Philips Android TV - No HEVC, UHD, DD or DTS

[Gerrit507 24]

Hi,

 

I've installed the Emby App on my Philips 55PUS7272 a few days ago. Playback is basically working, but there are some things not working as they should.

 

1) The App can't play HEVC content. All media with that codec is transcoded to H264.

2) The resolution seems to be limited to FullHD, allthough the TV has a UHD panel.

3) Dolby Digital (AC3) isn't working. The audio setting is on direct.

4) DTS isn't working.

 

DTS stopped working in Kodi after the update to Android 7. This is a general problem on many or even all Android TVs.

 

However, the other three items are working in Kodi and other apps.

 

Thank you in advance

 

edit: attached log file

log.txt

Edited December 18, 2017 by Gerrit507

[barat 27]

For sound - Philips TVs can't pass DD/DTS/moreAdvanced from one source to another. It means that "internal" android can't direct pass sound to your sound system (connected via HDMI ARC or Optical). 

Next thing is, that for 4k tv internal android is 1080p (I have Philips 8109 1080p TV, and android is 720p).

About HEVC - does it work if you try to watch a movie via USB port? Maybe Philips implementation of Android is not allowing to use HEVC? It's possible since TPV software is really poor quality

[Gerrit507 24]

For sound - Philips TVs can't pass DD/DTS/moreAdvanced from one source to another. It means that "internal" android can't direct pass sound to your sound system (connected via HDMI ARC or Optical). 

Next thing is, that for 4k tv internal android is 1080p (I have Philips 8109 1080p TV, and android is 720p).

About HEVC - does it work if you try to watch a movie via USB port? Maybe Philips implementation of Android is not allowing to use HEVC? It's possible since TPV software is really poor quality

 

Uhm sorry, but you're absolutely wrong.

 

As I wrote in my initial post, Kodi is able to pass through Dolby Digital. Furthermore the Philips Media Player passes DD and DTS to my AVR.

 

The resolution of the video is purely independent of the frontend resolution. I can turn down the resolution of Kodi to 480p and can still watch UHD content. I know that the Android resolution is limited to 1080p, but it doesn't work that way. Whenever a video is started, at least in kodi and other players, it calls the internal android video/media player, which supports UHD. Of course it does, what sense would a UHD TV make when the resolution is limited to 1080p?!

 

And as I said in my first post too: Yes HEVC is working, both in Kodi and the Philips Media Player, also is HDR. The TV even shows a small hint in the corner when HDR video is played.

 

And last, the quality of the Philips Software WAS bad. I had a 2015 model and now a 2017 model. The difference is night and day. Both software and hardware are so much better. Best SmartTV ever.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Gerrit507

[ebr 14948]

Hi.  Can you please follow the instructions to send a log from the app when you play one of these items.  Please follow all the instructions and also include any ffmpeg logs from the server that are generated.

 

Thanks!

[Gerrit507 24]

Hi.  Can you please follow the instructions to send a log from the app when you play one of these items.  Please follow all the instructions and also include any ffmpeg logs from the server that are generated.

 

Thanks!

Hi,

 

I've just sent a log.

 

Description: I selected "The Lego Movie" from Newest Movies. Then I started the video. The playback started but it was transcoded to h264 and aac. The original video has hevc and ac3.

User: Gerrit

Time 14.10

 

I also add the transcoding log.

log.txt

[ebr 14948]

Hi.  That item is being transcoded for two reasons:

 

1) The bitrate of the content exceeds the setting in the app.  The app is currently set to a max of 20Mb/s and this item is at 51Mb/s.  Change the video setting in the app to something higher than 50 to avoid this condition.  Note, however, that this is a pretty high bitrate and your TV may or may not be able to play it smoothly

 

2) Your TV is reporting that it can only handle stereo audio - not Dolby digital so we are converting that as well.  You might want to check the settings on the TV to be sure it is set to output DD if that truly is supported.

 

The HEVC codec is not the reason for your transcoding here it is just that all your HEVC stuff is probably very high bitrate like this one.

 

Thanks.

