Transcode question

[Luxfero]

I have a question when a video is trancoded is the video saved on the computer for later play or is the video trasncoded every time its played.
I used Tveristy before I started using PS3 Media Server and it would save all transcoded videos on the computer for later play.

[meskibob]

It's transcoded in memory with no temp files.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3507

[chocolateboy]

It's transcoded in memory with no temp files.

Web videos are transcoded via FIFOs. I haven't investigated other transcoding pipelines closely, but I suspect they're similar.

Depending on your platform/setup, the FIFO may be memory mapped e.g. /tmp is memory mapped on many (most?) Unices, and that's where PMS creates its named pipes.

So, yes, there are temp files, but they're not (re-)readable. Caching functionality could be added via a plugin, but PMS's support in this area is, at best, incomplete.

[meskibob]

So in some cases your OS will grant you access to the named pipe, so you could grab the transcoded file if you wanted? Interesting.
However, the main point still holds for the original question, where PMS does not transcode like TVersity by saving a transcoded file to the harddisk that persists after the pipe (or whatever system they use) is closed.

[chocolateboy]

So in some cases your OS will grant you access to the named pipe, so you could grab the transcoded file if you wanted. Interesting.

Yes and no. The temp files are readable on all platforms, including Windows. But multiple processes can't read the whole stream from a named pipe, just as you can't push water back into a hosepipe. Like standard input, the files can only be read once.

A plugin could easily tee the stream off to permanent storage. VLC also has options to multiplex streams.

[Luxfero]

Thank you both for the helping me with the question.

Another question, since there are temp files when transcoding is there any need to clear the temp folder or are the files only existing for as long as they are been used? The reason for my first question is not that i'd like to replay transcoded videos.
Thanks again,

[chocolateboy]

is there any need to clear the temp folder or are the files only existing for as long as they are been used?

PMS removes them as soon as they've been used.