Best formats for Emby

[stuarta 8]

Hi all,

What's the best format for a Roku Premiere device or settings?  I've just got hold of one of these and noticed some lag while playing a h264 file with the percentage bar spinning while another h265 played instantly that was reported as 1080p hevc.  

Gemini told me to use h265 so i redownload the first one but I still get the same and now Gemini is telling me to use h264.

Anyone got any advise for either the best file format or settings to try and help prevent the spinny percentage wheel please.

[Luke 42601]

Hi, either of those should be fine. I would suggest getting to the bottom of why that was happening before making changes to your files. It might not be as simple as just the format.

[stuarta 8]

Yeah thanks, that's why I was wondering if there was any known settings I should make to improve performance

[tedfroop21 97]

The best format?  Look for one ALL your devices are compatible with.

-Remember that all compression removes data which in some way lessens quality.

-Be aware too of the ongoing issues with H265, and that many devices that offered hardware decoding have disabled it. 

-There are compression formats that can improve performance but the best way to improve performance, is to build a solid network to carry your data.

-Ensure you understand the actual real world capacity of wireless networks if you use them.

[stuarta 8]

Fortunately 264 and 265 are supported by my Roku and new TCL device, it was more about which is the preferred, if there is a preferred for the best performance and any settings I should be making as standard practise in the server

[stuarta 8]

Just further to this, I have noticed quite a lot of performance problems since upgrading to the latest version.  Trying to watch something this afternoon via Chrome and it wouldn't play, I've tried stopping the package but the memory on my Synology kept climbing up to 380Mb so I've restarted the NAS

[MangoMC 52]

Hey

It doesnt depends on the emby Software at All. Its the Player and your Server hardware. 

Some players work fine with hevc, Some not. 

If your Player cant play the file direct your Server Hardware needs to transcode Video or Audio or both. 

If you dont have a gpu for transcoding your CPU needs to Do the Job. And CPUs are not Designed to decode and encode Video files. 

Transcoding hevc needs more Power. Transcoding only Audio is very simple. 

So you See. The choice of the Player is the most important Part of choosing which files are working great and which not 

Browsers are always a Bad idea. They often dont have the needed Codecs. Use the native app on Windows or Mac or whatever. 

Watching on a TV. Buy a shield and you are fine 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by MangoMC

[stuarta 8]

Fortunately bounced my NAS at lunch and it seemed to sort itself and limited to the browser unfortunately while I'm work.  On my new TCL TV the app seems to work well, just trying to tune the performance the best I can for the Roku Premiere in the bedroom and finding the happy medium between devices for formats and any if needed changes to the server to help improve performance

[MangoMC 52]

I dont know the specs of the roku. 

But i guess h264 and hevc are not a Problem. You just need to take a Look at the Bitrate and Level. Higher Level means more Compression and the roku needs to handle the Compression. Around Level 150 and under that is fine. 

High Bitrate Begins at around 30mbit/s. So dont watch remux files. Use webdl or "normal" bluray files 

On your Server. If you own a gpu in the nas buy the emby Premiere subscription to enable Hardware transcoding 

[stuarta 8]

yeah don't have a GPU, Synology DS224+

I need to check again at some point as I noticed that some HEVC files played instantly while another I got the progress bar and AI was telling me to make changes in the server web side and app side so that's why I thought I would check here what the optimum settings are.  AI lies 

[MangoMC 52]

Yeah. AI is not always the solution

Yeah. If some are working. Some not. Check Bitrate. Check Level. Check Audio of the file. 

Anywhere there is the Difference why some work fine and some not. 

As an example. Some of my friends dont have a Dolby vision TV. So its using the fallback hdr. But when the Audio is eac3 7.1 the file doesnt work. Its always a few parameters that can be the issue 

[stuarta 8]

yep I think the difference might have been AC5.1 and some were EAC5.1.  Not sure of the difference

[yocker 1663]

If you are afraid your device doesn't support what ever you have then I can recommend just getting a Nvidia Shield.

It supports pretty much everything plus audio pass through.