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Running the Emby beta branch 3.1.86.0. (but this began about 3-4 weeks ago and we update the beta version every 1-2 weeks) Platform: SHIELD TV We have some old workout videos we ripped from DVDs in MKV format. They've worked just fine for as long as we've had Emby. Around a month ago, we started seeing a single vertical green bar on the right-hand side of these videos and only these videos. It doesn't happen if the same file is played in Chrome or on an Android phone. We've tried: - Disabling hardware acceleration (from Intel Quick Sync to nothing) - Using custom ffmpeg (the lastest ffmpeg release) - Fiddling with the handful of options available in the Android TV app (don't recall what they were, but anything relating to video playback we tried toggling) Transcoding log is attached. Any suggestions? embytranscoding.txt

Hello, I set up my Emby server on my desktop PC and it was all running perfectly, I've recently moved to using a Raspberry Pi 3 using the guide in the second post on this page: http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/27026-raspberry-pi/page-8 It all works fine, except no MKV file will play, I'm pretty sure this has something to do with ffmpeg, but I have checked that it is in the location that guide used. Any tips? EDIT: The error I get is a white box pops up saying Video Error: There was an error playing the video. I am accessing the server from a Windows 10 machine using Chrome, I don't think this has any effect as I have an identical server set up on this machine and the files play fine, and similar behaviour is shown when accessing the server from Android devices through Chrome. The error also occurs for .avi files I have attached the server log and a remux? log. remux_log.txt server_log.txt

Hi, All of my DVD's and Blu-Ray's have been ripped to MKV, using direct stream copy from the source, with no compression. The DVD rips play fine, but the Blu-Ray rips playback is stuttered. I am guessing this is because they are being transcoded, and the bit rate of the rips is a direct copy. If this is the case, how can I stop the server from transcoding and, should I consider re-ripping the Blu-Rays to a lower bit rate, or use compression?

I apparently had addressed this locally on some/most of my devices in the past. However, we received an Xbox One for Christmas and have been playing with that quite a bit. It was great to see out of the box 80% direct play for our library on the Xbox One. Then I ran across the following: No direct play profiles found for Path:...mkv It turns out the something like the following needed to be added to our DLNA profile for the Xbox One: <DirectPlayProfile container="mkv" audioCodec="ac3,aac" videoCodec="mpeg2video" type="Video" /> The current system DLNA system profile for the Xbox One contains: <DirectPlayProfile container="mp4,mov,mkv" audioCodec="aac,ac3" videoCodec="h264,mpeg4" type="Video" /> This can be handled in a number of ways. The important thing for our case was to ensure mpeg2video codec, which was coming from our raw MKV from DVD, was listed as a valid video codec for direct play with the mkv container. I essentially changed the above to : <DirectPlayProfile container="mp4,mov,mkv" audioCodec="aac,ac3" videoCodec="h264,mpeg4,mpeg2video" type="Video" /> and now our raw dvd/mkv rips play back via Xbox One media player just fine.

Hi, We have been using Emby for a few months now. Our setup is Emby server on a Windows Server 2008 on the home network, and the Roku emby app. We also use Emby for Android on several smart phones and tablets. Initially we were very satisfies, but the quality of the software is going down after each release. Here are a ***few*** examples: 1. Initially we used to be able to stream MKV movies, but after a few updates to the server, some movies stopped streaming. 2. We used to have no problems with the mp4 format, but after the last server update some mp4 movies don't stream. 3. We add new mp4 movies to the library folder, and the latest server version doesn't recognise them anymore. 4. When we restart the windows server, the Emby service never starts automatically. And it's not the settings. We are currently looking for an alternative, even if we need to pay for it.

When I try to stream via emby for wmc and the file is a .mkv movie the subtitles are always on and I can't turn them off. When I stream a .mp4 the subtitles don't turn on automatically (not even sure if they work at all I never use subtitles). Ive been through settings on the server and the client and can't seem to figure out how to disable the subs without playing it directly in VLC.

