on-the-fly video transcoding

[xanbo]

I am looking to purchase/build my first NAS and ideally I would like it to transcode uncompressed ripped bluray content on-the-fly to my mobile android devices over 3G or wifi data connections when I'm traveling. I see some older threads that generally advise people to transcode ahead of time and store those files on the NAS but I'm hoping today's processors might be better suited to the task. I'd love to retain full bluray functionality, ie access to all special features especially audio commentary tracks, ability to select a particular scene or skip through chapters, ability to scrub through the video, etc. I know I may be asking for too much here.

1. What server-side software might I look into for this purpose? How about client-side? Does any software offer adaptive bitrate as my network speeds fluctuate?
2. Are there any mainstream NAS servers that might have the processing power and/or software to handle this, or am I better off going the DIY route and building my own?
3. Roughly what kind of processor should I be looking at for a starting point?
4. Are there any other considerations besides processing power and software functionality I should take into consideration for this purpose?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. I know I'm asking a lot, but I'm not willing to settle for a Plex server with pre-transcoded video just yet.

 

[PrivateJoker]

I am looking to purchase/build my first NAS and ideally I would like it to transcode uncompressed ripped bluray content on-the-fly to my mobile android devices over 3G or wifi data connections when I'm traveling. I see some older threads that generally advise people to transcode ahead of time and store those files on the NAS but I'm hoping today's processors might be better suited to the task. I'd love to retain full bluray functionality, ie access to all special features especially audio commentary tracks, ability to select a particular scene or skip through chapters, ability to scrub through the video, etc. I know I may be asking for too much here.

1. What server-side software might I look into for this purpose? How about client-side? Does any software offer adaptive bitrate as my network speeds fluctuate?
2. Are there any mainstream NAS servers that might have the processing power and/or software to handle this, or am I better off going the DIY route and building my own?
3. Roughly what kind of processor should I be looking at for a starting point?
4. Are there any other considerations besides processing power and software functionality I should take into consideration for this purpose?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. I know I'm asking a lot, but I'm not willing to settle for a Plex server with pre-transcoded video just yet.

Unless someone can point me differently, you cannot rip DVDs/Blurays as .isos and use them in their native format w/ menus and stuff via DLNA. The .iso handles more stuff on it (multiple language audio soundtracks, sometimes a 16:9 and a 21:9 theatrical aspect ratio, multiple audio formats that cannot be encapsulated in DLNA, etc.). I think the use of physical media in the DLNA universe is limited to stuff like sticking a DVD in a Windows machine and being able to view that actual DVD over the network in XBMC, VLC, etc.

So basically you have to rip & transcode into a new file type that can be streamed. . .boy to want it to both be an HD rip and also ensure that it's accessible over 3G gracefully is a lot harder than it sounds. Netflix is really good about gracefully degrading the content quality over different network conditions. Also the new Synology DSM has an iOS (and others) app that transcodes the content on the fly and also does some dynamic tweaking of the stream, but I've only ever done it over fast wifi. You'd have to have a really good internet upstream, like a solid 10Mb/s+.

Not trying to squash your plans, but relying on the distribution structure of others (Amazon Instant, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, ultraviolet, etc) is a *lot* more seamless and easy than trying to do it yourself with an HD source.

I don't know what kind of mobile device/s you have, but if you can get the Synology DS-Video app on it, I can try to enable my DDNS and give you a login to test and see how the quality works for you. Just remember though, should you ever want to watch these on a big screen, high quality TV, they are really heavily tweaked in the rip to be more high performance than high quality rips.

PS - Bluray is in fact compressed, it started off mostly MPEG-2, and is now mostly MPEG-4.

 

[coxhaus]

I am interested in this but have no experience. I run Microsoft Home Server 2011 and there is a reference for streamed media remotely. Home Server has Remote Web Access Player to play files stored on the home server. You might want to check it out and let me know if it would work. I think you will need a high end I3 at least to process the video.

I would be tempted to try it out on my LAN. What is the best way to get the bluerays on to a harddrive? I use dbpoweramp for music but I don’t know if it works with blueray.

 

[xanbo]

Thank you both for the fast response. PrivateJoker, my main mobile device is currently the HTC EVO 4G on the Sprint network (but I can only find a 3G connection in my area) but I would likely upgrade to a newer device before building/purchasing a NAS. I just installed the Synology DS-Video app and would greatly appreciate a login to do a brief test.

You may send me a personal message with details or send an email to email address deleted. Thank you!

And yes, I know I am really asking a lot, I just want to look into my ideal setup before making compromises. Plus its only a matter of a few short years before something like this is truly practical, so this research should pay off in the long run. I appreciate the Netflix/Amazon/etc. recommendations but really I want access to my personal home movies as well but figured realtime bluray transcoding is probably the most CPU-intensive item on my wish list.

As far as your comment on bluray being compressed - when I say "uncompressed bluray", I really mean to say "bluray content that is not compressed any further than its initial authoring"

 

[xanbo]

coxhaus, I use AnyDVD HD for bluray rips. I can rip to the ISO format or retain the bd folder structure, both of which can then play through my HTPC via PowerDVD, I believe.

 

[coxhaus]

AnyDVD HD looks like it is a little pricey for me just testing.

 

[xanbo]

Yes, AnyDVD is definitely pricey. I could FTP you a legal, non-copyrighted bluray rip if you are interested in testing.

