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Roku plays 2.0 audio track by default - how do you change the default track?


toddla

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Just as the title indicates, Roku seems always to pick the DD 2.0 track vs the AC3 5.1 when both are present in the MKV. Certainly I can select the 5.1 track from the audio menu for the title before playback, but I'd really like not to be required to make that selection. Is there something to configure to fix this? Obviously my Roku is setup for surround.

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It will pick whatever the default is on the file itself. If it is direct playing the item, it will playback whatever audio is that default. Make sure it is set to default to the 5.1 audio on the file itself over the 2.0 track.

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Try MKVMerge. It allows you to switch audio tracks around. I'm guessing it is more then likely that no default was set and that the Roku is just pulling the last one or the first one. There really isn't any type of control over that within the Roku itself if direct playing. Now for transcoding that is a different story.

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Tried loading a representative sample into MKVMerge.  It's not obvious to me that the 2.0 track is listed first.  I may not be reading this correctly, but it looks like the 5.1 AC3 is the first audio track listed and yet without going into the Audio/Subtitles menu in the Roku client and selecting 5.1, the 2.0 track is played.  If I click on the first audio track, the track name is listed as 3/2+1 where as if I click the MPEG-1/2 lists nothing in the track name.

 

Same impression if I look in MKVinfo.  First audio track in the tree shows 6 channels and not until the 5th audio track are 2 channels listed, so I still think the 5.1 is the first audio track and thus not sure why it's not the default audio track played in the Roku client.

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Edited by toddla
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Can i see a clean server log (in debug) and ffmpeg log from a playback of that item please. Instructions in the same thread i posted above

 

TIA

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Assuming it is being direct played (press the info button during playback) then we have no control over which audio track plays. I'm not sure what determines the track # because that is the Roku software itself selecting it and playing it. Now if your transcoding then it is a different story.

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If I press the down arrow on the Roku remote, Convert Audio and Video is shown.  Happy to still get the log if you like.

Edited by toddla
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Ok it should actually be convert video copy audio (is that in the roku matrix Grant?).

 

Can i see and ffmpeg and server log please

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If you don't select a specific audio track (eg. from the menu) then it will always transcode the audio to 2.0 if your transcoding the video.

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Ok, so noob question then.  Will it always transcode MKVs?  If that's not required, then what do I change to stop the transcode?

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It depends on the mkv. First I'm assuming your running the latest Roku software (5.3 I believe). If you are then it will depend upon the bitrate of the file itself.

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Ok, so noob question then.  Will it always transcode MKVs?  If that's not required, then what do I change to stop the transcode?

Roku doesnt support mpeg2 codec in mkv files if you want it to not transcode you need to convert the video to h264

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Ok, then that's the problem.  Anything else I need to change on the makemkv settings before I convert these again?  Or generally any advice on makemkv knowing the client will be Roku?  About to get started on a ton of TV shows and I'd like to get them right the first time given the amount of effort each takes to pull out the episodes.

 

For that matter, any suggestions on automating pulling out episodes?  From what I keep reading, Handbrake seems to do the best job and worked fine in a trial series I did last week, but still pretty manual.  Thanks

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MakeMKV will pull it out as whatever type was the original file. So it could be mpeg2, could be vc-1, or could be h264. It won't convert it as far as I know.

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Hmm.  Well, the were DVD folder structure rips.  Would you suggest Handbrake instead?  I think you're right on makemkv - I don't see any kind of options.

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I would use makemkv to drag out the ep then a batch file to convert them using ffmpeg but that is me. It is fairly automatic.

 

But you can automate handbrake to a degree which would likely be faster for you.

 

h264 with a bitrate of around 3-5 Mb/s would give you good results from a dvd and copy all the audio and subs tracks

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Yep, that's the issue for sure.  Just did a quick test conversion using h.264 to make a mkv and now the Roku client plays the 5.1 track right off the bat and indicates Direct Play.

 

Thanks for all the help.

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