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FireTV everything transcoding


FoulFoot

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FoulFoot

... a continuation of my thread posted in the wrong forum.

 

I'm on a FireTV 4k Stick.  Almost all my movies are HEVC encoded, and most (all?) are transcoding.  This transcoding (I assume) is also playing havoc with the audio sync; the audio is 1-2 seconds ahead of the video.  

 

The error listed in the transcode is "DirectPlayError,ContainerBitrateExceedsLimit".  Later errors are "Packet header is not contained in global extradata, corrupted stream or invalid MP4/AVCC bitstream".

 

I recently upgraded from a FireTV Gen 2 to the 4k Stick, and that's when I noticed the lipsync issue.  In doing some more testing, it looks like the Gen 2 is also transcoding, but it isn't giving me the lipsync problem, so I never noticed it.

 

My app bandwidth settings are at "Auto" or "100 mb/s"; neither makes a difference.  Server bandwidth setting has been blank, but I also tried putting 1.2 million in there; didn't make a difference.  I'm on a gigabit LAN, but have also tried strong-signal Wifi; no difference.  It's not my network.

 

Logs attached.  The server log's most recent entries (at the bottom) are when I switched to the Gen 2.  "transcode1" is Amadeus (HEVC).  "transcode2" is Batman Begins (HEVC).  "transcode3" is Ferdinand, which I re-ripped as x264; it still transcodes.

 

There's also a ton of "remux" logs for each "transcode" log; not sure it they're relevant.

 

Lastly, I've noticed that on both FireTV devices, the correct audio stream is rarely passed to the receiver.  Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA are passed as 2-channel audio.  I assume due to the server being unable to identify the video or audio containers.

 

Foul

 

 

server.txt

transcode1.txt

transcode2.txt

transcode3.txt

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It looks like the app tried to direct play, but the video player reported an error and then it automatically switched to transcoding. If i had to guess, the reason for the video player having trouble with the file is probably similar to the reason for ffmpeg having trouble with it on the server.

 

@@softworkz do you have any insight?

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Actually for the h264 version the video is not transcoding, it's simply converting the audio and that's it.

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FoulFoot

No idea if this is helpful at all, but here's a remux log from Emby Theater (Windows), running on my server.  It seems to indicate it's transcoding, too, but there's no separate transcode log.

 

Foul

remux.txt

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No idea if this is helpful at all, but here's a remux log from Emby Theater (Windows), running on my server.  It seems to indicate it's transcoding, too, but there's no separate transcode log.

 

Foul

 

That's not transcoding, it's simply repackaging into a new container.

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FoulFoot

I removed the audio track and tried to play it; Emby wouldn't.  It still attempted a transcode though; "transcode1.txt".  I also played Batman Begins with app settings changed to Downmix to Stereo: "transcode2.txt".

 

Thanks for your help in looking at this!

 

Foul

transcode1.txt

transcode2.txt

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Looks like you didn't run a library scan, so the server hasn't become aware that you removed the audio track.

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FoulFoot

Oh yeah.  :(

 

OK, with a correctly scanned file, it played -- with no transcoding!  I attached the relevant lines from the server log; there's still some errors listed, but I don't know if that's usual.

 

Foul

server.txt

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FoulFoot

A) it plays fine on Emby Theater for Windows,

B) the sound plays on Emby Fire, it's just out of sync,

C) sound plays fine if you choose Downmix to Stereo (though it is, of course, just stereo),

D) I have several hundred movies; they pretty much all transcode, as far as I can tell.

 

The movies were encoded with Handbrake.

 

Foul

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The Fire TV doesn't support DTS or True HD.  So those are always going to need conversion (or stereo mix down with that option in the app).

 

However, your initial log also indicate other issues with video playback which, as Luke suggested above, are probably the same issues you are seeing in the ffmpeg output.

 

You encoded all of these yourself?

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FoulFoot

Yes, from Blu Rays.  And it's interesting that once I removed the audio track, the video didn't transcode.

 

The 4k Stick *should* support Dolby TrueHD passthrough, as it supports Atmos passthrough.  I tried to find confirmation on DTS passthrough, and nobody seems to know for sure... which is odd, because half the movies on the planet use DTS.  You'd think somebody official would have made a statement on that.

 

Incidentally, here's a post on AVS stating that DTS audio is indeed being passed: https://www.avsforum.com/forum/39-networking-media-servers-content-streaming/3006368-official-2018-new-firetv-stick-4k-dolby-vision-hdr10-dolby-atmos-6.html .  But again, doing a Google search on "fire tv 4k stick dts audio" basically comes up with nothing.

 

Foul

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FoulFoot

After some more reading, apparently TrueHD is *not* supported.  There's multiple flavors of Atmos, too, of which the 4k Stick only supports Dolby Digital + Atmos, not Dolby TrueHD + Atmos.  What a mess.  And why hardware can't just bitstream HD audio to my receiver, I have no idea.

 

Regardless of the audio transcoding issues, the HEVC video shouldn't be transcoding also.

 

Foul

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which is odd, because half the movies on the planet use DTS.  

 

Not ones being streamed through streaming services.

 

You have to remember that this device only exists because Amazon uses it as a vehicle to deliver their content to you (that is also why it is as cheap as it is).  The streaming industry is pretty much standardized on DD right now.

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