Sometime over the weekend (10/31/15) the Roku app can no longer handle most MKV files. I say most, because files that are less than 10 minutes in length still play without error. But longer files frequently cause the app (and sometimes the Roku) to crash. I'm guessing the length has something to do with it and once a certain point is reached, the player just gives up. MP4 files have no problems. I am running version 3.0.5781.0 of the server and 2.15 of the Emby player.

I have two files which for test purposes I have encoded using FFMPEG: ffmpeg -t 10 -i bunny.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -codec:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.0 -b:v 1000k -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ac 2 Bunny1.mkv ffmpeg -t 10 -i bunny.mp4 -map_metadata -1 -codec:v libx264 -profile:v high -level 4.0 -b:v 1000k -c:a aac -b:a 128k -ac 2 Bunny2.mp4 Bunny1.mkv seems to require transcoding to playback, where as Bunny2.mp4 does not. I understand there might be some sort of issue with Emby on the AFTVS and MKVs (which is not an issue with Kodi on the AFTVS). I don't understand why the video would be re-transcoding when transcoding for the stick. Wouldn't it make sense for the Video (and Audio) streams to be copied by ffmpeg (with only the container format being changed)? If we could just change the container format the CPU overhead for the emby server would be MUCH lower. I'm guessing the answer might be that we need some control over keyframes to allow for HLS streaming, but if direct playback of the MP4 is possible, is it not possible to use this container format and not use HLS streaming? The AFTV is set to 40mbps and to play via VLC. I see Trans/I for Bunny1.mkv and Direct/I for Bunny2.mp4 Below is some more info that might be helpful... Mediainfo for Bunny1.mkv Video Codec: H264 Profile: High Level: 40 Resolution: 1920x1080 Aspect ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic: No Interlaced: No Framerate: 30 Bitrate: 1573 kbps Bit depth: 8 bit Pixel format: yuv420p Ref frames: 4 Container: mkv Audio Codec: AAC Profile: LC Layou: tstereo Channels: 2 ch Sample rate: 48000 khz Default: Yes Bunny1.mkv transcode log http://10.202.1.5:8096/emby/videos/27c78997bdaa9f76d16ad6632499ecc6/hls1/main/0.ts?DeviceId=700676b0ab0b95df&MediaSourceId=27c78997bdaa9f76d16ad6632499ecc6&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=aac&AudioStreamIndex=1&VideoBitrate=39872000&AudioBitrate=128000&MaxAudioChannels=2&MaxWidth=1920&MaxHeight=1080&Level=40&ClientTime=1451166437827&MaxVideoBitDepth=8&Profile=high&PlaySessionId=d8879b38d70b4cc6aeac64c2df68a869&api_key=5d44663d654347e384cee425560a3629 {"Protocol":"File","Id":"27c78997bdaa9f76d16ad6632499ecc6","Path":"/mnt/movies/bunny1.mkv","Type":"Default","Container":"mkv","Name":"1080P/H264/AAC","RunTimeTicks":100870000,"ReadAtNativeFramerate":false,"SupportsTranscoding":true,"SupportsDirectStream":true,"SupportsDirectPlay":true,"RequiresOpening":false,"RequiresClosing":false,"VideoType":"VideoFile","MediaStreams":[{"Codec":"h264","IsInterlaced":false,"BitRate":1611488,"BitDepth":8,"RefFrames":4,"IsDefault":true,"IsForced":false,"Height":1080,"Width":1920,"AverageFrameRate":30,"RealFrameRate":30,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9","Index":0,"IsExternal":false,"IsTextSubtitleStream":false,"SupportsExternalStream":false,"PixelFormat":"yuv420p","Level":40,"IsAnamorphic":false},{"Codec":"aac","IsInterlaced":false,"ChannelLayout":"stereo","Channels":2,"SampleRate":48000,"IsDefault":true,"IsForced":false,"Profile":"LC","Type":"Audio","Index":1,"IsExternal":false,"IsTextSubtitleStream":false,"SupportsExternalStream":false,"Level":0}],"PlayableStreamFileNames":[],"Formats":[],"Bitrate":1611488,"RequiredHttpHeaders":{}} /var/lib/emby-server/ffmpeg/20150917/ffmpeg -i file:"/mnt/movies/bunny1.mkv" -map_metadata -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -preset superfast -crf 23 -b:v 1611488 -maxrate 1611488 -bufsize 3222976 -vsync vfr -profile:v high -level 40 -force_key_frames "expr:gte(t,n_forced*3)" -vf "scale=min(iw\,1280):trunc(ow/dar/2)*2" -flags -global_header -sc_threshold 0 -codec:a:0 aac -strict experimental -ac 2 -ab 128000 -af "adelay=1,aresample=async=1" -hls_time 3 -start_number 0 -hls_list_size 0 -y "/var/lib/emby-server/transcoding-temp/5e13712ff166da44bb5204c51e4bbe2b.m3u8" ffmpeg version