[Gerrit507 24]

Hi.  That item is being transcoded for two reasons:

 

1) The bitrate of the content exceeds the setting in the app.  The app is currently set to a max of 20Mb/s and this item is at 51Mb/s.  Change the video setting in the app to something higher than 50 to avoid this condition.  Note, however, that this is a pretty high bitrate and your TV may or may not be able to play it smoothly

 

2) Your TV is reporting that it can only handle stereo audio - not Dolby digital so we are converting that as well.  You might want to check the settings on the TV to be sure it is set to output DD if that truly is supported.

 

The HEVC codec is not the reason for your transcoding here it is just that all your HEVC stuff is probably very high bitrate like this one.

 

Thanks.

 

Hi,

 

1) The setting was on Auto, not on 20 Mb/s.

 

2) The setting is on direct. As I said before DD pass-through is working in Kodi on the same tv.

 

I've just set the Bitrate to 100 Mb/s and the movie is playing in HEVC with HDR and also DD is working. It seems to me like it is switching to stereo as soon as the video has to be transcoded...

 

Thanks for your help. I've sent another log, time 19:23.

 

edit: I tried different movies with DTS. DTS is not working in apps anymore since Update to Android TV 7, only in the Philips Player. Anyway those movies get also a video transcoding, although they have about the same bitrate. The audio is transcoded to aac stereo and not dolby.It seems like the issue is working the other way around too. If audio is not supported it also transcodes video. Another log, time 19:27.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Gerrit507

[ebr 14948]

How are you determining that "DD is working"?

 

Because your TV is definitely reporting it will only accept a stereo input.

 

BTW - running Kodi will tell you virtually nothing about the capabilities of the TV within the Android system.  Kodi is not a true Android app and has many things built into it that normal Android apps don't have.  Just FYI.

[Gerrit507 24]

How are you determining that "DD is working"?

 

Because your TV is definitely reporting it will only accept a stereo input.

 

BTW - running Kodi will tell you virtually nothing about the capabilities of the TV within the Android system.  Kodi is not a true Android app and has many things built into it that normal Android apps don't have.  Just FYI.

I determine it by seeing a Dolby Digital sign at my AVR. Kodi does detect what Audio formats are supported. Before the Update to Android 7 I could choose DTS in the settings. What you can choose also varies from device to device.

 

Like I said, if there is no transcoding at all in the emby app I get a DD signal too,but as soon as something is transcoded I get always stereo, which is imho wrong and therefore a bug.

[ebr 14948]

It is possible that the TV is converting its output to DD but not accepting it as an input I guess.

 

I can see from the log you sent that the Android system reports only stereo support.

 

Before when I said to check the TV audio settings, I meant the TV itself, not our app.  What do those settings provide?

[Gerrit507 24]

It is possible that the TV is converting its output to DD but not accepting it as an input I guess.

 

I can see from the log you sent that the Android system reports only stereo support.

 

Before when I said to check the TV audio settings, I meant the TV itself, not our app.  What do those settings provide?

 

The settings are: "Stereo (uncompressed)" and "Multichannel"

 

It's set to multichannel.

 

I also recognized that if dolby is working, the audio cuts out every few seconds. I don't think it's an issue of the TV. Why does DD "work" as soon as it is direct played but then if the bitrate is limited it switches to stereo, that doesn't make any sense to me. Also why do HEVC videos with DD work but those with DTS are transcoded to H264. Something is terribly wrong there.

[ebr 14948]

Why does DD "work" as soon as it is direct played but then if the bitrate is limited it switches to stereo, 

 

One possible explanation for that, I gave above and that is supported by your setting on the TV.  The TV itself is converting whatever audio it gets to DD and outputting that to your receiver.

 

With these different variations of TVs with different variations of Android built into them, it is sometimes a bit up in the air as to what, exactly will be supported.

 

Our app queries the Android system for the audio and video support and reacts to that information.  Your TV is telling us that it can only accept a stereo input and that is governing our decisions.  One thing you could try just to see what happens is to set the TV audio to stereo.  That may seem counter-intuitive, but you never know.  It may make the inputs report differently.

 

I will tell you with an external Android TV box hooked to a receiver, our app will direct play and bitstream just about everything.

[Gerrit507 24]

One possible explanation for that, I gave above and that is supported by your setting on the TV.  The TV itself is converting whatever audio it gets to DD and outputting that to your receiver.

 

With these different variations of TVs with different variations of Android built into them, it is sometimes a bit up in the air as to what, exactly will be supported.

