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Videos that transcode play goofy (sometimes...)


speechles

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gcw07

Since you do have a Roku 3 can you test out plugging it directly into the router? Just to see if it is a buffering / connection issue or not. Thanks.

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@@gcw07, It's still the same issue running over wired ethernet.

 

If it's worth mentioning at all, I did have issues updating my roku3 2-3 months ago. The damn update would reset the device, but it would get stuck in an endless boot-loop with the dancing roku logo. I'd have to unplug and replug the cord, let it boot up and it never updated firmware. I'd come back from work, it's stuck on the dancing roku logo always. Have to reboot it. Then one day I noticed a new update, one with a new version number. My roku3 liked this one would completely install correctly. I then installed mediabrowser from the roku channels directly. This gives me "two mediabrowser channels". The beta I added on the owner.roku.com website, and the one directly downloaded by the device itself. This problem with transcoding happens on both of these clients.

 

Any other suggestions?

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gcw07

At the moment no. I think we will just have to wait and see if Tikuf can track down the problem with those videos.

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Tikuf

Ok the file I have from you plays perfectly on my roku 3 so we are going to have to look at other possible causes.

 

Can you try this for me

Set your roku as stereo in the main roku settings ( mine is set as this so i just want to eliminated it)

Got to %appdata%\MediaBrowser-Server\cache\encoded-media\ and empty the folder (it should be empty but I just want to make sure)

Start the video on the roku with default settings on the roku client.

While it is playing/transcoding go to %appdata%\MediaBrowser-Server\cache\encoded-media\

and copy the .ts files that end in *0.ts, *1.ts, *2.ts, *3.ts, *4.ts  to another folder on your system this will give you the first 40 seconds of video

 

Play each of those files in vlc or a similar video player and check if the video is goofy.

Lmk how you go.

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Ok the file I have from you plays perfectly on my roku 3 so we are going to have to look at other possible causes.

 

@@gcw07 @@Tikuf

 

I figured it out... ^__^

 

Why it happens is beyond me. But it has to do with the bandwidth setting. You pick how fast the connection is. I set it to 20Mbit on the new version that supported it and saw no issues. Turns out, yeah, there are issues, you get goofy video when you ramp it up it seems. At half that rate (10.2Mbit) there still was an issue with that one video, although the issue cleared itself up rather quickly. Turning it to 7.7Mbit it works as expected now. Is the bandwidth on the roku box itself limited? I'm thinking yeah it is. Still testing other videos  that had issues, and will report back if I have another issue regarding this but it may be solved now . : )))))))

 

Edit: Tested other videos, so far, no issues either.. **crosses fingers**

 

From the roku docs itself @ http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Encoding+Guide#EncodingGuide-25SupportedVideoFormats

----

For typical streaming video applications, we recommend a range of ~384Kbps to ~4.0Mbps. For USB playback, we recommend that you stay under 8.0 Mbps. This provides a good balance between quality and support for a wide number of users. In some cases lower and higher bitrates have been used, but this frequently results in poor quality or limits the % of the installed base that can view this encoding.

 

note: when reading the above, replace "poor quality" with the words "goofy video". :V~

Edited by speechles
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Tikuf
For typical streaming video applications, we recommend a range of ~384Kbps to ~4.0Mbps. For USB playback, we recommend that you stay under 8.0 Mbps. This provides a good balance between quality and support for a wide number of users. In some cases lower and higher bitrates have been used, but this frequently results in poor quality or limits the % of the installed base that can view this encoding.

 

Ya the roku doc are out of date in places that is one. That said it is still good advice.

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gcw07

Yeah it is good advice, but not exactly accurate. I have tested and had it work on a Roku 3 with bitrates up to 28 mbps. Beyond that it started to stutter. That is why I set max at 20, well below the max. But that is also why the default is 3.2 mbps.

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Try that video I use as the example as 20mbit though, does it still work?

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gcw07

I don't have that video and don't see a link to it. I think Tikuf has it, so he might be able to test at 20 mbits.

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Works fine for me on 20. How did you go testing the segments?

