Transcoding once and for all, not on the fly

Wouldn't it make sense to transcode files once, rather than doing it on-the-fly and eating up all the processing cycles?

If so, what is good for the job on a Mac? Handbrake, anything else? Presumably FFmpeg does it?

If its a good idea in general, the 64K question is "which files need transcoding"? Any way to tell which files get transcoded on the fly when played on my VT30?

Is there a "safe" format I can write to which will play on a large range of TVs / other devices in the future?

[Illico]

Wouldn't it make sense to transcode files once, rather than doing it on-the-fly and eating up all the processing cycles?

Yes it make sense, you can do it then serviio will always deliver file in native format, it's better for your cpu load, but you have to find the better format (size,quality,etc)

If so, what is good for the job on a Mac? Handbrake, anything else? Presumably FFmpeg does it?

On MAC, I don't know, but ffmpeg could do the job...

If its a good idea in general, the 64K question is "which files need transcoding"? Any way to tell which files get transcoded on the fly when played on my VT30?

On "Panasonic Viera" profile, all files that matches the <Transcoding> elements will be transcoded in the fly.
This profile is built from the experiences of Pana users. Its probably not perfect but close too.

Is there a "safe" format I can write to which will play on a large range of TVs / other devices in the future?

I would said :
MPEGTS container, MPEG2 video, AC3 audio

in serviio speaking:
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3">

Thanks. That helps greatly .....

So final question, about transcoding, the frame size issue.

Since i want to view on Panasonic Viera HD TV and avoid on-the-fly transcoding, I need to up-scale all vids to HD resolution (1920x1080)? If I don't, the transcoding technology has to kick in and upsize on the fly?

Oh sorry, the other part of the final question was whether transcoding dictates (or affects) whether files can be fast-forwarded etc. Its such a pain not being able to ff-rew some movies etc.

Sorry to be so thick, but I'm completely lost how to locate "config/profiles.xml" on my Mac - where is it???

[Illico]

Since i want to view on Panasonic Viera HD TV and avoid on-the-fly transcoding, I need to up-scale all vids to HD resolution (1920x1080)?

Not sure you have to upscale all video to HD resolution (1920x1080), but standard resolution is better:
1920×1080 --> 1080p (16:9)
1280×720 --> 720p (16:9 PAL/NTSC) HD-Ready
720x576 --> 576p (4:3 16:9 PAL)
768x576 --> 576i (4:3 16:9 PAL)
640×480 --> 480i (4:3 NTSC)

[Illico]

Oh sorry, the other part of the final question was whether transcoding dictates (or affects) whether files can be fast-forwarded etc. Its such a pain not being able to ff-rew some movies etc.

You have to check if ff-rew works with an native MPEGTS/MPEG2/AC3 file.Transcoding to this format should not affect it.

Sorry to be so thick, but I'm completely lost how to locate "config/profiles.xml" on my Mac - where is it???

Not a Mac user, search on forum

Hi Domaingu,

Another Mac user here!

The profiles are located within the Serviio bundle. Easiest way to access them is by right-clicking on the Serviio icon and select Show Package Contents.
Then look inside the folder Contents/Resources/Java/config and there You have profiles.xml.

I'm also using Handbreak to create suitable files for Serviio, and if I have understood correctly You can use both MKV and MP4 containers (i use MP4).
I use the x264 codec and I have found out that my TV likes to have a "standard" framerate of 23.976 (NTSC Film) to get the smoothes display.
The Quality have I set to Constant and RF:20, if I have a higher quality source than DVD I might set RF to 22, I've read some arguments on the net that even 18 will give You no visible degradation from a DVD.

In the Sound tab I have set the output to AC3 and mix down to Dolby Pro Logic II.

I also uses the subtitle tab to burn in the subtitles from any DVD source since my Sony doesn't handle soft-subtitles.
Unfortunately, Handbreak can't render .srt files as bitmaps, but it can include them as soft-subtitles if Your DLNA device supports it.

I hope that this will give me none, or as little transcoding as possible. If someone have any better ideas, please let me know!

HTH!
Janne

Thanks Janne. That really helped. Finding the profiles.xml wa a bit tricky!

I am busy converting lots of files with Handbrake to play on my Viera TV. So far so good, though Handbrake does fail occassionally with some "huge" files ....

Not sure what to do with sound at the moment, as a small number of files don't want to play any sound at all, need to research where the "fault" lies on that one.

Thanks again for helping out with Mac / Handbrake / Serviio / DLNA !!