Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 The title pretty much indicates what I"m trying to do. I have my DVD library ripped to a Windows 10 box. The files are VOB files. When I play them on Roku, there are 2 major problems: Only get PCM audio Lots of buffering Any suggestions? Do I need to convert the files to something else to eliminate the effort for transcoding? I did try converting one to MKV, and Emby didn't recognize that at all. Thanks for your thoughts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37050 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Hi, welcome, yes, MKV should be just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 Hi, welcome, yes, MKV should be just fine. Hmmm...well, I have created an MKV file from my VOBs, and it does not seem to recognize it. Maybe I tried too quickly after doing the conversion. I'll givie it another try. Should it play Dolby, or just PCM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37050 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 It depends on the audio configuration of your roku device. if it's configured for surround audio then yes dolby is supported. if not then transcoding will be required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1917 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Have you seen this thread: http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24151-theme-blue-neon-night/ This is a forked version of the official app, adding options to control how audio is transcoded, among other things. You should be able to keep surround sound in any circumstance with all the options. Everything is explained in that thread what has been added so try it and see if the problem goes away. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 Thanks everyone for the replies. I have managed to get it to recognize the video. I'm thinking I just needed to rescan or something, not sure. But, still only getting PCM. I checked the settings on the ROKU for audio, and it is set to "Auto / Dolby". And haven't run it long enough to see if it buffers. Speaking of buffers...is there a recommended format of file I should use to minimize need for transcoding (I assume that was what was causing buffering). BTW...in case anyone is wondering about what hardware I am using on the PC (maybe that's the problem): it has a 3.0ghz Core 2 Duo E8400, 6.5GB memory. Right now I'm going to evaluate the files I'm trying to play and see if I can determine the audio encoded in them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1917 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) Use the "blue neon night" app in the thread above and it will show you on-screen what the audio is encoded as, as well as video codec, container, and resolution. Did you try using the link I gave above? This app allows you to customize alot of things the official app doesnt. Among those like I mentioned earlier is how audio is treated when transcoded. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Edited March 14, 2016 by speechles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 Use the "blue neon night" app in the thread above and it will show you on-screen what the audio is encoded as, as well as video codec, container, and resolution. Did you try using the link I gave above? This app allows you to customize alot of things the official app doesnt. Among those like I mentioned earlier is how audio is treated when transcoded. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Hi...I have not yet gone to the link you gave, but I am definitely going to do that. My response was immediately after reading your suggestion. I did just load the file into MediaInfo, and according to it the file is AC-3 with 6 streams of audio. I'm interpreting that to mean the Dolby is in the file. Still haven't run it long enough to test for buffereing. I'm going to head over to the link you gave me now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1917 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) You will be able to tell what the app has detected your system capable of supporting when decoding audio. On the item detail screen, the one where "more..." is shown, after the (30fps@Auto) will be either: stereo, dd, dts, or dd+. Knowing what you see there will help us help you. If DD, or DD+ is shown it should not be decoding as PCM. The roku does not allow DTS to be used in the HLS format which is used for transcoding. So when transcoding all DTS become DD. TrueHD will be downsampled to DD+ if supported otherwise it becomes DD or stereo depending on support. DTS-HD MA will use the core DTS 5.1 track if supported, only when direct playing. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Edited March 14, 2016 by speechles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 I have succeeded using Blue Neon Light to get DD. But I still have the buffering issue. So, I created another folder on the drive, and for the same movie that buffered during play, I converted the VOB to the new folder. Folder is Test, and the movie folder below that is Batman Begins. Thinking I'd try two different libraries to keep things straight. But I find that I can't have two different movie libraries. Gives and error. I have to add both folder to the Movies library. Another interesting thing: I have the subtitles in the files. When playing VOB, I cannot select CC; when playing the MKV, it shows the sub titles, but I can't turn them off. I can say that all that works fine when playing via a PC through DVD software. So to recap: two issues atm...CC, and Buffering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 The Roku is on the same subnet as the server? Wireless or Ethernet connection? If on Ethernet, the user hasn't been restricted bitrate wise? It you go into the Roku App and scroll down to the bottom, what is the bitrate in the preferences? Though DVD shouldn't be very high in bandwidth... