Transcoding while streaming over HTTPS

[wrick17 2]

When I play my media locally on my phone, it streams immediately without buffering and CPU usage is minor.
 

However when I'm streaming on the same phone over HTTPS, be it WiFi or Cellular, CPU usage peaks on my Raspberry Pi and it buffers for quite some time, (sometimes too long to even play), indicating transcoding. How can I fix this behaviour? I don't want transcoding at all.

Any help is appreciated.

[GrimReaper 4744]

Have you explored Stats For Nerds to find out what is the reason for transcoding? You can also post here ffmpeg log created for one of those sessions. Also, what is your in-app streaming bandwidth set to (Settings>Playback tab)? If it's Auto, try setting some fixed value high enough that it covers all item bitrates. 

[wrick17 2]

2 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Have you explored Stats For Nerds to find out what is the reason for transcoding? You can also post here ffmpeg log created for one of those sessions. Also, what is your in-app streaming bandwidth set to (Settings>Playback tab)? If it's Auto, try setting some fixed value high enough that it covers all item bitrates. 

Haven't tried it yet. Will do and get back.

Also yes bandwidth is set to auto, will try changing it as well.

Edited December 20, 2023 by wrick17

[wrick17 2]

19 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Have you explored Stats For Nerds to find out what is the reason for transcoding? You can also post here ffmpeg log created for one of those sessions. Also, what is your in-app streaming bandwidth set to (Settings>Playback tab)? If it's Auto, try setting some fixed value high enough that it covers all item bitrates. 

I've tried setting my in-app bandwidth to higher values like 40/160Mbps, but still stats for nerds say I'm streaming at 2Mbps. Am I missing something?

[Luke 42081]

Maybe the file is only 2 mbps?

[wrick17 2]

57 minutes ago, Luke said:

Maybe the file is only 2 mbps?

It is it turns out. Didn't think of that. Anyway in that case, I have more than enough bandwidth to cover DirectPlay. So why would it go and transcode the file? I checked my Raspberry Pi server stats and the CPU usage spikes when I start playing. Once it starts, there's no further high CPU usage anymore, at least for the few minutes I've tried playing it.

[GrimReaper 4744]

29 minutes ago, wrick17 said:

So why would it go and transcode the file?

As said, if it were transcoding, your SFN and/or serever Dashboard would tell you that, together with Reason for transcoding and appropriate ffmpeg logs would be generated. Do you have any of those in your Logs folder? 

[wrick17 2]

5 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

As said, if it were transcoding, your SFN and/or serever Dashboard would tell you that, together with Reason for transcoding and appropriate ffmpeg logs would be generated. Do you have any of those in your Logs folder? 

Here's the latest log file 

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42081]

40 minutes ago, wrick17 said:

It is it turns out. Didn't think of that. Anyway in that case, I have more than enough bandwidth to cover DirectPlay. So why would it go and transcode the file? I checked my Raspberry Pi server stats and the CPU usage spikes when I start playing. Once it starts, there's no further high CPU usage anymore, at least for the few minutes I've tried playing it.

In your screenshot above it is not transcoding. Why do you think it is?

[GrimReaper 4744]

9 minutes ago, wrick17 said:

Here's the latest log file 

embyserver.txt 167.86 kB · 0 downloads

Your user has all remux/transcode options disabled, so it would be safe to assume no transcoding is taking place during any session, evidenced also by your screenshot, as said by @Luke. 

Quote

2023-12-21 08:15:39.996 Info App: User policy for wrick. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

 

[wrick17 2]

20 minutes ago, Luke said:

In your screenshot above it is not transcoding. Why do you think it is?

Only because my CPU spikes to a 100% for a minute or 2. I thought it's spiking because it's transcoding. As this behaviour is not there when I'm streaming on the same network. It only happens when I'm streaming over the internet. The bigger the file, the longer it takes.

 

15 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Your user has all remux/transcode options disabled, so it would be safe to assume no transcoding is taking place during any session, evidenced also by your screenshot, as said by @Luke. 

 

I agree, I've verified the same in the settings.