Audio Issues

[tampoon 8]

hey all.

i have some hockey games im having issues with. issue first was just video playback with no audio at all. i just updated the app on the roku to 4.0.55, after this now i get audio but is all distorted. 

i can see on the server side is playing via direct play:

Stream

MKV (5.6 mbps)

Direct Play

Video

720p H264

Direct Play (5.6 mbps)

Audio

English AAC stereo (Default)

Direct Play (192 kbps)

 

i have tons of other media so far these seem to have issue. the files play back correctly on my pc. no distortion. 

 

thanks for any help!

Daniel

 

 

[speechles 1929]

We apologize.

Make sure you have your Roku audio settings set correctly in the Roku settings. The Emby Roku application reads those Roku settings implicitly. If you set these incorrectly it will produce incorrect results. Let us know what you have your Roku HDMI Audio set to. Make sure this is set to AUTO in most cases. If you experience crackling audio with this set to AUTO then something is up with the Roku. When the item is Direct Playing that means Emby has passed all control of playback over to the Roku. Emby is merely hand holding to allow the file to be accessible to the Roku. But the entire container, streams within the container, and everything else is presented to the Roku as it is without changes. The Roku accepts it can play these directly and begins playback.

This is why I suggest double check your Roku audio settings. Hopefully when you modify those it produces better results for you. You might also try reboot your Roku device as it can introduce a stale player which can produce static during playback.

Edited May 25, 2022 by speechles

[tampoon 8]

Thanks for the reply. 

I have tested this on 3 of my 6 rokus seems to be the same issue. 2 standalone rokus and a sound bar pro, which has no auto setting. 

Anyhow I was playing around with the app some more and enabled the advanced playback options. After enabling that then selecting the correct playback issues remux setting it played back correctly. 

When I look again at the settings on the server it shows a direct play error message. And that it's throttling

Is there a way to force a transcode by default? I don't understand why just these files and not others have this issue. 

[Luke 37230]

On 5/24/2022 at 11:34 PM, tampoon said:

Thanks for the reply. 

I have tested this on 3 of my 6 rokus seems to be the same issue. 2 standalone rokus and a sound bar pro, which has no auto setting. 

Anyhow I was playing around with the app some more and enabled the advanced playback options. After enabling that then selecting the correct playback issues remux setting it played back correctly. 

When I look again at the settings on the server it shows a direct play error message. And that it's throttling

Is there a way to force a transcode by default? I don't understand why just these files and not others have this issue. 

hi @tampoon how have you configured your Roku device audio options?

[tampoon 8]

my roku premiere setup as auto-stereo. the audio gets played from the tv, no passthrough of any kind. as i said before the audio was not playing at all. then updated the app now it comes in distorted. you can understand them but they sound like frogs. then if i got to attempt playback correction everything working fine. 

server shows: 

Roku SG 4.0.55

comp room

10.0.0.53

Stream

MKV (5.6 mbps)

HLS (5.8 mbps 388 fps) Throttling

Direct play error

Video

720p H264

Direct Play (5.6 mbps)

Audio

English AAC stereo (Default)

Direct Play (192 kbps)

[ebr 14958]

It may be the 192k sample rate that the TV doesn't like. Do you have any content with a different audio format. 

[tampoon 8]

 

Thanks,

i dont think its that. i have the issue on at least 3 tv's one of them its a roku soundbar pro which plays the audio on itself. i just tested one of these that works correctly and its 192k sample rate.'

Roku SG 4.0.55

comp room

10.0.0.53

Stream

MKV (5.6 mbps)

Direct Play

Video

720p H264

Direct Play (5.6 mbps)

Audio

Und AAC stereo (Default)

Direct Play (192 kbps)

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

I do not trust Emby to handle all audio formats/codecs correctly but I do trust the conversion for all formats I have run into to stereo. I also do not trust Roku to handle all the fancy audio formats correctly. While Emby is reliable when it comes to everything else it is just impossible to correctly handle all the fancy stuff that has gotten thrown into "audio" systems but they, Emby, do seem to be able to get most everything into stereo format with great reliability.

I always set my Rokus to stereo audio and I also set Emby to stereo in all places where it can be set.

I know many folks hear or claim to hear improvements when moving to the more complex audio formats but I hear little or no difference if my stereo speakers are well positioned and Dolby 2.1 is used.

I do set audio, where it is available, to Dolby 2.1 as that so far makes stereo work flawlessly.

I do not want to seem to try to dictate what others do as far as their audio goes but, for me, the fancy audio formats just have no advantage.

[ebr 14958]

When we direct play something in the Roku app we have zero control over how video and audio are processed.  This is all done by the built-in Roku player.  The only thing we can do is try to make decisions  on what needs to be converted vs direct played.

I cannot see what about these items should need to be converted.  Can you provide a sample for testing?

[tampoon 8]

id be happy to clip a sample out. what's the best way to do this while still preserving it in a way to make it testable?

[tampoon 8]

or a way to locate a sample file that matches the conditions of this file. im not totally sure how to locate something like that. 

 

[ebr 14958]

If you just have a full video that isn't too huge, you can give me a dropbox or Gdrive link or similar.

[ebr 14958]

Is all of your content recorded TV like the sample you sent me?  How was it recorded?

I see the slightly distorted audio on Roku and it is due to something about the audio being incorrect.  If I try to play the file in Windows, it take a very long time to start and, when it does, it plays with no audio at all.

Playing the file in our Android app allows me to see this error thrown by that player:

errorCode=ERROR_CODE_PARSING_CONTAINER_MALFORMED

What is recording this?

[tampoon 8]

this was obtained from a 3rd party. i get other content from the same site that both works and does this. i could be the same person uploading it that this is coming from. i have and other issues with content from this site where 90% of it plays correctly then the video goes distorted at the end. 

this sample was series 2 game 3 colorado avalanche vs st louis blues. 

ill go see if i can locate more details on the recording itself. 

[Luke 37230]

Let us know what you find. Thanks.

[tampoon 8]

it seems the issue is with all the captures from this one particular poster. ill send him a message and let him know that something is up with the audio. i know its outside the scope of this being a emby thing now more or less anything more specific i can let him know?

thanks again guys. 

[ebr 14958]

My guess would be the error is somewhere in however he is converting this recording to an mkv container.  I think something he's doing is out of spec.

[Luke 37230]

Hi, did you figure this out?

[ebr 14958]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, did you figure this out?

 

On 5/28/2022 at 10:29 AM, ebr said:

I see the slightly distorted audio on Roku and it is due to something about the audio being incorrect.  If I try to play the file in Windows, it take a very long time to start and, when it does, it plays with no audio at all.

Playing the file in our Android app allows me to see this error thrown by that player:

errorCode=ERROR_CODE_PARSING_CONTAINER_MALFORMED

I think that is all we figured out.

[Luke 37230]

OK so perhaps a bad file?

[tampoon 8]

Yeah. Its something with the files. It turned out they were all coming from the same person and I didn't notice. It's something with how he's encoding it I'm guessing. So I reported it to him and he's going to see if he can resolve it. I'll let you know if I find anything else. 

At least I was able to make things work with the fix audio issue. Glad I found that so I can watch it. Would be nice to have option to force a transcode by library to avoid seeing it at all. 

Thanks for the support guys

[Luke 37230]

So was it just that one file?

[tampoon 8]

It was every file this person capped and uploaded. Definitely something that his procedure or hardware was causing. I have not to my knowledge had issues with any other files. But if I do I'll report it.