Embodiments are directed towards remotely generating encoding metadata at a remote content distributor for use by a local user computing device. The remote content distributor receives and encodes content. During or after the encoding process, the remote content distributor generates encoding metadata that indicates how the content was encoded by the remote content distributor. The remote content distributor provides the encoding metadata to the user computer device. The user computing device receives the content and the encoding metadata and encodes the content based on the encoding metadata. The user computing device can then provide the encoded content to another computing device for decoding and presentation to a user.