 

[stevech]

Thank you both for the fast response. PrivateJoker, my main mobile device is currently the HTC EVO 4G on the Sprint network (but I can only find a 3G connection in my area) but I would likely upgrade to a newer device before building/purchasing a NAS.

After long deliberation, I purchased (early adopter price) an HTC One 4G. I've always used Verizon due to coverage (I used to work for Sprint's engineering and know the sad story, internally, about the WiMax mistake and why they are so far behind with LTE, and always will be; Same, AT&T).

 

[xanbo]

I'm still interested in guidance on my original question, but as an alternative, can anyone point me to documentation of a dual system setup where I might have a more traditional box like the Synology DiskStation DS1813+ that serves my media files coupled with something like a workstation-class computer that accesses video files off the DS1813+, transcodes on the fly, and then serves that content remotely?

 

[PrivateJoker]

I'm still interested in guidance on my original question, but as an alternative, can anyone point me to documentation of a dual system setup where I might have a more traditional box like the Synology DiskStation DS1813+ that serves my media files coupled with something like a workstation-class computer that accesses video files off the DS1813+, transcodes on the fly, and then serves that content remotely?

@xanbo PM sent with login info for you to test out streaming video remotely from my NAS.

Between the transcoding abilities of Synology's Videostation plugin, or a 3rd party plugin (yet supported and provided in the Synology "package center") like Plex, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more community plugins available as well, but the 1813+ is a pretty high horsepower machine (dual Atom) and can probably do anything except the serving up of ISOs in a useable format.

Last I heard, Popcorn Hour was able to stream/package .ISOs in a way to be transcoded, but I've never used it. I bet AVN Forums would have a wealth of information on this too.

 

[mdawg924]

I'm new here so I apologize if my questions seem dumb. I, like the OP, am looking for a way to stream movies to my internet connected devices and I would like to retain all blu ray/DVD functionality if at all possible. So here is my question, why do I need to transcode? Can I not stream the content from the blu ray in it's native format? Would the bandwidth requirements to do that be too great for most connections or is there some other limitation? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this essentially what a bluray player is doing, streaming the content to your TV in it's native format? Like I said I'm new so if there is a flaw in my thinking please let me know I won't be offended Also if there is a difference between what's practical and what is possible please differentiate in your answers. Thanks so much!

 

[xanbo]

I'm new here so I apologize if my questions seem dumb. I, like the OP, am looking for a way to stream movies to my internet connected devices and I would like to retain all blu ray/DVD functionality if at all possible. So here is my question, why do I need to transcode? Can I not stream the content from the blu ray in it's native format? Would the bandwidth requirements to do that be too great for most connections or is there some other limitation? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this essentially what a bluray player is doing, streaming the content to your TV in it's native format? Like I said I'm new so if there is a flaw in my thinking please let me know I won't be offended Also if there is a difference between what's practical and what is possible please differentiate in your answers. Thanks so much!

Hi there, thanks for contributing to my thread. These are great questions, not dumb at all! I'll answer what I know to the best of my knowledge, and hopefully someone more knowledgeable can fill in any gaps. There are two issues with streaming native blu-ray format for my setup, and I would wager to guess you're setup will have similar limitations.

1) My internet connected devices generally cannot handle native blu-ray format; my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) and tablet (Asus Transformer Pad running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, I believe) cannot handle native format as far as I know.

2) My home internet connection does not have the upload bandwidth, meanwhile WiFi and 4G mobile data service providers do not offer ample download bandwidth. I believe blu-ray discs are encoded at a bitrate of around 36 MB/s. Most home internet connections can handle maybe at most 5 MB/s upload (that's a wild guess, but either way, the difference isn't even close).

In short, the amount of data that needs to be transferred per second vastly exceeds what is remotely affordable on either end of the connection, and even if it could, my devices wouldn't know what to do with it. Does that make sense?

 

[xanbo]

As far as practical vs. possible, which I didn't explicitly touch for all topics, achieving the upload/download bandwidth is absolutely possible but not practical. I have worked at B2B businesses that stream uncompressed HD video, and the data connection costs are... well, I don't know, but they are astronomical.

As far as devices like phones or tablets being able to handle the native format, I suspect that is not possible, but it definitely is not practical. I say it isn't practical because the average blu-ray disc is approaching 50 GB in size. The maximum internal storage I know of for phones and tablets is 64 GB or perhaps 128 GB, and the maximum microSD card that will work with these devices is 128 GB as far as I know, and the costs are relatively steep. So, at most you could store one or two discs, and a single 50 GB file would take quite a long time to transfer even with USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, so it just isn't practical for most people. Since it would be such a small niche that could even store that much data on a device, I doubt an app maker feels motivated to spend the time and effort to make an app that is compatible with native blu-ray format since they are usually in it for profit and want to go after the low hanging fruit. On another note, the blu-ray bitrate of 36 MB/s requires a processor able to handle at least that many calculations per second, and I haven't done the math, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was not a phone/tablet on the market with a processor powerful enough. I would guess we are at least a couple years away, maybe even five years or a bit more, until bandwidth and mobile processing power is within range unless there is a major unforseen breakthrough. All of this is as far as I know.

 

[stevech]

1080p on a 4 inch screen is kinda silly.