Add support for two bit rates per stream: "low" 480p and "high" 1080p

In order to support users on lower speed connections (and reduced download size on mobile) we need a way to support lower bit rate videos. The simplest solution is just to support a fixed two bit rates. This will require changes at all levels of the LBRY stack:

Protobufs

• Rename Stream.source to Stream.source_high_def.
• Add Stream.source_low_def field.

SDK

• publish, stream_create and stream_update add several new arguments:
  • --file_path_high_def pointing to a manually created high definition video.
  • --file_path_low_def pointing to a manually created low definition video.
  • --file_path will point to the original video and ffmpeg would be used to generate the high/low definition versions of the video
• get adds flags:
  • --high_def will only download high def version of the video
  • --low_def will only download the low def version of the video
  • default is to download the high def version

Where it’s necessary for SDK to pick a bit rate, and for backwards compatibility, it should chose high definition.

ytsync

• https://github.com/lbryio/ytsync/issues/53

app

• https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-desktop/issues/3878

lbrytv

• https://github.com/lbryio/lbrytv/issues/190

Further Reading

https://mux.com/blog/youtube-viewers-dont-care-about-video-quality/

[tzarebczan]

Also consider audio only format as a third type? https://github.com/lbryio/lbry-desktop/issues/4435

[belikor]

would it be feasible for Odysee to publish its own transcoded versions of videos on lbry:// automatically?

If there is 1 million videos, and then you publish 5 transcoded versions, suddenly you increase the number of claims 5 times. Also, remember, every claim requires a transaction in the blockchain, meaning staking LBC, and paying the transaction fees. Who pays for this? The user? Odysee? Odysee using the user’s wallet? Will these videos be searchable? There will be duplication of videos in the search results.

I don’t think it’s a very sensible solution to just publish all transcoded claims. I like the solution of having multiple sources, say, low, medium, high, and letting the user choose what goes in there but only searching one by default.