Continuing problems playing mkv files via ChromecastHDwGTV

[wordlover 104]

Thanks for finding this, but none of these pertain to my devices or setup, nor to the specific Emby issue reported above and by others.

[Carlo 4331]

I appreciate you doing that again. I'm sure this might seem frustrating but we've come a long way and will be able to start diagnosing this issue with more tools available to us.  A couple times you have mentioned "Emby-casting-to-Chromecast should work when controlled by my various Android devices (tablet, phone). That's my preferred interface for privacy and other reasons, and that's basic functionality. (I don't connect my TV directly to the internet.) Emby works FINE with the original CC. It breaks when connected to the modern CCHDwGTV. I am not the only person to have reported this.""

Agree with the first part as well as "for other reasons" since that's your thoughts and feelings and I can never say how you feel is wrong. I get you don't want your TV connected to the Internet and no one is asking that. But regarding the Chromecast itself, it won't matter how you use it as it will still be on the Internet assuming the wifi network you put it on is connected to the internet.  If you can access the Internet from your phone or tablet on that same wifi network then so can the Chromecast. It would have to be on the Internet if you ever needed to Cast from other streaming sites.  Something you may want to consider is that for most people it's probably far safer to only use the Chromecast since it likely only has entertainment apps on it (video, music,, perhaps a few games) but your phone or tablet likely has a lot of personal information on it: contacts, call history, personal messages, possibly banking and other financial apps.

It's of course your choice what devices you wish to use and how you use them, but sometimes in order to diagnose an issue, like this one, we need to try a few things that could be outside your personal preference of use. Just because we ask you to test doing X or Y doesn't mean we want you to switch your way of use. We/I just want to try a few logical tests to see what difference there are in playback and to see if we gain any clues what the problem could be. For example, going through the Google TV interface with the remote selecting Bad.Sisters.S01E06.720p.WEB.H264-GGEZ.mkv, then playing it back. Same media file, this time casting the file using our built in "Emby Cast", as well as Google Cast. If all three tests have the same outcome, it's not likely to be Google Cast related. If it plays from the UI but doesn't using Casting to either Emby or Google Cast then it gives more clues it could be media related. Functionality wise direct playing from the device will be the most full featured experience followed by the Emby Cast and then Google Cast as it's more restrictive.

I just reviewed the ffmpeg logs again which all seem to be from two files:
Bad.Sisters.S01E02.720p.WEB.H264-GLHF.mkv - remux package while transcoding audio (TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported)
Bad.Sisters.S01E06.720p.WEB.H264-GGEZ.mkv - transcode both video and audio (TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported)

Both of these have 43 total streams which is a lot. We have seen media files with extreme amounts of subtitles causing a problem before so it would be good to test and rule this out if possible. Do you have any media files without embedded subs you could try and Cast? 

Thanks,
Carlo

 

[wordlover 104]

@Carlo Ignoring all the other issues I have with running the Emby app on my 'smart' TV, the biggest is that Emby won't let me do so, because I gave up my Premier status when this basic casting problem was unresolved for so long. I literally can't run Emby on my Samsung TV because Emby won't let me. It's downloaded, it's installed, but when I tried to test this maddening situation, I cannot. Give me a tem Premier code and I'll be happy to test.

[Luke 37184]

HI, what exactly happens with the Samsung app?

[wordlover 104]

@LukeI don't know how to be any clearer: I can't use the Emby app running on my Samsung TV. I cancelled my Premier membership after you tech gurus were not able to fix this long-reported CCHD problem. Emby won't let me use the TV-based app.

Edited June 22, 2023 by wordlover

[visproduction 124]

WL, you did use a test video, without subtitles?.  The media example you showed in a screenshot has quite a few subtitles and this can easily cause problems with Google TV and possibly Samsung, as well, especially if you jump around the media.  You can easily remove all the excess subtitles with the software and make a new copy of the video and try that, or go to a source for test videos online.  Just search for test mp4 videos.  It's important to run that kind of test, because quite often, the media looks good and plays back in other ways, but it still has some data or problems with Google TV or Wifi. Playing it back one way on the the TV does not prove the media is 100% OK.  Problems in the media can cause different issues with different playback methods.   Most all media online has issues.