 

Our app queries the Android system for the audio and video support and reacts to that information.  Your TV is telling us that it can only accept a stereo input and that is governing our decisions.  One thing you could try just to see what happens is to set the TV audio to stereo.  That may seem counter-intuitive, but you never know.  It may make the inputs report differently.

 

I will tell you with an external Android TV box hooked to a receiver, our app will direct play and bitstream just about everything.

 

I've tried changing it to stereo too.

 

The TV isn't transcoding everything automatically to DD. If I listen to music or watch YouTube I have just PCM Stereo of course.

 

As far as I can see my TV is reporting that it supports AC3(DD), correct me if I'm wrong.

2017-12-22 17:27:24.482 Debug App: GetPostedPlaybackInfo request: {"Id":"72fc21062571d387b2f21499f7c194a6","UserId":"55774a149a624283a7ae308372aad951","MaxStreamingBitrate":110000000,"StartTimeTicks":0,"DeviceProfile":{"Name":"Android-VLC","EnableAlbumArtInDidl":false,"EnableSingleAlbumArtLimit":false,"EnableSingleSubtitleLimit":false,"SupportedMediaTypes":"Audio,Photo,Video","MaxAlbumArtWidth":0,"MaxAlbumArtHeight":0,"MaxStreamingBitrate":110000000,"MaxStaticBitrate":110000000,"MusicStreamingTranscodingBitrate":128000,"TimelineOffsetSeconds":0,"RequiresPlainVideoItems":false,"RequiresPlainFolders":false,"EnableMSMediaReceiverRegistrar":false,"IgnoreTranscodeByteRangeRequests":false,"XmlRootAttributes":[],"DirectPlayProfiles":[{"Container":"m4v,3gp,mov,xvid,vob,mkv,wmv,asf,ogm,ogv,m2v,avi,mpg,mpeg,mp4,webm,wtv","AudioCodec":"aac,mp3,mp2,ac3,wma,wmav2,pcm,PCM_S16LE,PCM_S24LE,opus,flac","Type":"Video"},{"Container":"flac,aac,mp3,mpa,wav,wma,mp2,ogg,oga,webma,ape","Type":"Audio"},{"Container":"jpg,jpeg,png,gif","Type":"Photo"}],"TranscodingProfiles":[{"Container":"ts","Type":"Video","VideoCodec":"h264,mpeg2video,hevc,h265","AudioCodec":"aac,mp3","EstimateContentLength":false,"EnableMpegtsM2TsMode":false,"TranscodeSeekInfo":"Auto","CopyTimestamps":true,"Context":"Streaming","EnableSubtitlesInManifest":false,"MinSegments":0,"SegmentLength":0,"BreakOnNonKeyFrames":false},{"Container":"mp3","Type":"Audio","AudioCodec":"mp3","EstimateContentLength":false,"EnableMpegtsM2TsMode":false,"TranscodeSeekInfo":"Auto","CopyTimestamps":false,"Context":"Streaming","EnableSubtitlesInManifest":false,"MinSegments":0,"SegmentLength":0,"BreakOnNonKeyFrames":false}],"ContainerProfiles":[{"Type":"Video","Conditions":[{"Condition":"NotEquals","Property":"VideoCodecTag","Value":"xvid","IsRequired":false}],"Container":"avi"}],"CodecProfiles":[{"Type":"Video","Conditions":[{"Condition":"EqualsAny","Property":"VideoProfile","Value":"Main|Main 10","IsRequired":false}],"ApplyConditions":[],"Codec":"hevc"},{"Type":"Video","Conditions":[{"Condition":"EqualsAny","Property":"VideoProfile","Value":"high|main|baseline|constrained baseline","IsRequired":false},{"Condition":"LessThanEqual","Property":"VideoLevel","Value":"51","IsRequired":false}],"ApplyConditions":[],"Codec":"h264"},{"Type":"VideoAudio","Conditions":[{"Condition":"LessThanEqual","Property":"AudioChannels","Value":"8","IsRequired":false}],"ApplyConditions":[]}],"ResponseProfiles":[],"SubtitleProfiles":[{"Format":"srt","Method":"External"},{"Format":"srt","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"subrip","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"ass","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"ssa","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"pgs","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"pgssub","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"dvdsub","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"dvbsub","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"dvb_teletext","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"dvb_subtitle","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"vtt","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"sub","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"smi","Method":"Embed"},{"Format":"idx","Method":"Embed"}]},"EnableDirectPlay":true,"EnableDirectStream":true,"EnableTranscoding":true,"AllowVideoStreamCopy":true,"AllowAudioStreamCopy":true,"AutoOpenLiveStream":true,"EnableMediaProbe":true}

I understand that supporting so many different systems is quite hard. Although, I think that Sony and Philips Android TVs do have quite a big amount of market share from all Android TV devices. As long as everyhing is working with kodi and the emby addon I'm probably fine...

