How to transcode automatically

[Bladefin]

I'm using Windows 11 and transcoding with the Intel CPU, The problem is the only way it will transcode is if I bump down the bitrate when I'm watching anything, if I don't do that then it will stay on Direct Play and will drop frames.

[TheDreadPirate]

The client tells the server what it can handle and then the server and client will negotiate how media is delivered. If the client tells the server to "just send it" the server will do so.

What client is having issues, btw? If it is a PC, what are the specs?

[Bladefin]

The clients I'm having these problems are

JFMP, Windows Chrome, Android app.

Windows 11
Mobo: MSI Z170A
CPU: i5 6600k.
Asus Gforce GTX 960.
Monitor is only 720p.

Phone: Samsung A52s

[TheDreadPirate]

Neither your PC nor phone should be direct playing AV1. For the phone, is the app configured to use the web player or the integrated player? For JMP, you can set it in Settings > Client settings to force transcoding.

Can you share your full Jellyfin logs via pastebin?

[Bladefin]

So helpful in what you have said, I have gone into client settings and changed a few things, and now things have changed for the better,I still don't understand all of the settings in the JFMP, but that's what the problem was,I wasn't telling it that it couldn't play it so it wasn't doing anything just sending over the original file.

You have said about AV1 I don't actually have that option ticked in Jellyfin,I have just got Allow Encoding in HEVC format ticked.Is it better to have AV1 ticked?

Thank you so much, it's always a user error lol

[TheDreadPirate]

So helpful in what you have said, I have gone into client settings and changed a few things, and now things have changed for the better,I still don't understand all of the settings in the JFMP, but that's what the problem was,I wasn't telling it that it couldn't play it so it wasn't doing anything just sending over the original file.

JMP will always attempt to direct play everything, unless configured otherwise.  Either with hardware acceleration, if available, or software (CPU) decoding if no acceleration is available.  If you don't have hardware accelerated decoding in your client's GPU, but you also don't have the computational grunt to decode on the CPU, this can result in a sub-optimal viewing experience.  Like dropped frames.

You have said about AV1 I don't actually have that option ticked in Jellyfin,I have just got Allow Encoding in HEVC format ticked.Is it better to have AV1 ticked?

Thank you so much, it's always a user error lol

This setting only applies if you are transcoding.  If the original codec is AV1, and the client supports it, it doesn't matter what transcode settings you have.  It will just send the AV1 video.

As for whether to check "allow encoding in AV1 format", you can only check that if your server's GPU supports encoding it.  This is limited to Intel Arc dedicated GPUs, Nvidia RTX 4000, and AMD RX 7000 GPUs.

[Bladefin]

That's great. I do have HWA turned on and using the Intel QSV option.

In the playback settings I have now selected 720p in Maximum Allowed Video Transcoding Resolution.

I have also ticked the box underneath Limit Maximum Supported Video Resolution.

is that correct?

[TheDreadPirate]

The Max allowed transcode resolution only applies when transcoding happens. I don't recall how the "Limit max resolution" actually behaves. But it can't hurt to have those set to 720p.

[Bladefin]

The Max allowed transcode resolution only applies when transcoding happens.  I don't recall how the "Limit max resolution" actually behaves.  But it can't hurt to have those set to 720p.

If I have it set to auto then it will direct play, only setting it to 720p will make it transcode.

Edit: I do wonder if JFMP has a bug as surely if you set it to auto then it should know it can't play the film and then transcode.