How to force Direct Play on Local Network

[beens 9]

Not sure if this needs to be a new topic.

I'm having extensive issues (and have had since day 1) with files not resuming at all and throwing an error indicating there are no valid streams available. However, if I go back to the home page and try to play the file again, it starts from the beginning just fine and I'm able to scrub to where I was before and finish the video.

After some digging in the logs, I found that Emby is deciding to transcode every single file, even if I set the quality to Auto or 200 Mbits or anywhere in between. My client PC is most definitely capable of handling the h.264 and h.265 files. I believe some of the files are .mkv and some are .mp4, but the behavior seems consistent across file types and containers.

I have searched the web UI exhaustively for any options regarding those three checkboxes referred to by @AngusAranda. I can not find any settings related to how Emby decides whether or not to transcode. I've messed with the h.264 and h.265 settings, and even changed the profile to UltraFast (or whatever the fastest options were) in case it was a timeout issue stemming from the CPU not being able to calculate the frames at the requested resume point in the video within an expected time threshold.

The log file indicates that it is indeed finding those three settings regarding transcoding within my user profile, but there doesn't appear to be a way to change it. I am a power user, perhaps even an expert, but I hesitate to qualify myself as such, because I recognize how much I don't know. My server is running on Ubuntu and the experience has been great except for this one issue. I've gone as far as attempting to use the API to update my user policy, but it won't allow me to do anything because it always returns "at least one admin user is required" or something to that effect. According to the JSON returned by other API requests, my user is in fact an admin. Plus it's the only account on the Emby system, so I can' t imagine it not being admin.

I'm almost certain that if I could enable direct play, this issue would vanish, because my client hardware is more than capable of h.264 and h.265 decoding, even at 4k. For more context, the video files I'm working with are 720p @ 23.976 or 29.97 FPS, and play perfectly when loaded directly outside of Emby.

It seems possible that Emby thinks the resolution is a mismatch because my client's monitor resolution is 1280x1024? I'm grasping at straws at this point. I believe what I'm trying to do is plausible and valid, but how to execute the solution eludes me.

22 hours ago, AngusAranda said:

Yeah the particular video I was watching was 4k but I was watching on my phone, so the resolution wasn't the same and that was causing transcoding.

P.S: I updated the wording of my previous comment to align with what is actually going on. I also am someone who prefers proper terms when discussing technical matters. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I appreciate all the work that you do. Thank you so much for Emby.

Kudos to you @AngusAranda. Specificity in pretty much all technical domains is paramount.

[beens 9]

I forgot to specify that this is a local connection on a gigabit network.

[Luke 42078]

@beens have you explored the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

[beens 9]

Yes, and I'm unclear about what it's indicating.

[beens 9]

It also occurs to me that some of these files might have been encoded with a variable framerate. Not sure if that would have any impact here.

[Neminem 1518]

Devs would need to see logs and what client.

This indicates the client cant handle hevc.

[beens 9]

Server CPU is Intel Core2 Duo E4500, OS is Ubuntu Server 24.04.2. Videos are stored on a NAS on the local network and accessed via SMB. It just now occurs to me that the files being hosted on the NAS (different machine than Emby server) might be introducing more variables here, although that seems unlikely.

Client CPU is i7-4790, OS is Win10 Pro x64, accessing Emby via its web interface on the latest Chrome browser. No support for hardware h.265 decoding.

A lot more research (and knowing now that the Emby stats for nerds indicates that h.265 isn't supported) has indicated that I've made some incorrect assumptions about Chrome and the Win10 OS. I didn't realize that h.265 had licensing fees associated with it, or some other legal junk that makes it not easy to just include in the OS or in the browser. I just assumed that because any modern video player could handle h.265 just fine that it was ubiquitous and almost universally supported at this point. I knew that I didn't have hardware decoding for h.265 on my client PC, but the videos load extremely quickly and scrub effortlessly when played directly, leading me to believe there was some already existing layer that provided h.265 support.

It's not clear to me which logs I need to present here, because there are many and there seems to be quite a lot of verbose information, as well as a ton of trancoding logs. However, I think I've found the core of the issue and I don't believe this is an issue with Emby. I was shocked to find that when I drag and drop a video onto Chrome, it only plays the audio. What I have determined is that I need OS-level h.265 support, and that seems to only be available if I get a Microsoft account so I can use their disgusting store ecosystem. I'm simply not going to do that. I found other ways to get WMF h.265 support, but none of them have worked so far. I'm still looking into other options, and for now have just run out of time. I'll have to pursue this later. I can post the logs then, if that is still needed.

