HBO Max 6251 - Analysis and bitrate...

[x265]

I was going to comment on this in another thread about HBO, but another question came up and I didn't want to mix topics.

Has anyone else had this problem? In episode 10 of season 1, only the audio downloads. I restarted StreamFab and it seems to be working now and the video is downloading. I don't have a log because it only happens sometimes, but I reported it via ticket since I was already reporting another error that was occurring with HBO analysis. It happens with 6.2.5.1.




I finally downloaded the video because I closed StreamFab and reopened it. It seems to have been a momentary thing.


Another thing I've noticed is that the bitrate of the videos seems to have changed. About two or three versions ago, it downloaded The White Lotus x265 1080p with a high bitrate. with the file weighing in at over 3 GB. Now I get several options to choose from that weren't there before (I personally like it this way because I store what I download and I think the quality is decent and the file size is smaller).

[Germania]

In episode 10 of season 1, only the audio downloads

As I wrote before:

6250 works for me better with Max series as 6251

but I've never had a MAX DL that only downloads audio

Can't test because I don't know which series you mean - The White Lotus.s01e10 don't exist.

Another thing I've noticed is that the bitrate of the videos seems to have changed.
About two or three versions ago, it downloaded The White Lotus x265 1080p with a high bitrate.

Of course, SF cannot influence the bit rate offered by Max ..
.. I get the same offer for The White Lotus.s01e01 H265 1080p with SF 6247 and 6251

SDR 5238 kps - 936 MB
HDR10 4003 kbps - 660 MB
DoVi 3636/3635 kbps - 679 MB

H265 1080p with > 3 GB seems too large to me for one hour

[x265]

Can't test because I don't know which series you mean - The White Lotus.s01e10 don't exist.

It happened to me with Game of Thrones, look at the image in the previous message.
If you're going to try it, add all the episodes of that series to the queue and download them. Some of them will probably fail and only the audio will download. It doesn't always happen, it's random. As I said, I've had to restart StreamFab several times and repeat the download of the same episode several times until it finally downloaded with video. It's strange.

In any case, I have reported it via ticket because I find it quite unusual. It is not the first time this has happened to me, although the other times it happened, I do not remember which StreamFab module or version it happened with. I did not report it because I assumed it was something temporary and unimportant. It has not happened to me for a long time, but with 6251 and Game of Thrones, it has happened again and frequently.

I get the same offer for The White Lotus.s01e01 H265 1080p with SF 6247 and 6251

SDR 5238 kps - 936 MB
HDR10 4003 kbps - 660 MB
DoVi 3636/3635 kbps - 679 MB

H265 1080p with > 3 GB seems too large to me for one hour

6247 is quite recent. I think the last time I tried downloading The White Lotus was with 6244, and it downloaded each episode at +3GB with a high bitrate. I was going to try it now, but StreamFab seems to be telling me that it's an old version and it's not possible.

In any case, there's no point in talking about this if I don't have any proof. You're right, I didn't know that the bitrate would change from one version to another when we know that it's supposed to never change. I mention this because, as I said, there are several HBO Max series such as The White Lotus, Game Of Thrones... that were downloaded with a high bitrate (I don't have them in my personal library for that very reason; I'm just downloading them now because, as I said, they now offer a lower bitrate, which I personally prefer so that the file sizes are smaller).

However, I have noticed that The Big Bang Theory maintains high bitrates. I downloaded episode 1x01 and it shows me the following image, so I assume that HBO Max has reduced the bitrate of several series but not this one in particular.

[0xFeedBeef]

<snip>

However, I have noticed that The Big Bang Theory maintains high bitrates. I downloaded episode 1x01 and it shows me the following image, so I assume that HBO Max has reduced the bitrate of several series but not this one in particular.

Don't use earlier seasons of TBBT (especially the Pilot) as some sort of yardstick measure, the pilot is so noisy that I had to literally crank up QP all the way up to stupid numbers in for some sequences to get decent HEVC compression off BD sources, at it still came out similar to what HBO have (in all honesty Chernobyl despite its grain compresses better than the TBBT pilot )

[Germania]

It happened to me with Game of Thrones, look at the image in the previous message.

In first post is no previous message ..
.. and in your linked topic is no post from you.

And if there is a “random” problem, I'm not going to download entire seasons
that I can't understand well enough in the languages offered.
btw: I never encountered most of the problems mentioned in the forum.

6244 .. I was going to try it now, but StreamFab seems to be telling me that it's an old version and it's not possible.

That's the reason why I compared with 6247 ..
.. because older versions don't work anymore.

