ffmpeg is CPU intensive. So saying you don’t think it would suck the battery down is kind of wishful thinking. It’s going to suck the battery dry darned quick, as the CPU is going to take so much time and effort converting the video and it’s got to get that power from someplace. Either the battery or the wall socket. And what happens to your other apps as ffmpeg takes upwards of 80% or more of the CPU cycles to do what you are asking it to do?
Hell on an i3-4330 chip it still takes well over 75% CPU usage to run conversions with ffmpeg on a device designed with conversions in mind. Power usage goes up dramatically while the CPU runs so high. Get the CPU down around 15-20% and power is manageable,. So is the heat generated by the device.
Honestly, you are so much better off converting to a more Plex Friendly container and codec on the media stored on your PMS device from the get go. No buffering while watching your media even remotely. A constant stream from your server to your device, without any hitches.
Put your media into a more Plex Friendly format from the start and your clients won’t need to have the video stream transcoded at all. All of the conversions can be automated, so you seldom have to even touch the files. This is the easiest and least painful of all worlds, but people fight it tooth and nail.
This isn’t rocket science… More CPU cycles used = more power used to feed the CPU = more heat generated by the device = less lifetime on your expensive phone or tablet… Just some very basic electronics principles involved here…
Ultimately it’s your device. So your expenses in replacing it when it burns up. If this were to ever get implemented I would hope there is a switch on the clients to allow those of us that understand how this works to turn off the function. I certainly don’t want to have to replace my tablet every time I want to watch a 1080p movie on it. (Which I do quite often as it sits now.)
And BTW, I run on one of those “■■■■■■ Servers” (An AS-7004T NAS) and NEVER have to do transcoding with iOS, Android or a host of other clients. The media is converted before Plex gets it. If the bandwidth requirements permit it, the media is already Direct Played straight from the server. Up to 20Mbps steams, without fail.
My NAS does indeed support HW acceleration. For every media server app available to install on it, but Plex. Since Plex hasn’t added HW support for the transcoder in it’s flavor of ffmpeg. If it did, there wouldn’t be the Plex imposed 1500 passmarks for 720p or 2000 passmarks for 1080p for transcoding hardware. This is the minimum specs Plex documents the server supporting for RT transcoding sessions. If hardware acceleration were enabled on the server side, the server requirements would be much lower for those CPU’s that have HW acceleration enabled…
The thing you seem to miss though, @RockStar is this: My media is all converted to MP4, H264 with AAC audio in the first track and AC3 in the second track before Plex ever sees it to share it out. Which means I’m already running the most compatible file container and codecs from Plex for every stream my server runs. The ONLY time my server transcodes now is if it’s a remote connection and the bandwidth requirements are too low for the stream to be sent.
I have 2 users with the iPhones or iPads in my entire user lists. Everyone else including me, is running Android, PC or Roku. Those two users are remote users and the server has to transcode for their bandwidth requirements anyway. So even if the transcoding were handled on the client side, they wouldn’t be able to make use of it as the bandwidth required to get the file to the client would be too slow for them to make use of it anyway.
If you had the media in the most Plex Friendly format from the get go, you wouldn’t need this transcoding going on in your phone at all. And if you do need to have transcoding done, it’s going to be because the iPhone can’t get the full bandwidth of the media anyway. So you want to have that transcoding going on server side, anyway
Ultimately it’s going to come down to if the Plex Team sees value in handing the transcodes off to the client instead of keeping it server side. Plex’s history of the client dictating stream quality and bandwidth requirements to the server pretty much will tell you this isn’t going to happen any time soon, anyway.
@MikeG6.5 said:
The thing you seem to miss though, @RockStar is this: My media is all converted to MP4, H264 with AAC audio in the first track and AC3 in the second track before Plex ever sees it to share it out. Which means I’m already running the most compatible file container and codecs from Plex for every stream my server runs. The ONLY time my server transcodes now is if it’s a remote connection and the bandwidth requirements are too low for the stream to be sent.
Bro. Dont be so self centred. You are not the norm.
