In practice, the mechanism may be more complex than it initially appears. For Jellyfin, Emby, and Plex, transcoding typically involves segmenting the video into smaller chunks, which are then delivered to the client over TLS. (I may not be entirely correct on the exact implementation details, but this seems to be the general approach.)
By contrast, direct playback functions more like sequentially reading the entire video file, making use of buffering and caching strategies.
That said, the concept should still be feasible in principle, since third-party players have already demonstrated support for both direct playback and transcoding modes — Streamyfin, for instance, is one such example.
in the case of jellyfin we’re talking about server side transcoding, not client side.
so regardless of whether the stream received by Infuse is being direct played or transcoded the client is just receiving a video stream - it doesn’t know if i’s being transcoded or not as it plays no part in the process.
the problem here, for jellyfin anyway, is that infuse is reporting playback as being “local” even when it’s not, because the wrong API call is being made (as per jellyfin devs).
Not sure how long ago I logged in, but I tend to only come back to check on this thread. This is the only missing feature that prevents Infuse becoming the only client I need.
It’s frustrating to have had no engagement at all from the developers on this in the 6 years that this thread has been active!
I will add my upvote here - not for client side transcoding, but supporting the streaming/transcoding endpoints of Jellyfin specifically.
Makes no sense to have one set of clients for at home, and another when remote. Infuse works well at home, not at all remote. Native Jellyfin clients work well in both scenarios. While I prefer Infuse by far, if I can’t use it, my preference becomes irrelevant. So I find myself using subpar clients at home instead.
It would be great if it’s get added. It would to only use Infuse as player (local ad remote). It will probably add more people to subcribe, like my family that are using the inferior Plex app to stream from my server
There is no such thing as a list of supported processors. However, transcoding requires advanced performance. Your processor is not the worst option, so it should be sufficient. However, you should try it when this feature is available in infuse. Currently, you can use the Plex/Emby/Jellifyn server + Plex/Emby/Jellifyn client to test it. If everything works well, it should also work well with infuse.
Is it possible to download a transcoded version for playback later? For example, I have a remux on my server, but only need a 720p copy on my iPad to watch on a plane, which would save lots of space when downloading.
Gave the transcoding a quick test and it looks nice. It’s a bit basic and I think some refinement to the implementation could make it more useful, so hopefully more comes to this over time.
Not sure about the bandwidth/storage savings with this as it seems fixed to transcode to H.264 and does not allow me to set a different target.
Also, I noticed that in Jellyfin when selecting 1080p - 4 Mbps as transcoding target “Playback Stats (HUD)” reports a resolution of 1280x720 and increasing to 1080p - 6 Mbps I get the proper 1920x1080. Tested on an iPhone 16.
Transcoding is working, but there are still some flaws. When playing a transcoded stream from a jellyfin library, I am missing an option to set the audio track and subtitles prior to the start of the video. Once the transcoded video begins to play, audio and subtitles cannot be changed anymore.
I’m with you CDubs… I’m with you.