N-49867-gd36eac6-static http://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/ Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers built with gcc 4.9.3 (Debian 4.9.3-4) configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-shared --disable-debug --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libwebp --enable-libspeex --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libfreetype --enable-fontconfig --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-gray --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libass --enable-gnutls --enable-libvidstab --enable-libsoxr --enable-frei0r --enable-libfribidi --cc=gcc-4.9 libavutil 55. 2.100 / 55. 2.100 libavcodec 57. 2.100 / 57. 2.100 libavformat 57. 2.100 / 57. 2.100 libavdevice 57. 0.100 / 57. 0.100 libavfilter 6. 4.100 / 6. 4.100 libswscale 4. 0.100 / 4. 0.100 libswresample 2. 0.100 / 2. 0.100 libpostproc 54. 0.100 / 54. 0.100 Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'file:/mnt/movies/bunny1.mkv': Metadata: ENCODER : Lavf57.20.100 Duration: 00:00:10.09, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1611 kb/s Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 30 fps, 30 tbr, 1k tbn, 60 tbc (default) Metadata: ENCODER : Lavc57.20.100 libx264 DURATION : 00:00:10.087000000 Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default) Metadata: ENCODER : Lavc57.20.100 aac DURATION : 00:00:10.021000000 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] using SAR=1/1 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 SSE4.2 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] profile High, level 4.0 Output #0, hls, to '/var/lib/emby-server/transcoding-temp/5e13712ff166da44bb5204c51e4bbe2b.m3u8': Metadata: encoder : Lavf57.2.100 Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=-1--1, 1611 kb/s, 30 fps, 90k tbn, 30 tbc (default) Metadata: encoder : Lavc57.2.100 libx264 Stream #0:1: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default) Metadata: encoder : Lavc57.2.100 aac Stream mapping: Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264)) Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac (native) -> aac (native)) Press [q] to stop, [?] for help frame= 22 fps=0.0 q=21.0 size=N/A time=00:00:00.91 bitrate=N/A frame= 55 fps= 54 q=17.0 size=N/A time=00:00:02.00 bitrate=N/A frame= 89 fps= 59 q=19.0 size=N/A time=00:00:03.13 bitrate=N/A frame= 122 fps= 60 q=19.0 size=N/A time=00:00:04.24 bitrate=N/A frame= 148 fps= 58 q=21.0 size=N/A time=00:00:05.12 bitrate=N/A frame= 171 fps= 56 q=21.0 size=N/A time=00:00:05.86 bitrate=N/A frame= 200 fps= 56 q=22.0 size=N/A time=00:00:06.84 bitrate=N/A frame= 227 fps= 56 q=21.0 size=N/A time=00:00:07.74 bitrate=N/A frame= 250 fps= 55 q=25.0 size=N/A time=00:00:08.51 bitrate=N/A frame= 276 fps= 55 q=23.0 size=N/A time=00:00:09.38 bitrate=N/A frame= 300 fps= 54 q=-1.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:00:10.04 bitrate=N/A video:1582kB audio:159kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] frame I:4 Avg QP: 9.12 size: 35806 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] frame P:123 Avg QP:13.53 size: 9351 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] frame B:173 Avg QP:14.85 size: 1885 [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] consecutive B-frames: 18.7% 13.3% 0.0% 68.0% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] mb I I16..4: 62.2% 25.6% 12.2% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] mb P I16..4: 18.9% 5.1% 0.3% P16..4: 29.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% skip:46.5% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] mb B I16..4: 0.9% 0.1% 0.0% B16..8: 7.4% 0.0% 0.0% direct: 8.5% skip:83.1% L0:42.4% L1:49.0% BI: 8.5% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] 8x8 transform intra:21.1% inter:24.1% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 9.0% 32.3% 17.1% inter: 4.5% 11.2% 1.1% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] i16 v,h,dc,p: 83% 11% 5% 1% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 14% 19% 34% 5% 7% 5% 7% 4% 5% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 23% 21% 21% 6% 6% 5% 7% 4% 7% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] i8c dc,h,v,p: 69% 15% 11% 5% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] Weighted P-Frames: Y:19.5% UV:17.9% [libx264 @ 0x382fe60] kb/s:1295.59

