Streaming bandwidth

[JuiceWSA]

@faycee

we’ve established that i was wrong…

Not really.

We’ve established that we need to see a MediaInfo report to see what’s going on in the files you create - like this one, for instance:

General
Unique ID                                : 153800752823708473305417294525821044856 (0x73B4F29189F7F9CD1B4ABAB6EA0B4878)
Complete name                            : D:\Handbrake Dumps\The Sinner - S03E03 - Part III.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 581 MiB
Duration                                 : 44 min 11 s
Overall bit rate                         : 1 837 kb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2020-02-21 20:46:17
Writing application                      : Lavf58.26.100
Writing library                          : Lavf58.26.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 44 min 11 s
Bit rate                                 : 1 450 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 280 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Stream size                              : 448 MiB (77%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 157 r2935 545de2f
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1450 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 44 min 11 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 121 MiB (21%)
Title                                    : Surround
Writing library                          : Lavc58.46.100 ac3_fixed
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Text
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : UTF-8
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info                            : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration                                 : 43 min 48 s
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

That one is still warm.

The ABR is 1450kbps (on this somewhat rare 720 encode), but I’d have remote viewers set the quality at 1080 @ 8.
I don’t have many 1080 @ 8s, almost none that they’d be using, but that does catch 99% in a Direct Play.

[OttoKerner]

@faycee

that i was wrong in thinking plex was streaming at a constant 35mbps…

Don’t forget that Plex doesn’t do “traffic shaping”. Particularly at playback start, it transfers as many packets as it can, to fill up the client’s buffer memory.

I’d say you need to wait at least several minutes after playback start, before you can trust your traffic monitor

[faycee]

#### Media

* Duration 2:42:32
* Bitrate 2674 kbps
* Width 1280
* Height 544
* Aspect Ratio 2.35
* Video Resolution 720p
* Container MKV
* Video Frame Rate 24p
* Audio Profile dts
* Video Profile high

* Codec H264
* Bitrate 1906 kbps
* Language English
* Bit Depth 8
* Chroma Location left
* Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
* Coded Height 544
* Coded Width 1280
* Frame Rate 23.976 fps
* Height 544
* Level 4.1
* Profile high
* Ref Frames 4
* Scan Type progressive
* Title TZP 720P 
* Width 1280
* Display Title 720p (H.264)

* Codec DCA
* Channels 6
* Bitrate 768 kbps
* Language हिन्दी, हिंदी
* Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
* Bit Depth 16
* Profile dts
* Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
* Title TZP 720P 
* Display Title हिन्दी, हिंदी (DTS 5.1)

* Codec AAC
* Channels 2
* Audio Channel Layout stereo
* Profile he-aac
* Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
* Display Title Unknown (HE-AAC Stereo)

[JuiceWSA]

A’ight.

That one is 720p, about 3000kbps. <—variable ‘audios’ unknown.
I’d still set the remote client to 1080 @ 8.

Barring circumstance that should Direct Play everything the client can handle natively.

[anon18523487]

@faycee

Is there any setting within an encoding software like ‘handbrake’ that would allow me to set a max bitrate so i can contain the peaks around 10mbps?

I don’t know if the UI for Handbrake has the option, but it is based on FFMPEG and that does have the ability to limit peaks. It’s the maxrate variable.

[JuiceWSA]

@anon18523487

I don’t know if the UI for Handbrake has the option, but it is based on FFMPEG and that does have the ability to limit peaks. It’s the maxrate variable.

There is an area in the GUI were one could enter special commands - providing they are entered so that HB can interpret them. I believe it’s fairly simple. I would refer to HB documentation for the details.

[TeknoJunky]

peak bitrate is not necessarily the problem, since plex prebuffers, the peaks are not necessarily hitting bandwidth caps.

what can cause a problem is a section of high average bitrate that exceeds (or gets close to) the sustained bandwidth of the combined client/server connection, that causes the buffer to run out.

I have 11ish meg upload.

I’m streaming a 4k > 720/4mbs video.

my actual streaming bandwidth comes in bursts.

if you see your bandwidth not in bursts, but at a constantly flat line, then you are starting to hit your upload bw limit.

[faycee]

@JuiceWSA

re one could enter special commands - providing they are entered so that HB can interpret them. I believe it’s fairly simple. I would refer

That would actually be really handy! i haven’t used FFMPEG because of the coding involved looks abit complex. i’ve found: this

[JuiceWSA]

@TeknoJunky

what can cause a problem is a section of high average bitrate that exceeds (or gets close to) the sustained bandwidth of the combined client/server connection, that causes the buffer to run out.

…as was painfully illustrated in living color the other day when a friend with a crap ISP couldn’t maintain 3.5Mbps. The buffer ran out and big wheel keep on turnin’…

In a Hail Mary I had him switch to 720 @ 2 and enable Auto Quality. The remote quality guaranteed a transcode for that movie he was watching, and Auto Quality adjusted it - as low as 350kbps (before I just couldn’t watch any more), fuzzy, I’m sure, but playing.

[dbjordan]

Any chance we can get some additional streaming bandwidth options? I have a remote system that struggles with original quality (even as low as 25.2 Mbps like the attached pic) but works fine with Convert to 1080p HD (High) 20 Mbps. Would an option for Convert to 2160p 20Mbps (or even 15Mbps, like Netflix’s 30fps average) be possible to add?