Direct Play vs Direct Stream - what triggers the playback mode?

[nkelly 6]

I have a basic question.  I have some movies that i ripped and converted to MP4.  When i play them the dashboard say they are in Direct Stream mode.  The video is choppy and stuttering.  When i click on the advance option in the roky menu is says playback correction (remux).  if i select "trans code" under playback correction all is well.  i compared a file with the issue to a file that runs fine on the roku and seems to have all the same "media info" specs but runs under direct play mode.  If i understand correctly the Direct stream mode is either remuxing the audio (which stutters) or trans coding the audio (which works).  The only difference in the audio sections of media info is the bit rate.   In the video section of media info it says that the file with the issue is variable rate (however it was edited with video redo which doesn't accept variable frame rate) and the "good" file is constant frame rate.  when i handbrake / videcoder the file, i selected "same as source" and "constant" under frame rate i believe should make a constant frame rate file ( maybe not).

 

I'd like to re rip / convert these files and a whole bunch more but i'd like to do it right the first time ( so that the roku can easily play them) . I'm at work and don't have the files in front of me but will update the post tonight with the listing from media info. 

 

Can you point me in the right direction to re encode the same film as a test ?  should i focus on the "variable" rate video issue or the different bit rate on the audio ? This only happens on roku.  The fire box plays the file fine (will have to look to see if fire box is in direct play or stream mode on the dashboard). i'm assuming the roku is the canary in the coal mine and if it works for roku it will work for newer players later on. 

 

Thanks for your help.

[Luke 37010]

Hi, if you want to re-encode then i would just use our media convert feature. Everything you need is built into the server:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/blog/1/entry-423-emby-server-34-released/

 

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[nkelly 6]

Wow. Cool feature !  I'll play with it tonight.  if nothing else, it should create an example of what Emby thinks is a universal playback file.  Thanks for your help  !

[speechles 1917]

The Roku will turn everything you have into 60 frames per second. Normally it does this seamlessly. But with interlaced codecs like MPEG2 it can suffer with some movement issues when direct playing. I notice this too and direct streaming will not fix it since this still copies the video stream. It will get fixed with full transcoding. You will see this mostly with Mpeg2 in both TS or AVI containers. It is because these containers use time signatures within the containers. It sometimes doesn't like the stretch/crunch the Roku is doing to manipulate this to a steady 60 frames per second.

 

As Luke suggested is the easiest path forward. The one with the least resistance. The once without hurdles, roadblocks, or barriers in your way. It will just work.