First of all, Merry Christmas to all! I'm struggling with mkv or m2ts containing AVC/MVC content since a few months. I tried most of the tutorials around the web (makemkv, tsmuxer etc.), but til now, I cannot get this to work with Emby (or Plex). MKV does not work here at all since just Stereoscopic Player plays it). But Playing a MVC m2ts created with tsMuxer over USB connected HDD works. When starting the video (marked FSBS in Metadata) in the Emby app, the half of the 1st 1080p stream is on the one side, and the half of the 2nd 1080p stream on the other. But the video itself plays. When stream starts it looks kinda this (cannot see it absolutely, perhaps thew Streams overlap in the middle): Now to the weird behaviour: When I go into Tools Menu during Playback to change Position (the time doesn't matter), the Movie loads again to the requested time and the screen looks like this, which is an absolute correct working 3D MVC stream recognized by TV:

There are some issues with the subtitles I'd like your thoughts on. I have not been doing any extensive testing, but it shall seem the issue at least arises during playback using Chrome webrowser. Quick, rough testing done with Emby Android App on a couple of files, reveal the issue seems not appear there. I have only done very basic preliminary testing, but it shall seem that SRT subtitles embedded into an MKV container does not function the way one would expect it to. I am referring to browser Chrome and Emby 3.0.5781.8. I have in my profile set English subtitles to be chosen during playback. During testing on at the very least 5 video files, I encounter more than one issue. First, during video playback, the english subtitles are applied as expected, but they are applied twice; meaning, each line of subtitle is repeated twice. That is, the subtitles are duplicated. Line 1 would be repeated on line 2 or line 1 and 2 would be repeated on line 3 and 4. If i weren't so damned lazy, I'd provide a picture of how it looks. Furthermore, it would seem that changing the subtitle language doesn't work with the embedded SRT subs. That is, I change the language via the menu in Chrome, but the expected change is not applied. It would appear there's no way to change them at all. Additionally and although it's been stated, it will seem that files with embedded subtitles are processed significantly slower than those files who are without subs. I suppose I am wondering whether Emby Team has planned an overhaul on the system that takes care of embedded subtitles. I acknowledge that my testing has been very limited and there are things I could have missed, but the issue is so dominant that I'll have to find ways to make it more performance and user friendly. Could my options be of looking into ways to exttract subs from the mkv and make them external? Or would you know if the issue arise due to the MKV file itself containing embedded subtitles? Thank you for your consideration, Thomas

