a transcode url without `videoBitrate` is not "let the server choose".
jellyfin resolves the missing value to 0 and runs ResolutionNormalizer
over it, which maps a bitrate onto a resolution — 0 lands on the bottom
rung. verified here: a 3840x1600 hdr source came back through
scale=...min(max(iw,ih*a),416)... with -maxrate 0.
the number has to be picked per source, because the two cases pull
opposite ways: a cap is a reason for jellyfin to REFUSE a stream copy,
and the absence of one is what makes a cpu-only 4k encode hopeless. so
copyable h264 asks for a ceiling nothing hits and no width, and anything
being genuinely re-encoded asks for 1080p at 12 mbit.
verified both branches against the ffmpeg command jellyfin logs: h264 mkv
→ -codec:v:0 copy, hevc 10-bit hdr → libx264 at 1920 wide, tonemapped.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
pastilhasandClaude Opus 5
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