No Video just a bright green screen when playing, audio is ok

[Luke 37066]

If the Roku is failing to direct play it, there's nothing we can do to fix that.

 

What we can do is transcode the file. I think @@ebr hasn't made any changes because he would prefer a way to handle this automatically rather than make you click a button to transcode it. 

 

Interestingly your media info CodecTag shows DX50, and the Roku app has an exclusion for this so this really shouldn't be direct playing. And you're saying it is direct playing? @@dcook can I please see a server log using the latest server release? thanks !

[dcook 265]

If @@ebr didnt make any changes to fix this bug why did he post asking me to try the new release?

 

I will try to get you the log tonight.

[Luke 37066]

If @@ebr didnt make any changes to fix this bug why did he post asking me to try the new release?

 

I will try to get you the log tonight.

 

Sorry, I didn't look at the code, so maybe he did make changes. I simply looked at your original report and made an observation. Thanks !

[Flamebird 7]

New user here from the Plexi-verse. With all the issues they are having and the update problems with Roku; I thought I'd play around with a different server and this looked pretty interesting.  Set-up was easy and flawless, as far as I can tell.

Updated to 3.2.30.0

Loaded my libraries and it all looks good. Added the Roku app and went to play a file. . .

Bright green screen with sound. 

 

It plays on my browser; but looks like it's transcoding, when it really shouldn't.

Still learning my way around the server and where the different info is, but here's the file I was trying to play on the Roku and all of my files are pretty much the same.

Video.264/mp4  Audio aac/ac3

 

Media Info

AudioLanguageund
CodecAAC
Codec tagmp4a
ProfileLC
Layoutstereo
Channels2 ch
Bitrate128 kbps
Sample rate48000 Hz
DefaultYes
TitleUnd AAC stereo Default

Video

CodecMPEG4
Codec tagmp4v
ProfileSimple Profile
Level1
Resolution1280x720
Aspect ratio16:9
AnamorphicNo
InterlacedNo
Framerate23.9760418
Bitrate3683 kbps
Pixel formatyuv420p
Ref frames1

 

I'm not quite sure what else to look for; or where to look. I figured I'd ease into learning Emby as I went along; but if it won't play on the Roku; I'll never hear the end of it.

[speechles 1917]

@@Flamebird

 

Odd.. the only bit that I can see that would matter is, the mpeg4 has 1 refframe. This might be direct playing and should not be. Since recent firmware updates roku must be "reinventing the wheel" and trying to condense their code(remove spaghetti). The problem is the app has the capabilities profile inside the app, this isnt user mantainable via xml in any way. The app detects the device and builds capabilities based on known behavior of previous firmwares. With the new firmwares not following footsteps of the old you come across the issue we have now. The apps logic is trying to direct play. Instead, the app needs to allow the user to force transcoding with and without stream copy. Unfortunately, the official emby roku app cannot do this.

 

Since you are coming from plexiverse, you might be familiar with plex classic.

 

If so, try using this emby app:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24151-theme-blue-neon-night/

 

Install the full version of the app, not the simple version. In this app are several settings for advanced users. Think of it like embys version of rarflix. In the blue neon app, on an items detail screen use the "more..." button. You can change the play method from auto-detection. There will be options listed to force direct, force transcode, and force transcode w/o stream copy. Try to first force transcode and see if this plays correctly. Then force transcode without stream copy to force a full video transcode.

 

If you can get it to work with blue neon, please mention with method worked and also if none of them did. Make sure to change the options in app. Raise max bandwidth for local/remote/livetv to where they should be. If you have issues setting up the app let me know.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Luke 37066]

@@speechles, it's mpeg4 level 1. does roku have a list of accepted mpeg4 levels?

[Luke 37066]

@@Flamebird, just to comment on your other assertion that 

 

 

 

It plays on my browser; but looks like it's transcoding, when it really shouldn't.

 

For this particular example this actually isn't true. There is currently no browser that supports mpeg4 video. Does this clear that up for you? Thanks !

[Flamebird 7]

@@Flamebird, just to comment on your other assertion that 

 

 

For this particular example this actually isn't true. There is currently no browser that supports mpeg4 video. Does this clear that up for you? Thanks !

I actually had no idea of that.

