HEVC Support for Recordings

[frankdtank]

Please add support for newer video compression standards for recorded content. The latest video compression standards can reduce files sizes by as much as 50%. This reduction in file size not allows users to store more content on our DVR servers, but also reduces the strain on out internal networks, especially over wifi, when watching this content.

What is HVEC?

High Efficiency Video Coding

Advantages:

H.265 (HEVC) vs H.264 (AVC): Compare Quality, File Size, Bitrate

Supported Operating Systems:
https://kb.arlo.com/000062189/Which-devices-are-supported-for-HEVC-4K-or-2K-playback

Supported Browsers:
https://caniuse.com/hevc

Possible Pain Points (Off the top of my head):

• More resources would be required to record.
• Can commerical skip support this codec?
• Can a stream be directly be converted?

I could see this option being configurable on the DVR server. I could see this as being opt-in functionality (not selected by default) as not all DVR servers have the processing power for HVEC.

[maddox]

Channels DVR Server doesn’t transcode videos after (or during) they are recorded. Recordings are stored in their native format.

Channels supports HEVC perfectly fine.

If you want to transcode your recordings after the fact, you can.

In the future we plan on offering something like this, but it’s not something planned for the near future.

[hish747]

I understand what you're saying to mean Channels doesn't output HVEC or transcode on the fly while recording and save to HEVC format. So, when you say "Channels supports HEVC perfectly fine." you mean only that Channels will play back HEVC, correct? What does the experimental Use HEVC for transcoding do?

[Jay1987]

@hish747

What does the experimental Use HEVC for transcoding do?

I think that means if you have Channels set to transcode playback it will transcode in h.265. This only effects playback of saved files (DVR and imports). I do not believe it effects live playback.

I would only recommend transcoding playback if you are having playback issues or bandwidth issues. Note, transcoding utilizes cpu resources on your server.

If you choose to use h.265 transcoding remember your client has to support playback of h.265 (some clients support h.265 in theory, but handles it poorly). If you have issues with h.265 transcoding playback make sure to submit logs.

Reasons not to transcode. It might overwhelm your server resources. If your running CDVR on a NAS or pi or other underpowered system. Imagine channels revording stuff, running comskip at the same time, transcoding multiple streams, plus whatsver else is running on server. It could overwhelm the CPU and cause lag.

[babsonnexus]

@Jay1987

I think that means if you have Channels set to transcode playback it will transcode in h.265. This only effects playback of saved files (DVR and imports). I do not believe it effects live playback.

I was not sure about live transcoding or not. I checked the settings box when it first became available and did a test on my phone over cellular. Everything (recordings, imports, live) played perfectly fine with maybe an extra second(?) to start playing. I noticed no particular drag on resources while it was running.

I would still love a built-in post-process to re-encode the files to h.265 (I know I can do this with outside tools), but this seems to be a pretty good middle ground right now.

[Jay1987]

@babsonnexus

I would still love a built-in post-process to re-encode the files to h.265 (I know I can do this with outside tools)

I'm pretty sure @babsonnexus you are aware of MCE Buddy. But for those who are not, and stumble on this thread.

The easiest way I know to autimate this is MCE Buddy. You can set MCE Buddy to auto scan your directory and have it re-encode files to h.265. You can then either have MCE Buddy move files to imports or change settings to keep file name exactly the same so its in DVR not imports.

@frankdtank Instead of transcoding h.265 for playback. If you want smaller file sizes read this guide. It can reencode everything in channels for smaller file sizss.

@BJ_Safdie

Important!

By default, MCEBuddy will name the files the same as the originals, but the extension may be different. That will break Channels DVR’s ability to find the file.

In my case, the HVEC MP4 profile would generate files with the *.mp4 extension. To correct this, you need to edit the “profiles.conf file located in the config directory where MCEBuddy is installed.”

Within profiles.conf, find the profile you selected and add RenameExt=.mpg to the profile.

That instructs MCEBuddy to use the .mpg extension rather than the default. This will keep Channels DVR happy.

My MCEBuddy Settings for Channels DVR

I looked around for a “Dummies” guide to setting up MCEBuddy for my Channels DVR. I found some posts with general advice, but nothing as detailed as I wanted. After experimenting, I got MCEBuddy converting my DVR recordings acceptably. My goal was to reduce the disk space consumed by my Library. I am fine with MCEBuddy overwriting the originals. If you have other goals you may need significantly different settings. I may have some unnecessary settings applied (for example, I have both Chann…

[tmm1]

Read about transcoding here:

What is hardware video transcoding?

Summary Video decoding converts compressed data into a raw image with pixel-by-pixel color values. Video encoding takes a raw image and converts it into a compressed format Video transcoding converts from one compressed format to another, by first decoding then re-encoding Transcoding is used primarily when watching away from home, to compress the video so it uses up less bandwidth Video compression Video is transmitted using different codecs, which define how the pixel data is…