I was under the assumption that part of the reason for the RPi transcoding profile was to automatically transcode when playing a high bitrate video. Is that accurate? If so, what is the bitrate limit at which point the RPi will request the server to transcode? I would have figured that automatic transcoding would be triggered at a bitrate the RPi can natively handle without overclocking. That said the the overclocking seems to be working well so far.
I was under the assumption that part of the reason for the RPi transcoding profile was to automatically transcode when playing a high bitrate video. Is that accurate?
No, I don't think so. The decision to use transcoding is made at the client end.
I think the profile is more intended to control what target codecs the PMS server will use when transcoding, as well as set some absolute limits for video resolution and bitrate of all transcoding.
In addition to those limits set by the profile stored at the server end, the client may also specify additional limits at the time of requesting transcoding for a specific video. This is necessary so we can impose stream limits to fit ISP bandwidth limitations.
If so, what is the bitrate limit at which point the RPi will request the server to transcode?
The current implementation in 'RasPlex 0.4.0 RC2' will enforce transcoding for any video exceeding 20000 Kbps.
That's what the notification popup says anyway, when starting a video with higher bitrate.
I would have figured that automatic transcoding would be triggered at a bitrate the RPi can natively handle without overclocking.
If we did that then it would become impossible to direct_play any video with higher bitrate, even with overclocking.
Thus all videos in the appx range 10,000-19,999 Kbps would no longer direct_play for anyone, like they can do now.
What we really need is a user-defined bitrate limit which allows direct_play for any video with lower bitrate and compatible CODECs.
That is what I have argued for in several previous discussions, though it has not yet been accepted as a design goal.
The problem with this is that it's a PHT design choice to enforce transcoding for ALL videos whenever any bitrate limit is specified, even for videos whose bitrate is lower.
So it's really the 'upstream' PHT design that needs to be modified.
(Some other Plex clients than PHT already do it the way I suggest.)
That said the the overclocking seems to be working well so far.
I've never had a problem with it myself, but I don't use the most extreme overclock values.
Best regards: dlanor
Is there any way to remove the 20,000 Kbps max? I have a 30,000 Kbps movie that I could direct play using RaspBMC no worries.
[NEVERMIND]
I'm in the exact same boat as Deevus. Rasplex forces transcoding of hi-bit rate content that plays flawlessly on the same hardware (when overclocked and using pass-through audio) with RaspBMC or even OPENELEC installed. I love the other features of Plex and would prefer to continue to use Rasplex, but not at the expense of transcoding. Can we get an option to remove the cap?
From what I understand, you can just change the setting to 'Direct play' on the rasplex
However, Rasplex seems to have a larger overhead than Raspbmc -- and even with overclocking, the highest sustained bitrate I can achieve is around 22mbps. You can test this out for yourself -- press 'i' on the keyboard to bring up playback info. Typically what happens is the cache drops down to 0, causing a brief (but very annoying) stutter ever couple minutes
If you guys can provide details on what plays properly and what doesnt and that we can have these settings adjusted i'm all in :)
I'm happy to do some testing on this. Is there a way to remove the 20,000kbps limit? At the moment my server doesn't have the power to transcode these films and so I can't play them at all. They play fine on my Mac in PHT though.
I'm happy to do some testing on this. Is there a way to remove the 20,000kbps limit? At the moment my server doesn't have the power to transcode these films and so I can't play them at all. They play fine on my Mac in PHT though.
Use RC4, there is no hard limit when using DirectPlay now.
Awesome. If only RC4 would install under auto-update I would have it already!
With rc4 and dlanor’s usb3 install method and overclock settings I’m getting no dropped frames on an average 30Mbps stream with a 2 minute segment peaking at 60Mbps (!) (Prometheus when David is checking the dreams of the sleeping Dr Shaw). I passthrough the audio to my receiver.
Colour me impressed.
Al
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
So what kind of performance can I expect without over clocking and USB3 install? I need to update 5 machines for "non-techie" people. Running the updater is stressful enough.
Most of the Media played back will be ripped BluRay's ranging from 17Mbs to 50Mbps!
So what kind of performance can I expect without over clocking and USB3 install? I need to update 5 machines for "non-techie" people. Running the updater is stressful enough.
Most of the Media played back will be ripped BluRay's ranging from 17Mbs to 50Mbps!
Theoretically the RasPlex can handle that kind of load now, depending on good network connections etc.
I installed RC4 manually, overclocked and to a USB3 stick and it works like a charm. Noticably faster than RC3 and now 1:1 Blu-ray rips play fine.
If only we could get DTS-HD and TrueHD passthrough and it would be perfect!
DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD aren't likely to happen, so say the Raspberry Pi foundation, there just isn't enough CPU power to generate 192Khz 8 channel data that is required by DTS-MA and TrueHD would have to be CPU decoded and then packed in the right stream format...
You'll have to live with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS (or DTS-MA Core) which both work just fine.
DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD aren't likely to happen, so say the Raspberry Pi foundation, there just isn't enough CPU power to generate 192Khz 8 channel data that is required by DTS-MA and TrueHD would have to be CPU decoded and then packed in the right stream format...
You'll have to live with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS (or DTS-MA Core) which both work just fine.
Mmmmm, maybe thats the problem I am having. I don't have a Surround set up. Just have HDMI from Pi to TV and TV feeding 2 Powered speakers.
Both the Pi and my Server are hardwired to the same GigE switch. I am only ever able to play back full 1080P movies when I Force transcode to 20Mb!
I am using Dianor's settings and so far only experienced a couple of stutters on one movie ( all my movies are 1080p high bitrate, DTS). I went into the audio settings in RasPlex and set ac3 and dts capable receiver and 7.1.
Since the Raspberry Pi can't do HD audio should I reduce the output to 5.1 channels?
Yes this is probably a good idea as it wont support it anyways :)
Thanks LongChair
I’ll change it.
Can someone just clarify for me that in order to playback high bandwidth content (20-50Mbps) the Pi needs to be over-clocked and ran of a USB3 stick!?
Thanks.
USB3 stick wont help form playback, that will more likely speed up GUI navigation.
Overclocking can still help high bitrate content.
Are you still having stuttering issue with RC4 ?
