Prefer Direct Play / Speedtest (For true attainable playback speed)

Feature Suggestions
1

So the idea is this. Server sets ‘Prefer Direct Play’, clients does a speedtest towards the server, and sets their true playback Mbps ability.

So transcoding is minimized, and direct play optimized - and if they are transcoding, they are reminded that if possible, they shouldn’t.

Simple and elegant, no?

2

@karbowiak said:
So the idea is this. Server sets ‘Prefer Direct Play’, clients does a speedtest towards the server, and sets their true playback Mbps ability.

So transcoding is minimized, and direct play optimized - and if they are transcoding, they are reminded that if possible, they shouldn’t.

Simple and elegant, no?

This makes zero sense. Whether they can playback the content with direct play depends on their client. Some clients won’t direct play everything no matter their internet speed. Also are you going to stop them watching even if it’s not preferred? I know I’d rather not have that conversation.

3

@danjames92 said:

@karbowiak said:
So the idea is this. Server sets ‘Prefer Direct Play’, clients does a speedtest towards the server, and sets their true playback Mbps ability.

So transcoding is minimized, and direct play optimized - and if they are transcoding, they are reminded that if possible, they shouldn’t.

Simple and elegant, no?

This makes zero sense. Whether they can playback the content with direct play depends on their client. Some clients won’t direct play everything no matter their internet speed. Also are you going to stop them watching even if it’s not preferred? I know I’d rather not have that conversation.

Now that i re-read what i wrote, i must admit, i must’ve been temporarily high as ■■■■.

The idea was basically that at random intervals (Not every launch, or every play, but like once or twice a week, if the server has been accessed) it would issue a speedtest to the server, to get the throughput to/from it - so the Mbps quality could be set accordingly.

Which would lead to less transcodes, because the current default if it’s not setup, is the lowest quality setting possible, which means everything transcodes.

And if the server itself has set “Prefer DirectPlay” the clients would get a tiny popup box (like they do now if the connection isn’t strong enough to play a video without stutter), telling them that they are now transcoding - while the server has set prefer direct play

//
I’ll update my original post accordingly :slight_smile:

4

Or not, doesn’t seem that is actually possible… sigh