 

That video is unique because of how HBO sets up the beginning. It has a snowy static tv channel, and the HBO logo fades in over the top of that. That snowy static is ridiculous at bandwidth consumption. Thats why I asked if it worked for you at 20mbps. The 10 second transport streams plays fine on pc. They play fine on roku, if the starting burst of the stream doesn't consume too many bits. This means the PC I have must be struggling and it just isn't obvious. Like maybe the graphics card its using to render the ffmpeg frames with isn't seeing fully rendered frames even though it thinks it is?

 

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+ 2.10 GHz

Windows 7 64bit / 4GB RAM / 512MB VIDEO

 

Playing over usb2.0 (maybe this is the bottleneck?). These are 3TB seagate expansion drives. I do have a 7-port usb3.0 pci-e card coming soon though which might help? Can't hurt.. heh

Edited by speechles
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Tikuf

Graphics card - not relevant

 

Usb 2 yes that is quite possible but based on your logs it is transcoding with plenty of time

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tobias-tobin

I just got notified by a family member that a movie she watched on her Roku off my MBS which played fine before was doing strange things.  At first I was told it would play normal, and then play like it was in fast forward, and then play normal, pattern kept repeating.  Then I was told it was stuttering.  I had her shut down her Roku, I cleared out the cached encoded files, cleared the logs, rebooted the server.  Had her try again.  Same problem.  This is with a movie that she watched just fine a week ago.

 

Do you think it is a network issue?  Like maybe she needs to lower her bitrate?  I cannot understand how a video that played fine all of a sudden would not, on multiple attempts.  I could not find anything in the logs worth sending in.  I did try playing the .ts files myself and they seemed normal.

 

Just throwing this out there.  Anybody know how low you can go on bitrate and still get a decent picture?  I don't have a Roku so I don't know.

 

Thanks,

Aaron.

 

-BTW - it the adjustment inside MB on the Roku or is it a general setting?

Edited by tobias-tobin
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gcw07

The question is, is it a transcoded video she is watching? If it is, then has your server been updated? Also I'm going to assume your NOT on the dev update channel for the server because that often has experimental changes. If you know when it was good maybe something has changed that needs to be changed back or fixed.

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  • 2 weeks later...
tobias-tobin

Hi,

I am sorry for the delay in my response.  Yes, it is transcoded video she is watching.  She is at her house, use a Roku, my server is transcoding for her. 

 

I'm really suspicious this was/is a network issue for her.  She has the lowest tier plan from her ISP.  Plus she is on wireless with the Roku.  Maybe one of her kids was doing something on the web at the same time.  I don't know.  But I have a feeling she is probably really low bandwidth.  I'm trying to keep the communication flow going but surprisingly the people that have the problems often don't want to work with me to fix it.  So I will just let it go until she calls my wife again and complains.  At that point, I'm going to have her back down her bitrate.

 

I also tried to get a speedtest off her droid standing near the Roku so I could get some idea of what her down is like.  She didn't do it. 

 

I'm leaning towards this because 1) she watched it before with no problem 2) other people connecting to my mb3 with rokus are not complaining.

 

So we will see.

 

And I think I mentioned this before but hopefully my server is not to blame.  It is i7-4770, 16GB ram, OS and apps are on SATA3 SSD, my ISP connection is top tier (105Mbps/22Mbps).  Everything LAN is gigabit.  Slowest component is the Drobo 5N (as far as R/W speeds), where everything is stored, yet it still should be plenty fast enough for all of this.

 

I'll post back if I collect any more definitive info to go on, or I am able to conduct some tests myself.

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Just let us know if you get some more information. It could have easily just been network congestion at the time. Really not sure.

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tobias-tobin

Will do.  Most helpful thing would be for these people to communicate better with me and listen to what I tell them :).  Thanks!  tobias.

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  • 1 year later...
opsTranscode

I know this is an old thread, but I've encountered this issue as well. @@Tikuf or others, not sure if you can help with this but it would be much appreciated. I saw the video posted by @@speechles and it's the exact same issue I'm seeing. Multi-colored screen and a smear in the left. It seems as though it happens when there are many dark frames, but it's hard to say. I've seen it with a few videos that used to play fine. Highest bitrates are ~3mbps. We're transcoding many renditions and creating an HLS, sometimes we see this issue with only one rendition, sometimes all. Any thoughts? What information can I provide to help with this?

 

Thank you.

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