Jump to content

1080i transcoding


videng

Recommended Posts

Lately I've been working on getting migrated from WMC to Emby for live TV.  WMC worked wonderfully for me but now that Win 7 is done, MS has quit providing guide services.  My tuner is an HDHR Prime with a cablecard installed.

 

I've done a few hours of digging through the forums here trying to find a tweak to live TV transcoding that wil make 1080i deinterlacing look decent.  Currently when transcoding, 1080i channels get transcoded to 1080p 29.97 which halves the temporal resolution making motion look jerky.  720p channels get transcoded to 59.94 which preserves fluid motion.

 

1080i content in Emby Theater looks wonderful, since it's direct play MPEG2.

 

I recall reading that config files can be tweaked to achieve this.  What do I need to add or change in the encoding.xml file (or elsewhere) to get ffmpeg to output a 1080p 59.94 stream?  I'm trying to get this to stream to a Chromecast 3, which supports 1080p60.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any ideas?  If I can get 1080i looking as good as it does in WMC, I'm all in.  Watching 1080i deinterlaced to 29.97 progressive is rough. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm afraid, but transcoding with rate-doubling is currently not supported. Direct Play is the only way at this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing you could try is turning off hardware transcoding in the server transcoding settings and see if the software encoder produces a better looking result. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm afraid, but transcoding with rate-doubling is currently not supported. Direct Play is the only way at this time.

Well, that's too bad.

 

Is that functionality on the agenda for future implementation?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's possible for the future. In the meantime I would check out how software deinterlacing compares.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that's too bad.

 

Is that functionality on the agenda for future implementation?

 

We are currently reworking our transcoding engine and due to the many hardware accelerations we support and other new challenges we're facing, this is a pretty complex task.

Rate-doubling is not supported in certain hardware pipelines and would cause problems with other image processing operations that we need to support.

 

As @@Luke said, it's not a "no-never", we also have an entry in our backlog for this, but we'll have to re-evaluate when the current transition is completed.

 

Finally, let's be fair: In case of WMC, it wasn't possible to connect that to your tv via ChromeCast either. You had to connect your WMC computer to the TV.

With Emby this works in the same way, and the computer that you connect to the doesn't even have to be the one on which Emby Server is running.

(WMC does not support this)

 

So, let's not make this look like as if Emby cannot do what WMC can do!

 

All this is about is that ChromeCast doesn't support playing interlaced video.

Edited by softworkz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are currently reworking our transcoding engine and due to the many hardware accelerations we support and other new challenges we're facing, this is a pretty complex task.

Rate-doubling is not supported in certain hardware pipelines and would cause problems with other image processing operations that we need to support.

 

As @@Luke said, it's not a "no-never", we also have an entry in our backlog for this, but we'll have to re-evaluate when the current transition is completed.

 

Finally, let's be fair: In case of WMC, it wasn't possible to connect that to your tv via ChromeCast either. You had to connect your WMC computer to the TV.

With Emby this works in the same way, and the computer that you connect to the doesn't even have to be the one on which Emby Server is running.

(WMC does not support this)

 

So, let's not make this look like as if Emby cannot do what WMC can do!

 

All this is about is that ChromeCast doesn't support playing interlaced video.

I'm glad it's on the list and not a "it's never gonna happen" item.

 

Let's make one thing clear, my intention with this post was not to point out things WMC can do that Emby can't.  If it came off like that, I apologize.  My posts were only to ask if field rate deinterlacing was currently possible for transcoding.  Emby does so many things better than WMC that I really want it to work out for me.  I know WMC didn't ever support Chromecast.  I currently run my WMC machine headless, using WMC extenders like the Ceton Echo, Xbox 360 or Linksys box at my displays.  My goal is to have Emby replace WMC in this situation with equal video performance.

 

Perhaps the best question to ask at this point is, which client devices support direct-play MPEG2 1080i (so the display does the deinterlacing)?  I've found some data that says the Amazon Fire Stick 4K can do this after a firmware update last summer.

 

Thanks for all the hard work your team has put into this product!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's possible for the future. In the meantime I would check out how software deinterlacing compares.

The deinterlace performace looks good on both hardware and software encoding, but the output is still 1080p 29.97.  I'm looking for a 1080p 59.94 output that will look as if I was running a 1080i source to my TV, letting it do the deinterlacing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's make one thing clear, my intention with this post was not to point out things WMC can do that Emby can't.  If it came off like that, I apologize.  

No, no need to apologize. I wrote this rather for other users landing here to read.

Probably only few would have noticed that you stated that it's working fine with Emby Theater in the first post.

Hence the emphasized clarification.

 

Perhaps the best question to ask at this point is, which client devices support direct-play MPEG2 1080i (so the display does the deinterlacing)?  I've found some data that says the Amazon Fire Stick 4K can do this after a firmware update last summer.

That same question came to my mind, but I can't give a precise answer to this.

 

@@Luke @@ebr ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fire TV yes, but only the latest generation models I believe. The Shield. Emby Theater on any PC, android mobile app. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Can I chime in here? I'd really, really like to have Emby be able to play 1080i videos. We download sports events from Europe players and sometimes get 1080i videos. I've learned how to reencode them with Handbrake to play on our system, but it's a hassle. 1080i videos play fine on my laptop with VLC but not on Emby.