Otherwise, it's like bringing a car into the mechanic and saying, "It drives downhill just fine, but it keeps stalling going uphill.  It must be the gas"... 

You are just not seeing all the possible things that can be wrong.  Your media could be the problem and if you don't use proper test videos with different resolutions, you won't know.  In post production business, testing any setup is never done with client's media.  We only use test media to pinpoint the problem. 

Edited June 22, 2023 by visproduction

[wordlover 104]

This problem has been evident with dozens and dozens of different files from a diverse range of sources over the past year that I have been reporting this. The problem is not the files. I have the identical playback control problems right now on another video file that has only a single English SUBRIP subtitle option. 

[Carlo 4331]

Luke is asking what is happening that you can't use it. I'd like to know the same for Emby on Google TV.

Are you able login and navigate around?  Can you view libraries, get detail screens of media, but just can't playback?

If you look at the Matrix here: https://emby.media/support/articles/Premiere-Feature-Matrix.html?q=matrix

You will see this at the bottom:

On the Samsung TV you should have free playback for libraries but not for Live TV.
On Android TV/Google TV you might get a two week trial since you don't currently have Premiere but not likely.
If Live TV isn't important to you, a one-time purchase on Android TV/Google TV would get you full playback as well.

[wordlover 104]

I can navigate to a video file in Emby running on Google TV but when I press play, you won't play any files unless I pay for Premier. After what must be a year of reporting this problem, and hours and hours of my own labor I am not giving y'all another $4.99. I'm just not. And I do NOT want to use a TV remote with nothing but joystick navigation and 'typing' instead of an app on my tablet and phone that gives me a full keyboard. 

@ebrabove said maybe try running on the Emby on TV as "suggesting another route until this is figured out" - so let's please figure this out from the logs of the exact test conditions you asked for.

Looking again at @Carlocomment above, this looks like an EMBY problem:

"I just reviewed the ffmpeg logs again which all seem to be from two files:
Bad.Sisters.S01E02.720p.WEB.H264-GLHF.mkv - remux package while transcoding audio (TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported)
Bad.Sisters.S01E06.720p.WEB.H264-GGEZ.mkv - transcode both video and audio (TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported)"

There is NO reason two files should be referenced. I played ONE file using both CC devices to give the EXACT comparison y'all have asked for. Why would your software be referencing two entirely different files? So let's try this FROM THE BEGINNING, using an entirely different video file, which only includes one "English (SUBRIP)," which is unselected/turned off/not playing.

File: Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv

Steps I followed:

1. Roll logs, restart Emby server

2. Using Emby app on Pixel 5 phone, start casting to CCHDwGTV, play for 19 seconds, press "jump 30 seconds" button. 

3. Result: video image correctly jumps forward 30 seconds and freezes. Time bar resets back to 0:00 and starts at the beginning. When time bar reaches 49 seconds, video playback unfreezes again and all continues normally from that point.

4. Disconnect/uncast Emby from CCHDwGTV.

5. Start casting to original CC, play for 19 seconds, press "jump 30 seconds" button.

6. Result: COMPLETELY CORRECT AND NORMAL FORWARD JUMP OF SOUND, VIDEO AND TIME BAR, AND CONTINUING NORMAL PLAYBACK.

All logs attached - to each I appended the file time (using format 04-32-43 = 04:32:43), so you can see the order in which they were generated/modified. I have no idea why there are 4 rather than 2 ffmpeg files - your own software did that, based on the painfully clear details above of every step I took. That's the entire factual log of what your software is doing under these conditions. What do you find?

 

 

 

embyserver_Time04-39-39.txt ffmpeg-remux-1387f96d-9b8a-4997-ab89-2a33b63d9e3a_1_Time04-39_33.txt ffmpeg-remux-d6f40bcd-5aaa-4708-ac98-0e4464222c15_1_Time04-39-22.txt ffmpeg-remux-a628f078-29ae-44de-af79-3ba96fbbad89_1_Time04-38-18.txt ffmpeg-remux-d5228089-1879-4f7b-b307-7fe674e38e0e_1_Time04-37-20.txt embyserver-63823048409_Time04-33-29.txt hardware_detection-63823048396_Time04-33-16.txt embyserver-63823048363_Time04-32-43.txt

[Carlo 4331]

What you describe happens when there are timing issues with the file.  It's not able to jump back or forward unless that part of the file has already been processed.

