Switch audio track not working?

[Erik 120]

Follow up question for you @@ebr

 

I Tested plying a movie (MKV/H264/ and selected the DD/AC3 track) however the ffmpeg, both on initial play which was TrueHD and after selecting the DD/AC3 track show the following and also the dashboard shows remux transcoding.

 

Stream mapping:

  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)

  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (truehd (native) -> ac3 (native))

 

It doesn't seem to be switching tracks as i try to get the roku to direct play and remove any transcoding.

 

I'm I understanding wrong? (I was referencing https://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Audio+and+Video+Support)

Edited January 15, 2018 by Erik

[ebr 14904]

We'd have to look at specifics but, perhaps, you are encountering this: Problems changing audio tracks

[Erik 120]

Maybe, but I have no problem with playback. It seems to accept any track changes and reloads the media and plays. Just seems to ignore the actually requested change.

 

Either way, let me know if you want logs media info from anything to help out with troubleshooting.

 

Thanks

[ebr 14904]

Okay, then please reproduce the problem and send a log from the app.  Thanks.

[Erik 120]

Ok, thanks (i should have started a new thread so thanks for splitting it too)

 

Logs submitted at 4:44pm (EST) for test between 4:40-4:44pm played from account "Adults" Transformers Movie for about 1 minute and then switched audio track from 7.1 (TrueHD) to 3/2+1 (DD/AC3) for a minute or so again. Both play fine on the Roku Ultra (8.0.1 buld 4042-29) but the dashboard still shows direct streaming and transcoding files are produced.

 

As I linked to above the Roku Ultra should be decoding the AC3 (from my understanding) and the media data is:

 

 

thanks again,

Erik

Edited January 15, 2018 by Erik

[ebr 14904]

Okay, the audio tracks are switching but, when we try to direct play it with the AC3 track, there is some sort of error so we fall back and transcode it instead.  There isn't any information on what the error is so I'm not sure why it is failing to direct stream.

 

If you were to look at the two ffmpeg logs produced by that test session, you should see the first one converting the TrueHD track to AC3 and the second one just passing along the existing AC3 track.

[Erik 120]

Hi,

 

Yes this time I do see that AC3 is being passed, must have been a fluke the first time (or I read the wrong log...).

 

Anything I can do to see why the direct play is falling back?

Edited January 15, 2018 by Erik

[ebr 14904]

Could be the bitrate.  Which actual device is this?

 

I know earlier Roku's couldn't handle above 20Mb/s.

[Erik 120]

Its a Roku Ultra (2016 Version with the Optical Output). Just purchased last Summer.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Erik

[Luke 37022]

Optical can't passthrough truehd, right?

[Erik 120]

I was just saying for specifics roku version as ebr had asked (as the 2017 version of the roku ultra doesn't have optical output).

 

@@Luke , No roku model supports TrueHD, they want DD+. That's why I'm trying to get the AC3 tracks in all my MKV files to play instead so the roku can do the decoding and elongate server transcoding.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Erik

[ebr 14904]

I suspect the bitrate but can't be sure.  We aren't getting any information from the player as to why it is failing we just see the failure and recover from it.

 

That item is over 30Mb/s.  The Roku development docs only claim to support up to 10Mb/s for h264 although I know it can support higher than that.  HEVC encoded stuff probably supports higher bitrates than h264 but, even then, the popular streaming services' content is always

[Erik 120]

Well that kinda sucks. I didn't imagine that was going to be a limitation when I replaced all of my HTPCs with Roku Ultras. I matched all the formats and such, but i didn't think they would have any bitrate limitation (especially that low), If it does 40Mbps for H265 then at least the same for h264 I would have guessed.

 

So that begs the question, what device will not have this limitation (other than going back to a HTPC)? Shield/?

[ebr 14904]

The Shield is definitely the most capable device like this out there I know of.  It will play my 100Mb 60fps 4k drone videos.

[Erik 120]

Thanks for all the info.

[Erik 120]

Hey @@ebr

 

If you can tolerate one last question on this...when you have time.

 

I have the same movie now direct playing for about 10 seconds and then a quick loading with direct streaming. So i have sent the roku log again (01:14pm and user "Adults") in hopes maybe it will give me a reason. Logs also PM'd then ill know if i need to get rid of the roku and buy a shield....

 

Thanks again,

Erik

[Luke 37022]

@@ebr will confirm but i think we're going to see that the roku player reported an error and therefore we automatically switched the playback method to try and correct it.

[ebr 14904]

Yes, another player error.

 

I am putting a log message in the next beta to hopefully give us more information from the player on exactly what is wrong.

[Erik 120]

Ok. Let me know when that's up and I'll give it a go.

 

Thanks.

[ebr 14904]

Should be any time now.

[Erik 120]

Ha, that was fast.

 

Ok, using same video again and log sent 4:07pm user "Adults". Direct Played for 19 seconds then reverted to direct stream.

 

Thanks.

[ebr 14904]

Here is what we are getting from the player for specifics:

Player error.  Error Code: -5 Message: malformed data

That's a pretty generic error and basically means the player got something it couldn't interpret.  That could be due to actual anomalies in the video that the player isn't resilient to or corruption in the stream being delivered (not too likely I would think) or the (as I originally suspected) an inability for the player to process the bitrate (although if a straight transcode works that seems unlikely too) or a Roku firmware problem of some sort.

 

So, all that and I'm not sure we're any further along in knowing what the real problem is .  The good news is Emby moves along and recovers and plays the item just fine.

[Luke 37022]

can you provide a copy of that video for testing? thanks.

[Erik 120]

Thanks @@ebr

 

Its all good, its just another annoyance from the roku that is finally pushing me to a shield i think.

 

Only additional thing i see is that the video stream seems to be un-altered in the ffmpeg logs, but i do see that even though the audio is DD/AC3 and supported by the roku ultra...its looks to me that its actually the audio bitrate causing the transcode.

 

The media file has the following audio:

Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s

 

but the log shows that when the remux occurs the following is the audio output:

Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1, fltp, 384 kb/s

 

and thats exactly the number roku recommends as follows:

Dolby Audio Features and Recommendations

With the Roku Ultra, Dolby Audio is natively integrated. Roku recommends encoding in Dolby Digital Plus instead of Dolby Digital.

Features include:

• Consistent audio delivery
• System sound mixing (MS12)
• Maximum compatibility with device end points

Stereo and 5.1 content will natively decode on devices while 7.1 content will passthrough.

When encoding in Dolby Digital Plus, the following bit rates are recommended:

Channels

Bit rate

Stereo 2.0 96 kbps Multi-channel 5.1 192 kbps Multi-channel 7.1 384 kbps

 

 

 

Soooo, I'm thinking that's the actual decode rate ability of the roku ultra, and its possible if i had a sound system connected that did the decoding that the higher rate wouldn't be an issue as the roku would just bitstream and not decode

 

??

[Erik 120]

@@Luke

 

yes i can do that, but its just a standard blue-ray i own, ripped with makemkv to save the trueHD and DD/AC3 track. So nothing special with the file.

 

Let me know if if you still need one as i think the post above may actually be the source of the problem?