My system: I run Emby Server on a Mac Mini and play NAS-stored videos with an AppleTV or maybe a Roku device. My main NAS is a Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra, for which there's no available Emby server app - that would be great too!

I love Emby for playing sports videos because we don't get frame grab spoiler like we got on PLEX. I'm an Emby Premiere member not only for the extra features but because I want to support Emby.

Just looking to add my vote for this feature.

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, chemess said:

Can I chime in here? I'd really, really like to have Emby be able to play 1080i videos. We download sports events from Europe players and sometimes get 1080i videos. I've learned how to reencode them with Handbrake to play on our system, but it's a hassle. 1080i videos play fine on my laptop with VLC but not on Emby.

My system: I run Emby Server on a Mac Mini and play NAS-stored videos with an AppleTV or maybe a Roku device. My main NAS is a Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra, for which there's no available Emby server app - that would be great too!

I love Emby for playing sports videos because we don't get frame grab spoiler like we got on PLEX. I'm an Emby Premiere member not only for the extra features but because I want to support Emby.

Just looking to add my vote for this feature.

Thanks!

Hi there, are you not able to play these videos with emby now? You should be able to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, are you not able to play these videos with emby now? You should be able to.

Hi to you, Luke. Thank you for your reply. Unless something has changed in the past 2 days, Emby cannot play 1080i. I found that I can make playable files by using Handbrake set to the Decomb deinterlace setting to convert 1080i to 720p, keeping the original frame rate. -Dee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

What app(s) / devices are you using to play your media?

I run Emby Server on a Mac Mini and play NAS-stored videos on the Emby app on AppleTV or Roku. My main NAS is a Western Digital My Cloud EX2 Ultra, for which there's no available Emby server app.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

sooty234

There are two ways the video can be deinterlaced. The server can do it, or the player (app) can do it. The best option is the player does it, then it won't be transcoded by the server. So in your case we're talking about Apple TV and Roku. I don't use either of those, but I believe both should be able to achieve this. When you play these videos, what exactly, happens?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, sooty234 said:

There are two ways the video can be deinterlaced. The server can do it, or the player (app) can do it. The best option is the player does it, then it won't be transcoded by the server. So in your case we're talking about Apple TV and Roku. I don't use either of those, but I believe both should be able to achieve this. When you play these videos, what exactly, happens?

Thanks for your help, sooty234.

The AppleTV app can't play the 1080i video because its "format is not compatible with Apple TV". We've started using our AppleTV devices instead of Roku because of the AppleTV+ content and because its MotoGP app will load on the "no spoiler" view on the AppleTV and the Roku's MotoGP defaults to the News; eg, it gtells you who won the race!

So, because of your comment, I just tried Emby on the Roku and it works! So the problem is the Emby app on the AppleTV! Thank you!

Thank you again! This solves the problem for me. We'll just watch Emby on the Roku device because it has the better Emby app. Or is it the device not the app? The AppleTV says *it* can't play the video... maybe AppleTV is the problem, not the Emby app. In either case, problem solved! Thank you!

Gratefully,

chemess

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, chemess said:

Hi to you, Luke. Thank you for your reply. Unless something has changed in the past 2 days, Emby cannot play 1080i. I found that I can make playable files by using Handbrake set to the Decomb deinterlace setting to convert 1080i to 720p, keeping the original frame rate. -Dee

Can we please go over an example? Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Luke said:

Can we please go over an example? Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

Hi Luke. Turns out that the Emby app on my Roku Ultra plays the 1080i (50 fps) file just fine. Its the app on my 4th generation Apple TV or, rather, the device itself. The error I get is "format is not compatible with Apple TV", so I think it's a device hardware/firmware deficiency on the Apple TV device, not the Emby app, that is unable to deinterlace 1080i files. The Apple TV is able to play the re-encoded 1080i 50 fps file 720p at its original frame rate, so it's not the frame rate that's the problem. I also tried running a 1080i video on the Apple TV with the PLEX app. PLEX didn't give me an error message, just a rotating "I'm trying" wheel and never loaded it.

What I would say here is that if one wishes to stream an interlaced video from their home server they ought to use VLC on their computer or Emby on a Roku streaming device.

Thanks,

chemess

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/26/2020 at 5:22 PM, chemess said:

What I would say here is that if one wishes to stream an interlaced video from their home server they ought to use VLC on their computer or Emby on a Roku streaming device.

Emby can handle interlaced video perfectly fine on all the apps I have (no apple however) and if the app can't de-interlace properly will have the server do it.
So chances are it's a client issue/setting but we don't know this yet.

Can you supply the information Luke asked for so we can diagnose your problem properly?

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Already did that, I thought. What else do you need? I found 1080i plays great on VLC and Roku's Emby app but won't play on the AppleTV's Emby app. It's an AppleTV limitation, I'm sure, not its Emby app. My media server is a Western Digital EX2 Ultra, which I've found has limited file transcoding ability.  So the problems seem to be  the Apple TV and the WD server. Roku and VLC rock!

Thank you all.

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...