HEVC x265 Stuttering On Roku

[LogicTVbox 1]

Hello,

I never knew HEVC Stuttering was a thing - I have had emby for a long time now, and never had this problem on the Amazon FireCube, Emby Theatre for Windows, Emby on a 4k LG TV, Emby on iOS, emby on Android,   until now.

I bought a new Roku Ultra HD 4K HDR ( as Roku puts it "Our Ultimate Streaming Media Player"

Right now, all x264 files play fine, but all x265 files are stuttering.  

What is the first thing I should try?

Thanks 

[speechles 1920]

Enable the stats for nerds under the cog/gear on the video player OSD. It should tell you what the playback method is. If this is transcoding it will give a transcode reason.

Usually these are graphical subtitles that cause transcoding. Make sure on the detail screen you make sure the "Subtitle" section if shown says "off". If it is shown subtitles are present and might be enabled. If this says "Off" you are assured they are disabled. Any graphical subtitles will cause transcoding of the video stream and you should try to obtain SRT instead.

If the stats for nerds shows DirectPlay/DirectStream rather than transcoding please let us know. That means something needs to be reported back to Roku Co. Thanks.

[LogicTVbox 1]

I'm not able to test the Roku right now as it is being used - but - I was able to test the latest Emby App on my LG TV  -  and  no stuttering on the same file, or any x265 movies.  

I will report back as soon as I can test the Roku. 

[Happy2Play 8318]

28 minutes ago, LogicTVbox said:

I'm not able to test the Roku right now as it is being used - but - I was able to test the latest Emby App on my LG TV  -  and  no stuttering on the same file, or any x265 movies.  

I will report back as soon as I can test the Roku. 

Were there ffmpeg logs made for the previous sessions that stuttered, all you have to do it check Dashboard-log or the logs folder?

[LogicTVbox 1]

1 hour ago, speechles said:

Enable the stats for nerds under the cog/gear on the video player OSD. It should tell you what the playback method is. If this is transcoding it will give a transcode reason.

Usually these are graphical subtitles that cause transcoding. Make sure on the detail screen you make sure the "Subtitle" section if shown says "off". If it is shown subtitles are present and might be enabled. If this says "Off" you are assured they are disabled. Any graphical subtitles will cause transcoding of the video stream and you should try to obtain SRT instead.

If the stats for nerds shows DirectPlay/DirectStream rather than transcoding please let us know. That means something needs to be reported back to Roku Co. Thanks.

Under the stats for nerds it says 

Model: Roku STB 4800RW

Play Method: DirectPlay

Stream Type: MP4

Steaming Info:

Video Codec: HEVC (Direct)

Audio Codec: AAC (Direct)

Bitrate 2Audio Channels: 6 (Surround 5.1).22Mb/s

Max bitrate: Auto - 41Mb/s

Original Media Info:

Container: MP4

Video Code: HEVC

Video Bitrate: 2Mb/s

Audio Codec: AAC

Audio Bitrate: 224Kb/s

Bitrate 2Audio Channels: 6 (Surround 5.1).22Mb/s

 

What should my next step be? 

[LogicTVbox 1]

32 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Were there ffmpeg logs made for the previous sessions that stuttered, all you have to do it check Dashboard-log or the logs folder?

I have no idea how to make / get / find FFmpeg logs.  

Any Advice on this? 

[LogicTVbox 1]

one other thing i should note: the audio never stutters - its only the video. the audio plays perfectly on all x265 files on the roku device in question in this thread

[LogicTVbox 1]

Sorry I spoke too Soon:

The stats for nerds were correct, but alas only temporarily.  Now these are the updated "Stats For Nerds" From the same roku from the same video file x265

 

Model: Roku STB 4800RW

Play Method: DirectStream

Stream Type: HLS

Steaming Info:

Container: TS

Resolution: 1920 x 1036

Video Codec: HEVC (Direct)

Audio Codec: AAC (Direct)

Bitrate 2Audio Channels: 6 (Surround 5.1)

Max bitrate: Auto - 41Mb/s

Hardware Accelerated: No
Transcoding Progress: 100%
Transcoding Buffer:
Transcoding Speed: 
Transcoding Reason: Direct Play Error

Original Media Info:

Container: MP4

Video Code: HEVC

Video Bitrate: 2Mb/s

Audio Codec: AAC

Audio Bitrate: 224Kb/s

Bitrate 2Audio Channels: 6 (Surround 5.1).22Mb/s

 

[speechles 1920]

@LogicTVbox Something with that item is out of whack. That is why the stats for nerds shows "Direct Play Error" for the transcoding reason. The reason you have stuttering playback is because the player cannot play the item directly. The Roku is actively refusing to play it. It might have to do with the container being an MP4 versus an MKV.  What then happens is ffmpeg is involved to read out the video and audio streams to copy them into a new TS container. That might take more resources than normal since the file is damaged somehow.

You can try using MKVToolNix GUI and downloading the appropriate version. Once installed it is drag and drop. Drag the MP4 to the top left corner. Below it will show all streams copied. Click "Start Multiplexing" and it will convert your MP4 to an MKV quickly. The video/audio/subtitle streams are copied into the new MKV container. That might solve your problem as it will also write a streaming friendly header when writing the MKV. It is worth a shot.

Let us know if that works or doesn't and we will follow up. Thanks.

[LogicTVbox 1]

9 hours ago, speechles said:

@LogicTVbox Something with that item is out of whack. That is why the stats for nerds shows "Direct Play Error" for the transcoding reason. The reason you have stuttering playback is because the player cannot play the item directly. The Roku is actively refusing to play it. It might have to do with the container being an MP4 versus an MKV.  What then happens is ffmpeg is involved to read out the video and audio streams to copy them into a new TS container. That might take more resources than normal since the file is damaged somehow.

You can try using MKVToolNix GUI and downloading the appropriate version. Once installed it is drag and drop. Drag the MP4 to the top left corner. Below it will show all streams copied. Click "Start Multiplexing" and it will convert your MP4 to an MKV quickly. The video/audio/subtitle streams are copied into the new MKV container. That might solve your problem as it will also write a streaming friendly header when writing the MKV. It is worth a shot.

Let us know if that works or doesn't and we will follow up. Thanks.

This works (for now) - to that end, thank you very much for pointing me in this direction.   I suspect at this point its something to to with my Roku.  My LGTV doesn't have this issue within Emby.