All of that being said, does anyone know of a way to get h.265 on Win10/Chrome without having to go through MS? I can transcode my library to h.264 if I have to, but I'm really enjoying the good quality I'm getting out of very low file sizes and bitrates with h.265.

[Luke 42078]

You can always install the Emby app from the Windows Store. 

As far as browsers are concerned, Edge has the broadest format support.

[beens 9]

I was afraid you were going to say that. I can't believe in 2025 we are still hiding this kind of thing behind a paywall. A $1 paywall at that. And it's really interesting to see that a very large majority of the feedback on MS's decoder is negative. Basically everyone having the standpoint of "this should be free". I'm just not going to create a MS account. Period, end of story. I will literally write my own h.265 decoder library before I do that. They can kiss my ass.

It sucks that anything from the Windows Store requires an MS ID. I guess all the Apple and Android folks are just used to it and they think it's normal. From that perspective, it might be, but I still say it's absolutely unnecessary and is pure marketing and control.

Have you guys considered releasing a "regular" installable program that does the same thing as the Windows app?

[beens 9]

For clarification, I'm asking if you have a win32 Emby client program that can be installed. I simply am not going to have anything to do with UWP apps. My hatred for them knows no bounds.

[visproduction 315]

Beens,

Yes, HEVC software and hardware direct licensing appears to be $68,000 a year for home playback ($24,000) and mobile ($24,000), TV 4K playback ($20,000).
 https://accessadvance.com/hevc-advance-patent-pool-detailed-royalty-rates/

If there are 3rd party software options that allow direct playback, they may be available, perhaps, but without proper licensing.  You can often tell if the software's office address does not appear anywhere.  Perhaps there is a special discount for a plug-in type product.  I think the real cost of the licensing may be why you don't see many solutions with legitimate companies.  If you can find another way to get the license, legally, at a better price, go ahead and post an answer here.

Edited March 2, 2025 by visproduction

[beens 9]

Perhaps I don't understand the world of video codecs. To me, if Handbrake supports it (HEVC), it means there are open source libraries available, right? (FFmpeg?) Does Handbrake pay that incredible fee for a license to use it in their free software? Are they using it illegally? Does Emby have to buy a license to transcode h.265 to h.264? I feel like I'm missing a significant piece of the puzzle here.

Edited March 2, 2025 by beens

[yocker 1248]

I think the HEVC extension is only needed if you want to play back encrypted HEVC media like fx. from Netflix.

I just fired up a whole new Windows installation on my test system and made sure to not use a Microsoft account so it couldn't automatically download the HEVC extension.
HEVC played fine in Chrome based browsers (includes Microsoft Edge), i don't have a Netflix account to test with though so i can't confirm 100% the thing about encrypted media though.

To further test i had a friend do the same and he reported the same result.
Audio did get transcoded but that is to be expected since it's a browser and that i have no sound connected to the test system at all.

You need to have hardware acceleration activated in your browser for it to support HEVC, in Chrome it should be under Settings -> system or just search for "accel" in the search field.
Your hardware also need to support hardware decoding of HEVC for it to work. Sadly software decoding of HEVC seems to not be possible in browsers

Edited March 2, 2025 by yocker

[beens 9]

Maybe hardware support for h.265 is the issue. I know my hardware doesn't support h.265 decoding. So I'm stuck with whatever software decoding options are available. I'm not even worried about encrypted stuff, as this is for an offline video library. I don't have a Netflix or YouTube or any of the streaming accounts, and I'm not really interested in them. It's basically me, Handbrake, a PC and a TV, a NAS full of h.265 video files, and an Emby server.

Edited March 2, 2025 by beens

[yocker 1248]

2 minutes ago, beens said:

Maybe hardware support for h.265 is the issue. I know my hardware doesn't support h.265 decoding. So I'm stuck with whatever software decoding options are available.

That would be my conclusion, yes.
There might be some extensions that can play the video in VLC or something external from the browser so you can get HEVC to work but i've never seen or tried any my self so can't help with that, sorry.

