Support for adaptive streaming (DASH, HLS) vs txcoding

[atharmian 3]

Does the Emby Server support DASH or HLS streaming to client browsers (almost all browsers now support adaptive) ?

 

If not is it possible to make Emby Server work with GStreamer like open source packages?

 

In any case, what is the role of live transcoding vs adaptive streaming when using Emby Server? Are they mutually exclusive or is there overlap ?

[Luke 42080]

we have it built but we are currently not using it because when the players switch between playlists on the fly the transcoding has to change and this causes some delay. also some players send requests to both playlists at the same time and this tends to put a lot of transcoding stress on the server. So generally what we do is our own bandwidth measurement in order to decide on a bitrate prior to playing.

[atharmian 3]

I didn't quite follow.

So you are saying you use live transcoding, but not necessarily adaptive rate streaming?

 

Is there an option to use adaptive streaming besides the default transcoding?

Is there a Gstreamer (open source adaptive rate streamer) like plugin for Emby Server available?

[Luke 42080]

We use live transcoding, but not adaptive btirate. There is no gstreamer plugin available.

[atharmian 3]

Here is my understanding of transcoding vs ABR (e.g. MPEG-DASH) aka transrating, including the playlist switching issue you identified above:

 

https://www.wowza.com/glossary/Transcoding-and-transrating

 

1. So does your support of live transcoding and selection of bit rate mean that DASH can be supported at the client side?

 

2. Another question I have is for running Emby Server in EC2 AWS instance (as I am doing now), and asking myself: With Emby Server transcoding, do I need Amazon CloudFront whose purpose is to act like a CDN Edge Server and also facilitate ABR?

 

https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/details/

 

Above tut talks of supporting various media servers, e.g. Adobe, MS, HLS and Wowza. So with Emby Server, would the CloudFront treat it as a streaming server whose output can be adaptive bit rate at, say, a Chrome browser client?

 

Is any other config needed beyond CloudFront and Emby Server in EC2?

 

I would really appreciate a detailed answer at your convenience. This is important configuration to me, with IPTV.

[atharmian 3]

Oh, a related thought re: CloudFront ...

 

Amazon charges for transcoding and looks quite expensive compared with VPS providers like Vultr.com or OVH, Hetzner etc who provide cheaper CPU cycles.

 

So with Emby Server transcoding, do I really need CloudFront transcoding, except of course that the Emby Server transcoding is costing me extra CPU cycles (which should be cheaper still compared with Amazon transcoding charges)?

[atharmian 3]

More:

 

I read your answer re: no Gstreamer plugin for Emby Server.

 

However do you know if the Emby Server output can be fed into a DASH package like Gstreamer for adaptive bit rate input to a DASH supporting client (e.g. Chrome)?

 

I am thinking as:

 

Emby Server transcoder output > Gstreamer> CloudFront CDN > Public IP Cloud > DASH client device (e.g. Chrome.)

 

From my reading here, this ought be possible, since DASH only deals with MPD packets, not the delivery method (e.g. MPEG format):

http://www.encoding.com/mpeg-dash/

[Luke 42080]

I would think it's possible but not ideal. To feed into gstreamer for dash packaging you might not want the same output format that emby is using, so changing that would require some work.