@MikeG6.5 said:
The thing you seem to miss though, @RockStar is this: My media is all converted to MP4, H264 with AAC audio in the first track and AC3 in the second track before Plex ever sees it to share it out. Which means I’m already running the most compatible file container and codecs from Plex for every stream my server runs. The ONLY time my server transcodes now is if it’s a remote connection and the bandwidth requirements are too low for the stream to be sent.
Bro. Dont be so self centred. You are not the norm.
Really, YOU’RE calling someone self-centered when you want this to implemented to fit your needs SO BAD you even said you’d want to watch stuff on your ios device plugged into a power socket? He’s just telling you there are much more sensible and EASY ways to fix this… get your files in the right format.
Bro. Dont be so self centred. You are not the norm.
Notice that the Plex Team has now implemented the Optimize Media feature with the latest PMS release? What do you think this does, anyway?
It converts the media from whatever container and codec you have to an MP4, with H264 video codec and AAC audio codec in the first audio track. It can keep the original bitrates, original sizes, etc. Or can make a 1.5Mbps movie to sync to phones or a 4Mbps movie for TV’s. Hell, they even added in a new field in the xml info for container type so you can tell what container your media is in…
Sadly, people like @cayars and I and many others have been preaching MP4, H264, AAC and AC3 for over a year now, and still people have it in their minds that their under powered devices can do any file container, any codecs and at any bit rates because they are special somehow…
This format is the most Plex Friendly format you can get. It’s also one of the best features they have added in a very long time. There is no longer any excuse for people to not have the right container and codecs for streaming under any situation.
I guess this feature redefines the “Norm” now doesn’t it?
The only FFmpeg use in iOS is for audio (direct-play of DTS, AC3, and the HD formats (with libdcadec)). This is true of Android and Plex for Windows too. tvOS however could absolutely use FFmpeg for video to make it far more powerful.
Bro. Dont be so self centred. You are not the norm.
Notice that the Plex Team has now implemented the Optimize Media feature with the latest PMS release? What do you think this does, anyway?
Quite honestly, it’s a feature that I will never use. Huge library, what should I “optimise” and waste diskspace on while you can have a client that could do it for you? It’s an upsidedown world.
@bakman1 said:
Quite honestly, it’s a feature that I will never use. Huge library, what should I “optimise” and waste diskspace on while you can have a client that could do it for you? It’s an upsidedown world.
Me neither. That feature is another bandaid to fix a bandaid.
I’m not going to waste time, diskspace, CPU cycles and electricity for my media to convert them to another format just because they refuse to implement the proper format support in the client. Transcoding will ALWAYS be suboptimal and lead to quality loss in your media. If this isn’t coming in the native Plex client, then that will be loss of userbase for Plex, inc. The FireCore client already does this on iOS and it can stream off Plex Server too, and they’re making an aTV client as well.
@MikeG6.5 as PlexPass members we are allowed to propose features and vote. If you don’t like this feature, don’t vote for it. It’s as simple as that.
It’s so sad to so many of you older members who are saying that your client app and device can handle what many full blown desktop and server devices can’t. You guys KNOW what it takes to handle transcoding of media. You have discussed this issue with others on these forums.
Yet you still think your weak CPU’d iOS device can do what some desktop machines struggle to do. Completely mind boggling… Some of you are still keeping your media in MKV rips with embedded subtitles and 10 or more audio tracks, I’ll bet…
Storage is cheap. maintaining multiple copies of the media is also, relatively cheap. Putting the decoder on your iOS may help the device to play a bit better, but it’s not going to handle full 20Mbps transcodes. Even locally…
Anyway… Do what you want when it comes to this feature. As I wouldn’t own an Apple product ever this request will likely never affect me. And I’ll keep multiple copies, as I was doing BEFORE this Optimize Media feature came along, I will just use the feature to streamline the conversions process. My users will be happy as they watch my media. How will yours feel about their viewing experience of your media?
@MikeG6.5 said:
It’s so sad to so many of you older members who are saying that your client app and device can handle what many full blown desktop and server devices can’t. You guys KNOW what it takes to handle transcoding of media. You have discussed this issue with others on these forums.
