Unable to fast forward or select chapter with MPEG2/Direct Play

[cybergrimes 90]

Hey there,

 

I normally only watch on my Shield device but today started using the Android tablet while doing some chores. Immediately I noticed it would not let me resume my in progress television show but instead would send me back to the beginning of the episode. If I tried selecting chapter 3, 15 minutes into the file it still started back at the beginning. No luck dragging the progress bar for a fast forward either. This was with MPEG2 OTA recordings only. If I fire up an H264 disc rip the fast forward or chapter selection work fine. Is this perhaps a limitation of Android or my device? I'm running v2.9.92 on Android 7.1.1 (x86 Intel Atom tablet).

 

If I force transcoding I am able to then fast forward or select chapters just like my H264 rips (it is now H264 too...)

 

I went to '/Android/data/com.mb.android/files/logs' on both main storage & SD card but could not locate any log files or any files at all for that matter.

I noticed the app didn't have storage permissions so I enabled that but I still don't see any files in that location.

 

Lastly is it normal for Emby to not produce an ffmpeg-directstream log for Android mobile? I only see a log when I force the transcode.

I'll get a server log posted in a bit after dinner, just wanted to get the initial question posted for now.

 

Thanks!

[jasonmcroy 315]

Is this the raw recording in .ts format? If so, I know I have always had issues with that format on Android. On my tablet or phone I used to have the same issue and on the Shield it will remux it, which at least isn't a full transcode but still causes pretty slow skipping forward through commercials (at least for me). Per the Shield Specs is is supposed to be compatible with mpeg files so I never understood why that .ts extension seems to create slower than skipping not only in Emby but Plex and even Kodi.

 

It is this reason alone that I am still stuck with Windows 10 as my server (I would rather be on Linux) because I have to use MCEBuddy to remux my recordings to MKV. When I do that everything works perfectly for me.

 

I am not sure if it's an Android issue or not.

[cybergrimes 90]

Is this the raw recording in .ts format? If so, I know I have always had issues with that format on Android. On my tablet or phone I used to have the same issue and on the Shield it will remux it, which at least isn't a full transcode but still causes pretty slow skipping forward through commercials (at least for me). Per the Shield Specs is is supposed to be compatible with mpeg files so I never understood why that .ts extension seems to create slower than skipping not only in Emby but Plex and even Kodi.

 

It is this reason alone that I am still stuck with Windows 10 as my server (I would rather be on Linux) because I have to use MCEBuddy to remux my recordings to MKV. When I do that everything works perfectly for me.

 

I am not sure if it's an Android issue or not.

Yes TS container. Mobile doesn't seem to remux like Shield but I can't be sure since there is no log file. My Shield does 30 sec FF and 10 sec RW without any problem.

 

I'll look at remux only in MCEBuddy, probably not a bad idea for all my Roku users. I just prefer to leave things alone usually ;/

Edited April 8, 2018 by cybergrimes

[Luke 37112]

The mobile app isn't remuxing because it can generally direct play just about anything, unless you drop the quality setting to a low value.

[cybergrimes 90]

The mobile app isn't remuxing because it can generally direct play just about anything, unless you drop the quality setting to a low value.

Any known reasons it cant FF on MPEG2 in TS? I've got some MPEG2 in MKV from DVD rips, I'll try that for comparison.

[cybergrimes 90]

It seems to be limited to my tablet, no problems on my phone with same recordings.

 

Edit: yep its limited to MPEG2 in TS container on this x86 Android tablet. The DVD rips FF & allow chapter selection just fine.

 

 

Possible to force remux only?

Edited April 8, 2018 by cybergrimes

[Luke 37112]

what device is this?

[cybergrimes 90]

Lenovo Yoga Book (YB1-X90F), tried to find a good product page with tech specs but not so easy on mobile. Here's some basics:

 

CPU: 1.44GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8550

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 400

RAM: 4GB (LPDDR3)

Screen: 10.1-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,200 resolution), IPS touchscreen

 

It's running Android 7.1.1

[jasonmcroy 315]

Yes TS container. Mobile doesn't seem to remux like Shield but I can't be sure since there is no log file. My Shield does 30 sec FF and 10 sec RW without any problem.

 

I'll look at remux only in MCEBuddy, probably not a bad idea for all my Roku users. I just prefer to leave things alone usually ;/

 

For remux in MCEBuddy I use the profile "MKV Unprocessed". It just puts the file into an MKV container. I really only do it because it makes skipping faster on the Shield. It's instant skipping vs a few seconds with a .ts file.

[cybergrimes 90]

@@jasonmcroy ever have problem with the MKV Unprocessed profile outputting incorrect video length?

For example I've got an episode 43:06 but remuxed file is now 13:43:06, adding 13 hours to it for some reason. Not every file, just kind of all over the place...

[jasonmcroy 315]

@@cybergrimes - I haven't noticed that issue before. I did have some other issues with playback a while back. I started changing a setting under Advanced --> Expert and un-tick the box titled "add information". It does something weird to the files sometimes.

[cybergrimes 90]

Alright thanks. I already had that unchecked ;/

I tried tinkering with the MKV Unprocessed properties, changing 'PreConversionCommercialRemover' from true to false and removing '-ss 3' from the ffmpeg command but it made no difference.

It's also messing with the properties of the files, like putting audio bitrate and an incorrect frame rate in the video section. MediaInfo still reads the files correctly but still kind of weird.

 

 

While I would love to diagnose this can't see any relevant threads on MCEBuddy forums so I think I'll just stick to forcing a transcode when I use the tablet for now.

Maybe I'll manually remux the TV shows I plan to archive for watching again.

 

Thanks for the replies!

[cybergrimes 90]

fwiw I think these few files might have been recorded during bad OTA reception.

One file I keep playing with I've remuxed using MKVMerge has the correct duration but has an A/V sync issue by the end of the recording, sync issue is not exhibited when watching the original TS recording.