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speechles 1917 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) You should be able to press * on the roku when video plays and the closed caption menu appears. You can turn them off at that point. There is a firmware bug in the roku regarding subtitles in mkv that makes it necessary to be burning internal subtitles into the video presently. You can disable this in the audio & subtitles menu option on the detail screen. Use the server scheduled task to get subtitles and it should get you an external srt (timing might be off you may want to get your own srt instead). Then disable subtitles in the main roku settings, not emby. Then play something in the emby app again and press * and now the closed captions can be enabled and disabled on the fly. They will use the external srt though. When roku corrects this bug in their firmware the internal captions will work on the fly again, hopefully. To fix the buffering problem you may need to adjust the video quality bitrate making sure it is the maximum it can be. Then lower this if and when you have problems. The bitrate will cause files to transcode if set too low. The default is rather low at 3.2Mb/sec. It is usually safe to raise it to the maximum 30 a roku3 can support. Edited March 14, 2016 by speechles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 (edited) The Roku is on the same subnet as the server? Wireless or Ethernet connection? If on Ethernet, the user hasn't been restricted bitrate wise? It you go into the Roku App and scroll down to the bottom, what is the bitrate in the preferences? Though DVD shouldn't be very high in bandwidth... Yes, it is on the same subnet. Since starting this, I am testing on two devices: Roku 3 On this device, again same subnet, it is wired. TCL Roku TV This devce is wireless N. Going into network on the TV, it says signal strength is excellent. I have had buffering on both devices. ... Just came back from starting up the TCL, while the ROKU 3 is playing. So, with both going, interestingly, the CPU Utilization on the server is still at 64%. The app preferences shows a bitrate of 3Mbps. Right now, with both playing, the bit rate per Task Manager on the Windows 10 PC is not going over 11 Mbps, and typically in the 6 to 6.5 Mbps. You should be able to press * on the roku when video plays and the closed caption menu appears. You can turn them off at that point. There is a firmware bug in the roku regarding subtitles in mkv that makes burning internal subtitles into the video. You can disable this in the audio & subtitles menu option on the detail screen. Use the server scheduled task to get subtitles and it should get you an srt (timing might be off you may want to get your own). Then disable subtitles in the roku settings, not emby. Then play something again and press * and now the closed captions can be enabled and disabled on the fly. When roku corrects this bug in their firmware the internal captions will work again, hopefully. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk On the Roku 3 I can press the * on the Roku, but it indicates that CC is unavailable, even while playing the text from the MKV file. (Again, not playing the text from the VOB file). Haven't looked in settings on the ROKU itself. Wife is watching TV. On the TCL Roku TV Playing the VOB: When I press the *, it brings up the TV/Roku combination menu. I can turn CC on,m off, or on when on Mute. None have the CC working though. Playing the MKV: When I press the *, it also brings up the TV/Roku combination menu. And it too I can turn on and off. But instead of not showing the captions, it shows them all the time and will not turn off. Interesting quandary... Edited March 14, 2016 by Ewingr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 17, 2016 Author Share Posted March 17, 2016 Been away from it a few days. One thing I have determined: The files that are buffering are HD rips, as opposed to plane DVD. They are m2ts files. But in all files that I've tried, I cannot get the CC to work. The VOD files say it is not available. I'm going to try a couple other things: going to covert the m2ts files to h264 and see how they play, and what happens with the sub titles. I may also try, just for testing, copying one of the HD files to the SSD boot drive, just to see if the increased read speed makes any difference. I am currently storing the files on a Windows 10 Storage Space, which is a Parity set. I am aware that parity is slower, and this is also an older PC, so, HDs may very well be too much for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NomadCF 15 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Few things m2ts is a container and h264 is video coding format. You can have 264 encode video inside a m2ts. I don't think your bottleneck is your disks but your cpu load. One (and there are many) way to test this is to use the "folder" sync plugin and choose 1 HD video and "sync" that file using a Profile of "General" and quality of "High". Then start the "Convert" task. After it's finished try to play the movie. At this point emby "should" just direct play the file and not need to transcode it on the file. At this point if your still seeing buffering, I would start to look into other issues like if your maxing out your windows open or half connections, Network connection issues, Network Speeds, Wifi settings, Roku settings, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewingr 0 Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) Few things m2ts is a container and h264 is video coding format. You can have 264 encode video inside a m2ts. I don't think your bottleneck is your disks but your cpu load. One (and there are many) way to test this is to use the "folder" sync plugin and choose 1 HD video and "sync" that file using a Profile of "General" and quality of "High". Then start the "Convert" task. After it's finished try to play the movie. At this point emby "should" just direct play the file and not need to transcode it on the file. At this point if your still seeing buffering, I would start to look into other issues like if your maxing out your windows open or half connections, Network connection issues, Network Speeds, Wifi settings, Roku settings, etc. Appreciate the input. I used Handbrake, and did a converstion to H.264, 1080p, MP4, file. It is playing fine w/o buffering when I select Direct Play. But I have to select direct play, it does not do that automatically. Now, my problem with sub titles remain. I'm watching the converted file now, and the sub-titles are on. Can't turn them off. I do see the options to do so, but changing them doesn't change the results. Any thoughts on that? I'm wondering if I made a mistake in the Handbrake settings. One thing I did was when I looked at the Sub-Title tab it was empty, so I added a track. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that if that was empty I wouldn't have the option to look at sub-titles. [EDIT] I think I found the problem. On the sub-titlesl section, there is a box of 'burned in', which I think means to have them on all the time. I'll experiment and post back my results. Edited March 21, 2016 by Ewingr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37050 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Sounds like maybe you burned the subtitles into the video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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