Server is always transcoding, logs show Unnamed.Videobitrate

[JTY101 1]

Quote

2025-02-13 17:59:34.410 Info App: Profile: VideoCodecProfile, DirectPlay=false. Reason=Unnamed.VideoBitrate Condition: LessThanEqual. ConditionValue: 30000000. IsRequired: True. Path: /mnt/media/Movies/R/Ready Player One (2018).mkv

I'm running Emby on TrueNAS SCALE. While trying to playback videos using the Emby app on my Xbox, they are always being transcoded to h264, even when the source is h264. Looking at the logs, it gives a reason of "Unnamed.VideoBitrate". The files are just DVD, BD, and UHD rips generated by MakeMKV. The files contain the video track, the english audio tracks, and the subtitles. Any ideas on how to fix this? While the transcoding isn't a big deal on the DVD and BD files, for the UHD they are being scaled down to 1080P, instead of 4K.

[Luke 42077]

Moving to Windows app section.

[JTY101 1]

After some more testing, I was wrong, it isn't transcoding the DVDs which are MPEG2 + AC3 in a MKV container. However, it does transcode the BD and UHD movies. And, after finding the "Stats for Nerds" option, I see the Xbox app reports "Video Bitrate Not Supported". These are just normal BD and UHD rips, they haven't been recompressed, video bitrate varies from 22 - 71 mbps, and gets transcoded to H264 at 20mbps. The audio tracks vary, if I pick an AC3 track, then the audio isn't transcoded.

[Luke 42077]

@JTY101what version number of the windows app do you have installed?

[TassLehoff 2]

A friend who use my server with his Xbox One X get the same problem, i fixed the issue by turning off video, audio, and container transcoding, after that every files play fine in direct play.

I just get two movies in dts and dts-hdma without sound i have to report, but others movies with this audio codec play fine.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, the 30 mbps bitrate limit is based on what we found but we are constantly adjusting those.

Rather than turning off user transcoding, which can cause other problems, there is an option in the app in the Video Player section to not apply this bitrate limit.

[JTY101 1]

I'm running the Xbox app version 2.219.70.1. Enabling the option to allow higher bit rates, appears to have solved the issue. Tried a video that was 71mb/s, and it's showing Direct Play now. Hardware wise, I've got a Xbox Series S on wired gigabit.