Transcode copy video

[tallw]

Is it possible to have the option to choose only "-c:v copy" for transcoding, instead of defaulting to libx264? I've noticed that on some machines, it causes a huge overload when there are a significant number of people online.

[bitmap]

No. Transcoding will generally be to H264 unless you have HEVC or AV1 enabled and it's supported by the client.

What you've described is not transcoding, it would be remuxing...if that. The reason transcoding is triggered in the first place is because the "c" of the "v" is incompatible with the client requesting to play that media. That is, the video codec is not playable on whatever device requested it.

Hardware acceleration is how to lower that load if you need transcoding. The other option is to ensure that all of your media is in a highly-compatible format (H264 main 8-bit, AAC 5.1 or stereo, MP4, external SRT subs).

[tallw]

Most of the content is already in H264, yet it still tries to decode instead of just copying it. In contrast, the audio stream is copied using "-c:a copy" as seen in the FFmpeg command.


Example:

[Generator]

If you don't want to transcoded video, go to users on each profile disable video transcoding.
This way only transcodes audio if needed.

[tallw]

Thanks Generator

[bitmap]

The video is being transcoded for a reason. It could be Hi10p, you could have a remote streaming limit set, subtitles could be turned on and only available as PGS or VOB, always burn in subs could be enabled. While disabling is a possibility, without knowing a root cause you're setting yourself up for complaints and failures.