  This depends on your Emby encoding settings.  This combination would probably happen with low bars or an old phone trying to playback something like a 2400 kbps video, a 1080P copy, for example.  Another video codec option called variable speed encoding, might trigger Emby to start reencoding a lower bit rate copy if the variable bit rate goes over a maximum limit, again to a user with 1 or 2 bar Internet connection. To avoid this, you can not encode with a variable bit rate or average speed 2 Pass encoding and not exceed past a certain bit rate per video size. You can also optionally turn off Emby encoding and perhaps give the user different video sizes, instead, that they can switch to, if the top resolution stutters.  Currently, the user has to stop playback, choose a different copy that you made and put in the media folder for that video. It is not automatic, as far as I know.  This solution is not that popular.  If you leave the Emby encoding turned on, then the playback is fixed automatically.  I hope that makes some sense.

So, if you are prepared to make your own encoded video copies for each video and you are willing to use x.264 instead of HEVC x.265 video encoding, then you can dig in more to some of the settings that help improve quality, somewhat per bit rate.  The biggest noticable improvement is the bitrate.  All other settings are very minor and hard to notice.  You can set the Motion Estimation Method to Uneven Hexagonal Search and set the subpixel Refinement to top setting best, usually 11.  Up the GOP settings to minumum 24, maximum 120 and I-frame threshold to 40.  Usually these are higher.    Increase the vector search range to 32, add partition search for 8x8, 8x16, 16x8, Bframes and 4x4, 4x8, 8x4, P frames.  This is normally off, and just larger 8x8 P frames are set.  This helps a little with fog, smoke explosions and pan against complex backgrounds.  You have to look very close to see any improvement for on any particular bit-rate test. These settings probably make your encoding 3 to 5 times longer.

On bitrates with 3rd party encoder, I use 1200 kbit/s for 720P, sometimes 1400 if it is heavy action with a lot of effects.  For 1080P I use 2100, and sometimes 2400.  Stay on the upper end of these rates for media with 1.37, 1.85 AR and you can move down 100 with AR 2.39 or wider.  I use AVIDemux to encode.  This is a lot more work and using Emby to encode. which is a lot simplier and I think it will probably do an excellent job all around.  If you don't have a fast server, then prepping your videos with a 3rd party encode makes more sense.

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by visproduction

[maciejmlyn 0]

@Luke Ok, but where I will find server transcoding options? 

[Luke 42078]

23 minutes ago, maciejmlyn said:

@Luke Ok, but where I will find server transcoding options? 

In the Transcoding section of the Emby Server dashboard.

[maciejmlyn 0]

@LukeIn transcoding section there is no possibility to choose target resolution.

[Luke 42078]

3 hours ago, maciejmlyn said:

@LukeIn transcoding section there is no possibility to choose target resolution.

I didn't say there was, but there are other options that can affect quality.

[maciejmlyn 0]

 @LukeOk, but can I change transcoding resolution? Maybe in codec setting which emby is using to transcoding?

[Luke 42078]

5 hours ago, maciejmlyn said:

 @LukeOk, but can I change transcoding resolution? Maybe in codec setting which emby is using to transcoding?

You have to use the in app quality setting in the video player.