However, since (almost) only one H265 1080p offer is available ..
.. SF cannot have changed anything regarding the bit rates.

[jpp72]

However, since (almost) only one H265 1080p offer is available ..
.. SF cannot have changed anything regarding the bit rates.

Something is definitely up with HBO Max.

I downloaded the whole 8 seasons of Game of Thrones in HDR10 and Atmos to replace the ones i got from the Amazon channels and i ended up deleting them all.

1st off, probably 50% of it was downloaded at 1600x900 instead of 1080p, second, the bitrates are completely awful and unusable. Even the HBO cable snow intro is insanely pixelated.

I think that StreamFab is getting available bitrates based on the internet speed HBO Max calculates instead of forcing the best quality/bitrate always.

Pulled that straight out of my ass btw. Dunno that it's even a thing that can be done. But i do notice that anything i play inside StreamFab on HBO Max is very low quality compared to what i see in my regular browser.

I know you are not about to download all of GoT but do you have a way of analyzing a specific episode? S01E01 only allows me to choose 1600x900 so i'd like to be able to analyze another and see how the queue is downloaded like this. I am trying to analyze S03E06 (an example of very small bitrates) and even though it is set as the episode to resume, SF only analyzes S01E01

[x265]

In first post is no previous message ..
.. and in your linked topic is no post from you.

Perhaps it is a forum error.

And if there is a “random” problem, I'm not going to download entire seasons
that I can't understand well enough in the languages offered.
btw: I never encountered most of the problems mentioned in the forum.

I told you to download the entire season because downloading 1 or 2 episodes won't reproduce the problem, which means you could say that the error I'm having can't be reproduced. It wouldn't be necessary to download the entire season, just at some point only the audio would download and not the video, perhaps when downloading video number 12, 16, 25... I don't know, it wasn't necessary to download everything, but if you started downloading everything, at some point it should appear.



QUOTE=Germania;n467527]
That's the reason why I compared with 6247 ..
.. because older versions don't work anymore.

However, since (almost) only one H265 1080p offer is available ..
.. SF cannot have changed anything regarding the bit rates.[/QUOTE]

I use a translator most of the time because my English is only good enough for reading; for writing, I need to rely on a translator, so perhaps what I mean hasn't been understood.
I mean, maybe StreamFab has added new code internally that gets all the content (different resolutions, bitrates, etc.) that HBO Max offers for a movie, for example. Maybe there is a version that no longer shows subtitles in a specific language because HBO Max has changed something and StreamFab cannot read it... In other words, HBO may have that subtitle available, but because they've changed something, StreamFab can't obtain it or offer it as a download. That's what I mean, not that StreamFab modifies the bitrate (that it downloads the content with the bitrate that the developer wants, which I obviously know StreamFab doesn't do). But it struck me that from a version that, if I remember correctly, was approximately 6244, The White Lotus, for example, downloaded with +3GB per episode and offered a bitrate between 8-10k. However, that has now changed and it can be downloaded with lower bitrates, which is probably because HBO has lowered the bitrate for most of its library.

[Germania]

S01E01 only allows me to choose 1600x900

It's not available with HDR10 1920x1080 at Max - see the mpd:


-= Open link in new tab for larger screenshot =-

All three offers with 1920x1080 are SDR (6478+4037+2555) - which is also offered by SF:





> do you have a way of analyzing a specific episode?

Of course you need only playing before manually analyzing - so you get "Movie Mode"
s03e06 have also no HDR 1080p

[jpp72]

Of course you need only playing before manually analyzing - so you get "Movie Mode"
s03e06 have also no HDR 1080p

Ya i used to do that in 6.2.4.8 but for some reason, it's just not working for me in 6.2.5.1...It analyzes forever

That 1600x900 is horrible quality. Looks fine on a small screen, but on a 65 inch, garbage.

[Brave New World]

Something is definitely up with HBO Max.
...
I think that StreamFab is getting available bitrates based on the internet speed HBO Max calculates instead of forcing the best quality/bitrate always...

This is not as entirely far fetched as you may think. SF uses yt-dlp as the download engine and yt-dlp works by spoofing itself as an android device (aka a smart phone). This means when you download something on a windows/linux/mac computer using yt-dlp (or by extension, streamfab), the streamer server thinks you are watching the video on a phone. This in turn raises the possibility that the streamer decides to deliberately degrade the video quality because someone on a phone isn't going to need the video quality that someone viewing on an 80" tv would need. This has been discussed elsewhere on yt-dlp/downloader forums to explain why some streamers offer much better frame sizes and/or bitrates when streaming to a TV via an app compared to what yt-dlp can download.