DirectPlay Path

[FactoriedMyAuth]

I have not been able to find a good answer yet for my setup. I have 2 main network nodes at my home. I have a main computer room, that has a lot of equipment (NAS, Home Automation Server, Main Computer, Modem, Router ....). That main room is on one level. On another level, I have a Samsung Smart TV, video game systems, and a Mini PC networked together with a switch. The switch and the router are linked together with MoCA adaptors for a Coax backbone. The MiniPC is my Jellyfin server. 

When I access Jellyfin from the TV or a mobile device on my network and watch something that is doing DirectPlay to the device, what is the path of the video? 

This is my setup:

TV ----------- Switch ----------- MiniPC (JF Server)
                        |
                        |
                     MoCA
                       ||
                       ||                  Modem
                       ||                      |
                       ||                      |
                     MoCA --------- Router ----------- NAS 

Let's say I watch something from the TV. The TV will communicate to the MiniPC to select the show. For DirectPlay, is the video to the TV coming straight from my NAS (Jellyfin tells client where the video is on the network and it fetches it by itself) or is the MiniPC grabbing the video from the NAS and then forwarding it to the TV?

I noticed some delays when watching videos with a mobile (loading wheel coming from time to time). The network connections are solid and speeds look good. If the client is requesting video from the server, the server is grabbing the video from the NAS, and then serving it to the client, that would explain my choppy experience. With my mobile, I would need to go from: 

Mobile -> Router -> MoCA -> Switch -> Server ->Switch -> MoCA -> Router -> NAS -> Router -> MoCA -> Switch -> Server -> Switch -> MoCA -> Router -> Mobile

My assumption of DirectPlay was something more like:

Mobile -> Router -> MoCA -> Switch -> Server ->Switch -> MoCA -> Router -> Mobile -> Router -> NAS -> Router -> Mobile

The only reason for my system split is for convenience, but if the server being that many hops away from the NAS and effectively needing to double back to for playback, I can just go and adjust. If DirectPlay has the client access the content by itself, I am gonna have to do some more digging to see why I have loading wheel delays.

[TheDreadPirate]

Jellyfin clients cannot and do not communicate directly with the storage. Everything is served through the jellyfin server and the jellyfin server + OS handles all the behind the scences data movement before eventually sending to the client. Even direct play. As long as the throughput is sufficient, the number of hops shouldn't matter.

When accessing over mobile, is it actually direct playing or is it transcoding? What is the bit rate of the video? How fast is your home Internet upload speed?

[mcarlton00]

For the vast majority of clients, all traffic will be routed through the server before going to the storage. It's unfeasible for most clients to go directly to the storage device, as they would need to have playback methods built in for every possible network protocol, as well as your network storage having applicable access controls, and even more added complications if you're trying to go over the internet and not your LAN.

TLDR: it's all played via HTTP through the Jellyfin server.

[FactoriedMyAuth]

Jellyfin clients cannot and do not communicate directly with the storage.  Everything is served through the jellyfin server and the jellyfin server + OS handles all the behind the scences data movement before eventually sending to the client.  Even direct play.  As long as the throughput is sufficient, the number of hops shouldn't matter.

When accessing over mobile, is it actually direct playing or is it transcoding?  What is the bit rate of the video?  How fast is your home Internet upload speed?

It's doing DirectPlay. 1080p H264 SDR (21.52 Mbps). This is all over my local network. I have the mobile connected to my Wi-Fi 6 router. The router is Gb to the MoCA adaptor and the NAS. The MoCA adaptor is showing a 2Gb connection to the second MoCA adaptor. And that is connected to a Gb switch along with my MiniPC server. 

Now that I know nothing is being directly accessed with the clients, I am going to do some re-routing and move the MiniPC to the NAS-side of the MoCA network to see if that cleans up the lag.

[FactoriedMyAuth]

Circling back, after I put the server on the same side of the network as the NAS, all of my streaming lag cleared up.