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Cinema Mode - Honor default audio flag/setting


trifleneurotic

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trifleneurotic
(I was counseled to post this as a feature request here, having previously posted this in the General/Windows forum)
 
Hi everybody!
 
I've been messing around with codec intros lately and there is some weird behavior I came across. The intros themselves work great, but I was finding that my AC3 movies kept showing the AAC intro. I tried using mkvtoolnix to change the default audio track with the same result.
 
After more tinkering, I found that I had to change the actual track order in the MKV in order for my AC3 intro to actually show. It is like Emby uses the first audio track it finds and uses it, even if the AC3 (or DTS or whatever) track is set as default and the playback option to play the default track, regardless of language, is set.
 
It follows then that Emby seemingly cannot play any other audio track itself without manual intervention in the play UI. In other words, I had to modify my MKV in order to make Emby do what the default audio playback setting should have already done.
 
For people who are having the same issue, here are the sequence of mkvtoolnix commands that worked for me:
mkvmerge --track-order 0:0,0:2,0:1,0:3 in.mkv -o out.mkv

mkvpropedit -v out.mkv -v --edit track:2 --set track-uid=2 --edit track:3 --set track-uid=3

mkvpropedit out.mkv --edit track:a1 --set flag-default=1 --edit track:a2 --set flag-default=0

This assumes the following initial track ID order:

 
0 - video
1 - aac
2 - ac3/eac3
3 - sub
 
(If I didn't set the UIDs, the audio would work but the wrong codec would be displayed under the plot summary.)
 
I have seen the behavior both in Emby Theater (Xbox) and the regular browser-based UI. I am running Emby Server 3.2.12 on Fedora 21.
 
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trifleneurotic

Thanks for the info. We'll take a look.

Thank you very much, sir!

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

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funwithmedia

I think there might be a similar issue with Subtitles. I have a TV series with two subtitle tracks. The first one (in order of tracks) was originally set with the "Default" flag (by oversight when I created the MKV's), but I used the MKVToolNix Header Editor to make the second subtitle track Default (and remove the Default flag from the first subtitle track). However, Emby still automatically shows the first subtitle track, even though the second one indicates Default within the Emby interface. This is in Emby Theater for Windows desktop. And the Library has been refreshed a number of times (for other reasons) since I made this change to the files.

 

I am mentioning this issue in this thread as it seems likely that it is the same underlying dynamic as what is being described for Audio tracks. But if you need/want me to split this off into a separate thread I can certainly do that. :) Thanks!

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I think there might be a similar issue with Subtitles. I have a TV series with two subtitle tracks. The first one (in order of tracks) was originally set with the "Default" flag (by oversight when I created the MKV's), but I used the MKVToolNix Header Editor to make the second subtitle track Default (and remove the Default flag from the first subtitle track). However, Emby still automatically shows the first subtitle track, even though the second one indicates Default within the Emby interface. This is in Emby Theater for Windows desktop. And the Library has been refreshed a number of times (for other reasons) since I made this change to the files.

 

I am mentioning this issue in this thread as it seems likely that it is the same underlying dynamic as what is being described for Audio tracks. But if you need/want me to split this off into a separate thread I can certainly do that. :) Thanks!

 

And, to what is the setting "Subtitle handling" set for that user?  As Luke mentioned above, we don't only allow you to play the tracks marked as default.  There are a few different ways we can handle subs more intelligently.

 

Also, we remember the last selection you made when playing something.  So, if you selected a specific audio and/or sub track the last time you played something, then we re-select those on subsequent playback.

 

I'm pretty sure that all of this is working as designed and this request should really only pertain to how Cinema Mode selects the intro to play (which may not line up perfectly with how we select which audio track to actually play).

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funwithmedia

Excellent questions and points @@ebr. Where are "Subtitle handling" user settings though? I currently only have one user (myself, as admin), and I don't recall making any special subtitle-related settings previously. Also, I couldn't quite follow what you were saying here:

 

As Luke mentioned above, we don't only allow you to play the tracks marked as default.

Is there a different way you could put that for me, just so I'm on the same page?

 

I suspected (and am glad for) that Emby remembers the last selection for a given title. In this particular case I'm 99.9% sure I had never previously played the title in question in Emby (in part I can be so sure of this because I only added the season to my library recently, and I have no recollection of "test playing" that particular episode).

