4K HDR Videos are suddenly transcoded in my home network

[NathanX 2]

Hi there,

i tried to (re-) watch Arlo & Spot yesterday (2160p, EAC3 audio track, round about 11 Mbps) yesterday and was quite suprised that the video did not only not start immediately but was also transcoded. Transcoding was never an issue in my home network (Ethernet, 1 Gbit) so far and I do net remember having set some limit anywhere, neither in the server settings (set to auto) nor in the client (settings left to standard, which has always worked until so far)

Emby Server log says.

2024-10-07 20:33:48.977 Info App: Udp message sent to [::ffff:10.0.0.1]:57531

2024-10-07 20:33:48.978 Info App: Udp message sent to [::ffff:10.0.0.1]:57531

2024-10-07 20:33:48.978 Info App: Udp message sent to [::ffff:10.0.0.1]:57531

2024-10-07 20:33:48.978 Info App: Udp message sent to [::ffff:10.0.0.1]:57531

2024-10-07 20:33:50.071 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://10.0.0.254:8100/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?X-Emby-Client=Emby Theater&X-Emby-Device-Name=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Device-Id=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Client-Version=3.0.20&X-Emby-Token=x_secret1_x&X-Emby-Language=de&reqformat=json. Source Ip: host1, UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) EmbyTheater/3.0.20 Chrome/87.0.4280.141 Electron/11.5.0 Safari/537.36

2024-10-07 20:33:50.071 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to host1. Time: 0ms. POST http://10.0.0.254:8100/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?X-Emby-Client=Emby Theater&X-Emby-Device-Name=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Device-Id=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Client-Version=3.0.20&X-Emby-Token=x_secret1_x&X-Emby-Language=de&reqformat=json

2024-10-07 20:33:56.651 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://10.0.0.254:8100/emby/Items/104135/PlaybackInfo?UserId=3f8c9e5de7a64b36a0846d1b8c597bf4&StartTimeTicks=0&IsPlayback=false&AutoOpenLiveStream=false&MaxStreamingBitrate=7000000&X-Emby-Client=Emby Theater&X-Emby-Device-Name=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Device-Id=DESKTOP-88L3K0B&X-Emby-Client-Version=3.0.20&X-Emby-Token=x_secret1_x&X-Emby-Language=de&reqformat=json. Source Ip: host1, UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) EmbyTheater/3.0.20 Chrome/87.0.4280.141 Electron/11.5.0 Safari/537.36

2024-10-07 20:33:56.654 Info App: User policy for Homeserveradmin. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True

2024-10-07 20:33:56.654 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 14812215, max bitrate: 7000000

2024-10-07 20:33:56.654 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 14812215, max bitrate: 7000000

 

I honestly have no clue where this max bitrate comes from. 

 

I havent experienced behaviour before, but that behaviour seemed to have change after updating to the most recent emby server version. I also updated the server to the latest beta version, no change. 

 

Any clues?

 

Thanks in advance.

Nathan

[Neminem 1518]

Try changing playback settings.

2024-10-07 20:33:56.654 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 14812215, max bitrate: 7000000

It looks like the setting is set to either auto or 7Mbps

[NathanX 2]

You are right, the setting is auto, I have no idea where those 7 Mbps come from.

Will try to change this setting from auto to 4k 110 Mbps (or so), do I have to restart the server to take effect?

What puzzles me is, that I have left the home network quality setting always on auto and never had any issue so far. That is why I guess that something must have changed coming with the latest emby server version.

[pwhodges 2012]

The result of "auto" setting is contentious...  Often not what people expect.

Paul

[Q-Droid 989]

Logs?

 

[Q-Droid 989]

16 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

The result of "auto" setting is contentious...  Often not what people expect.

Paul

But Auto should not be in effect on LAN, right? The logs would show if the server is treating the connection as remote.

 

[NathanX 2]

8 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

Logs?

 

I guess I posted the relevant part from the emby server log. Is there any other log (transcode log?) that I can provide to help identifying the issue?

[pwhodges 2012]

2 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

But Auto should not be in effect on LAN, right? The logs would show if the server is treating the connection as remote.

There are speed settings for both LAN and WAN, and both have an Auto setting.

Paul

[Q-Droid 989]

17 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

There are speed settings for both LAN and WAN, and both have an Auto setting.

Paul

I should have been more specific. What I meant was bandwidth detection. While the Auto setting is available on both, I thought there's no detection on LAN. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

3 hours ago, NathanX said:

I have no idea where those 7 Mbps come from.

Every client has a hardcode fallback value for AUTO per dozens of topics and depending on the client if the speedtest actually worked or not will fallback to the conservative hardcode rate.

To a point AUTO is not what anyone thinks it is and DEVS really need a definitive description of what it is.

3 hours ago, Q-Droid said:

But Auto should not be in effect on LAN, right? The logs would show if the server is treating the connection as remote.

 

Would need to see startup network detection part of log but no from a true LAN standpoint is should not be affected by hardcoded value.

 

But should use anything besides AUTO.

[pwhodges 2012]

1 hour ago, Q-Droid said:

I should have been more specific. What I meant was bandwidth detection. While the Auto setting is available on both, I thought there's no detection on LAN. 

It's not a WAN/LAN distinction - only the "TV" clients do any speedtest at all.

Paul

[Happy2Play 9780]

With this being Desktop ET I think more information is needed.

Emby-Client-Version=3.0.20

As to me it suggest a REMOTE connection.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, please attach the complete emby server and ffmpeg log files from an example. Thanks,.

[NathanX 2]

Oh my, it was all my own fault.

@Happy2Playled me to the right direction! Some weeks ago, I installed netbird (something like ZeroTier) to be able to securely access my home network from my mobile and my tablet. Therefore I had to enter my netbird ip range in the emby server network tab so that it will be recognised as a local network, which I did. I completely forgot to add my own home network ip range. 

Done that now and hurray: it works again! No transcodings, just direct play.

Thanks to all your help!

Nathan