"Auto" for Android Mobile over Mobile data or external Wi-Fi issues

[Richard Branches 330]

I was looking closer at those two logs and I noticed they were getting transcoded but to the same audio format (FLAC), however the bitrate is below the upload limitation, playback wasn't smooth though, weren't they supposed to be converted to AAC instead? is this a normal behavior or is there a bug here?

 

Looks like this is a problem with "Auto" too and I'm going to monitor the logs folder for every song not getting transcoded, I'll let you know later when I get back home.

Edited September 6, 2018 by delacosta78

[Richard Branches 330]

It's confirmed! music is getting transcoded into the same FLAC format instead of AAC whether using auto or a manual quality, that's why it says "direct playing" in the dashboard and songs stutter because the transcoded result is still bigger than the upload limitation (they are getting reduced to 384 Kbps but the file size is almost the same as the original). I hope you fix this as soon as possible, thank you in advance.

[Luke 42077]

I tested this and could not reproduce. It transcoded to 320k aac.

[Richard Branches 330]

On 24/09/2018 at 23:07, Luke said:

I tested this and could not reproduce. It transcoded to 320k aac.

 

I noticed two transcoding instances when using "Auto", sometimes it transcodes FLACs and 320Kbps MP3s into AAC 315Kbps, the other instance is 384Kbps, it doesn't transcode MP3s but FLACs files are getting transcoded into the same format with that bitrate when it should transcode them into AAC, here is an example:

 

The song appears as direct playing but it's getting transcoded into FLAC:

 

 

In the transcoding-temp folder you can see the FLAC file getting transcoded into the same format when it should be transcoded into AAC:

 

 

Take a look at the attached transcoding log, similar to others I've uploaded:

ffmpeg-transcode-1be167f1-3d2e-48be-87cc-59c529b6eb54.txt

Edited August 30, 2020 by Richard Branches

[Richard Branches 330]

I tested this and could not reproduce. It transcoded to 320k aac.

 

With a fixed quality like 1Mbps it happens the same as explained above.

 

You may wonder why I select 1 Mbps instead of 320Kbps, the answer is the server is still converting the MP3 files of the same quality into AAC because of the album art issue you still haven't fixed.

[Luke 42077]

Ok i'm testing on the beta so maybe that's the difference. i would suggest trying again with the next release. In my testing the music quality settings in the app are being respected.

[Richard Branches 330]

Ok i'm testing on the beta so maybe that's the difference. i would suggest trying again with the next release. In my testing the music quality settings in the app are being respected.

 

With the next release of what, the server?

[Luke 42077]

Yes.

[Richard Branches 330]

Yes.

 

Ok, I'll be looking forward to test it and share my experience.

[Richard Branches 330]

Ok i'm testing on the beta so maybe that's the difference. i would suggest trying again with the next release. In my testing the music quality settings in the app are being respected.

 

This is sooooo disappointing! so much waiting for nothing? I updated the server to the new 4.0 version and FLAC songs are still converted into the same format instead of AAC when "Auto" is selected in audio settings!!!

 

I'm gonna cry!!!  

ffmpeg-transcode-4f7803ad-0d2d-4077-8ac7-c7d7b735462d_1.txt

Edited January 16, 2019 by delacosta78

[Richard Branches 330]

MP3s also are still getting transcoded into AAC because of the album art issue we already discussed here... humm...   

ffmpeg-transcode-c1278317-e670-49c1-ab4c-205786dc917b_1.txt

Edited January 15, 2019 by delacosta78

[Happy2Play 9780]

MP3s also are still getting transcoded into AAC because of the album art issue we already discussed here... humm...   

 

The item is being transcoded do to the overall  bitrate exceeding your set bitrate limit.  So are you suggesting the limit threshold be adjusted to include embedded images or should this limit only look at the bitrate of the track and not the overall item bitrate?

MaxStreamingBitrate=320000

track "BitRate":320000
overall "Bitrate":321605

What would the proper way to resolve this?

[Richard Branches 330]

The item is being transcoded do to the overall  bitrate exceeding your set bitrate limit.  So are you suggesting the limit threshold be adjusted to include embedded images or should this limit only look at the bitrate of the track and not the overall item bitrate?

