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Jellyfin Transcode Profile for XBMC4Xbox


GoTeamScotch
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I have made a profile for Jellyfin (a media streaming server similar to Plex) that transcodes videos down to a format that the Original Xbox can handle. I have tested it on a few of my own 1080p and 4K videos and it seems to work fairly well and I'm hoping to find a few testers who can try it out. At the moment, it still drops frames occasionally, but I'm going dial in the profile to smooth things out further. Once done, I plan on submitting the profile as a PR to the Jellyfin project to see if it can be bundled in with future releases.
 
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This profile basically just tells Jellyfin what containers and codecs to use (and at what bitrates), then Jellyfin handles the transcoding as if it were any other device.
 
To use this, download the XML file below to your PC, then upload it to your Jellyfin server under this path: /etc/jellyfin/dlna/user/XBMC4Xbox.xml
 
You should then see this new profile under Settings > DLNA > Profiles. To try it out, open your Jellyfin client and cast a video to your Xbox as usual. The video should start playing on your Xbox. If anything goes wrong, check your log file for hints. It will tell you which profile it is using. If it doesn't say "XBMC4Xbox" and instead says "Default", then there's a problem.
Reply here with results and feedback.
 
Tested with XBMC4Xbox v3.5.3 (this profile targets this version, but this restriction will probably be removed just in case XBMC4Xbox every has a new release)
 
P.s. I also plan on making profiles for upgraded Xbox motherboards as well, including 128MB and 1.4ghz consoles.
Edited by GoTeamScotch
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  • 3 weeks later...

This looks awesome, I would like to test when my Xbox is up and running again but it will be a while I'm afraid.

 

Edit: I have been thinking about this for a few minutes and I realized I haven't used Xbmc4Xbox since 2006 or so. So how do I playback videos from Jellyfin via XBMC?

Edited by locutus2000
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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/12/2023 at 3:33 PM, dust08 said:

Any way to initiate a video stream from the xbox side instead of having to go to my pc?

I don't think so. I tried through upnp from my xbox and it didn't seem to find my jellyfin library, though I may have just been missing something obvious. I started trying to port the jellyfin kodi plugin to xbmc and made progress, but still a ways to go.

Did you try out the profile? Any feedback?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 10 months later...

Version 0.2b:

  • Added initial support for starting playback partway through a video. When playing a video that was already in progress, XBMC now starts playback at the correct time. This doesn't seem to affect all videos, further testing is needed to determine why and target those codecs/containers/etc.
    • XBMC now displays the correct length of the currently playing video.
    • XBMC can now fast-forward/rewind in currently playing videos.
  • Transcoded videos are delivered over TS streams (instead of MKV).
  • Changed profile identification. New builds of XBMC in the future (beyond 3.5.3) should now work with this profile.
  • Beginning to add support for Photos. Doesn't work yet.

To-do:

  • Fix thumbnails for media in XBMC. Not sure if thumbnails being sent by server are too large or what. Profile has a spot for "MaxAlbumArtWidth" and I tried setting this to 192 (the size XBMC uses for its own thumbnails), but I'm pretty sure this only affects music. I don't see an overall thumbnail size setting.
  • Figure out why DLNA folder browsing doesn't work. Jellyfin handles "special" libraries in a certain way that XBMC doesn't like, including Movies, Shows, Music. Browsing Photos directories (and other basic library types) works.
    • Settings RequiresPlainFolders and RequiresPlainVideoItems to true doesn't seem to help.
  • A lot of testing is still needed. There is a huge variety of content that JF supports. Need to dial in exactly what XBMC supports and ensure transcoding or direct-play happens properly. Need to test: HDR, high framerate videos, high bit depth videos, Atmos, and many others.
  • Create versions of profile targetting 1.4ghz / 128mb upgraded motherboards.

Testers needed!

XBMC4Xbox-v0.2b.xml

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7 hours ago, GoTeamScotch said:

Version 0.2b:

  • Added initial support for starting playback partway through a video. When playing a video that was already in progress, XBMC now starts playback at the correct time. This doesn't seem to affect all videos, further testing is needed to determine why and target those codecs/containers/etc.
    • XBMC now displays the correct length of the currently playing video.
    • XBMC can now fast-forward/rewind in currently playing videos.
  • Transcoded videos are delivered over TS streams (instead of MKV).
  • Changed profile identification. New builds of XBMC in the future (beyond 3.5.3) should now work with this profile.
  • Beginning to add support for Photos. Doesn't work yet.

To-do:

  • Fix thumbnails for media in XBMC. Not sure if thumbnails being sent by server are too large or what. Profile has a spot for "MaxAlbumArtWidth" and I tried setting this to 192 (the size XBMC uses for its own thumbnails), but I'm pretty sure this only affects music. I don't see an overall thumbnail size setting.
  • Figure out why DLNA folder browsing doesn't work. Jellyfin handles "special" libraries in a certain way that XBMC doesn't like, including Movies, Shows, Music. Browsing Photos directories (and other basic library types) works.
    • Settings RequiresPlainFolders and RequiresPlainVideoItems to true doesn't seem to help.
  • A lot of testing is still needed. There is a huge variety of content that JF supports. Need to dial in exactly what XBMC supports and ensure transcoding or direct-play happens properly. Need to test: HDR, high framerate videos, high bit depth videos, Atmos, and many others.
  • Create versions of profile targetting 1.4ghz / 128mb upgraded motherboards.

Testers needed!

XBMC4Xbox-v0.2b.xml 4.08 kB · 2 downloads

For profiles targeting 1.4GHZ systems, does that mean they are more resource intensive but the upgrades can handle it?

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11 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

For profiles targeting 1.4GHZ systems, does that mean they are more resource intensive but the upgrades can handle it?

Correct. Higher bitrates mostly, which leads to less macro-blocking artifacts in HD videos. It's mostly the CPU upgrade that helps with this. My 1.4ghz / 128mb Xbox still has about 70MB of RAM free when using this profile, so it's not hitting a memory limit.

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