What video format would use the least transcoding?

[casminkey 19]

I'm working on converting my library to a standard format. I'm not really knowledgeable in this area but it seems like H264 is the most flexible but curious about H265/HEVC. I've seen some older topics on this that seem like H265 would save disk space but would require transcoding when playing depending on the device. However I wonder if this changed in the last year or two?

I generally have a plethora of devices playing from my library - Rokus, GoogleTV's, FireTV's, iPhones/Androids, Samsung TV's, LG's and probably others. If my main priority is to cut down on transcoding, is H264 still my best bet with a lot of 4k content?  Or can most devices these days direct play H265 videos? Or is there another format I'm not aware of?

As always, appreciate any guidance!!

[Lessaj 467]

H264 is the most compatible, however 4K content is generally already HEVC. Pretty much every modern device support HEVC decoding. Web browsers do as well but may require some configuration to enable it. I often see Firefox transcoding HEVC, sometimes Chrome does, but I know with properly enabled acceleration that it can so it's their configuration.

As always, set up a couple test files, try them on your various devices, see what happens, decide from there.

[tedfroop21 86]

Look at the devices you want to do playback on.  List the Video formats and resolutions that are native to each device.  

Find a format that all the devices play.

Check whether you have interlaced media, and whether your devices will play and display it.  If they don't, there will be transcoding.

Check you audio codec's and make sure all your devices will play those.  

 

The answers should be clear now......

[Jdiesel 1431]

h264 with aac audio and text based subtitles. Keep the total bitrate under 8 Mbps as most of the Emby apps used some type of hardcoded default for remote play.

[visproduction 315]

If you pre-encode and set the quality way up with a 3rd party encoder, you can get excellent quality for 1080P at 2400 kbps.  When you try to encode in real time, you need a higher bit rate  to look good.  I pre-encode with all high quality settings and a 10 year old Intel CPU might take 5 to 6 hours for a 2 hour media.  It's not real time, but the result looks very nice. Once you have this quality media copy at 2400 kbps, there is probably no need to transcode for most any user. 

I think above 3500 kbps bit rate, you may start requiring transcoding, even though the media is already h.264 and AAC audio, because the user at the other end of an Internet connection, can't handle 3500 kbps with whatever traffic and multiple hops away that their hardware is distant from the Emby server.  At the 8 Mbps suggested, I think sometimes you will still get transcoding turned on to reduce the media stream bitrate even further.  Not everyone sits on a an excellend broadband Internet connection.  Some users may be watching through mobile or overseas.  Even local network use can limit media output speed resulting in triggering transcoding again. 

Hope that makes sense.