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Older Rokus, Roku software v10.0.0, & HEVC's


VincentVanGozer
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VincentVanGozer

Couldn't find this searching the forums, so apologies if it's already been covered elsewhere....

Beginning in July, noticed some files just failed to play in the emby app on my Roku 2 4210R, cycling on "Retrieving". Server log showed too many errors and giving up on playback, and I could see multiple ffmpeg processes being spawned until the CPU on my emby server maxed out and I had to force an OS restart. What was odd was that these were media files I'd streamed before from my emby server to this specific roku with no problems.

Wanted to blame windows updates (emby server is Win10, pulling files from a Synology NAS*), but I noticed my Roku Premiere+ on a different TV was able to play the same streamed files without issue. No problems when using the web player from my laptop, and the emby app in my android phone.

Eventually figured out that the problem combination is HEVC coded files streamed to my Roku 2, but only after it updated to v10 of the Roku software (build 4209). Ran the files through MKVToolNix, no change - definitely only this combination seems to hit the issue.

It is a 6 year old Roku, so I can't say I'm surprised it's not working, but it appears that Roku broke HEVC support for some older Roku devices with the latest software update. Hope this saves someone else some pain (if this already hasn't been covered elsewhere)

[*I tried running emby server on my Synology, but it didn't work well and I had a spare NUC to use as an emby server]

ffmpeg.PNG

embyserver.txt

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Do you have hardware acceleration enabled?

The old Roku 2 4210 has never supported HEVC. Roku did not break HEVC since that model never supported it. Emby server must transcode to a compatible format. But that format is somehow not compatible.

Do you have an ffmpeg log from that time? It might show us what is going on. Thanks. ;)

Quote

...but I noticed my Roku Premiere+ on a different TV was able to play the same streamed files without issue.

The Premiere+ supports HEVC. This model will be problem free. It can direct play HEVC.

 

My best educated guess is the level or profile we use in the capabilities is no longer correct. Roku has changed which levels and profiles they handle in regards to these older models. It appears we might have to re-evaluate some of these soon.

Edited by speechles
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VincentVanGozer

I do have premiere and I did have Hardware Acceleration enabled. Disabled it, restarted, and boom - HEVC encoded files work again! Turned Hardware Acceleration back on, restarted, and could immediately reproduce the issue.

I've attached the 3 ffmpeg logs generated from that last one. Let me know if there's any other log files you need, or ping me privately if you need me to test/try anything else. Happy to pitch in and help if I can!

ffmpeg-transcode-2e0fcb68-be7c-4879-a537-c1c6685aab5f_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-30c233ce-8686-4842-b076-b3fb58f5aa8e_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-796e213f-1c96-4e74-a5a8-7269744976ca_1.txt

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16 hours ago, VincentVanGozer said:

I do have premiere and I did have Hardware Acceleration enabled. Disabled it, restarted, and boom - HEVC encoded files work again! Turned Hardware Acceleration back on, restarted, and could immediately reproduce the issue.

I've attached the 3 ffmpeg logs generated from that last one. Let me know if there's any other log files you need, or ping me privately if you need me to test/try anything else. Happy to pitch in and help if I can!

ffmpeg-transcode-2e0fcb68-be7c-4879-a537-c1c6685aab5f_1.txt 8 kB · 1 download ffmpeg-transcode-30c233ce-8686-4842-b076-b3fb58f5aa8e_1.txt 8 kB · 1 download ffmpeg-transcode-796e213f-1c96-4e74-a5a8-7269744976ca_1.txt 8 kB · 1 download

OK @softworkz will take a look at this. Thanks.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • Solution

@VincentVanGozer - I apologize for replying late.

It's your drivers being age-old. Please install the latest graphics drivers from the Intel Website and you should be fine.
Otherwise, please post the hw detection log (after updating drivers and restarting the system).

Thanks.

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VincentVanGozer

@softworkz pretty sure that resolved it. I haven't been able to reproduce the issue at all on my older Roku since, and acceleration has been enabled and the system restarted before I tried any HEVC files, so it's a clean run.

Honestly embarrassed I didn't check that in the first place. Thanks for the solution!

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Thanks for the feedback!

Intel driver version numbering is a mystery. If it would be straightforward and follow a pattern that makes sense to normal human beings, we would have already included a check for this in Emby...

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Nat Hill remote

Not sure if this is where my "report" should go, but I found the results of my fooling around with ATSC 3.0 OTA interesting.
Installed the beta 4.7.0.9 on a competent computer.
My older model Roku 4200X did what it could to play transcoded ATSC 3.0 TV (Silicon Dust 4K tuner) from Indianapolis, but the sound usually only came out of one speaker (sometimes two), then would periodically bomb out.  Eventually recovered and started over with the same routine.
My New Roku Ultra played the same transcocded ATSC 3.0 signals almost perfectly, but the blasted audio stuttered every ten seconds or thereabouts.  Annoying.
But, overall, this seems like progress to me!
Don't begin to ask me about what I've tried to do in order to improve the situation, because I have no earthly idea what I'm doing most of the time.
But I sure enjoy harvesting the fruits of all of your labors!
Thanks everybody at Emby.

Now will somebody please stop the transcoding of Silicon Dust 1080i ATSC 1.0 signals? 😀

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Hi. Can we please look at one specific example of a problem and try to diagnose that with just that log?  Just looking at a bunch of logs without knowing exactly what happened is very difficult.

Thanks.

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17 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi. Can we please look at one specific example of a problem and try to diagnose that with just that log?  Just looking at a bunch of logs without knowing exactly what happened is very difficult.

Thanks.

I've been trying to play the same HEVC movie for two days in a row, The 1st day of playback attempts for this movie are in the 9/7/21 logs which are attached to my initial reply and the 2nd day of playback attempts of this same movie, which was yesterday, are in the 9/8/21 logs attached in my response prior to this response

Edited by Nisten
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