Hello. I recenrly switched to Emby from a Kodi+Plex setup. A unified library is really handy, and Emby for Kodi is miles better than PleXBMC, however, the mobile devices don't work as well. On this page it says that direct play is only supported with H.264 encoded video in .MP4, .MOV and .M4V containers, however, Plex offered direct playback of H.264 in an .MKV (it still had to transcode when selecting subtitles, even .srt's, but that's another story). Is this feature planned? I can just use Kodi on a jailbroken iPad, but the interface clearly wasn't made with touchscreens in mind. Thanks in advance

any mkvs that i have that i have ripped with the 7.1 audio track won't play. when i click on the movie it just sits and stays there at 0 seconds. If i go into my task bar and right click on directvobsub and switch it to the 5.1 audio track it works fine. any idea how i can get the 7.1 track working?

Hallo zusammen! Ich bin neu hier, hoffe aber das ich im richtigen Bereich bin ) Zu meinem Problem: Habe gerade meinen frischen Emby Server aufgesetzt, und die Bibliotheken eingepflegt - läuft auch gut! Jedoch ist mir aufgefallen: sobald ich einen Film starte, rennt die CPU auf meinem Server auf volllast. Logischerweise muss er die Filme in das richtige Format setzen - aber welches ist das? Ich würde gerne meine Filme vorher einmal umkonvertiert abspeichern, damit er sie bei jedem aufruf nicht noch einmal umkonvertieren muss. Aktuell Filme: *.mkv Genre : Comedy Format : x264 Video : 1920 x 816 @ 9,3 Mbps Audio : German DTS @ 1509 Kbps Könntet ihr mir bitte ein passendes Konvertier Programm empfehlen mit entsprechenden Daten zur richtigen Konfiguration? Geht der z.B: Free MP4 Video Converter Welche Konfig muss ich auswählen? Hoffe ihr könnt mir ein paar Tipps geben!

Hi, I have a series of mkv files containing DivX video and AC3 audio streams. Emby's web interface plays them nicely but on Roku 3 I see no image - only sound is played. I understand Roku will not play the DivX stream but it seems Emby does not transcode on this scenario. Should I post log files or is this already known? Thanks,

My Emby Server setup: ESXi 5.5 : Xeon E3 1240V2 - Guest VM : Debian 7 server (command-line) - 4 cores 12GB RAM. I’m an Emby newbie so after testing the latest version (Version 3.0.5621.4) it seems that Emby can’t play MKV video material on a web browser (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) and on a Panasonic Viera TV. So my question is : is there a way to send "smb/cifs network video file path" to VLC when i click « Play with an external player » in Emby web page because it’s, for me, the only way to have a full HD video quality. I’m not sure that a web browser will ever do the job. It would combine great interface/presentation/pictures in Emby and full quality of direct video file playback. At least a way to create a custom metadata field "direct file path" for copy/paste it on VLC or Mplayer X ? I love Emby web portal interface and features for Photo/Music playback but not for HD movies. Others Media center suffers from the same problem. I hoppe I've missed something ... Best for your support

I recently got Emby setup and working and I was testing a few things when I noticed that MKV files have issues with Fast Forward, Rewind, and changing the quality. Looking at the logs the only thing I see is this error repeated a few times: I'm running on Ubuntu Server 15.04. Is there anything I can do to fix this or this just an issue with Emby?

