Changing audio playback behaviour

[Gronda 1]

I have a number of mp4 files with an AAC stereo track as the first and default track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 track as the second. When I try to play these back there is a brief pause and then the error message "An error occurred loading this content.". If I manually select the 5.1 audio track then everything is fine. I'd prefer to not have to go through and remux all these files to either switch the default track flag or remove the stereo tracks entirely. Is there a way of setting the default audio playback behaviour to a "best" mode or 5.1 preferred when available? I've had a play in both the Apple TV and Emby app settings but can't anything.

 

Thanks.

[corey 312]

Apple TV supports AAC so I find the fact that it's not playing odd. Can you provide the media info and server logs for the content that isn't playing?

 

Thanks!

[Gronda 1]

Hi,

 

Logs attached. The file I've used for the logs is an episode of Friends but I have the same issue with other similar files. I've tried playing the file, had it fail and then manually selected the 5.1 track, successfully playing the file for a few seconds before quitting it. I also restarted the server just beforehand so hopefully there isn't too much cruft in the way.

 

According to MediaInfo:

1st audio stream: 160 kb/s, 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

2nd audio stream: 384 kb/s, 48.0 kHz, 16 bits, 6 channels, AC-3

 

Edit to note that the ffmpeg log doesn't seem to be created until the media actually starts playing so my guess is that it's falling over before then.

server-63633756957.txt

ffmpeg-directstream-85af9792-9ffe-40d9-bc67-a5ab261f416d.txt

Edited June 22, 2017 by Gronda

[Luke 37065]

Hi @@Gronda, is it possible for you to provide a sample video for testing? The logging all looks OK here so we're trying to get to the bottom of the error dialog box that you're seeing. Being able to test exactly the same video would be of great help to us. Thanks !

[Gronda 1]

So this is interesting. I thought I'd take a short chunk of the file rather than dump a whole episode of something on you and so after taking a slice from the file I ran it on my setup to check the problem was still there. But the clip played fine, automatically selecting the 5.1 track.

 

Clip without issue:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/squ8fmi8trbxzen/Friends%20s04e10%20The%20One%20With%20the%20Girl%20from%20Poughkeepsie.720p%20%28clip%29.mp4?dl=0

 

 

Original with issue:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4m7qdbceyrd34ml/Friends%20s04e10%20The%20One%20With%20the%20Girl%20from%20Poughkeepsie.720p.mp4?dl=0

[corey 312]

Gronda --

 

I meant to ask is this intermittent or does it happen on all your media with the AAC track as default?

[Gronda 1]

It's all the media that I've tested so far configured like this. In case it's relevant, the media are iTunes purchases that I've run through Requiem to remove the DRM.

[corey 312]

I've tested the video on both an Apple TV with tvOS 10.2 and 11 beta and it's failing for me as well with the default audio track. Interestingly enough it's not failing in the tvOS simulator.

 

I tried playing it directly on my MBP using QuickTime and it said my computer wasn't authorized to play it so I wonder if there's still a DRM related problem.

 

I'm going to have to pull logs directly from the device to see what's going on and I won't be able to do that until later today.

[ebr 14913]

Yeah, this looks like it is probably some of the DRM still hanging around.  At least some part of it that the Apple device is able to recognize and it is refusing to play it for that reason.

[Gronda 1]

DRM only affecting the AAC channel? Odd but then I don't pretend to know how such things work! Looks like I'll be running some batch conversion tasks, then.

[corey 312]

Could you try with a single one and report back if the problem is resolved?

[Gronda 1]

Yup, just ran that episode through AVIDEMUX and the resulting file plays without a problem. Thanks for the help.

[corey 312]

That's great to hear!