Populate Quality Settings with Pre-Transcoded Selection

[Firerouge]

Current functionality in Version 3.2.40.0 is as per the wiki documentation on Playback from a sync source "Emby apps will automatically use the additional media sources when possible"

The user should however still be presented with the option to switch resolution through the quality menu found under the settings menu.

If multiple resolutions have been transcoded to any sync source, for example Baseline - High, Medium and Low, Emby will always pick the highest bitrate file as per your max streaming bitrate setting, there is no way to switch between these qualities once playback has begun.

More importantly, when playing from a synced source, the web player removes the settings menu entirely (which is a bug, as the useful Stats for nerds menu and repeat options can't be accessed).

Ideal functionality would be to always show the settings menu: For user accounts that have the Media Playback setting "Allow video playback that requires transcoding" option deselected, the quality submenu in settings should show a selection consisting only of the resolutions/bitrates that are compatible with their player. For users who do have the option to transcode enabled, the quality submenu under settings should still show all bitrates, but should highlight/distinguish the existing synced bitrates. Aka, graphically inform the user which options won't start a transcode.

Both cases should still adhere to the current functionality to automatically start the highest pre-transcoded bitrate file.

[Firerouge]

Thanks for the tag @LukePulverenti , I think it would be more accurate to call this a Bug report however, the missing settings menu when streaming from a synced source breaks two other features in addition to the quality selection feature.

It's true that I wrote this in the style of an enhancement request, but that was only because this is the first and only version of Emby I've used, so I was uncertain what the intended, or proper functionality of the quality selection in this use case should be, so I instead documented how I'd expect this feature to function normally.

[LukePulverenti]

To be honest, I'm not even sure we're going to be doing anything here. I am leaving it open so that we can look into it and entertain the thought, however if we do this then you lose the ability to pick the version and have that version transcoded at a given quality. Not everyone is using multi-versioning for different qualities. For instance, some are using it for directors cuts and things of that nature.

The one exception is the specialized use case that you mention of transcoding restriction + synced copies. That's an obvious situation where we would put those different versions into the player for selection.