The Case Against "Best Quality Available" & "1920x1080 If available"

jpp72

After seeing the release notes for 6.1.2.9, i realized that they are doubling down on this very flawed approach.

This was my reaction:

[video=youtube;llgY3VBwTAo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llgY3VBwTAo[/video]

Aside from the fact that not everyone wants the highest bitrate possible, the biggest point against this is because sometimes, StreamFab thinks a certain option is the best available when it actually isn't. So they are implementing something that simply doesn't work properly. Why do that when letting us analyze individual episodes solves a ton of issues!!!???

Case in point:

I queued up The Witcher Season 3 and Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators Season 1.

I forced StreamFab to analyze season 3 and selected the following for The Witcher:

This is what i selected for Muscles & Mayhem:

After everything downloaded, the report said this:

Which resulted in these files:

Notice how The Witcher S03E05 has Atmos 5.1 Audio

So StreamFab is telling me that The Witcher S03E05 has no H265 HDR and no H265 SDR but it downloaded it in H264 with Atmos 5.1.

It's also saying Muscles & Mayhem S01E02 is only H264 and S01E03 only has AAC 2.0 Audio.

My next step was to, you'll never believe this, force analyze each problematic episode! I know right? Shocking! Why would I try to do this? Could this be the solution to many of the StreamFab problems? Let's find out, boy and girls!

Here are the files i got after that:

Well what do you know... It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood boys and girls... Would you be mine?

Turns out S03E05 of The Witcher was available in H265 HDR. So was S01E02 of Muscles & Mayhem. Also, S01E03 did have Atmos 5.1.

But check this out... Now The Witcher S03E05's audio is AAC 5.1!!!

Like wtf? It just downloaded Atmos 5 minutes prior!

So in the case against "Best Quality Available" & "1920x1080 If available", the prosecution rests.

jpp72

While the jury deliberates, the prosecution would like to propose sentencing:

DO NOT DOWNLOAD/SPEND DOWNLOAD CREDITS FOR STUFF THAT DOESN'T MATCH MY SETTINGS!

If select Atmos 5.1 and you see you can only get AAC 5.1, ask me if it is ok to download anyway. If i am AFK and don't respond, do not download it.

Show me what wasn't downloaded and why and i can click that link in the report to analyze that specific episode and try again.

Of course, a setting for what to do by default (do not download, download, ask each time) is fine as long as it actually works (unlike the 1st attempt at implementing this).

Cats4U

顾客永远是对的

jpp72

Cats4U

Lol i actually think this is a complete fallacy but in this instance, it may be true. I don't understand why they keep trying to go a certain route, fail, try again, fail, and then say "Welp, it doesn't work properly but let's add it to Netflix now"

Competitor doesn't allow you to queue a whole show. Only 1 season at a time or even 1 episode at a time. They have ZERO posts about a season not downloading at 1080p and ZERO posts about forced subtitles not downloading. Even if they had some for the forced subs, the answer is download the episode individually and you can select the forced subs.

DVDalibaba

can anyone tell me when to DRM MPD and m3u8. does it work? it's been almost 15 days since reporting it's no longer active

ord1117

I think they got a High School or Relative to do TEC stuff.

They are Tooo cheap to hire an Actual TEC Person

They have TOOO Many programs with TOOOO Many Problems !!!!!!!!!!

Cats4U

Competitor doesn't allow you to queue a whole show. Only 1 season at a time or even 1 episode at a time. They have ZERO posts about a season not downloading at 1080p and ZERO posts about forced subtitles not downloading. Even if they had some for the forced subs, the answer is download the episode individually and you can select the forced subs.
jpp72

They have ZERO posts about it because they are afraid to be smacked down by Angry Fox and his cohorts. :p

MrGrackle

They have ZERO posts about it because they are afraid to be smacked down by Angry Fox and his cohorts. :p

Cats4U

Ain't that the truth!

