Transcoding for Mediabrowser

[loeffelpan]

For home use I deactivate transcoding and work with Generic Rendering Profile.
Will Serviio's mediabrowser offer different qualitys anyway? Isn't any transcoding necessary for that function?

[DenyAll]

Yes, Mediabrowser uses transcoding and can offer different qualities.
Transcoding is always on for Mediabrowser (irrespective of the setting in Serviio console) and is used when needed.

[loeffelpan]

Thanks.
But is any setting on console relevant for mediabrowser transcoding?
I'm asking cause I don't want Serviio to save temporarily transcoded file on my ssd. Do i have to configure transcoding although i don't want to use it despite for mediabrowser?

[DenyAll]

You can set the location of the temporary transcoded file to another drive/folder (under the Delivery, Transcoding tab in Serviio Console). This is used by all transcoding (including for MediaBrowser).

After setting and saving, turn Transcoding off (for DLNA devices) and save again (am working from memory, not in front of it at the mo).

[loeffelpan]

That worked for me. Great!
Knows there is another question considering mediabrowser's trancoding. Once I started playback Serviio started transcoding the whole videofile, even when I stopped playback and logged off from mediabrowser. Is that right?

Is there any way to configure quality of transcoding for mediabrowser. Original quality is to heavy for my upstream, medium is too poor quality for me.
May I do any changes in Serviio's config-directory for that? And is it possible to affect the player type mediabrowser offers? In those config-files i saw that HTML5 is supported, too?

[DenyAll]

Once I started playback Serviio started transcoding the whole video file, even when I stopped playback and logged off from mediabrowser. Is that right?

Yes. It is there to enable you to pause the video and to enable you to rapidly return to the video if you shift application focus. But agree that logging off should kill the current transcode process (you do that - I suspect most people don't).

Is there any way to configure quality of transcoding for mediabrowser

Yes, edit the "config\application-profiles.xml" file (use Notepad++ or some other smart text editor) and edit the maxVBitrate of the transcoded video under the <AlternativeQualities> section, for your device (IOS, Android, Flash, etc). You need to save and restart your PC (or the Serviio service) for the new settings to be enabled.

You will need to do this whenever Serviio gets upgraded, so keep a master copy of your changes (and use something like WinMerge to merge your changes in when an update is received).

And is it possible to affect the player type mediabrowser offers?

Not really, it's hard coded into Serviio.

[loeffelpan]

I'll try. Thanks.

And is it possible to affect the player type mediabrowser offers?

Not really, it's hard coded into Serviio.

Hard coded means what?
In which case Serviio would try to load videos in HTML5? Is that fallback for browsers without Flash installed?

[DenyAll]

My understanding is that Serviio makes the decision of what profile to select within the "application-profiles.xml" file (Flash Player, Android, IOS, HTML5, ServiiGo, etc) based on information sent to it by the calling application (Mediabrowser, ServiiGo, or others).

There is nothing you can edit in the "application-profiles.xml" file to influence which profile gets selected --> you would either have to change the way Serviio is programmed, or change the way the calling application is programmed.

And yes, HTML5 (or more specifically HLS) is used where flash isn't available (eg IOS devices).

[loeffelpan]

Changing maxVBitrate worked for me. Thanks for advice.
And you're right: It's really hard coded in Serviio which profile will be selected. Even when I "steal" flash-profile from "application-profile.xml" mediabrowser tries to load flash-profile. But i'm good with it.

Last question: What do I have to do, if i want to choose an alternative quality on iOS-Devices? The player doesn't offer any option for that. There are just "play", "pause", "fullscreen" and "subtitle". Firefox e. g. offers a button for alternative qualities in the bottom right corner of the player. Any suggestions?

[zip]

You can't do that in the brwoser for iOS. It will play the default quality selected in the console.