techywarrior 689 Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 Is your library setup on the server with UNC paths? If yes, what type of file is it?
PoBear 19 Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 I have the top level folder (TV Series) defined as a UNC on the server, the client has direct access to this over the network. The file an SD divx video in an avi container. I've played these directly on the client machine in both Media Player and MCE without problem.
Solution Luke 42078 Posted June 13, 2014 Solution Posted June 13, 2014 it might just be mbc's playback reporting to the server. i think Ebr has implemented this recently but I'm not sure it's been released to the public yet.
flexage 125 Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 But when you added the folder in Media Browser 3 Server, did you use the UNC path there as well, or a local path?
PoBear 19 Posted June 13, 2014 Posted June 13, 2014 I've just another test. I have a second library defined again with divx avi files. This is defined as local drive on the server and I have defined a substitute path in MB3 on playing a file it is also reported as being transcoded. I had a problem a couple of weeks ago where I was getting pixelated playback. I realised that I had this second library defined as local on the server and when I added the path, the pixilation went away so I assumed it was playing directly, it was only when I was checking for new messages in the config that I saw that what we were watching was reported as being transcoded.
PoBear 19 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 Hi Forgive me but I am a bit confused I have an MB3 server running on one machine and another with MBC which I use for playback. I'm watching a programme and the server says that it is transcoding it., both machines have direct access to the folder where the video is available, so why is it transcoding it when it could be playing it directly? Thanks
flexage 125 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 I have noticed that sometimes when MB Server is simply changing a videos container, it reports it as transcoded, even though it effectively isn't re-encoding any video (as such)... What's your CPU usage like on the server (look for FFMPEG in the task manager)? On a dual core chip with a SD video I would expect FFMPEG to use between 50% and 90% CPU... Less on quad core, and significantly less on 6 or 8 cores... In general, if the CPU usage is less than 10%, the video is probably just having a container change... Unless I'm wrong guys? This is my normal experience so far with MB3.
MrFlibbles 21 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 I have noticed the same flexage. I had a minor panic when I saw MBS reporting "transcoding" in one of the "active devices" icons recently. However, looking at the low utilisation on the server CPU and the empty transcoding-temp folder confirm it was direct playing.
flexage 125 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 Grand, glad to hear that I'm barking up the right tree here
PoBear 19 Posted June 14, 2014 Posted June 14, 2014 CPU went up to about 30% on my quad core server when I started playing a 42 minute video, but then dropped back to 3% after about 2 minutes, so I'm guessing it isn't transcoding the file as the best I can render one of these files when editing it is about 8 mins. I know I'm being picky, but why say it is transcoding it when it isn't?
flexage 125 Posted June 15, 2014 Posted June 15, 2014 (edited) Well, that would be based on a technicality... it's probably (almost definitely) being handled by the same internal server process that handles transcoding, just without any real re-encoding of the video... For the first couple of mins where you're seeing a cpu spike, MB3 probably has FFMPEG creating a temporary playback file (duplicate of the original movie with the container changed) in order so that it can be streamed to the client... This isn't unusual, and shouldn't be any cause for concern... in the end it will usually just mean better/more compatible playback. As a side note, if you really want to see how your server copes when actually transcoding properly, try using the web client for playback, as HTML5 has very limited video playback options, the video you are watching will almost certainly be transcoded in most common scenarios... definitely if you try playing back a DIVX file. Realistically, there's no problem with transcoding as long as your server has enough grunt so that you don't experience bad playback... When I was testing the other day, my 8-core server comfortably handled proper transcoding of 5 simultaneous HD videos at 10mbps, at only 80-90% server load... Edit: Please, anyone, feel free to correct me if I've just spouted a load of BS... I'm just making an educated observation of how I've percieved MB3 Server to work Edited June 15, 2014 by flexage 1
CBers 7450 Posted June 15, 2014 Posted June 15, 2014 Check in your server logs directory for transcoded log files. If there are none there, then it it is direct play.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now