First off, Im not going to take credit for this request, this was brought up by forum user bakman1 in the Apple TV forum, and I think it is a great idea. His post from that forum is in italic under:
There are various github projects available that provide frameworks to play mkv/mp3 etc in iOS apps.
By integrating ffmpeg in the app, it will eliminate the needs for transcoding (for which many users have no cpu power available for ie. NAS’ses.).
In the ATV-appstore there are some dlna apps that use this - and they play content from my plex server natively.
NAStify Player is a great working example which uses vlc internally, all code is available on github.
This would make Plex & aTV a great and flexible player.
Anyways, seing how it is possible to utilize ffmpeg over Apples player and their strict codec and container regime, doing this will tremendously improve the clients and be a huge leap. To be honest, I dont know why this hasn’t been done already. So upvote like crazy guys :)>-
Here is a thread on Macrumors started by the author of Nastify, a media streamer that will play tons of formats natively with no need for transcoding. Apparently DTS passthrough is also in the works.
If the official Plex app doesnt implement such options, Im guessing third party Plex apps may come to the rescue eventually, but official support would obviously be prefered.
I don’t know how the source code of the plex-apps are connected, but for iOS apps it might consume more cpu and battery. Apple TV could be a great starting point though.
I would love to see this. It would definitely be a good addition as I could get rid of my dedicated computer.
I think it must require lots of work compared to the time spent to build the tvOS Plex app. Wouldn’t it need to be rewritten BTW ? Anyone has clues on this ? Maybe it would be easier for the devs to integrate it into the iOS app than the tvOS one.
As you may have noticed, the Plex app for tvOS was released relatively quick after the release of the ATV. Some things can be more simple on ATV in terms of displaying the lists and navigation (tvml/js). To include ffmpeg and file handling will require dev work, is it relevant ?
As you may have noticed, the Plex app for tvOS was released relatively quick after the release of the ATV. Some things can be more simple on ATV in terms of displaying the lists and navigation (tvml/js). To include ffmpeg and file handling will require dev work, is it relevant ?
I believe both OSs share a lot of similarities and would like to see this implemented in both apps. The only reason I can see not to include this on the regular iOS app would be if it negatively affects battery. Iphones with the HDMI dongle can be a great player on the go. No reason for transcoding and a loss in quality / strain on the server so long bandwith permits direct play.
Strongly in favour of this on TVOS.
Strongly opposed to this on iOS
@RockStar said:
Anyways, seing how it is possible to utilize ffmpeg over Apples player and their strict codec and container regime, doing this will tremendously improve the clients and be a huge leap. To be honest, I dont know why this hasn’t been done already.
You actually do know why it hasn’t been done already: @RockStar said:
The only reason I can see not to include this on the regular iOS app would be if it negatively affects battery
Bingo, hit the nail on the head. Video needs to be decoded to be displayed. Some devices (e.g. iPhones, iPads) includes hardware support to decode some specific codecs (e.g. h264) in a power-efficient manner, bypassing the general purpose CPU. Attempting to decode codecs that aren’t supported in the hardware (e.g. h265) results in decoding having to hit the CPU. Doing this at the server-side results in CPU hit there, as it decodes and then re-encodes the video to a format that the remote player can support in hardware (e.g. transcoding h265 to h264 for playback on an iPhone). Doing this at the client-side results in the CPU hit occurring on the client-side, which in this example (h265 on an iPhone) would result in a pretty significant battery drain.
@deepseth said:
Bingo, hit the nail on the head. Video needs to be decoded to be displayed. Some devices (e.g. iPhones, iPads) includes hardware support to decode some specific codecs (e.g. h264) in a power-efficient manner, bypassing the general purpose CPU. Attempting to decode codecs that aren’t supported in the hardware (e.g. h265) results in decoding having to hit the CPU.
+1 on TVOS
-1 on iOS
Well on iOS ffmpg utilises apples HW acceleration so including it would give you direct playback of (most) mkvs rather than direct streaming of such, as well as ac3 and dts support. Unsupported codecs like h.265 is a problem the iOS server profile can take care of (these can still be decoded by the server even if ffmpg supports them).
As I see it, if you have a ■■■■■■ server that aren’t up to the task of transcoding (NAS), ffmpg in iOS will at least allow for playback of pretty much any format, even if it means you need to be connected to a poweroutlet, where as the current solution may not.
@RockStar said:
As I see it, if you have a ■■■■■■ server that aren’t up to the task of transcoding (NAS), ffmpg in iOS will at least allow for playback of pretty much any format, even if it means you need to be connected to a poweroutlet, where as the current solution may not.
If you have a powerful enough iOS device.
Meanwhile you can pick up an i3 computer for less than $100 on eBay, which if plumbed in correctly, also gives you a security increase compared to running directly on your ‘■■■■■■ server… (NAS)’!
@deepseth said:
Bingo, hit the nail on the head. Video needs to be decoded to be displayed. Some devices (e.g. iPhones, iPads) includes hardware support to decode some specific codecs (e.g. h264) in a power-efficient manner, bypassing the general purpose CPU. Attempting to decode codecs that aren’t supported in the hardware (e.g. h265) results in decoding having to hit the CPU.
+1 on TVOS
-1 on iOS
Well on iOS ffmpg utilises apples HW acceleration so including it would give you direct playback of (most) mkvs rather than direct streaming of such, as well as ac3 and dts support. Unsupported codecs like h.265 is a problem the iOS server profile can take care of (these can still be decoded by the server even if ffmpg supports them).
As I see it, if you have a ■■■■■■ server that aren’t up to the task of transcoding (NAS), ffmpg in iOS will at least allow for playback of pretty much any format, even if it means you need to be connected to a poweroutlet, where as the current solution may not.
@deepseth said:
Bingo, hit the nail on the head. Video needs to be decoded to be displayed. Some devices (e.g. iPhones, iPads) includes hardware support to decode some specific codecs (e.g. h264) in a power-efficient manner, bypassing the general purpose CPU. Attempting to decode codecs that aren’t supported in the hardware (e.g. h265) results in decoding having to hit the CPU.
+1 on TVOS
-1 on iOS
Well on iOS ffmpg utilises apples HW acceleration so including it would give you direct playback of (most) mkvs rather than direct streaming of such, as well as ac3 and dts support. Unsupported codecs like h.265 is a problem the iOS server profile can take care of (these can still be decoded by the server even if ffmpg supports them).
As I see it, if you have a ■■■■■■ server that aren’t up to the task of transcoding (NAS), ffmpg in iOS will at least allow for playback of pretty much any format, even if it means you need to be connected to a poweroutlet, where as the current solution may not.
Plex builds it’s product for thousands of people, probably tend of thousands. Realistically, what do you think is the proportion of those users that want a battery sucking app on their ios device in exchange for lower requirements on the server?
I could even wrong, but I seriously doubt that’d more than a few %.
I can understand the demand on tvos even if I doubt it will happen, but on ios it just doesn’t make sense.
Plex builds it’s product for thousands of people, probably tend of thousands. Realistically, what do you think is the proportion of those users that want a battery sucking app on their ios device in exchange for lower requirements on the server?
I could even wrong, but I seriously doubt that’d more than a few %.
I think most plex users are sensible enough to not to bother building their own server even if they are able to.
Also, if ffmpeg supports hardware acceleration like RockStar suggests, the battery sucking part of the story should prove to be a rather minor issue.
