Problems playing 4k HDR movie

[Labrat2012 0]

I am having an issue with a movie in my library that is confusing me. I am trying to play a 4k HDR movie (Avatar) that has the video encoded as HEVC and audio as DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 from my Roku TV, but it seems Emby is stuck on "Retrieving" at 25% and just stays there. If I change my user settings and uncheck 'Allow video playback that requires transcoding' then the movie will load and play, but has all kinds of green and pink garbled junk all over the screen. Other 4k HDR movies seem to play fine, but this one doesn't want to play nice. It plays fine from other applications. I've included logs below.  Log1 is when it is stuck on retrieving and Log2 is when it plays but has garbled video.  Any help is greatly appreciated 

Log1.txt

Log2.txt

Edited February 1, 2019 by Labrat2012

[speechles 1917]

@@Luke This should be copying the HEVC stream. This log1 and log2 should look the same. They do not. Something is wrong as this logic has never changed in the app.

 

VideoCodec=h264,mpeg1video,mpeg2video,hevc&AudioCodec=ac3,aac,mp2,mp3,eac3,flac,opus,vorbis,lpcm

TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported

 

Both have the identical lines above in the log. This should be copying video both logs should be the same.

[Labrat2012 0]

I converted the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 to AC3 5.1 and remuxed the file as a test. The movie direct plays with no problem now. I'm guessing something weird is going on where the DTS-HD audio being transcoded is causing the video to also be transcoded?

[Luke 37049]

Yea this should be resolved for the next release of Emby Server so that the video will just stream copy without transcoding. if you need immediate relief you can try the beta channel. thanks.

[Labrat2012 0]

@Luke I tried using the beta server with the beta Roku channel and I still have the same issue. Should I be using the beta server along with the beta Roku channel or... ?

[Luke 37049]

Can you please attach a new set of logs from the beta server? Thanks.

[Labrat2012 0]

Here is the log from the beta server.  This is when playing the file with DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 and the issue is that it starts playing and then I get green/pink garbled video.

Log.txt

Edited February 4, 2019 by Labrat2012

[speechles 1917]

If it is green/pink garbled this is a Roku firmware issue.

 

The thing about Roku firmware is if you use the system update you are effectively a beta tester (same way windows 10 works). You may not know there is a newer firmware available until Roku issues a push to your serial number. When you use system update you can get that firmware right now. You may already be able to fix the issue by trying this.

 

The video is direct streaming. The only conversion is in the Audio. The problem is the HLS streaming protocol. Something in the firmware for HEVC has thrown a wrench into that with certain bitrates. But if you do not use HLS and direct play there is no problem.

 

This is a known issue there are others on Roku forums mention same problem.

https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=110139&p=628848&hilit=garbled#p628848

 

Their RokuTV partners are slow to give them issue reports. They require users of those models to contact them directly. You can try to contact @RokuTannerDB. You can read his post in the above Roku link and what he mentions he needs to support your issue.

[Luke 37049]

Yea the stream copy on the hevc main 10 is working now, that is what i corrected. But now it looks like we're running into a Roku platform limitation. The server can correct this with a full video transcode, assuming your system is powerful enough to convert 4k hevc on the fly.

[Labrat2012 0]

If this is a firmware issue with Roku & HEVC, why does this same file play without problems in Plex?

[ebr 14910]

If this is a firmware issue with Roku & HEVC, why does this same file play without problems in Plex?

 

Perhaps they are transcoding it.

 

If you use the "Playback Correction" menu, does it play properly?

[Labrat2012 0]

Plex is direct streaming the video and transcoding the audio to AC3.  I tried using the "Playback Correction" and it still does not play properly. 

Edited February 4, 2019 by Labrat2012

[ebr 14910]

Plex is direct streaming the video and transcoding the audio to AC3.  I tried using the "Playback Correction" and it still does not play properly. 

 

Did you try using that option a second time?

[Labrat2012 0]

So after selecting 'Playback Correction' a second time, the movie plays without being garbled -- but is not in HDR so it looks washed out. I included a log from after using 'Playback Correction' a second time.

Log.txt

[blade005 172]

I converted the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 to AC3 5.1 and remuxed the file as a test. The movie direct plays with no problem now. I'm guessing something weird is going on where the DTS-HD audio being transcoded is causing the video to also be transcoded?

I don't think this is specific to DTS Audio with the Emby Roku app, but a 7.1 Audio issue in general.

 

I had the same playback issue with one specific 4K HDR 7.1 AAC Audio file. I converted the 7.1 AAC Audio to 5.1 AAC Audio and re-muxed the HDR video and 5.1 AAC Audio back into a MKV container and the file plays without issues and with HDR enabled in the Emby Roku app.

Edited February 5, 2019 by blade005

[speechles 1917]

Make sure your Roku isn't reverting back to Auto-Detect for HDMI. Some Roku firmware builds have an issue where whenever the Roku restarts the setting is reverted back to Auto-Detect. You have to manually change this to support what you want again.

 

Also go to System >> Advanced system settings >> Advanced display settings >> Auto-adjust display refresh rate and set this to Disabled if it isn't already.

In the HDR subsampling of the Advanced display settings make sure you have the correct one selected: 4:2:0 or 4:2:2.

 

https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=110502 - Roku Ultra Auto-Detect issue

https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=142207 - MKV issue

https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=110139 - Screen flicker issue

https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=138026 - OS9 Dolby fail

 

There are more. I could go on but you get the idea. Visiting the Roku forum could help you get more attention to the issue. There are community liasons there with "Roku" at the front of their usernames who can get their engineers to fix issues. We need to work together to solve issues faster. It is better if users of Emby contact Roku directly with their firmware issues as this will get their attention.

Edited February 5, 2019 by speechles

[Labrat2012 0]

This is a Roku TV, so it's built into the TV and not connected via HDMI. Also, it's not an issue with other apps which is what leads me to think it's an issue with Emby. As a side note, I'd like to say thank you for all of the quick responses and help.

[speechles 1917]

This is a Roku TV, so it's built into the TV and not connected via HDMI. Also, it's not an issue with other apps which is what leads me to think it's an issue with Emby. As a side note, I'd like to say thank you for all of the quick responses and help.

 

Is Plex able to play the item back simply change the Audio to AC3? If so.. so should we be able to. There is no magic to it other than HLS streaming and ffmpeg. The variable might be as simple as ffmpeg is doing something funky.

[Labrat2012 0]

Plex plays the file without any problem. Plex direct streams (copies) the video and transcodes the DTS-HD 5.1 audio to 5.1 AC3.

 

EDIT:  I noticed the audio is not 7.1 --  It's DTS-MA 5.1 but for some reason was mis-labeled as "DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1". Both Plex & Emby see it as DTS-MA 5.1

Edited February 5, 2019 by Labrat2012

[speechles 1917]

I see no reason why the Emby app is not doing the same thing. This must be related to ffmpeg and something it is doing. There is no other explanation. We are not doing anything special or different in the app than normal. Something is throwing a spanner wrench into a sprocket somewhere.