This is written over and over in your ffmpeg log.:
"[matroska @ 000001a67fe2ed00] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 1084, current: 1043; changing to 1084. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file."

When you jump forward or backward with a file having bad timing marks, the only way Emby can play back the file vs giving you an Error: Bad Media is by transcoding from the beginning of the file. If you jump ahead and the transcode hasn't caught up, it will pause until the transcode catches up.  Unfortunately Right now more pronounced as you wait on the CPU. since you don't have premiere.

@ebrI've been researching this and think I found something that could improve playback. What I noticed is that the original CC was direct playing while CC w/Google TV is remuxing/audio transcoding anything with EAC3 audio playing to CC Google TV.
This is the list of audio codecs sent to ffmpeg: aac,mp3,opus,flac,vorbis

@wordloverPlease review the setup/configuration just recently completed on the Google TV. What do you have setup as Oassthrough?
How is EAC3/AC-3 configured?

Carlo

[andrewds 98]

2 minutes ago, Carlo said:

What you describe happens when there are timing issues with the file.  

...

When you jump forward or backward with a file having bad timing marks, the only way Emby can play back the file vs giving you an Error: Bad Media is by transcoding from the beginning of the file. If you jump ahead and the transcode hasn't caught up, it will pause until the transcode catches up. 

Fwiw I have had this problem every so often, usually with older media, and was able to resolve it by converting the media.

[wordlover 104]

@CarloCould you tell me more specifically what you want me to check? I am unfamiliar with Oassthrough and where that setting (?) is found.

[Carlo 4331]

Take a picture of your audio settings especially anything mentioning EA-3 or AC-3 or similar to that. 

It's possible your audio is configured correctly or can use a bit of tweaking.

The other thing you can try is using Emby's Conversion feature on this episode to see if it can clean it up. You can get to the convert feature by clicking the 3 dot menu then choose convert.

You can follow the conversion process with the admin menu Conversions.

Can you try making this change for subtitles to see if this helps as well? This is near the bottom of the menu Subtitle Options.

Carlo

[wordlover 104]

@CarloI'm sorry, but I am not finding any of these items. Can you be more specific on where to find these setting you would like me to investigate?

1. Conversions tab says I have no downloaded files to convert.

2. Neither of the Subtitles submenus looks like what you posted.

3. Where are audio settings? Under "Playback" I don't see any audio settings except the most basic. For this particular video file, it says "English EAC3 stereo (Default)".

 

[wordlover 104]

And this seems to be the crux: "noticed is that the original CC was direct playing while CC w/Google TV is remuxing/audio transcoding anything with EAC3 audio playing to CC Google TV." How can we get Emby to stop that?

[ebr 14949]

8 hours ago, wordlover said:

And this seems to be the crux: "noticed is that the original CC was direct playing while CC w/Google TV is remuxing/audio transcoding anything with EAC3 audio playing to CC Google TV." How can we get Emby to stop that?

Hi.  That is really just exposing the issue - which is the media.  We may be able to get these to direct play to the new device but the media will still be suspect and may fail in other situations.

[wordlover 104]

@ebrThis happens with hundreds of new, high quality video files (I have reported and/or posted logs from nearly a dozen instances in the past year). It is a systematic issue between how Emby works with old CC and new CCHD. So, since you say it's possible, how can we get these files to direct play to CCHD?

[Carlo 4331]

1 hour ago, wordlover said:

@CarloI'm sorry, but I am not finding any of these items. Can you be more specific on where to find these setting you would like me to investigate?

1. Conversions tab says I have no downloaded files to convert.

2. Neither of the Subtitles submenus looks like what you posted.

3. Where are audio settings? Under "Playback" I don't see any audio settings except the most basic. For this particular video file, it says "English EAC3 stereo (Default)".

 

edit: I must not have sent this earlier as it was

I did say how to do the convert.

1 hour ago, Carlo said:

You can get to the convert feature by clicking the 3 dot menu then choose convert.

PS: Not sure what happened but I sent this a couple days ago, but I didn't see it in the forum.  Happened in another thread as well. Thanks to my edge/chrome plugin I was able to recover it to send again.

You will find the subtitles options off the main menu listed under the subtitle menu.