My Emby Server setup: Debian 7 (command-line) on ESXi 5.5 : Xeon E3 1240V2 - Guest VM : 4 cores 12GB RAM. I’m an Emby newbie so after testing the latest version it seems that Emby can’t play MKV video material on a web browser and on a Panasonic Viera TV. So my question is : is there a way to send "smb/cifs network video file path" to VLC when i click « Play with an external player » because it’s, for me, the only way to have a full HD video quality. I’m not sure that web browser will ever do the job. It'll combine great presentation/infos/pictures in Emby and full quality of direct video file playback. Best for your support

I am looking for a good MKV software program. I would prefer to convert my Blu-ray movies to lossless, as I am big into surround sound and great picture quality. I wanted to see what others thought and if lossless in necessary? I have seen these programs around and wanted to get some feedback from the community. What MKV software do you recommend? MakeMKV – Seems to be a solid and very popular program. http://makemkv.com/ DVDfab – Option rich, but not cheap. http://www.dvdfab.cn/blu-ray-ripper.htm ByteCopy – Seems to be fast, but I see a ton of fake websites reviewing the product with links back to their site. http://www.pavtube.cn/bytecopy/ HandBrake – Open source and very easy to use. http://handbrake.fr/ MeGUI – Quite a learning curve, but free. http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/

I am experiencing serious frame drops on several movies when played on any of my Roku3 devices. Movies are played directly (without transcoding) but the image has little movement: it seems a sequence of stills with a lot of frames dropped in between them. Same movies play fine on Windows 8 app (direct play) and on Chrome browser (transcoded). This does not occur with all movies, so I did lots of tests to better determine the scenario (e.g.: codecs) that causes this phenomenon. The common factors to every movie with this problem are: Container: MKV Audio: AC3 AVIs with AC3 audio streams are not problem as they all get transcoded. I disabled AC3 (DD) passthrough on the Roku configuration. This setup made MKVs with AC3 audio streams to be transcoded. As they are transcoded they play fine with no jitter/frame drops. This is, though, no solution: disabling AC3 also disables DTS and thus all movies are transcoded resulting on only on 2 audio channels. I suspect this problem relates to Roku's new firmware as these movies used to play fine on same Rokus. So if anybody could just test MKVs/AC3 on a Roku and share the result it would be very good. My setup is as it follows: MB Server version: 3.0.5518.7 Roku app version: 1.87 Roku firmware version: 6.1 build 5604