[ebr 14948]

The issue is that it reports only stereo input capability as opposed to DD per se.

12-21 14:07:49.446 17661 17661 I System.out: Max Audio Channels reported as: 2

[Gerrit507 24]

The issue is that it reports only stereo input capability as opposed to DD per se.

 

12-21 14:07:49.446 17661 17661 I System.out: Max Audio Channels reported as: 2

I see. Probably because the TV itself has only two speakers. Its the same issue when connecting with HDMI. The PC only sees it as stereo device. I think every TV has this issue. Wouldn't it be better to just look for the supported codecs and ignore the channels because the device should know how to deal with the codec if it supports it, like pass through, down mix or whatever.

[Luke 37178]

Wouldn't it be better to just look for the supported codecs and ignore the channels because the device should know how to deal with the codec if it supports it, like pass through, down mix or whatever.

 

That's not always a true statement I'm afraid. In my cases it will just fail to play.

[ebr 14948]

I see. Probably because the TV itself has only two speakers. Its the same issue when connecting with HDMI. The PC only sees it as stereo device. I think every TV has this issue. Wouldn't it be better to just look for the supported codecs and ignore the channels because the device should know how to deal with the codec if it supports it, like pass through, down mix or whatever.

 

Yeah, that's not the case.  My TV (with only stereo speakers) can accept DD and even DTS signals and then internally downmixes them.  Basically, the system isn't lying to us.  If the TV could accept more channels and downmix internally then the system would tell us that.

[Gerrit507 24]

Well, DD and DTS can be transmitted through two channels as far as I know. A Toslink cable for example only has two channels and can transmit both. Maybe my TV is only accepting stereo but it is still accepting DD and DTS for example from external devices connected with HDMI and passing them to the avr. A friend of me also has a Philips TV and he's getting Dolby at the avr too. Trust me.

[ebr 14948]

 but it is still accepting DD and DTS for example from external devices connected with HDMI and passing them to the avr. A friend of me also has a Philips TV and he's getting Dolby at the avr too. Trust me.

 

I don't doubt that.  What the TV can do via HDMI and what it has implemented internally via Android are probably two completely different things.

[pünktchen 1259]

The issue is that it reports only stereo input capability as opposed to DD per se.

12-21 14:07:49.446 17661 17661 I System.out: Max Audio Channels reported as: 2

I guess the problem is similiar to the one described here: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=289735&pid=2408984#pid2408984

Although the tv is able to playback DD or pass it to the avr, the firmware doesn't use Android's standard API and therefor reports false values to the player.

[ebr 14948]

I guess the problem is similiar to the one described here: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=289735&pid=2408984#pid2408984

Although the tv is able to playback DD or pass it to the avr, the firmware doesn't use Android's standard API and therefor reports false values to the player.

 

Possibly I guess but the only other situation where we had a user convinced this was the case, I gave them a build that ignored the system reported value and that resulted in no audio at all.  So, I'm inclined to trust the values we are getting from the system.

[pünktchen 1259]

Does your app/exoplayer use the IEC mode or RAW mode?

[pünktchen 1259]

Possibly I guess but the only other situation where we had a user convinced this was the case, I gave them a build that ignored the system reported value and that resulted in no audio at all. So, I'm inclined to trust the values we are getting from the system.

I remember that scenario, but this one is different. For the other user the video was transcoded BECAUSE the device reported only stereo. For this user he gets stereo WHEN the video needs to be transcoded, because of bitrate or DTS. But when the video is direct played, he gets at least AC3.

[ebr 14948]

But when the video is direct played, he gets at least AC3.

 

The one situation I saw for that was with the item playing via VLC, which decoded the DD in the player and sent it to his TV as stereo.  Then his TV probably re-encoded as DD and output that.

[Gerrit507 24]

I never used VLC. I isn't even installed.

 

Merry Christmas