Universal Media Server | Forum

I'm trying to transfer files from a Plex media system on macOS Ventura 13.1 into UMS 13.0.0.

I've been comparing playback of the exact same mp4 file in both, and find that UMS seems to be not as clear. I've attached a screen print comparing full screen print grabs in order L->R, UMS, Quicktime, and Plex.

It seems that UMS is the worst, native macOS Quicktime in the middle, and Plex is the best. Is there any way I can improve the UMS mp4 playback quality? Thanks.

Here is the trace log:

I think this is because UMS is transcoding those MP4s instead of streaming them so, and may not be using the best options so the quality is reduced.

There is nothing special about those MP4s so they should be streamed unaltered.

This may be caused by the Invalid value "30" error as there is a lot of them in the logs and I don't see the usual decision making on whether files should be transcoded or streamed.

@mik_s As a techie, but nooby to UMS, is there a config file I can change to have the mp4 streamed? Thanks

Cannot you choose the TRANSCODING folder then choose play with no transcoding and then check the quality.

I tried that, but it looked the same. Isn't there a way to tell UMS directly to stream?

As far as I know, that should make the playback stream.

You could try this in your renderer.conf file:
StreamExtensions = mp4

and take out the line:
Supported = f:mp4 .........................................................

Any idea where this is found on macOS???

You can force it to not transcode by playing from the #--TRANSCODE--# folder and choose "No transcoding"
(if you do not see it, enable "show the #--Transcode--# folder" in the GUI on the navigation tab, in the web GUI it is in the "virtual folders/files" section)

I would say it's best to not alter your conf yet till you know why it is transcoding. If you force streaming of all MP4s then if your device does not support a codec like h265, UMS will just stream it and it won't play.

I don't use a Mac so can't tell you where the confs are stored, on windows they are located in the renderers folder in the installation directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\Universal Media Server\renderers)

@mik_s I tried the ##Transcoding# folder and there was no improvement in quality with "No Transcoding". I also tried it on Google Chrome, and there was no change. As an experiment I can try tomorrow (2023 will come in 2 minutes now) to load UMS on a Windows 11 Arm virtual machine I can run on my mac and see what happens there. I'll post the results.

I've finally gotten to setup UMS in a Parallels Virtual Windows 11 ARM client, and the quality of the playback is the same degraded quality I get on UMS directly on the Mac, and nowhere as clean as a direct playback from macOS Quicktime. How can I set this to streaming?