How can I force transcoding?

[AlternateWitness]

I have a portable version of Jellyfin that I take around with me if I want to watch something, so I can’t open ports and optimize delivery for every network I use. All of my videos are encoded in H.265, but whenever direct playing they always freeze for a few seconds every couple minutes. After much troubleshooting on my home computer that is indicative of my server having too high of a bitrate for the router to transfer.

Whenever I try to play something on my computer it always direct streams, even though there is a problem with it. Even after setting a limit to my home network quality in the playback settings, it never transcodes. I just need to reduce the bitrate a little so I can play movies, but no setting I’ve seen around Jellyfin allow me to “force” transcoding. Because the format seems compatible with the device it seems to always want to direct stream. Nothing I’ve found online helps, other people need it to transcode too.

Is there a way I can make Jellyfin transcode all movies played? Or even better only transcode videos with a high enough bitrate?

[TheDreadPirate]

Depends on the client. The desktop JMP, browser, and, I think, Android phone clients let you select the quality (resolution and bit rate). Just set it to something lower then the media's native bit rate and it should trigger transcoding.

You could also set the "LAN networks" setting to something that is not whatever your current LAN is and jellyfin will treat connections as remote. But you have to check the box to enable remote connections even if you aren't opening it to the actual Internet.

For example, if your actual LAN is 192.168.1.0/24, you would set the "LAN networks" field to 192.168.150.0/24. A valid setting, but would result in treating all actual LAN connections as remote. And the Internet bit rate limit setting would apply to them.