[beens 9]

The thing is, I can play all the files just fine on MPC-BE, and Handbrake can decode the files, so it's not that they won't play at all. I was just hoping to use these files with Emby without my server having to transcode every single time.

[yocker 1248]

5 minutes ago, beens said:

The thing is, I can play all the files just fine on MPC-BE, and Handbrake can decode the files, so it's not that they won't play at all. I was just hoping to use these files with Emby without my server having to transcode every single time.

I don't know if this will work but it might be possible to watch in the Emby App and then under user settings on the server disable transcoding for that user.
It might force the device running the client to decode the video it self.

I don't promise anything though.

[Luke 42078]

7 minutes ago, yocker said:

I don't know if this will work but it might be possible to watch in the Emby App and then under user settings on the server disable transcoding for that user.
It might force the device running the client to decode the video it self.

I don't promise anything though.

In the Emby app you don't need to do that since it supports it already.

In the web app doing that will a playback failure.

[yocker 1248]

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

In the Emby app you don't need to do that since it supports it already.

In the web app doing that will a playback failure.

Okay that's good, was thinking the app would activate transcoding as well if hardware accelerated HEVC wasn't possible.

[beens 9]

So, I got desperate. I wasn't sure if the MS store would allow me to download and install an app without logging in, but it appears that it does allow this. So I installed the Emby app. Looks like a custom web browser accessing the regular Emby web interface. Any time I try to play anything, it says I need a subscription to Emby premiere. What is going on here? I can't even play videos without a sub? Or is this the mechanism by which the fees are collected for h.265 support? I had no idea the Pandora's box I was opening by simply wanting to use h.265 to improve my video library.

The obvious fix for most people would probably be to purchase better equipment that can do all the decoding in hardware. But that is completely impossible for me. I am quite stuck using the hardware I have. I guess I'm going to transcode my entire library back to h.264.

Edited March 2, 2025 by beens

[GrimReaper 4740]

2 minutes ago, beens said:

Any time I try to play anything, is says I need a subscription to Emby premiere. What is going on here? I can't even play videos without a sub?

Emby Windows requires active Premiere subscription for Full Playback. 

Emby Premiere Feature Matrix

[beens 9]

Just now, GrimReaper said:

Emby Windows requires active Premiere subscription for Full Playback. 

Emby Premiere Feature Matrix

[beens 9]

Ok, here's what I've learned so far:

Chrome does not natively support h.265.
H.265 is not free.
Third party open source software titles that performs h.265 decoding are most likely doing so illegally.
I made a huge mistake by transcoding my library to h.265, and I likely used the software illegally without even knowing it.
The Emby app doesn't even work unless you have a premium subscription.
Stay far, far away from h.265 until the patents have expired and it is indeed ubiquitous and universally supported like h.264.
 

Edited March 2, 2025 by beens

[yocker 1248]

2 hours ago, beens said:

Ok, here's what I've learned so far:

Chrome does not natively support h.265.
H.265 is not free.
Third party open source software titles that performs h.265 decoding are most likely doing so illegally.
I made a huge mistake by transcoding my library to h.265, and I likely used the software illegally without even knowing it.
The Emby app doesn't even work unless you have a premium subscription.
Stay far, far away from h.265 until the patents have expired and it is indeed ubiquitous and universally supported like h.264.
 

Been Googling for ways to get the HEVC extension without an account.

1) From powershell run:
winget install --id Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension

2) From powershell run:
Add-AppxPackage -Path "https://store.rg-adguard.net/vcl/9n4wgh0z6vhq"

3) You can also install the K-Lite codec pack:
https://codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
I believe this is a custom version but i used this one my self for years before i stopped needing it.
I'm not sure my self how effective this is with browsers and such as they will still need hardware acceleration to support H265. So might not be of much help if you just want to watch in browsers.

Those are the options i could find.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! Look them up your self to see if you trust them before trying would be my advice!
Option 1 pretty sure Winget won't work without having logged into a microsoft account at least once since it's part of Windows but worth a try.

Sure fire way to get the extension is to just use a trow away email address for the store, buy the extension and log off.
This is what i did to get it.

Edited March 2, 2025 by yocker

[bakes82 167]

There are already replacements to hevc. Av1 vc1 vp8 and vp8. All will have same issues iirc. Plus if you don’t have hardware to decode them your cpu will choke usually.