DLNA/Server Transcode bitrate option

[Ghostm 74]

I have seen this comment a few times in the dlna area. Basically when mb3 transcodes audio it transcodes it to a very low bitrate (128kbps) which is not really an ideal bitrate for listening to music. With the announcement today xbox one will be adding dlna and mp3 support i am hoping to eventually play music from mb3 on an xbox one, while xbox one wont support flac, it will support mp3. 

 

Plex has the option built right into the dlna gui, for many devices in the dlna gui you look under preferences and you can select what bitrate you want your music transcoded to.

It is a small useful feature for those of us that are picky about our audio.  It might even make sense to make it a separate option universal in the server. The current options for transcoding any media seems to have no effect on music bitrate transcoding.  

[Ghostm 74]

Title should have had the word music in it, as i am only referring specifically to music transcoding.

[Luke 37022]

it's in the latest beta. there's a music transcoding bitrate setting for dlna profiles

[Ghostm 74]

Forgot about this post, seen someone liked it and got a notification but i dont see it.

 

Anyway very nice, thanks for including this!

 

I probably dont understand the encoding process the logs are showing this which looks good.

 

"Alexisonfire (2002)\01 - 44. Caliber Love Letter.flac" -threads 2 -vn -ab 320"

 

I set it to 320 so that looks good.

 

I do notice in the log though these entires

 

  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (flac (native) -> mp3 (libmp3lame))

Press [q] to stop, [?] for help

size=     208kB time=00:00:13.27 bitrate= 128.6kbits/s    

size=     417kB time=00:00:26.64 bitrate= 128.3kbits/s    

size=     639kB time=00:00:40.85 bitrate= 128.2kbits/s    

size=     861kB time=00:00:55.06 bitrate= 128.2kbits/s    

size=    1077kB time=00:01:08.88 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    1279kB time=00:01:21.81 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    1491kB time=00:01:35.37 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    1707kB time=00:01:49.19 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    1934kB time=00:02:03.69 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    2157kB time=00:02:18.00 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    2373kB time=00:02:31.82 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    2595kB time=00:02:46.03 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    

size=    2823kB time=00:03:00.63 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s    

size=    3050kB time=00:03:15.10 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s    

size=    3281kB time=00:03:29.89 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s    

size=    3403kB time=00:03:37.73 bitrate= 128.0kbits/s    

 

video:0kB audio:3402kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.022359%

 

What does the 128.0kbits refer to?

 

I also like how you added it in the server, wasnt overly fond of plex doing it in the gui, some dlna devices didnt allow a preferences section in the gui.

 

 

And one last completely separate question and will likely be my last with regards to dlna transcoding ever, would it be possible to remux a file from one lossless format to another on the fly to a devices compatible formats, i seen this question asked on plex awhile back and got me thinking about mb3? I am guessing this maybe complex and diminishing returns for what mb3 wants to do but it would appeal to audiophiles. Media monkey for instance you can specify to transcode it to a bitrate like you have now included for mp3's, but you can also remux a flac file to another lossless format such as wma lossless (xbox freindly) or WAV (Ps3) so no transcoding or quality loss occurs. I am no audiophile but if i had the option to convert it to another lossless compatible format instead of transcoding it i surely would. 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Luke 37022]

it needs to be 320000

 

loss encoding, i don't know. whatever ffmpeg supports we can do

[Ghostm 74]

Ah that makes sense, I will fix that.

 

Time for me to read up on what ffmpeg can do, although not really a pressing issue at all. 

 

Edit:320000 worked great.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Ghostm 74]

I did find some info.

 

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23333678/ffmpeg-to-convert-from-flac-to-wav

 

also found this one for apple users

 

 

http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?s=6dd615d47fbeb7ba7bb1d2c69dd4555e&showtopic=94811&view=findpost&p=794671

 

One user pointed out

 

"the -acodec copy or -vcodec copy will move the stream without transcoding"

 

 

I believe wav works on ps3 and now will be a supported format on xbox one. If you could select conversion to a different container that the device supports i think it would be great. More so for the avsforum, audio crowd that wants to keep music lossless. 

 

But i dont know how difficult it maybe to incorporate in dlna profiles. 

Edited August 14, 2014 by Ghostm

[Ghostm 74]

I just realized after playing with dlna this last week, the user can specify what to transcode it to very easily, i am not sure if its causing quality loss, but i dont think it is, i set flac to wav in the transcoding and it worked, many devices support wav (ps3 did, likely ps4 will as well when it supports dlna and now xbox one, although xbox 360 supposedly supported it, but no dlna device i had was ever successful sending wav to a 360), so unless its doing something to degrade it, it should be lossless. The bitrate and file size was doubled converted to wav so i doubt its degrading anything.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Ghostm