MaxStreamingBitrate=320000

track "BitRate":320000
overall "Bitrate":321605

What would the proper way to resolve this?

 

As far as I know the overall bitrate includes the size of the albumart but it shouldn't be a condition for the track to be transcoded, right? the server should take into account only the real bitrate of the track ignoring everything else, at least that's how I understand it.

[Happy2Play 9780]

The overall bitrate of the item exceeds the max bitrate you set, so yes.  Just like a movie if you set a bitrate limit of 5mb and the video track is 5mb and the audio track is 640kb, the item is transcoded do to the overall bitrate exceeding 5mb.  

 

I would not expect music to be treated any differently.

Edited January 15, 2019 by Happy2Play

[Richard Branches 330]

The overall bitrate of the item exceeds the max bitrate you set, so yes.  Just like a movie if you set a bitrate limit of 5mb and the video track is 5mb and the audio track is 640kb, the item is transcoded do to the overall bitrate exceeding 5mb.  

 

I would not expect music to be treated any differently.

 

I feel like I've been fooled all the time by waiting for the "supposed" issue to be fixed when in reality it won't, because music files will always contain a bitrate different than the OS shows, I guess someone should've let me see this from the beginning so I could stop complaining about it in this topic, thank you.

[Happy2Play 9780]

To me it is perspective.  But you should voice your opinion on how this could be improved, as you stated all music that is for example already 320000 bitrate will get transcoded do to track embedded images. 

 

So ideally shouldn't the threshold be offset by so much to cover the embedded images?  But the hard part is by how much as no ones embedded image are exactly the same.

[Richard Branches 330]

To me it is perspective.  But you should voice your opinion on how this could be improved, as you stated all music that is for example already 320000 bitrate will get transcoded do to track embedded images. 

 

So ideally shouldn't the threshold be offset by so much to cover the embedded images?  But the hard part is by how much as no ones embedded image are exactly the same.

 

Like I said, I always though the server would take into account ONLY the bitrate of the audio part in order to allow the song to be played directly, that's it.

Edited January 16, 2019 by delacosta78

[Luke 42077]

I guess the question is, what if a user's connection could really only handle 320k, and then what if you have a 360k container due to lots of embedded images. Having the 360k file direct play would result in stuttering if it can't get there fast enough.

[Richard Branches 330]

I guess the question is, what if a user's connection could really only handle 320k, and then what if you have a 360k container due to lots of embedded images. Having the 360k file direct play would result in stuttering if it can't get there fast enough.

 

I commented something about that but then deleted it, I guess if there is too much stutter then we should change the bitrate threshold, after all that's a manual setting we can change anytime we need it. Right now I'm more concerned about the issue in comment #85, I've been waiting for almost a year for that issue to be fixed, I still feel disappointed that you couldn't fix it for this new server.

[Luke 42077]

Because a fix for you could break the experience for someone else. You realize that right?

 

I suppose we could allow for a tolerance of 10k, or something along those lines?

[Richard Branches 330]

Because a fix for you could break the experience for someone else. You realize that right?

 

I suppose we could allow for a tolerance of 10k, or something along those lines?

 

Yes, I do. Please let me know when FLAC is not transcoded into itself, that's the issue I've been waiting for the last 11 months to be fixed, I'm patient.

[Luke 42077]

Yes that is a problem. I will test that today. Thanks.

[Luke 42077]

This is sooooo disappointing! so much waiting for nothing? I updated the server to the new 4.0 version and FLAC songs are still converted into the same format instead of AAC when "Auto" is selected in audio settings!!!

 

I'm gonna cry!!! 

 

What app were you playing with here?

[Richard Branches 330]

What app were you playing with here?

 

Latest stable Android mobile app on LG G3 using mobile data.

[Carlo 4560]

The logic really needs to include everything and work the same for movies & TV Shows.

 

Imagine a movie that has 5 different audio tracks in it.  You only use 1 audio track at a time but the file being delivered for direct play still contains all 5 audio tracks.

Those 4 "other" audio tracks still very much take up bandwidth and still need to be counted.  Same with internal subtitles or any other track in the media file.