Understanding MediaBrowser
Good Day.
I am new to this forum and a relatively new user of Serviio and as such I am trying to understand a little more about how the MediaBrowser (MB) works.
I primarily use Serviio's MediaBrowser so my family can remotely access videos that I have captured and stored on my computer using Applian’s Replay Media Catcher. The majority of these videos are in FLV container files with the following video attributes:
HD 1280*720 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 fps, AVC format (High@L4.1), variable bit rate
Or
SD 832*468 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 fps, AVC format (Main@L3.1) variable bit rate.
Viewing is typically via an iPad which in turn uses airplay to an AppleTV (v3) and an HDMI connection.
Everything seems to work fairly well with very infrequent buffering. My questions are as follows:
1. In the above scenario of streaming to iPad – AppleTV – TV what processing is done by the various components?
a) Does MB transcode the video as it is being streamed to the ipad? Are both the SD versions and HD versions transcoded? If so what transcoding is performed?
b) If the iPad is one with the HD retina display Vs the older display on the iPad2 is the transcoding any different?
c) Does the ipad or AppleTV does any further transcoding – if so – what?
d) The TV (Samsung D Series) shows that it is receiving a 1920*1080 60p input from the AppleTV. So is the AppleTV upscaling the resolution as it streams?
2. If the source file container was an mp4 would the answers to 1 (a) change?
3. When MB is transcoding what is it actually changing? Maybe I’m using the wrong terminology but when other programs (e.g., Handbrake) transcode the process is quite lengthy so how does MB do it in real time while streaming?
Is there a write up anywhere that describes how the profiles in the MB config files are interpreted? I see that the application-profiles.xml file has some information about an "ios" profile but I couldn’t quite follow what was going on.
I also use MB to stream captured videos to my own TV at home. I tried doing it directly from MB to the TV but got frustrated with random hangs and then not being able to fast forward to where I left off (I blame the sw in the TV). So I also started to use the iPad – Apple TV approach. This worked better and I had a modicum of control of fast forwarding after a hang through the iPad browser window – but it was still frequently a frustrating experience. In the latter case a hang was usually due to Airplay freezing and I would have to reboot the iPad to continue. I never had any problems if I just watched the video streaming to just the iPad. I also used the iPad to stream videos over a VPN connection and would have the same airplay issues. To resolve this I invested in a Zotac ZBOX nano (Ci320) PC which came with Windows 8.1 already installed. It connects to the Samsung TV with an HDMI cable with 1920*1080 resolution. I use this box for both streaming over the VPN as well as streaming from MB with much better results. This brings to me to my second set of questions:
1. The Zotac ZBOX, as far as MB is concerned, is a Generic device. Does this mean that when streaming the FLV videos described above that no transcoding of the video is taking place and that the video is being handled by the Flash Video player in Internet Explorer?
Sorry for being so long winded but I’ve just started trying to understand what is going on under the covers with so many devices, protocols, codecs etc. If anyone could point me to a good write up on getting a better grasp of the technology I would be grateful.
Thanks in advance
Cheers
Mike
I am new to this forum and a relatively new user of Serviio and as such I am trying to understand a little more about how the MediaBrowser (MB) works.
I primarily use Serviio's MediaBrowser so my family can remotely access videos that I have captured and stored on my computer using Applian’s Replay Media Catcher. The majority of these videos are in FLV container files with the following video attributes:
HD 1280*720 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 fps, AVC format (High@L4.1), variable bit rate
Or
SD 832*468 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 fps, AVC format (Main@L3.1) variable bit rate.
Viewing is typically via an iPad which in turn uses airplay to an AppleTV (v3) and an HDMI connection.
Everything seems to work fairly well with very infrequent buffering. My questions are as follows:
1. In the above scenario of streaming to iPad – AppleTV – TV what processing is done by the various components?
a) Does MB transcode the video as it is being streamed to the ipad? Are both the SD versions and HD versions transcoded? If so what transcoding is performed?
b) If the iPad is one with the HD retina display Vs the older display on the iPad2 is the transcoding any different?
c) Does the ipad or AppleTV does any further transcoding – if so – what?
d) The TV (Samsung D Series) shows that it is receiving a 1920*1080 60p input from the AppleTV. So is the AppleTV upscaling the resolution as it streams?
2. If the source file container was an mp4 would the answers to 1 (a) change?
3. When MB is transcoding what is it actually changing? Maybe I’m using the wrong terminology but when other programs (e.g., Handbrake) transcode the process is quite lengthy so how does MB do it in real time while streaming?
Is there a write up anywhere that describes how the profiles in the MB config files are interpreted? I see that the application-profiles.xml file has some information about an "ios" profile but I couldn’t quite follow what was going on.
I also use MB to stream captured videos to my own TV at home. I tried doing it directly from MB to the TV but got frustrated with random hangs and then not being able to fast forward to where I left off (I blame the sw in the TV). So I also started to use the iPad – Apple TV approach. This worked better and I had a modicum of control of fast forwarding after a hang through the iPad browser window – but it was still frequently a frustrating experience. In the latter case a hang was usually due to Airplay freezing and I would have to reboot the iPad to continue. I never had any problems if I just watched the video streaming to just the iPad. I also used the iPad to stream videos over a VPN connection and would have the same airplay issues. To resolve this I invested in a Zotac ZBOX nano (Ci320) PC which came with Windows 8.1 already installed. It connects to the Samsung TV with an HDMI cable with 1920*1080 resolution. I use this box for both streaming over the VPN as well as streaming from MB with much better results. This brings to me to my second set of questions:
1. The Zotac ZBOX, as far as MB is concerned, is a Generic device. Does this mean that when streaming the FLV videos described above that no transcoding of the video is taking place and that the video is being handled by the Flash Video player in Internet Explorer?
Sorry for being so long winded but I’ve just started trying to understand what is going on under the covers with so many devices, protocols, codecs etc. If anyone could point me to a good write up on getting a better grasp of the technology I would be grateful.
Thanks in advance
Cheers
Mike