I've been using those settings for ages because it would "just  work" for everything from my old Roku2xs, my pc's. android; Kindle Fire and even my ancient Web OS Touchpad. I've spent the last several months checking, moving and converting the odd AVI or other format; so it's simpler to figure out when there are problems. I know a lot of people prefer MKV files, but when I started, I didn't even know what an MKV was; so stuck with MP4.'

I still believe most of the problems are because of the horrible 7.7 update on Roku.

[Flamebird 7]

@@Flamebird

 

Odd.. the only bit that I can see that would matter is, the mpeg4 has 1 refframe. This might be direct playing and should not be. Since recent firmware updates roku must be "reinventing the wheel" and trying to condense their code(remove spaghetti). The problem is the app has the capabilities profile inside the app, this isnt user mantainable via xml in any way. The app detects the device and builds capabilities based on known behavior of previous firmwares. With the new firmwares not following footsteps of the old you come across the issue we have now. The apps logic is trying to direct play. Instead, the app needs to allow the user to force transcoding with and without stream copy. Unfortunately, the official emby roku app cannot do this.

 

Since you are coming from plexiverse, you might be familiar with plex classic.

 

If so, try using this emby app:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/24151-theme-blue-neon-night/

 

Install the full version of the app, not the simple version. In this app are several settings for advanced users. Think of it like embys version of rarflix. In the blue neon app, on an items detail screen use the "more..." button. You can change the play method from auto-detection. There will be options listed to force direct, force transcode, and force transcode w/o stream copy. Try to first force transcode and see if this plays correctly. Then force transcode without stream copy to force a full video transcode.

 

If you can get it to work with blue neon, please mention with method worked and also if none of them did. Make sure to change the options in app. Raise max bandwidth for local/remote/livetv to where they should be. If you have issues setting up the app let me know.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I saw something about the blue neon thing earlier, but haven't got the family off the TV long enough to experiment yet. Will check in again after I try it. I hope I can get it to work, cause I'm liking the basic set-up and layout on the client and it's always nice to have a back-up.

 

Edit: Just added blue neon night; entered the pin, the app loaded; but any and I stress any button kicks me back out to the Roku home screen.  I give up for the night. will fight with it again another day.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Flamebird

[Flamebird 7]

and now, I hit the Emby app to see if I'd get kicked out of it; and instead it's playing perfectly. 

 

 

 

VideoCodecMPEG4
Codec tagmp4v
ProfileSimple Profile
Level1
Resolution688x528
Aspect ratio4:3
AnamorphicNo
InterlacedNo
Framerate25
Bitrate1939 kbps
Pixel formatyuv420p
Ref frames1

AudioLanguageund
CodecAAC
Codec tagmp4a
ProfileLC
Layoutstereo
Channels2 ch
Bitrate115 kbps
Sample rate48000 Hz
DefaultYes
TitleUnd AAC stereo Default

Embedded ImageCodecMJPEG
Level-99
Resolution688x528
Framerate90000
Bit depth8 bit
Pixel formatyuvj420p
Ref frames1
DefaultNo

Containermp4

PathP:\Plex Media\TV\Doctor Who\Season 09\Doctor Who - S09E01 - Day of the Daleks.mp4

[Luke 37066]

Well that's a different video, so if they're both direct playing then it looks like the roku video player just happened to have a problem with one of them.

[Flamebird 7]

Well that's a different video, so if they're both direct playing then it looks like the roku video player just happened to have a problem with one of them.

Except now the video I originally had problems with; actually quite a few videos, plays perfectly. . .

Bounced around for a bit and it seemed like every video was now direct playing no problem; till I decided to try a movie.

Bam; green screen again.

[Flamebird 7]

So, not sure where to put this; but since this describes the original problem, I figured that here would be good enough.

Real life (yuck) got in the way of trying to work with this for a while; but I now have the OS8 build on my Roku Premiere + and 3.2.36.0 on my server (not sure on app numbers at the moment) and now the green screen problem seems to have gone away completely.

Not sure if you changed something on the server side or if Roku actually made something work right with an update for a change; but anyway it goes. . . YAY!!!

Will keep laying with it for a few days/weeks and if it keeps working this well; I get the joy of setting it up on my main server and getting my family to actually use it.

[Luke 37066]

Thanks for the feedback.