 

I'm totally open to my missing something, misunderstanding things, user error, etc. I just wanted to pass along the prior info in case it was in fact related. :)

 

Let me know if there's anything you want me to do to further test/confirm this issue.

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In the web app, click on your user icon and then "Playback Settings".  There are several different selection modes for subtitles and you can also indicate a preferred language for audio.  In the "Smart" selection mode for subs, I believe we take the language of the audio track being played into account when selecting subs.

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funwithmedia

In the web app, click on your user icon and then "Playback Settings".  There are several different selection modes for subtitles and you can also indicate a preferred language for audio.  In the "Smart" selection mode for subs, I believe we take the language of the audio track being played into account when selecting subs.

Cool -- thanks for this! So I normally use Emby Theater for Windows desktop to play content, and I don't have Emby Connect setup yet, so I don't use that web client. In the Server web client it looks like I have just default settings (eg, no Subtitle language preference, and Subtitle mode: Default). In Emby Theater my settings are the same.

 

I double checked the file in question, and the subtitle track that Emby automatically played is first in order, but does not have the Default flag set. The second subtitle track does have the Default flag set, but it was not selected/played by Emby Theater. Neither track has the Forced flag set. This file is part of tv series where originally the Default flag was set on the first track, not the second. And after watching a few prior episodes I went in and fixed the flag settings for all of the episodes in MKVToolNix. Is it possible that Emby Server read the subtitle track settings from the files on import and stored that data, and didn't register the change to that data when I fixed them later (even though there's been Library Scans since then)? Or does that data only get read/handled at actual playtime by whatever Emby client is playing it? I would expect the later, but the former might explain what I'm observing.

 

I have other items in my library where no subtitle is played automatically (which is the expected behavior, unless the Default flag is set, in which case I'd expect the Default Subtitle track to play). So there is something curious about this particular tv show.

 

But this isn't a crisis on my end at all -- I've only noticed this on this one show so far, and it is not a huge deal to change the subtitle setting once the first time a I play an episode. It just seemed like maybe it was related to the OP.

 

Let me know if the above details change anything regarding your prognosis, or if there are other things you want me to look at or try! :)

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Instead of looking at the flags in the file itself, look at the media info at the bottom of the detail screen in the web app (Theater may show this as well).  It will tell you there which tracks Emby thinks are marked as default, forced, etc.  If that info is not correct based on changes you made, try refreshing the item in Emby.

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funwithmedia

Good suggestion! I checked and the info displayed matches how the file is configured (ie, first Subtitle is not Default, and second Subtitle is Default). Which makes sense, given that when it was playing the first subtitle track (which shows as not Default in the media info), the second track correctly displayed the text "Default" in Emby Theater.

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funwithmedia

Just wanted to update that I'm now observing the correct/expected behavior regarding Default Subtitles being shown, even if they are 2nd in the order of Subtitles contained in a give file.

 

I cannot speak to the original issue regarding Audio tracks, however, so this thread should still be considered open.

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This thread was actually about the cinema mode feature and I think it's gone off topic and spiral into general playback discussion.

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funwithmedia

This thread was actually about the cinema mode feature and I think it's gone off topic and spiral into general playback discussion.

Yeah, I'm sorry -- I didn't mean for things to get hijacked, and I didn't see/catch the Cinema mode focus in the first post (perhaps that was more evident in the prior thread, which I've not read... Edit: Heh, it was in the post title, which I obviously didn't register... :mellow: ). It genuinely sounded like the audio track thing being described was similar to the subtitle track issue (in terms of the order of the tracks somehow effecting things), so I thought they could be related. I only wrote my most recent post to "close the loop" so to speak, but if anything more comes up regarding the subtitle thing I'll be sure to start a new thread. I don't wish to hijack things further! Again, my apologies.

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 Edit: Heh, it was in the post title, which I obviously didn't register... :mellow: ).

 

You aren't going crazy, I changed the title to be more on-point with the actual request since the server does already respect the settings.

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funwithmedia

You aren't going crazy, I changed the title to be more on-point with the actual request since the server does already respect the settings.

Thanks much for that! :) I was feeling bad that I'd missed something so obvious!

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