Tests and results

[simjan 0]

Hi!

 

Been trying out media browser server, classic, theatre and Ipad for a couple of days now as a replacement media solution. Although I like (a lot) what I see, it´s still "very" problematic to get a problem free media experience. Let me give you some examples:

 

1. Absolutely impossible to get subtitles to work since most HD content I have are .mkv with x264. In MB theatre I do get subtitles but never the ones I actually want. It just picks the first language and goes with that... and yes I have configured LAV splitter to my preferred language (and second language). Since I also like to watch movies in "obscure" languages like french, portuguese,japanese and chinese which makes this a necessity since I dont speak all of them and I don´t want to reencode all of my movies just to get this to work???!!! I did read somewhere .mkv was not supported and if thats the case... ???? It´s probably the best HD container out there!

2. Normal start of server doesn´t work, it´s nothing there when i try to connect regardless of client. In the logs the server has started but it doesnt respond on the network. I did notice the service wasn´t running on the server but as far as I understand the cryptic message/functionality about program vs service it shouldn´t be unless you specifically run as a service. The service as standalone do work however so that was solved after about an hour of wasted time trying to fix it.

3. Classic suddenly refuses to connect although web and theatre conencts without problem... Have no idea why and the logs show nothing. Still unsolved.

4. Primary image is somehow related to language, if not english in settings it won´t download and uses some other "bad" image instead as primary. Requires manual download, not for all, but many movies.

5. Subtitles via opensubtitles.org finds nothing. Tried with at least six or seven movies in an attempt to solve the above subtitle frustration but it just doesn´t find anything.

6. Messages/news keeps repeating although I have marked them as read. After a reboot they come back.

7. UNC path doesn´t work when set in Advanced/paths. Says it doesn´t exist and seems to be related to permissions.

 

Maybee some of the points above are known, maybe not but they completely ruin what appeared to be a nice replacement for Plex and vlc for me.

Give me the subtitles in an easy working fashion and I would go with MB straight away, the rest I can live with. As it is though I feel its to much beta, to unfinished and the subtitle part seems like an orphaned child left a drift on the media ocean. I´m sorry to say but just about any serious media player out there have working subtitles!

 

Now I´ve been a critic but I must also give praise since I really like MB look and feel and how it´s supposed to work. Despite this, I will probably deinstall it since I can not waste any more time on trying to get things to work without hours of testing and configuration. The last part is especially painful since I´m no newbie to computors and networks although not a programmer.

 

If you have any solutions or suggestions to the above... please tell me and I might try them as a last effort. Otherwise, I honestly wish you success with this and maybe I´ll have another go in the future!

 

And as for you knowledge I run MBS 3.0.5289.18702, MBC 3.0.187.0 6-20.1, MBT 3.0.5287.42414 on Win 2012 server and Win 8.1 MC client

 

BR

Sy

 

 

[Luke 37251]

Subs should be fine in MBT. Work great here. Are you able to change tracks after playback starts using the OSD?

[simjan 0]

Hi Luke!

Yes I can change track after playback started. If only one set of subtitles exist it works but not if I have several in the .mkv

[Luke 37251]

what do you mean doesn't work? does it play the wrong subtitle track, or does it just not play subtitles at all? i'm sure it can be resolved so not to worry.

[simjan 0]

Well, MB Theatre plays subtitles if they exist. If I have one set, ie english it shows the english subtitles but if I have two sets like english and a second in swedish it always chooses the english set regardless of LAV splitter setting. If there are other languages, like 3 or 4 different ones, it chooses the first set all the time.

Edited July 6, 2014 by simjan

[Luke 37251]

But then are you able to manually pick the right one?

 

Ultimately, it's not the LAV setting that will drive this - check the user profile settings on the server and set the audio/subtitle language preferences. I am not sure MBT is using that value yet, but it will soon.

[simjan 0]

How? I have not found anywhere to choose subtitle in MBT OSD? On the Overview screen I can see which subtitles thats in the file but I cannot choose any of them and after playback started I cant see anywhere to change it?

If the first language shown in the overview is danish thats what I get in playback.

The user profile is already set but has no effect.

[Luke 37251]

The osd has a subtitles tab where you can change and even turn them off. Press * to pull it up.

[simjan 0]

Hmm.. that was interesting! Is that related to keyboard layout? I have a swedish layout and to press * requires shift+*. Regardless nothing happens! Tried just about the whole keyboard and found some other interesting functions but not subtitles...

[Luke 37251]

You could try 8 or shift 8. There were a few aliases. I'll have to check what they are later.

[simjan 0]

8 worked. Now I´m happy... :-) Thanks Luke!

(As some friendly advice you should really make this more easily accessible or put the info somewhere in the OSD since I´ve spent hours trying to get subtitles to work! Makes me feel like an idiot when it was that simple...)