Jump to content

Distorted audio on movies with AC3 audio via the official Emby for Roku app


Gaz

Recommended Posts

Sorry if this has been asked a multitude of times guys, but I'm having a real problem playing back any movie that has an AC3 audio track using the official Emby for Roku app.

 

My Roku connects directly to my TV via HDMI and the sound that comes out of my TV speakers is highly distorted and makes a high pitched crackling noise when any louder than average noises appear in a movie.

 

The only way I'm able to watch a movie with AC3 audio is via the unofficial 'Blue Neon Night' Emby app for Roku and it seems odd to me that the 'Official' Emby app should have such a problem!

 

I've looked in the settings and can't see anything that I could change that might help :(

 

Surely everyone that uses the Roku App isn't putting up with distorted audio when a movie has an AC3 soundtrack?

 

So if anyone could please tell me if there is a way to playback movies that are encoded in AC3 via the official Emby for Roku app without suffering audio problems i'd be extremely grateful.

 

This audio problem has been in every build of the offical app that I've ever used but yet I've never had any problems with the unoffical 'Blue Neon Night' app.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

Is the media direct playing or being converted?  I have no issue with AC3 but I am connected to my receiver then my TV.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mastrmind11

i was just about to say that ^^.  I've had no issues, but I have a Roku off network on wifi that transcodes everything, so that info is helpful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry guys I meant to mention that I'm running Emby Server on my Windows PC and then connecting to it via my Roku in another room so assume it's being 'converted' ?

 

Just TV, no external amp and via HDMI and ethernet.

Edited by Gaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

How about the ffmpeg log. 

 

You would also have to compare logs on how BNN and Official app are playing the media.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@@Happy2Play thanks for the replies.

 

Could really do with some help here if possible please, any chance you could please tell me where I could find that log file and what I need to look for?

 

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

@@Happy2Play thanks for the replies.

 

Could really do with some help here if possible please, any chance you could please tell me where I could find that log file and what I need to look for?

 

Thanks

 

Look at the log section or on your server Dashboard there is a "Paths" section that shows your log path also.

 

How to Report a Problem

Edited by Happy2Play
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

 

what I need to look for?

Do both apps play the media the same way?  Is BNN converting the same way as Official app?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found the logs but unfortunately have no ideaa what I'm looking for :(

 

I've zipped them up and attached if you could please take a look?

 

I was trying to watch a movie called "Bad Samaritan" that had the AC3 audio if that's any help. I swapped from the official Roku app to Blue Neon night at around 29 minutes if that's also any help!

 

Thanks.

logs.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

Okay you have one log that the audio was converted from ac3 to mp3 and three logs ac3 was converted to aac.  That last log was for different title and the audio was copied so no conversion.

Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (ac3 (native) -> mp3 (libmp3lame))

Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (ac3 (native) -> aac (native))

Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (hevc (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

So the question is what app did what.  And which conversion is the issue.  If I am reading your post correctly (but the times in logs are mixed so it is hard to say), I would have to say the mp3 conversion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for taking a look, really appreciate it:)

 

From memory BNN converts AC3 to AAC and the Official Emby App converts AC3 to MP3 so is the problem the AC3-MP3 audio conversion from the official Emby app?

 

Is this audio conversion 'controlled' by the codec pack that you have to have installed on your PC? I'm using the Shark007 codec pack so could this be due to a setting within the codec pack that's not set correctly?

Edited by Gaz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy2Play

Thanks so much for taking a look, really appreciate it:)

 

From memory BNN converts AC3 to AAC and the Official Emby App converts AC3 to MP3 so the problem must be with the AC3-MP3 audio conversion from the official Emby app I'd say?

 

Is this audio conversion 'controlled' by the codec pack that you have to have installed on your PC? I'm using the Shark007 codec pack so I'm guessing there's something in there that might need to be changed?

 

No, it is controlled by the conditions set in the app.  

 

@@ebr should this be a option for users to select in situations like this or change default converting to AAC instead of MP3?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for your help Happy. I figured it must have been a codec issue my end otherwise surely everyone would be complaining of distorted audio when they tried to playback AC3 audio in the official Emby for Roku app?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reason the blue neon app prefers AAC by default is because by nature MP3 has two forms. Constant bitrate and variable bitrate. Both of these play hell, when used with anything that isnt interleaving.. like outside of the AVI container. I made the option MP3 available because at the time roku firmware was decimate AAC bitrates and this was causing problems with decilbel levels (its so quiet and then loud, quiet then loud.. arggh.. like a warble) and added audible crackling/hiss. The official app should (an option really isnt required) in the case of surround codecs always choose AAC rather than MP3 just because when remuxing in a direct streamed video with mp3 audio, there will be audio sync loss. Its just the nature of the beast. That distortion you hear are the catchup speedup/slowdown of the audio to match the direct streamed video.

Edited by speechles
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Speechles - thanks for the info but unfortuantely it's way over my head :(

 

Can I just check with you that this is definately a problem with the Official Emby for Roku app in that it doesn't default to AAC when surround codecs are called for?

 

Don't want to waste hours messing with the codec settings on my PC if it won't make any difference etc.

 

Is everyone that tries to watch a movie with AC3 audio on their Roku's going to be getting distorted audio like I do? If so, why aren't more people complaining about this or asking for it to be changed if it's not something the end user can configure or change themselves?

 

Sorry but this is really confusing me. Am I just left to accept that the official Roku app is extremely poor and the best option is to use 'Blue Neon Night' instead?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We'll see what @@ebr thinks about preferring aac as the transcoding audio format. thanks speechles !

 

We can try it with the next beta cycle but don't want to slip it in right now as we should be releasing a new version very soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@@ebr will the new version default to AAC when surround audio is detected?

 

any approx eta on when we can roughly expect to see this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...