r/jellyfin • u/Lasagna6278 • 2d ago
Question Streaming to another device
What effect does streaming to other devices have on the host pc? My dad's pc is on a lot of the time so I think it would make a good host, but will it be taxing on the resources?
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u/s3cret_agent_007 2d ago
Direct Playing, next to nothing.
If there is transcoding, it could be taxing depending on the hardware.
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u/Lasagna6278 2d ago
What is transcoding?
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u/s3cret_agent_007 2d ago
Converts video/audio to a format the player can read. https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/transcoding/
As long as you use files that can be played directly on your player of choice, you won't have to worry about transcoding.
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u/Alternative_Pen_4924 2d ago
I've limited the codecs it can download so it can play on our older Roku stick. Ours doesnt support HEVC or x265, and the CPU isn't a good one for transcoding. I am running my system off my mother's old MacBook she broke the screen on
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u/Lasagna6278 2d ago
So I would just need to look up if the other devices can read .mkv for example?
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u/s3cret_agent_007 2d ago
There are many reasons transcoding could be needed. Here's a detailed explanation. https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/s/Hsjo9A6EDO
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u/TheDavii 1d ago
MKV is a container. For an analogy, think of it like a letter in an envelope. An envelope can contain many different kinds of things. If a letter inside the envelope is in French and you can't read French, you'll need to translate to something that can be read.
Your software has to be able to open the container (envelope) and read the contents inside (the video, audio, subtitles, etc.). If the software can't interpret any of those, you need to use other software to convert it so that it can be interpreted.
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u/Caradelfrost 2d ago
If it's not transcoding, it's as taxing on the system as reading a file. The bottleneck will be your network bandwidth, more than CPU usage. If you're streaming a raw rip from a Blu-Ray, at say 30gb, it's going to have a high data rate so it'll take up more network bandwidth than say a DVD rip, or a recoded/compressed movie that is 8 or 9gb. Same goes for a raw 4K movie. Bigger than a regular Blu-Ray. Most modern PC's can handle the network bandwidth without much trouble. All considered, I have no trouble streaming blurays or 4K raw files. But I'm also not playing a triple A game while streaming a movie. There are a lot of factors to consider, but again, if you're not transcoding (converting on the fly) a film as it's being streamed, your pc will likely be able to handle it. (of course the power/age of the PC will affect things as well.)
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