h264 instead of HEVC

[Stephan]

Hello Everyone.

I spent some time searching here for this. Saw people talking about it but havent found a solution for my situation.
All clients i tested transcoding with result in h264 insteaf of hevc or AV1. I configured the Server as described in the wiki.
Setup feels correct as i can use ffmpeg from shell to transcode HEVC and AV1 using A380(vaapi) with great performance btw
intel_gpu_top works and shows that transcode is done by the a380

My idea was to have better quality with HEVC or AV1 at lower bitrates. (On reddit people were stating HEVC is better choice with ARC)
Especially when i am on Travel there is often only 4-6Mbit available.

The Server:
AMD System with a Intel Arc A380 i bougt to play with.
OS is Archlinux and JF is latest AUR
I trief the JF-ffmpeg(6.0.1-Jellyfin) and the one thats latest aur(n6.1.1)


The Clients i had tested:
Win10 Laptop with Chrome and Edge 
LG Webos with JF client from the Appstore
Iphone 14

Thanks to this forum here i learned that the client decides the target codec. I was not able to find the reason why clients request that codec.
Anyone has a idea how to make it work with HEVC or AV1?

Thanks!
Stephan

[TheDreadPirate]

Most clients will request transcodes in H264. TV boxes (Roku, Android TV) may request HEVC. AV1 does work on most modern mobile devices. Except if you throw in ASS or PGS subtitles. Can often lead to transcoding since they need to be burned in.

Which iPhone client are you using? JF Mobile or Swiftfin?

Chrome and Edge supposedly support HEVC, but I haven't had any luck actually making that happen. Pretty sure the same is true for WebOS.

[punksinatra]

The only client that plays native HVEC files for me is Microsoft Edge and it direct plays HVEC/265 encoded videos no transcoding. If you tried edge then it shouldn't be transcoding not unless audio and subs are not supported

[tmsrxzar]

the why transcode to h264 instead of hevc is simply because that's how it's coded
and because the client configurations don't offer a setting to override it

you need to change the profile in the source code for whichever client you want to use hevc
or beg on github for the developer to give you an override setting

(the clients for kodi are the only ones im sure have this setting)

[Stephan]

Most clients will request transcodes in H264.  TV boxes (Roku, Android TV) may request HEVC.  AV1 does work on most modern mobile devices.  Except if you throw in ASS or PGS subtitles.  Can often lead to transcoding since they need to be burned in.

Which iPhone client are you using?  JF Mobile or Swiftfin?

Chrome and Edge supposedly support HEVC, but I haven't had any luck actually making that happen.  Pretty sure the same is true for WebOS.

Thanks for the fast reply.

I used iphone app Jellyfin from the appstore. Cant tell which version. Just the thing that came in that week. havent tried Swiftfin.
Its surprising to me that we arent using modern codecs by default. As there is allready a fallback system somewhere in the code. 
At least thats my assumption because i saw other users logfiles here in troubleshooting where h264 was a fallback due to playback failure of HEVC(client side)

[Stephan]

the why transcode to h264 instead of hevc is simply because that's how it's coded
and because the client configurations don't offer a setting to override it

you need to change the profile in the source code for whichever client you want to use hevc
or beg on github for the developer to give you an override setting

(the clients for kodi are the only ones im sure have this setting)

I am 100% unfamilar with Jelllyfin codebase but i am not scared to try it. Changing that few lines wouldn´t be that hard but finding it will be
Its a large project. So if anyone cant hint me to the position where webclient has the hardcoded codec i would appreciate that.

[Stephan]

The only client that plays native HVEC files for me is Microsoft Edge and it direct plays HVEC/265 encoded videos no transcoding. If you tried edge then it shouldn't be transcoding not unless audio and subs are not supported

If i look here:
codec-support
I can see supported codecs on some clients. For the ones i tested with direct play i can comfirm they are working in Edge and Crome.
Had some testfiles HEVC direct play, so transcode should™ work also.

[nyanmisaka]

JF 10.8 only supports HEVC in a few clients.
JF 10.9 supports HEVC and AV1 on most browsers.

It is recommended to upgrade to JF 10.9 and check apply this option.
   

[Stephan]

JF 10.8 only supports HEVC in a few clients.
JF 10.9 supports HEVC and AV1 on most browsers.

It is recommended to upgrade to JF 10.9 and check apply this option.

Yes Sir, that did it. AV1 and hevc works now on my a380 using Win10 and chrome Browser.
Thanks 

 
 

[Stephan]

Edit: I see some source files stutter a bit. Don’t think that this is related to the initial issue.