Option not to transcode lossy music

Feature requests
1

Feature description:

A basic implementation would be: if the source file is already encoded in a lossy format, ignore transcoding setting and serve the file as is.

Problem solved:

I use Navidrome as backend. My library is a mix of lossless (FLAC) and lossy (mp3, ogg, aac) music. If I enable transcoding, I’m served an encoded file regardless of the source format.

This causes two problems:

  1. if source bitrate is lower than the setting, the served file is larger than source.
  2. Transcoding across lossy formats (e.g. mp3 to ogg) causes - admittedly very minor - artifacts in the audio.

Brought benefits:

Data saving for problem 1). Peace to the dozens of audiophiles bothered by 2) :slightly_smiling_face:

Mockup:

From a data saving point of view, default behaviour should be that if source bitrate is lower than quality setting, the file should be served as-is.

For quality, options could be added in the ‘Playback’ section of the settings:

  1. Never transcode from lossy format/only transcode lossless formats
  2. only transcode if source bitrate is greater than…
2

Those are stuff for the server side normally, all other servers than Subsonic have the proper API to handle those cases.

For 1) this is a ffmpeg command line issue on Navidrome side
For 2) I’m sorry but you don’t say audiophile and mp3 in the same sentence :wink:

There’s plans to improve and extend Subsonic API with the servers, but it will take time.

Until then no solution for 2 and for 1 you need to see with Navidrome.

1 Like
3

Sometimes, all that you can find is a 128kbps MP3, and make do with it :sweat_smile:

Thanks for the reply. I’ll have a look at the other backend options.

4

Did you find a solution to this? I love the flac to opus transcoding, but when I’m served with an opus file when the source is an mp3 it makes me anxious about the lossy transcoding :rofl: