Roku unable to Direct Play Interlaced 1080i Channels (HDHomerun)

[troyhough 57]

My TCL TV's and Roku sticks Direct Play the 720P OTA HDHR channels but not the 1080i channels. My Nvidia Shield, Android phone, and Tivo Stream 4K DOES Direct Play the HDHR 1080i channels, no problem. So what gives?

Edit: 16 Jan 2022 - Is Roku/Emby working to properly Direct Play 1080i channels from the HDHomerun or Roku devices/TV's with integrated Roku? This is becoming a bigger problem for me lately when I have 4 or 5 TV's tuning to 1080i channels and my server is maxed out at 100%, making the Roku TV's spin and cut out. My Android TV devices Direct Play and I feel I am going to be forced to ditch the Roku's for Android TV streaming boxes if a fix isn't coming or maybe it's a Roku limitation???

Edited January 16, 2022 by troyhough

[Luke 37009]

Hi, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why?

[troyhough 57]

6 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why?

Does this help?

[Luke 37009]

ffmpeg log?

[troyhough 57]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

ffmpeg log?

Hi @Luke see attached. Thanks

Edit: Log removed.

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by troyhough

[Carlo 4330]

Luke could this be interlaced related?

[Luke 37009]

Yes. Try enabling the direct stream live tv option in the android tv app.

[troyhough 57]

13 minutes ago, Luke said:

Yes. Try enabling the direct stream live tv option in the android tv app.

I must have overlooked turning this option on, sorry. Just curious why all the other stations were Direct Playing when it was unticked?

Thanks boys.

[Carlo 4330]

Did you actually try every other station or just random samples?

If you're in the US 1080 is broadcast interlaced but 720 is broadcast progressive.  So if you randomly sampled 720 channels they would have been fine but the 1080 would have been transcoding to deinterlace them.  Assuming this hunch is correct and that was the issue.

[troyhough 57]

I have 7 strong HD channels (2 of which are CBS in 2 different cities). 3.1 and 10.1. Those 2 channels would not Direct Play. All the other 5 did.

[Carlo 4330]

Just curious but why some channels turned off?  Are they to week to receive or do you just not want them loaded?

[troyhough 57]

37 minutes ago, cayars said:

Just curious but why some channels turned off?  Are they to week to receive or do you just not want them loaded?

A lot are weak. A lot are essentially duplicates. A lot are not HD.

And now for extra credit boys, the TCL TV's I have run Roku , not Android TV, but suffer the same exact issue. Where is the setting located in Roku Emby so the CBS stations Direct Play like the other stations?

Thanks!

Edited January 7, 2021 by troyhough

[Carlo 4330]

I don't think you can direct play those on the Roku.  Likely going to need a remux to direct stream at the least or a transcode. Roku doesn't support as many containers or codecs as the Android TV platform.

[troyhough 57]

Just now, cayars said:

I don't think you can direct play those on the Roku.  Likely going to need a remux to direct stream at the least or a transcode. Roku doesn't support as many containers or codecs as the Android TV platform.

To clarify, are you saying that the Roku probably can't Direct Play the 2 CBS stations but can the other 5? Because the other 5 DO Direct Play now, just not the 2 CBS.

[speechles 1917]

3 minutes ago, troyhough said:

To clarify, are you saying that the Roku probably can't Direct Play the 2 CBS stations but can the other 5? Because the other 5 DO Direct Play now, just not the 2 CBS.

Were you possibly recording the channel that would not direct play? Make sure the above option says YES.

[troyhough 57]

22 minutes ago, speechles said:

Were you possibly recording the channel that would not direct play? Make sure the above option says YES.

Thanks @speechles for posting this! I noticed that yours says 4.0.9 while mine said 4.0.4. Does Roku have "stripped down" varieties depending on which device/TV you are using? I don't remember seeing any of these settings but I will definitely dig in more tomorrow when I am by my TV!

[speechles 1917]

@troyhough https://my.roku.com/account/add?channel=EmbyBeta

You want to get on the Beta. Then let us know what we have done right or wrong and help us guide Emby into the future. The Beta and Store version can occupy your Roku home screen at the same time.

Extra options will appear if the application detects your are using a Roku TV. This is why I have the "Limit Framerate" and "Allow HEVC" options because on certain Roku TV models these abilities differ whereas on Roku set-top-box and sticks they do not.

Edited January 7, 2021 by speechles

[troyhough 57]

Just now, speechles said:

@troyhough https://my.roku.com/account/add?channel=EmbyBeta

You want to get on the Beta. Then let us know what we have done right or wrong and help us guide Emby into the future. The Beta and Store version can occupy your Roku home screen at the same time.

To clarify, is it required to be on the Beta to enable/view these settings/options? No problem either way!

[speechles 1917]

1 minute ago, troyhough said:

To clarify, is it required to be on the Beta to enable/view these settings/options? No problem either way!

The Beta is the application. You can use the Emby Beta for Roku on the Stable Emby server. That is of course acceptable. You can also use it with the Beta server. When I say the Beta app I just mean on the Roku. On your Emby server it can be stable or Beta or anything in between within reason.

[Happy2Play 8242]

The biggest thing with the beta app is we don't have to wait on Roku to approve it so it will have updates/features way before the official release.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Happy2Play

[troyhough 57]

I run Emby stable server and normally prefer to be on the stable channel. Lost zillions of hours of my life over the years being on the beta channels of stuff (thanks Google!)

Having said that, I am willing to go on Roku Beta if it's required to access those settings/options for Direct Play for Live TV.

Are the settings/options different on the stable/beta channels?

[Carlo 4330]

1 hour ago, speechles said:

Were you possibly recording the channel that would not direct play? Make sure the above option says YES.

Thanks for posting this @speechles it's a big help.

Can you elaborate what happens if it's a 1080 interlaced mpeg2 stream?  Is the server going to deinterlace this or can the Roku/Emby app deinterlace itself?

[troyhough 57]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but it appears that the 1080i/720P theory is incorrect. I just played the 7 channels in VLC by entering the network address for each. The 2 channels that wouldn't Direct Play are being broadcasted in 1080i (channels 3.1 and 10.1), but so are channels 6.1, 7.1, and 15.1 which all Direct Played without issue???

Here is the information provided for each channel in VLC under Media/Codec Information:

3.1 1920x1080 Frame rate: 29.970029
6.1 1920x1080 Frame rate: 29.970029
7.1 1920x1080 Frame rate: 29.970029
10.1 1920x1080 Frame rate: 29.970029
12.1 1280x720 Frame rate: 59.940059
15.1 1920x1080 Frame rate: 29.970029
42.1 1280x720 Frame rate: 59.940059

Edited January 8, 2021 by troyhough

[troyhough 57]

4 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

The biggest thing with the beta app is we don't have to wait on Roku to approve it so it will have updates/features way before the official release.

I understand completely, however are the settings/options for Live TV playback different on the beta release compared to stable? If so I am on it!

[Carlo 4330]

VLC can deinterlace right in the client automatically, so I'm not sure what info is gained by that test.
With that said I don't know for a fact it is interlaced related.  Was just something to check is all.