So, where is this setting to disable what you are saying is not working? I forget. Is it in the dialog itself?

And of course it has been mentioned ten thousand times --- can we get a possibility of analyzing the actual episode? Even the youtube module has an "ask me every time" option for quality.

jpp72

They have ZERO posts about it because they are afraid to be smacked down by Angry Fox and his cohorts. :p

Cats4U

What do you mean? I find the people there very welcoming, nice, and understanding. They never tell you that you are stupid for wanting a feature and they also take constructive criticism very well: Like you just tried to murder their grandma.

jpp72

@Mona, @Wilson.Wang

Please let the developers know that, once gain, the Best Available Quality is completely hosed. It doesn't know what is better.

Here's a novel idea: Give us a way of analyzing individual episodes/seasons and we will decide what is best for our needs... Nobody needs "A.I." for things driven by preferences.

Problem #1:

StreamFab scanned Season 1, Episode 1 of Riverdale and showed me only AAC Audio and automatically selected the 2.0 audio:

Problem #2:

I selected AAC 5.1 192 kbps audio and StreamFab decided to download EAC3 2.0 128 kbps audio. Even though the Netflix settings were set to AAC audio. In what world does less channels and lower bitrate better exactly?

Problem #3:

After realizing that StreamFab defaults to AAC when upgrading to 6.1.2.9, i changed it to Atmos. It should fallback to Multichannel EAC3 if there is no Atmos. It does but it still select 2.0 audio when settings are to select 5.1.

So, again, can the developer(s) let us know:

Why are they not making all download windows the same as the new Amazon one?
Why do they refuse to give us a way of analyzing individual episodes/seasons?

Can you at least acknowledge that you have passed on the feedback?

Thank you.

nightwingken

It is all to confusing.

jpp72

It is all to confusing.
nightwingken

Yep. Confusion that could be alleviated by simply letting us analyze individual episodes...

But they won't even grace us with a response so i will continue to use my browser to copy episode links and from now on, i will just recommend the competitor to people who ask.

Wilson.Wang

Notice how The Witcher S03E05 has Atmos 5.1 Audio

Hi,

We confirmed that S03E05 can be downloaded the Atmos audio.

And please post the log file, thanks!

Wilson

MrGrackle

Wilson, I think there is a misunderstanding. The OP's work flow shows us that Streamfab does not select the best options, and that if it analyzed each single episode it would resolve a lot of issues.

lost_cow

[QUOTE=Wilson.Wang;n427476]

And please post the log file, thanks!

Wilson

Very interesting, I would have thought you would have told him to use the "Feedback" that is in the setting. I was under the impression that when you used the feedback, it sent the logs along with your comments.

I also wanted to say that the Documents Folder is not the place you want to have as the default place for log files.
You are probably wondering why. it is because Microsoft has a program called OneDrive that sends everything in that folder to the cloud.

KidJoe

I also wanted to say that the Documents Folder is not the place you want to have as the default place for log files.
You are probably wondering why. it is because Microsoft has a program called OneDrive that sends everything in that folder to the cloud.
lost_cow

Yeah, I'm glad they added the option to relocate the logs... I've made a folder off the root and point my SF logs there just for this reason!

jpp72

Hi,

We confirmed that S03E05 can be downloaded the Atmos audio.

And please post the log file, thanks!

Wilson

Wilson.Wang

I know that. The issue here is the Best Available Quality.

It clearly doesn't work properly and i want a way to disable it. Download what i choose, period.

Since you guys don't want to give us an easy way to analyze individual episodes, i will have to continue doing those extra steps for StreamFab to do it but then all that work is moot if the program decides what is best. It's completely unacceptable that i tell it to download one thing and it downloads another when what i asked for is actually there. And to add insult to injury, you dock me a download credit.

Once again, i don't get the reason why you don't just give us that ability when it will solve so many issues raised by your paying customers.

jpp72

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