Disable all transcoding other than changing containers?

[Jay1911 7]

I want to keep transcoding to an absolute minimum wherever possible and I noticed today that someone was watching liveTV and it was transcoding with the reason "Converting subtitles directly into video" - this is definitely something I'd like to avoid.  How can I stop users from doing this?

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  There are user-based options for this but I warn you that it WILL cause playback problems.  Your best approach is to provide content that won't require transcoding for these people.

[Jay1911 7]

13 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  There are user-based options for this but I warn you that it WILL cause playback problems.  Your best approach is to provide content that won't require transcoding for these people.

Thanks ebr.  Can you clarify what you mean by user-based options?  I'm probably blind but I can't find anything in the subtitles or user account that looks like it would allow or deny the user to burn in subtitles like that.

Unfortunately this is a livetv stream so I have no control over the format of the content.  I don't mind if users are not able to turn on subtitles for LiveTV

[Happy2Play 9780]

In each user config.  But at the note says it can cause media to not play at all.

[Jay1911 7]

3 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

In each user config.  But at the note says it can cause media to not play at all.

I already have video transcoding disabled for every user.  Does Subtitle burn-in fall under "changing of container formats" ?

[Neminem 1519]

Yes as it will add / subtract from the original stream.

Then it will transcode or remux but it will convert the stream.

If you do not want that, make sure your media is compatible with your hardware client.

Rule of thump.

mp4 container

video - x264 codec

audio - aac 2.0 

subtitles - external .srt

[Jay1911 7]

2 minutes ago, Neminem said:

Yes as it will add / subtract from the original stream.

Then it will transcode or remux but it will convert the stream.

If you do not want that, make sure your media is compatible with your hardware client.

Rule of thump.

mp4 container

video - x264 codec

audio - aac 2.0 

subtitles - external .srt

Thanks. Unfortunately no control over the stream since its LiveTV.   How do I stop the user from turning on subtitles?

[Neminem 1519]

Uhhh sorry, that i do not think you can control.

It all depend on source, if it is in the stream it will be available to Emby clients.

if in stream, emby would have to remove it, put stress on you CPU, when clients can't support the subs in stream.

[Luke 42079]

5 hours ago, Jay1911 said:

How do I stop the user from turning on subtitles?

Hi, you can't. You can restrict their access to transcoding and the app will do the best it can to try and play the content. This may lead to the subtitles not showing at all, or in some cases a playback error.

[Carlo 4561]

If you download the diagnostic plugin you'll have a couple more options:

I think these options reset to defaults when the server is restarted.
It would however be useful to know if one of these options like the first or second would solve your problem.

The second option seems to resolve embedded subtitle issues in other cases as well such as having internal and external subs but want all internal subs ignored. You can have Emby download subs from Open Subtitles, SubDB & Others but due to naming differences or "forced" or "default" flags the internals get used when you don't need or want them used. Short of removing the subtitle tracks themselves you can't work around this. LiveTV or recordings in progress are prime examples of this.

@LukeDo you think we could move this setting into the core so an admin could enable it and forget about anything to do with internal subs and the grief they can cause?

[Jay1911 7]

17 hours ago, Carlo said:

If you download the diagnostic plugin you'll have a couple more options:

I think these options reset to defaults when the server is restarted.
It would however be useful to know if one of these options like the first or second would solve your problem.

The second option seems to resolve embedded subtitle issues in other cases as well such as having internal and external subs but want all internal subs ignored. You can have Emby download subs from Open Subtitles, SubDB & Others but due to naming differences or "forced" or "default" flags the internals get used when you don't need or want them used. Short of removing the subtitle tracks themselves you can't work around this. LiveTV or recordings in progress are prime examples of this.

@LukeDo you think we could move this setting into the core so an admin could enable it and forget about anything to do with internal subs and the grief they can cause?

Love this!  Thank you Carlo, seems to have fixed the issue for now even if I have to enable each time I restart.

More control for admins the better.