Building a movie archival server that will stream. Looking for advice


gerard143

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3 hours ago, gerard143 said:

I also assume that for any situation that needed it, transcoding on the fly would be a breeze for a high end NVidia card?

No. IMO, 4k transcodes look like crap when nvec gets involved. You are better off storing a lower bit rate copy, that you made using cpu transcoding.

 

Everything else has looked quite good though.

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  • gerard143 changed the title to Building a movie archival server that will stream. Looking for advice

Here is an MKV movie file from my archive that is around 89Mbps.  Posted is the media file's specifications. I'd like to know if anyone plays content from their server can play this movie with no issues. Unfortunately would need some kind of proof that it has happened. I've tried just about everything ( for testing ) to see what is able to play this and what is not. 

Roku: Dismal fail

Any version of Apple TV hardware: Fail

Plex as a Docker: Fail ( using a capable computer )

Plex as it's own server: Fail ( using a very capable computer )
Dune- Model Real Vision 4K: Awesome- the highest profile, Dolby Vision.

Nvidia Shield Newer Model: Using the Plex App- YES! ( very surprised, but it does have the onboard power to do so )

 

 

I wish a few people would try it out. Just to see all along if user's setups can play that high bitrate content. I suspect most media watchers are using some kind of media player like Plex, or using an app like HBOMAX, Disney+. Most of the time the Plex server is transcoding and cannot direct play and when viewing content via media app it's about only 12Mbps or less. Don't get me wrong, the picture still looks wonderful, but after I watched Dune 2021 as it was supposed to be seen it is hard to watch other great cinema graphically content knowing there always is that top tier of visual candy. I understand there are so many variables here and different systems out there, but that's what makes me so curious about the results. The file is large. 80GB. I'm linking it to share to user's can access the media for testing purposes only. I wanted to use real world content and not video test files. I used a fairly old movie so most wouldn't care. Lord Of War - 2005. Well, let me know if anyone tries this and what the results were. I've posted the media file's specs.

 

Also, when I tried playing some content with that file browser you suggested it apparently does not recognize MKV format. Of course I tried using my Plex server with the Apple TV and the movie content wouldn't even start or the Apple TV iOS crashed.

 

General
Unique ID                                : 24483543475930949218102157689845433063 (0x126B5BE44FA13F391A746CE09A97C2E7)
Complete name                            : N:\Lord of War (2005)\Lord of War (2005) 2160p TrueHD Atmos.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 75.0 GiB
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 88.2 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2021-09-03 21:14:31
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v61.0.0 ('So') 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main [email protected]@High
HDR format                               : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate                                 : 75.8 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.381
Stream size                              : 64.5 GiB (86%)
Title                                    : English
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : Display P3
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 2508 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 2394 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
ID in the original source medium         : 4353 (0x1101)
Format                                   : MLP FBA 16-ch
Format/Info                              : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation
Commercial name                          : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 4 751 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 8 028 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 4.04 GiB (5%)
Title                                    : English
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
Number of dynamic objects                : 15
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
ID in the original source medium         : 4353 (0x1101)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Format settings                          : Dolby Surround EX
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 557 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : English
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #3
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : DTS ES XLL
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 4 244 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE Lb Rb
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 3.61 GiB (5%)
Title                                    : English DTSHD MA 7.1 4 245 Kbps
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Audio #4
ID                                       : 5
ID in the original source medium         : 4354 (0x1102)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 224 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 195 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : English commentary
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Audio #5
ID                                       : 6
ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                                   : DTS XLL
Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
Duration                                 : 2 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 2 375 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 24 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 2.02 GiB (3%)
Title                                    : German
Language                                 : German
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #1
ID                                       : 7
ID in the original source medium         : 4769 (0x12A1)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 54 min
Bit rate                                 : 38.5 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 2858
Stream size                              : 31.5 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : English
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #2
ID                                       : 8
ID in the original source medium         : 4771 (0x12A3)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 48 min
Bit rate                                 : 1 088 b/s
Count of elements                        : 108
Stream size                              : 864 KiB (0%)
Title                                    : English foreign parts
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #3
ID                                       : 9
ID in the original source medium         : 4773 (0x12A5)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 55 min
Bit rate                                 : 37.4 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 2346
Stream size                              : 31.0 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : English commentary
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Text #4
ID                                       : 10
ID in the original source medium         : 4768 (0x12A0)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                            : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                                 : 1 h 54 min
Bit rate                                 : 42.5 kb/s
Count of elements                        : 2894
Stream size                              : 34.9 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : German
Language                                 : German
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                             : Chapter 01
00:08:04.442                             : Chapter 02
00:16:39.540                             : Chapter 03
00:27:10.754                             : Chapter 04
00:38:10.663                             : Chapter 05
00:45:43.157                             : Chapter 06
00:58:08.902                             : Chapter 07
01:08:24.433                             : Chapter 08
01:21:22.586                             : Chapter 09
01:30:01.270                             : Chapter 10
01:46:55.158                             : Chapter 11
01:56:00.203                             : Chapter 12

 

Media file: link to copyrighted material removed

Edited by JonathanM
link to copyrighted material removed
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7 hours ago, opentoe said:

Here is an MKV movie file from my archive that is around 89Mbps.