Note: This process was contributed by a community member and we have no reason to believe it doesn't work if followed to the letter. However, we haven't verified the process lately so it is possible it is out of date. Please let us know of your experience if you attempt this. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Getting MKV and other media files to play directly on your Xbox 360 with Media Browser 3, and Media Browser Classic, can be a frustrating experience. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I have spent many hours banging my head trying to figure out how to get it to work. Seemingly at times I thought I had everything setup correctly, but Media Browser would end up transcoding the file, or unable to play it all. It was a mystery for a while to me, and the behavior was hard to track down. I’ve read countless forums, some even suggesting that this simply won’t work. That is the furthest thing from the truth. Through many efforts I discovered how to get this to work fairly easily, as long as you know what you need to do, and the exact steps to do it! With Xbox 360s going for under $99 now, more and more people are going to take the plunge. I figured I would write this tutorial to save everyone time and their sanity. You can finally start enjoying your Windows Media Center experience like you should. Simply stated having this work under Media Browser Classic is an awesome experience! The interface is unmatched to anything else that is out there. Setting up the server backend correctly: 1. You’ll of course want to have Media Browser 3 installed on a server already. In my setup I have Windows Media Center separated from my NAS. My NAS is simply a Windows 7 machine, with Media Browser installed on it, and all my media files are located on the same server. 2. Setup your Media Browser libraries. Ensure that Media Browser is pointed to your libraries by using UNC Shares and NOT local drives. Even if Media Browser is on the same system as your media files like mine, DO NOT use local drive paths (D:\Movies), instead type in the UNC path \\MEDIASERVER\Movies for example. 3. DO NOT use the Path Substitution option in Media Browser. If you use UNC paths, this should be more than sufficient. I’ve had strange behaviors when using this instead to translate local drive paths. 4. Create a user with Administrator rights to your Media Libraries. In my setup it is called mcuser. Create the same user on both your Media Center server, and your NAS. (If they are separate machines.) 5. Ensure you setup your media libraries in Windows Media Center as well, providing the credentials for mcuser. 6. Use this tool, to give the MCX#-SERVERNAME Administrator access to your media libraries by using the above wmcuser account. http://tobias-tobin.blogspot.com/2008/08/giving-media-center-extender-access-to.html Note: If your Media Browser server, and Windows Media Center machine are on the same server, step 5 and 6 may not be necessary, but I am unable to verify this at this time. In addition you'll need to have a separate account that has full Administrator rights to your libraries. More information on how the tool works is available on the website. 7. Load a CODEC pack on your Windows Media Center server. I prefer Shark007, but others may work with some tweaking. Get it here: http://shark007.net. Use Shark's recommended settings on both 32-bit and 64-bit CODECs, and says yes to the Live TV, Xbox 360 question. In addition under MKV, I choose to use Alternative Extender support. 8. If you have not already done so install Media Browser Classic on your Windows Media Center machine and make sure it launches. 9. Launch the Media Browser Classic Configuration program, and go to the extender+iso tab. Ensure that Enable Transcode 360 is UNCHECKED. Transcoding is bad, we do not want it! 10. While in the extender+iso tab under extender formats, ensure you put the media extensions you want to play natively, such as .MKV or .MP4 . Setting up your Xbox360: Here is where it got weird and this is key. It took me a while to figure these exact steps out. However, first, a little background: it’s a little known fact that Microsoft has released a new version of the Optional Media Update that will play MKVs and other media files natively. Originally Microsoft has had several versions of this program, but not all of them will play MKVs. This coincides with the update they have released for the Xbox ONE. However, the trick is getting the right version to download, which isn’t as obvious as you would think. From my experience, without having an Xbox LIVE membership it’s not possible to download the necessary update. In addition, I was NOT able to get the right version by downloading it manually (searching the app store). Like I said In order to get the proper version, it will be necessary to have an Xbox LIVE membership. As far as I can tell, the correct version is only available for XBOX Live members. If you are not already a member you will need to create an account and sign up for a membership. Note: The first month is free, so you can sign-up temporarily and cancel if you so desire once you get the update. The update should remain on the Xbox 360 even if you no longer have a membership. In order to get the correct update, perform the following steps: 1. If you do not already have an Xbox LIVE membership go to live.xbox.com and either create a new user, or setup an existing one that you will use on all your extenders with a subscription (this will unfortunately require a Credit Card). Note: You cannot just create an account. Simply, having an account will NOT be enough to download the correct Optional Media Update. 2. Now power on your Xbox 360 extender and navigate to the Xbox Dashboard. If your extender launches immediately to Windows Media Center, exit and go back to the Xbox Dashboard. 3. We first need to check to see if you have the older version of Optional Media Update first by going to Settings > System > Storage > Hard Drive > System Items. If it’s there delete it. If we do not remove it, the Xbox will not update the current version we have. 4. If you created a new account you will need to download the profile to your Xbox 360 Extender you just made from Xbox LIVE. Here is a link that explains how to do it: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/my-account/manage-gamertag-and-profile/download-your-xbox-live-profile-to-another-360-console 5. Once your profile is downloaded, ensure that you login to that profile by choosing it under the Social dashboard. You can also enable automatic login to this profile, by going to Settings > Profile > Sign-in Preferences > Profile Auto Sign-In > On which is preferable for a Windows Media Center extender. If you just added a subscription to an existing account, I found that I add to delete the profile on the Xbox, and download it again as described above to get it to recognize the new subscription. The key to this whole thing is to have an active connection to Xbox LIVE. If you don’t it won’t download the Optional Media Update that you need. 6. Now launch Windows Media Center on your Xbox 360. 7. In order to get the proper update, you’ll need to make sure that you have your movie or TV show media libraries available natively in Windows Media Center, WITHOUT using Media Browser Classic. Clicking on a movie or TV Show from the regular Windows Media Center interface, will allow the Xbox 360 to come up with a screen that will prompt you to download the new version of the Optional Media Update. For some reason if you use Media Browser Classic it will block the download from occurring even when though the screen comes up initially. However, the dialog box to download the update disappears. Using the regular Windows Media Center interface will allow you to do this. In addition DO NOT use Recorded TV, it will never prompt you because Windows Media Center sees these as native media files, which should be .WTV. The media file has to be an MKV or MP4 to have the Xbox 360 initiate a download for the Optional Media Update. 8. Reboot your Xbox 360 extender, and re-launch Windows Media Center. 9. Now go into Media Browser Classic, and navigate to your libraries. Choose your favorite movie or TV Show and enjoy direct playback without Media Browser transcoding them! Yay quality! You’ll also be able to tell if the program is being transcoded or direct played by going to the Media Browser dashboard. Under Server > Active Devices > hover your mouse on the device that is streaming and it will tell you if it is Direct Play or Transcoding the file. Note: You’ll need to do this on every Xbox 360 Extender you have. Hope this guide serves you guys and gals well. Enjoy!

