jaruba
commented
2 months ago the desktop app had minimal changes, it does not use stremio core at all, while stremio web uses core, it is a completely different app (although they look the same)
this alone makes it seem like it may be pure coincidence.. and the stream speed (from whatever provider used) may be at fault, or some networking change (but u say that this did not happen)
the h265 playback changes are specific to Stremio Web
if we were to presume that the desktop app would work at the expected speed but stremio web would have stream speed issues, then the h265 transcoding changes could impact the speed as it needs to transcode the stream on-the-fly for web browser support
if that is the case, then the most common reason for a stream to be transcoded for the browser is because the audio track is using surround sound, not all browsers support surround sound because the ability to be able to play it is specific to the hardware, not the browser, which is why you also cannot detect if surround sound is supported with any browser api
this means that in order to ensure playback support in the browser for as many users as possible, we presume that surround sound is not supported anywhere
so if you go to the Stremio Web settings page, then enable "Surround sound" under "Audio", the streams may no longer be transcoded at all for browser support and u may get the expected stream speed
Since updating to Stremio Tech Update Stremio/stremio-core#30, I've encountered significant buffering issues while attempting to watch videos. Specifically with content exhibiting higher bitrates, notably surpassing the 5 Mbps threshold.
This issue persists across both the desktop application and web browser versions of Stremio, indicating that it's not isolated to a particular platform. Notably, this problem is unique to Tech Update Stremio/stremio-core#30; when reverting to an older version of Stremio (specifically, one from November), the threshold is much higher.
My network setup has remained unchanged throughout this period, ruling out any network-related issues as the cause. Additionally, I've experimented with the different encoder settings and adjusted Stremio service settings in attempts to resolve the problem, but these efforts have yielded no improvement.
Given the timing of the issue coinciding with Tech Update Stremio/stremio-core#30, it's plausible that recent changes such as the "fixes for h.265 playback on some browsers/platforms" or updates to the streaming server could be contributing factors.