Please do not directly post links to copyrighted material here in the forum.  Your post has been edited to remove the link as this violates the terms and conditions of the forum

 

Andrew

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unfortunately I keep having failures during the download which is a serious bummer as I'd really like to test this.   Around 15Gb mark or so, its network failure connection lost.   And when you restart it does not resume.  It restarts from the beginning.      I will keep trying, on attempt 3 now.    My connection is spectrum 400 Mbps down. 

Edited by gerard143
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7 hours ago, AndrewZ said:

Please do not directly post links to copyrighted material here in the forum.  Your post has been edited to remove the link as this violates the terms and conditions of the forum

 

Andrew

 

Sure, no problem. Would anyone know of a way to create a video file that has a constant bitrate around 90-100? All that's really needed is 10 to 15 minutes. I should have thought of this earlier. Go to the Jellyfish site and grab at least the 100 rate files and try them out. I just tried to play them all and so happens the Dune was the only player to play from start to finish with no issues.

 

Video test files!

 

Edited by opentoe
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Well, it’s playing thru infuse, Emby and plex.    
 

 

see attached screenshots.    Infuse is direct play only.   And that seems to play it the best.    
 

I am playing this over Wi-Fi too.   802.11ac not even Wi-Fi 6.    I do get some network buffers here and there.  
 

first two photos are info from plex.  Second is Emby.   Third is showing audio options in infuse.  
 

 

Apple TV 4K, hdr turned on. 4:2:2

 

streaming it off my 2018 Mac mini.   Core i7 3.2 6 core. 32 fb ddr4 ram.  1 tb SSD. 

 

 

 

 

095A5EA3-DC9E-4BBA-AFAF-B284EB0A159F.jpeg

4241ECD8-D3EE-4F38-8E41-2C6900A79B5B.png

D705B6B0-3374-44F8-884A-3796FE64C175.jpeg

1D03DCAE-9F48-414D-BA90-08E1F73C42C3.jpeg

Edited by gerard143
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20 minutes ago, gerard143 said:

Well, it’s playing thru infuse, Emby and plex.    
 

 

see attached screenshots.    Infuse is direct play only.   And that seems to play it the best.    
 

I am playing this over Wi-Fi too.   802.11ac not even Wi-Fi 6.    I do get some network buffers here and there.  
 

first two photos are info from plex.  Second is Emby.   Third is showing audio options in infuse.  
 

 

Apple TV 4K, hdr turned on. 4:2:2

 

streaming it off my 2018 Mac mini.   Core i7 3.2 6 core. 32 fb ddr4 ram.  1 tb SSD. 

 

 

 

 

095A5EA3-DC9E-4BBA-AFAF-B284EB0A159F.jpeg

4241ECD8-D3EE-4F38-8E41-2C6900A79B5B.png

D705B6B0-3374-44F8-884A-3796FE64C175.jpeg

1D03DCAE-9F48-414D-BA90-08E1F73C42C3.jpeg

 

 

I am not a MAC guy at all. I would be able to install these Apps on my Apple TV 4v as an app?? Try to force the audio through. I believe when I was testing my hardware I forced direct audio as well and then when transcoding it worked. I would suspect any 1Gb player would work fine, that's why I keep fooling around with my $200 Apple 4k TV device. I've been waiting for about 20 hours not touching my array since it is on the last leg of my parity build. I can't do much with the server until that's all done.

 

 

This is a great site with many samples! I'll be testing out my hardware for sure after my parity build

Edited by opentoe
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everyone one of those is available on the apple tv as an app.     I have plex and emby set to use original for audio and video, but the audio is getting transcoded it looks like as the plex and emby players don't support trueHD I don't believe on the Apple TV.   Only infuse will.    

 

I have no doubt this would play pretty well if I wasn't currently on WiFi on both the server side and the player side.    I am swapping over all my rack network hardware to a different brand so all the hardwired stuff is currently offline, so I cannot test it over the wired network.   

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