@ebrI noticed something.  EAC-3 AC-3 is supported on the CC Google TV device but we're not sending this audio codec to ffmpeg as a choice. Part of the problem here besides files with dozens of subs and files with bad timings is that we're doing audio transcoding and remuxing when we shouldn't have to.

[wordlover 104]

@CarloI think the items you are asking me to try are only available under Premier. More importantly, @ebr, @Carlohas flagged what seems to be the core issue to investigate. All these files play fine on web, on device, on old CC, but not on CCHD. Since @Carlohas spotted something, let's fix that first. After months and months of wrestling with this, it seems sooooooo plausible that this is the issue that is creating the control problems. 

[Carlo 4331]

Drat, yep you're correct on needing Premiere for that.

If you can post Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv" on Google Drive or any file upload site? I'd be willing to download it and convert it for this test.
If you have anything like http://www.xmedia-recode.de/ or Handbrake we could use either to do something similar.

[wordlover 104]

@CarloAgain, you spotted a systemic issue that needs to be investigated. This problem occurs with scores and scores of files, which all play fine on every other device. There's an Emby/CCHD issue. As you said "EAC-3 AC-3 is supported on the CC Google TV device but we're not sending this audio codec to ffmpeg as a choice. Part of the problem here besides files with dozens of subs and files with bad timings is that we're doing audio transcoding and remuxing when we shouldn't have to." Let's find out why that's happening and I bet this will be solved.

[wordlover 104]

Does this mean same re: above? Simple acknowledgement like this is very kind and helpful to users.

 

[Carlo 4331]

@wordloverTry this for me on one of the files that didn't work.

Perhaps try to drop the MKV onto MKVToolnix and press "Start multiplexing". Take a look at the log and test the multiplexed file.

[visproduction 124]

Related: Chrome AC3 direct play bug- fix / new feature for Windows is currently in progress. https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/4116077
AC-3 playback and out of sync issues have been reported for several years on multiple softwares and OS's.  Apparently, hit and miss issues happen a lot.  It sometimes works and then fails.  Find many posts discussing AC-3 audio sync failures, by searching for Audio AC3 playback error timings

It looks like a new standard is ready for release soon AC-4: https://prdatsc.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/A342-2-2023-03-AC4-System.pdf
Perhaps dev time should consider AC-4, instead.  I cannot find the proposed release date and when it might be used in media.  That may be years away.

Here is an old copy of tech details of AC-3.  Some slight, audio out of sync behavior is built in, as acceptable, with multiple audio streams.  It seems that improvements for audio sync have been a topic in development relating to AC-3 for about 13 years.  Old tech paper on AC-3 specs: https://web.archive.org/web/20110626050743/http://www.atsc.org/cms/standards/a_52-2010.pdf

I believe Chrome and Firefox, possibly Edge have stated in the past that AC-3 was not supported, due to licensing payment requirements, per browser. That might also have caused non-support with other hardware streaming solutions, such as Roku, Comcast, Google TV...  Maybe the licensing costs made many manufacturers drop any development to support AC3.  I wonder if 3rd party players from outside the US have AC-3 playback support, without bothering to pay licensing.  Does anyone know if that is true?

Edited June 29, 2023 by visproduction

[wordlover 104]

@CarloI tried it - no errors - see below. However, as with original file, the new output file plays fine on all platforms EXCEPT CCHD, where there are the same problems as before. Scores and scores of files from different sources play fine everywhere except Emby-->CCHD. The problem is with how Emby is casting to CCHD. Is @Lukein fact saying that this is being investigated as an Emby issue? 

--- Output of job 'Multiplexing to file "Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX (1).mkv" in directory "C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01"' started on 2023-06-29 08:26:35 -07:00 ---
mkvmerge v73.0.0 ('25 or 6 to 4') 64-bit
'C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01\Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv': Using the demultiplexer for the format 'Matroska'.
'C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01\Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv' track 0: Using the output module for the format 'AVC/H.264'.
'C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01\Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv' track 1: Using the output module for the format 'AC-3'.
'C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01\Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX.mkv' track 2: Using the output module for the format 'text subtitles'.
The file 'C:\Emby\Perry Mason\Perry Mason - S01\Perry.Mason.2020.S01E05.REPACK.WEB.H264-BTX (1).mkv' has been opened for writing.
The cue entries (the index) are being written...
Multiplexing took 14 seconds.