Yet you still think your weak CPU’d iOS device can do what some desktop machines struggle to do. Completely mind boggling… Some of you are still keeping your media in MKV rips with embedded subtitles and 10 or more audio tracks, I’ll bet…
Storage is cheap. maintaining multiple copies of the media is also, relatively cheap. Putting the decoder on your iOS may help the device to play a bit better, but it’s not going to handle full 20Mbps transcodes. Even locally…
Anyway… Do what you want when it comes to this feature. As I wouldn’t own an Apple product ever this request will likely never affect me. And I’ll keep multiple copies, as I was doing BEFORE this Optimize Media feature came along, I will just use the feature to streamline the conversions process. My users will be happy as they watch my media. How will yours feel about their viewing experience of your media?
its all well and good mate. but my users are idiots and where I have multiple copies of the same film, they’ve said “I always choose 1080p and it always buffers, I don’t want to play it at 720p” so tell me what to do now?
give me server side bandwidth controls so I can set the output per user and then give me transcode ability on client boxes.
I wasn’t even talking about Apple devices. just because you don’t like them/use them [for whatever reason] doesn’t I won’t use them or my users will use them.
we’re all different. its just Plex, don’t take it too seriously!
Don’t forget the obvious problem of bandwidth and usage caps. If you aren’t on WIFI this is a real concern for cell phone users.
Regardless of CPU power needed (server or client) if the file isn’t converted before being sent then the original file needs to get sent to the client. How many of you guys want to burn up 8GB or more of bandwidth from your allotted monthly usage to get a file the server could have converted and and sent as 500Mb instead?
Realistically unless you are home or at the office on a high speed WIFI network this won’t work well in the real world for Plex. If you are at a hotel, cafe, McDs or some other place that has free WIFI you may be able to get a low Mb version of a file to transfer but forget about pulling down original size files. Just not going to happen.
give me server side bandwidth controls so I can set the output per user and then give me transcode ability on client boxes.<
If you have server side bandwidth controls, how can the client app transcode it on the fly? You are sending them only a small portion of the file RT, if at all by limiting their speed. Then you expect the client app to take that partial stream and transcode it? Sorry, I don’t think this will work…
If you have bandwidth controls on the server side and had media premade to fit that controlled size, the user can’t choose a different resolution, therefore there would be no need for the client to transcode, as the media is already streamable straight from the server.
Jammy, man, think about what you said… You can’t expect to win a cart race if you are using ponies instead of full size horses…
@Jammy B said:
Agreed. I’m not Netflix or YouTube. Just give me the ability to transcode on clients next!
I really don’t get this request unless it’s specific to fruit boxes due to restrictions of codecs allowed. But to me if the client is fast enough to transcode on the fly then it should just be able to play the video in the first place since it’s also powerful enough by default.
Is this request specific to limitations of ios (idiotic operating system)?
Carlo
While I typically won’t “rag” on Big A I couldn’t resist as this is just nuts to have to jump through hoops to play video (if in fact this is the reason).
@Don’t forget the obvious problem of bandwidth and usage caps. If you aren’t on WIFI this is a real concern for cell phone users.
Thats only an issue on iOS in the event if you stream from your phone on another locationand not when you’re inside your network. It’s never an issue on tvOS as this is hooked to your LAN to begin with.
@cayars said:> I really don’t get this request unless it’s specific to fruit boxes due to restrictions of codecs allowed. But to me if the client is fast enough to transcode on the fly then it should just be able to play the video in the first place since it’s also powerful enough by default.
Is this request specific to limitations of ios (idiotic operating system)?
Its kind of specific to iOS since most iOS devices are more powerful than most non-iOS devices :). As such the request is not specific to the limitations of iOS but to the limitations of the mobile plex players. The gist of the request is to treat modern iOS/tvOS as a desktop OS in terms of playback capabilities instead of a mobile OS since modern they have enough processing power, thus eliminating the need of transcoding.
While I typically won’t “rag” on Big A I couldn’t resist as this is just nuts to have to jump through hoops to play video (if in fact this is the reason).
@MikeG6.5 said:
It’s so sad to so many of you older members who are saying that your client app and device can handle what many full blown desktop and server devices can’t. You guys KNOW what it takes to handle transcoding of media. You have discussed this issue with others on these forums.
The iOS devices I use have about the same processing power as my HTPC. My HTPC CPU is 79% idle while playing media. Processing power isn’t an issue.
