| Codec | A piece of software than handles encoding and decoding data streams. When you're watching a video, your device is, in real-time, decoding the video stream. This usually happens on the GPU for best performance. The video file itself is on disk already encoded. | Jellyfin Codecs |
| Transcoding | A process that converts a video stream. Converting one or more of the following: Codec, Container, Audio This is a process that happens on the server if the client cannot play the video file. The server will transcode the video to a compatible format in real-time and send the bytes to the client. | |
| Direct Play | If the client is 100% compatible with the video file on the server, no transcoding will happen and the file bytes are sent directly. This is the ideal scenario because the server does less work and playback will be snapper on the client. With Direct Play, you can also ensure you're getting the best quality video. | |
| H.264 | A highly supported video codec | |
| H.265 | A better version of H.264 that has more efficient encoding. It is less supported because the patent owners charge for licenses. Mozilla did not pay for the license so H.265 playback does not work on Firefox. Playback does work on Chrome and Edge. | https://caniuse.com/hevchttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding#Patent_licensing |
| Container | A file format that stores all the elements of a video file together so they can be played back simultaneously. MPEG4 is an example of a video container. Each container has different features and licenses | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_container_formats |
| Jellyfin | A media (video) server that clients can connect to stream video. Jellyfin will handle transcoding video for incompatible clients. The Jellyfin Project has developed a variety of clients across many platforms | |
| Google TV | | |
| Android TV | | |