Transcoding .wtv H264

[grvland 2]

Firstly, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. I'm new to emby, but I searched and couldn't find a solution.

 

I use an HDHR Prime/WMC to record TV and recently my cable provider started switching to H264.  I also use serverWMC to play recorded TV through emby.  All MPEG content plays great, H264 does not.  It starts transcoding, then dies after a few seconds.

 

It looks like ffmpeg is the culprit, but I don't have much experience reading the logs yet and don't know why.

 

Anyone else have this problem?  Is it DRM?

 

 

server-63591562818.txt

transcode-04aa2b14-c805-46b6-bbc8-1b02ea06edb0.txt

[grvland 2]

Hmm...no one uses WMC, serverWMC, HDHR and emby?

 

Is the preferred mechanism to use emby's built-in epg functionality and cut out WMC altogether?

[Latchmor 584]

Hang tight @@grvland, @@krustyreturns the main man as far as ServerWMC is concerned has been away for a week. He'll hopefully shed some light on this for you but he may need a ServerWMC log too which I think is here, 

 

C:\ProgramData\VDsoftware\ServerWMC

 

Edited February 22, 2016 by Latchmor

[grvland 2]

Good to know, thanks!

 

I don't see anything in C:\ProgramData on either machine but I will await further instructions.

[krustyreturns 191]

I'm back.  You can also get to the log through the debug tab of serverwmc.  

[grvland 2]

Log should only contain serverWMC startup and an attempt to play the same file as the logs above.

ServerWMC.log

[krustyreturns 191]

You have emby set to just play the recorded tv files directly from disk so actually serverwmc doesn't get notification when the file is getting played since emby is doing that directly.  Since it is failing, its either because emby can't play the wtv files (unlikely, unless they are DRM'd), or the machine running emby does not have access to the folders that contain your recorded tv files.

 

Can you stream live tv?  Is emby running on a windows machine?

[Sammy 772]

I use this playback chain..

 

Let me guess. Your provider is Comcast.

 

If these are DRM; ie, CCI 1, copy protected then they won't play in Emby because it is not a protected playback chain under the PlayReady regime.

 

Secondly, There seems to be issues with this MP4 decoding posted on TGB for playback in WMC, especially in extenders. Right now, I'm glad I have Charter but I have the dreaded Tuning Resolver drop outs that aren't fun to deal with either but at least when they are properly paired I get a picture with my audio!

 

Sorry I cannot help much but a full explanation of what may be the issue here is in order so the Emby Team knows what it is that they are attempting to resolve.

[Sammy 772]

I'm back.  You can also get to the log through the debug tab of serverwmc.  

krustyRETURNS..

[grvland 2]

@@krustyreturns

Live TV appears to behave the same: starts for a few seconds then dies.  I will test some more tonight.

Yes, emby is running on a Windows machine that is not the same machine as WMC.

Emby does have access to the folders because some recordings do work, and from what I can tell those are still MPEG not H264.

 

@@Sammy

Of course it's Comcast, it's always Comcast.

My first instinct was DRM, but I'm not sure because it does start to play then dies.  I'll look into how to identify if the wtv files are copy protected.

Edited February 23, 2016 by grvland

[Sammy 772]

@@krustyreturns

Live TV appears to behave the same: starts for a few seconds then dies.  I will test some more tonight.

Yes, emby is running on a Windows machine that is not the same machine as WMC.

 

@@Sammy

Of course it's Comcast, it's always Comcast.

My first instinct was DRM, but I'm not sure because it does start to play then dies.  I'll look into how to identify if the wtv files are copy protected.

It starts playing in Emby then quits or is this in WMC?

 

If you look at the information screen in WMC it will say, "Copy Protected" right on it.

[grvland 2]

Starts playing in Emby.  I have no issues in WMC itself.

 

I'm not at home, but I will test this and report ASAP.

[grvland 2]

File details shows: Protected No

 

So I'm back to thinking it's some kind of MP4 / H264 / ffmpeg issue.

 

 

[krustyreturns 191]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Starts playing in Emby'.  Can emby play these files directly?  Can any player other wmc, play these files?  If you have VLC installed, try to pay a file with it.

[grvland 2]

I guess I don't understand what 'directly' means.  I have path substitution set up which works with my other library folders (as you noted from my log).  I have tested it on my local LAN (above logs) and from outside (definitely transcoding) with the same results.  It plays for several seconds, then stops.  I can see in the task manager that ffmpeg starts (high CPU) then stops.

 

I can play the files with Media Player and VLC (both on the recording machine and emby machine).  I have attached the codec info as seen in VLC.

Edited February 24, 2016 by grvland

[grvland 2]

Here is a video of what I see in Emby:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byi_EhSH0IdWUHJoLWt5ODNtdnc/view?usp=sharing

[krustyreturns 191]

All I meant by 'directly' is what happens if you play the wtv just by adding it to a folder that emby is watching for video media (in other words, bypassing serverwmc completely).  Since vlc plays it without issue it can't be DRM.  All I can think is your emby machine can't handle the transcode of h264, that might explain why it plays for a few secs and then craps out.  What is the machine?  Is the cpu maxing out when it stops?

[grvland 2]

It's an AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz.  Certainly not the newest or fastest thing around, but it transcodes H264 mkv files without any issues.

[grvland 2]

Here is a sample .wtv file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byi_EhSH0IdWTFh2LXBYSUZZV3c/view?usp=sharing

 

Perhaps someone with a similar setup can drop this into their 'Recorded TV' folder and test it?  That would help eliminate the case that something is wonky on my machine.

[Sammy 772]

I was able to stream that for 41+ seconds from my Emby server to the Emby App on my Galaxy tablet tethered to my Galaxy phone's WiFi using 4G.

 

Windows reports the run time as 42 seconds so I think it is working okay for me.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Sammy

[krustyreturns 191]

Our main media server (not my dev machine) is a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core - 2.6 GHz with 4GB.  It played the clip as long as wmc did, I didn't time it, but 42sec seems about right. 

[Sammy 772]

Let me add that the server is an i5 Haswell 4670K with 8gigs of RAM if that matters..

[grvland 2]

Very interesting.  Yes, it's a 42 second clip.  Are your Emby servers on Windows machines?

 

I'll start with re-installing the server and go all the way to re-installing Windows if I have to.

Thanks for all the help so far!  I will report anything I find.

[Sammy 772]

Very interesting.  Yes, it's a 42 second clip.  Are your Emby servers on Windows machines?

 

I'll start with re-installing the server and go all the way to re-installing Windows if I have to.

Thanks for all the help so far!  I will report anything I find.

Yup. Win7x64Pro with Emby Server Build 3.0.5885.0 last I checked.

[krustyreturns 191]

mine is win7, 32b Home edition