Server Version#: Version 1.15.4.994-107756f7e
Player Version#: Plex for Kodi (target Nvidia Shield)
Hi there!
I’m trying to use a combination of optionally server profile customisation and/or client modification (see https://github.com/irond13/plex-for-kodi) to achieve the following:
Maintain direct stream of audio tracks including Dolby TrueHD, DTS-X, etc and
Enabling video transcoding limited to specific video bitrates, e.g. 10 or 12Mb/s. This transcoding is necessary for bandwidth limitation purposes as well as to convert from 4k to 1080p.
So far, I have been able to achieve direct audio streaming (incl. getting all ‘lights’ on at the receiver, e.g. TrueHD Atmos & DTS-X) while transcoding video using my Kodi plug-in fork (see link above).
The problem is that I can only get direct streaming of audio if I set the quality to Original. While this results in a transcoded video stream if the 4k option is disabled, the resulting video stream is still way too big.
If I drop the quality to something manageable (e.g. 10 or 12Mb/s) the video plays smoothly, but then the MDE decides that audio direct streaming isn’t possible and transcodes to EAC3 or worse.
I’ve noticed that the Android app has separate Audio and Video bitrate settings, which would seem ideal, but the Audio setting seems to have no effect. If I could understand how/if it works, I would gladly implement it in my Kodi fork.
Is there anyway that I can communicate to the server MDE, either using server profiles or client profile extras, that the video bitrate should be limited, but the audio bitrate unlimited?
FWIW, a direct stream of a full Atmos TrueHD track is only around 4Mb/s, which is more than manageable from a bandwidth perspective.
I can’t answer any of your other questions, but I would expect the audio settings to apply only to music (non video) content.
there are xml profiles on the server (and probably in the clients too) that can be modified or over-ridden but I’ve never bothered with that so I have no idea where to tell you to start looking.
I’m also unclear on why you are trying to do this, are you trying to stream from a remote server?
do you not have a 4k tv?
kodi is a ‘thick’ client, in that it can handle more codecs directly, where as a normal plex player is more like a ‘thin’ client and the server converts as necessary to meet the limitations of the client/device hardware.
While I do love high quality audio, I am not sure that sacrificing video quality just to maintain direct streaming audio is something many people would want.
In any case, you are probably better off with remuxing a truehd audio track into whatever bitrate 720 or 1080p rip that will allow you to direct play both audio and video within whatever bandwidth limits.
I would expect the audio settings to apply only to music (non video) content.
Thanks for the thought! That actually makes a lot of sense - and would explain why changing the Audio quality preference didn’t seem to have any effect.
I can’t answer any of your other questions, but I would expect the audio settings to apply only to music (non video) content.
Yup, you can get quite far with that. Indeed, that’s how I was able to get TrueHD audio support when transcoding video. Unfortunately, it seems the customisation there is limited to specifying codec/container/protocol support. I couldn’t find anything bitrate related there.
I’m also unclear on why you are trying to do this, are you trying to stream from a remote server?
do you not have a 4k tv?
The use case here is indeed remote streaming. The TV only supports 1080p, but the receiver/audio setup supports full HD and object audio (TrueHD Atmos & DTS-X).
Remuxing is the most obvious answer, but convincing the owner of the server (family member) to remux his whole library will be a quite another challenge
In terms of bandwidth, we probably only have around 16Mb/s to play with, but that should be enough for a 10/12Mb/s video stream with a TrueHD audio direct stream.
I fully acknowledge though that this is a far from a mainstream set of requirements/desires.
I have only one movie with TrueHD 7.1 audio in my library atm, but his one has requiredBandwidths="5446,5183,4904,4904,4904,4904,4904,4904
And you have to take into account that the bitrate of a video stream can fluctuate much more. the 12mb you are seeing in mediainfo, which is only showing the ‘dumb’ averaged bandwidth with filesize/playing time. That doesn’t provide a realistic picture of the real required bandwidth to stream that file without buffering.
Take a look at the requiredBandwidths of your video stream.
(they should appear in the Plex XML info )
i think to be honest, you are simply wasting your time trying to accomplish a very specific but narrow goal.
since you already have a shield, instead you should turn your efforts to getting a nas or external storage, use your shield as server and stream your own content locally instead of look for tricks to try to make something function in a way it is not designed.
the shield and an 8 or 10tb usb drive should carry you for quite awhile before run out of both space or server power.
the shield isn’t a perfect server by any means, but since you already have one, you can take advantage of it for free, or well for the cost of some storage, and the time/effort it takes to rip your own content.
