DTS bitstream + auto refresh rate not working

[Kramerika 16]

When I enable auto refresh rate switching and DTS bitsream, Emby sits and spins and won't play the video.  If I enable refresh rate switching only, it switches the refresh rate from 60 hz to 24 hz but plays the audio as stereo.  If I enable DTS bitsream only, it plays the audio as DTS 5.1, but I don't get the native refresh rate.  DD 5.1 and other audio formats work perfectly fine with auto refresh rate switching.  It's only DTS bitstream + auto refresh rate that causes a problem.  This is on an Nvidia Shield TV with audio being passed through via optical to my receiver.  It shows Direct/l.  SPMC auto switches the refresh rate and outputs DTS 5.1 without issue.  I sent a log around 10:45 PM Eastern with the account, MediaServer.

[ebr 14903]

Is this a straight DTS track or DTS-HD?

 

If you disable the auto switching and manually change refresh rates can you reproduce the problem?  I'm not sure why the two would be related but it could have to do with the HDMI->optical conversion and I think your panel supports both 24 and 23.97 refresh rates so you might try with both of those.

[Kramerika 16]

It's just a DTS track, no DTS HD.  All of my DTS movie tracks are simple DTS 5.1.  I'll have to try to force the Shield TV to 23.97 and play a DTS movie with DTS bitstream on to see what happens.  The combination definitely works through SPMC.

[Kramerika 16]

I tried it with 23.97 set manually, and it did work to bitstream DTS.  As soon as I set it back to 60, it gets hung up trying to auto switch from 60 to 23.97 and bitstream DTS.

[ebr 14903]

I tried it with 23.97 set manually, and it did work to bitstream DTS.  As soon as I set it back to 60, it gets hung up trying to auto switch from 60 to 23.97 and bitstream DTS.

 

Try setting your TV to 24hz instead.  I can see it also has that mode and that is the one we are trying to switch to.

[Kramerika 16]

When I said that I set it manually, I meant on the Nvidia Shield TV.  I have no idea where to set that on my actual TV.  There are no options in the TV settings to set the refresh rates.  It automatically detects whatever is sent from the HDMI-connected device.  I turned on the TV first and then restarted the Shield TV for it to detect the available refresh rates from the TV, and it only picks up 60hz, 59.96hz, and 23.97hz in the HDMI options for the Shield TV or something along those lines in terms of decimal places.  There are only those 3 options, and there is no even 24hz detected or available.

[ebr 14903]

That's interesting because here is what we get via the system:

07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: ** Available display refresh rates:
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 60.0
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 24.0
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 30.0
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 59.94006
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 23.976025
07-18 22:41:38.593  4826  4826 I System.out: 29.97003

Our logic is finding the 24hz mode first and switching to that.  We do not receive an error when we do.  Does the OSD still appear during playback or is the screen completely black?

[Kramerika 16]

Is that what is available for output by the Shield TV by default or what it can actually output based on the HDMI interface with my TV?  I tried tracking down what my TV can support, but the manual (and Google) got me nowhere.  It's a Samsung HL61A750 DLP.  I have never seen it show anything other than 24hz or 60hz in the info.  I am using a splitter to send the HDMI video to my TV and the audio to my receiver via optical since I do not have an HDMI connection on the receiver.  It's possible that the splitter only supports 23.97hz and not 24hz, but would Emby still be able to see that the TV supports 24hz in that case?  Whatever SPMC does differently, it does work perfectly fine for that.

 

All I can see is a spinning circle in the middle of the black screen that keeps going until I hit the back button.  I think I can initially see the bottom banner of information although that disappears.  If it can't find 24hz, can it move on to 23.97hz instead?

[ebr 14903]

No error is happening when we switch refresh rates so there isn't anything to tell us to try something else.

 

Those modes are what are reported by your particular device.  It will be different based on the connected equipment.  Your splitter setup may be having an impact...

[Kramerika 16]

Ah, bummer.  I guess I'll have to use SPMC for movies for now if I want the proper refresh rate and DTS together.

[Kramerika 16]

Did anything change since yesterday with the Android TV app?  I now get different behavior.  If DTS bitstream is on but refresh rate auto switching is disabled, it plays all audio tracks, both DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1, fine.  I do have one small issue which I will post about below.  If I enable refresh rate auto switching in addition to DTS bitstream, DTS movies will play now where they would not prior to yesterday but the audio is converted to PCM 2.0.  DD 5.1 plays no sound at all anymore with both of those options enabled where that worked the other day.  So enabling auto switching on top of DTS bitstream causes DTS to convert to PCM 2.0 and DD 5.1 to not play at all.  Once again, I tested the same movies on SPMC, and they work as they should there with the combination of refresh rate and audio.  I bring up SPMC only because it shows that my setup can work properly, but ultimately, I really want to use Emby for everything.