I stubble on this nice little tool that might interest people that are looking to convert videos to MKV/H264. http://htpc-tools.de/en/mkv-buddy-en/ This is not my program nor do i participate in its development. If you want to reach the dev, you must post on the mediaportal forum http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/mkv-buddy-tool-to-help-handling-of-videos.127297/

I recently (today) upgraded from Media Browser 2 to 3. I really like the new player interface, but I can't skip forward 30 sec, or jump to the middle of a movie like I used to be able to. Most of my movies are mkv (h264) make with handbrake. I thought it didn't work at all until I tried playing an AVI movie I ripped. The AVI worked just as the usage guide describes. I saw a post the mentioned maybe the 5.1 is the cause? I tried: MKV w/2ch AC-3 audio Fails MKV w/2ch mp3 audio Fails MKV w/6ch AC-3 audio Fails Is this a known issue? Is there a fix in progress? Other notes: Resume does not even show up if you stop playback Clicking on a chapter always restarts the movie. This happens on 2 different client PCs (windows 7) Thanks, Michael

I am having a specific problem when I play MKV files in mb classic using the default player, that is the mkv will only output audio in stereo pcm format. I then use as a work round MPC-HC as an external player and the mkv will play in 5.1. I am sure there must be an easier solution. Has anyone had a similar problem or have a better solution?

Is the Media Browser Roku app more likely to play a video file in Mp4 rather than Mkv? I ask because I am coming across an increasing number of video files that will not play on the Roku app--actually the audio plays fine but there's no picture. These same files play perfectly on Play On, VLC, Windows Media Player and the couple times I tried even on the web version of Media Browser. It seems like the files the Roku app doesn't like are usually in the Mkv format. On top of that I've noticed that if I have a file that plays fine on Roku Media Browser but where the subtitles won't play if I use Mkv Merge to remux the file so the audio stream is identified, the subtitle language is identified and the subtitles are flagged as default there is only a 50/50 chance that the resulting Mkv file will play properly on my Roku 3. So my question comes down to--are there video or audio formats that Media Browser Roku likes better than others? Is there a higher chance of compatibility with specific audio/video formats? Joe Smart

Hi, anyone else experienced this? Bluray ripped to Mkv and DTS audio is copied. Played the file a few times bitstreaming audio to my soundbar and audio was out of sync. Opened up LAV and adjusted audio delay (-300ms) and got it synced up. Put LAV back to no delay and switched off soundbar to see what TV speakers would do. Audio is perfect through TV. Switched soundbar back on and now it's perfect without touching LAV Can the audio over HDMI get out of sync which needs a restart of you receiver/soundbar to sort it out? I'm happy I know how to fix it, it's just a wee bit weird! Cheers Latchmor