 

My other minor issue that I discovered in the process is that I have two DTS 5.1 movies that will not play DTS when DTS bitstream is enabled, They play PCM 2.0 instead.  I have not found any other movies yet that have the same issue.  I cannot see any difference in the audio tracks for those movies vs. the other DTS movies that work properly.  The movies that play DTS properly show Direct/I.  The movies that do not play DTS properly but PCM 2.0 instead show Direct/V.  What causes Direct/V to be used over Direct/I?

[ebr 14903]

If you are running the beta version the changes were that the playback now attempts to recover from errors by trying different playback options until the item plays properly.  So that is probably what you are seeing.

 

I'm afraid that, at this point in time anyway, your particular setup just isn't going to be compatible with the auto refresh rate switching.

[Kramerika 16]

Understood, at least for now I have SPMC to fall back on for my purist experience.

 

Without having refresh rate switching on, why are some movies with DTS using Direct/V and not playing DTS properly while others are using Direct/I and are playing it properly?  By all appearances, these movies are the same in terms of subtitles (PGS), etc.  I'm at a loss as to what to do to correct that.

[ebr 14903]

Understood, at least for now I have SPMC to fall back on for my purist experience.

 

Without having refresh rate switching on, why are some movies with DTS using Direct/V and not playing DTS properly while others are using Direct/I and are playing it properly?  By all appearances, these movies are the same in terms of subtitles (PGS), etc.  I'm at a loss as to what to do to correct that.

 

We would have to look at a specific example including the media info for the items and then an app log of each one playing.

[Kramerika 16]

I just sent some logs.  Username is MediaServer on my account.  I first played Star Wars Episode VII which plays DTS fine (Direct/I).  I then played the Amazing Spiderman, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and Avatar which all play PCM instead of DTS (Direct/V).  I finally play the Avengers which plays DTS fine (Direct/I).  Hopefully this helps narrow down why those middle three movies are playing Direct/V with PCM.

[CBers 6766]

@@Kramerika - are they all the same DTS format?

 

There is DTS, DTS-HD and DTS-MA for example.

 

I'm sure there are many others as well.

 

Perhaps you can post the Media Info for each of those movies.

[Kramerika 16]

When I rip movies that have the other DTS tracks outside of the original DTS, I always rip the DTS core only as my receiver can't decode anything but that, and I know that it is the most compatible DTS track.  I did have some DTS movies that had DTS ES 6.1 tracks and had issues, so I converted those to DD 5.1.  I'll post the media info for the movies later when I am home.

[ebr 14903]

I just sent some logs.  Username is MediaServer on my account.  I first played Star Wars Episode VII which plays DTS fine (Direct/I).  I then played the Amazing Spiderman, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and Avatar which all play PCM instead of DTS (Direct/V).  I finally play the Avengers which plays DTS fine (Direct/I).  Hopefully this helps narrow down why those middle three movies are playing Direct/V with PCM.

 

It appears it is due to the subtitles you are trying to play at the same time.  They are not supported in the Google player so would cause a transcode.  They are supported in VLC, however, so we choose that player to get the direct playback and VLC decodes the DTS tracks itself to linear PCM.

[Kramerika 16]

That is odd.  I am not playing any subtitles.  They are off by default, and I am not enabling them anywhere in the settings.  I'll look at it tonight when I get home to see that it is actually the case, that the subtitle is trying to play.

[ebr 14903]

The subs are being auto selected by either your default rules or, perhaps, the fact that they were selected the last time the item was played.

[Kramerika 16]

That was it.  The subtitles got turned on somehow.  I don't remember ever doing that.  I suppose it could happen accidentally, but it's strange that 3 movies out of 5 or 6 that I checked had them on.  At least I know what to do if I find more.  Here is what the media info looks like for all of my movies, so I assume they should be off by default.

 

Language eng

Codec PGSSUB

Default No

Forced No

External No

Title Eng

[Luke 37009]

Well done. Thanks for confirming.

[Spaceboy 2493]

Again, this seems to be reflecting the same issues as live tv with external services on android tv. Subtitles being turned on despite not being requested, forcing transcoding.

[ebr 14903]

Again, this seems to be reflecting the same issues as live tv with external services on android tv. Subtitles being turned on despite not being requested, forcing transcoding.

 

There are a lot of situations where subs would be requested automatically.  Some based on user settings and other based on flags on the subs themselves (like forced or default).  Then, there is the fact that the server remembers your last playback request so, if you turned them on manually then, they will be turned on the next time.

[Spaceboy 2493]

There are a lot of situations where subs would be requested automatically. Some based on user settings and other based on flags on the subs themselves (like forced or default). Then, there is the fact that the server remembers your last playback request so, if you turned them on manually then, they will be turned on the next time.

Ok, that kind of makes sense.

 

That is why when switching to the NAR audio track the server tries to play subtitles. The NAR audio track and subtitles are pretty mutually exclusive though, can't be that often you get a blind person and a deaf person watching tv together.