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

[Carlo 4330]

I'm a bit puzzled myself why the server has to transcode these files if the device can deinterlace the video.  Letting the device do the deinterlacing should always be preferred when possible as it will provide the best picture quality as well as save using resources on the server that don't need to get used.

Pretty sure this was a recent change on the server but I don't understand it.

[troyhough 57]

55 minutes ago, cayars said:

I'm a bit puzzled myself why the server has to transcode these files if the device can deinterlace the video.  Letting the device do the deinterlacing should always be preferred when possible as it will provide the best picture quality as well as save using resources on the server that don't need to get used.

Pretty sure this was a recent change on the server but I don't understand it.

You say "if the device can deinterlace the video". Are we certain that this model TCL can or can not deinterlace the video? From what @speechlesclaims, it certainly can so we need to have him dig in and find out if this a Roku issue or a Server issue???!!?

[speechles 1917]

The lower power devices like the Roku express and first version of the Roku streaming stick cannot deinterlace. The rest of the Roku devices can. Roku TV is a different beast because I do not own all own those devices. I cannot test all the Roku TV. Not only financially is this impossible it is also hard to find all those different Roku models in one area.

Perhaps we need a setting "Deinterlace on your Roku device" or something to allow all the Roku devices to make their best attempt to direct play?

Edited January 20, 2021 by speechles

[Carlo 4330]

The Android ATV app has a setting like this.

[ebr 14910]

I thought I said this already but there was a change in server 4.5.4 that forces interlaced streams to transcode if being delivered via HLS.  That is the root of this entire thread.

I am hoping we will be able to provide an option to override this in the next server release.

[Carlo 4330]

17 minutes ago, ebr said:

I thought I said this already but there was a change in server 4.5.4 that forces interlaced streams to transcode if being delivered via HLS.  That is the root of this entire thread.

I am hoping we will be able to provide an option to override this in the next server release.

Yea, it's been mentioned a couple of times I think but we never got a reason why this was changed.  It causing people issues with CC, extra transcoding that's not needed and degraded picture quality & higher resource use on the server that never existed before.

Clients like the ATV already have a switch in the client for this. Just thinking out loud without a lot of thought given but any client that can deinterlace should do so with a local client option that manually has to be changed to have the server do it. More or less how it previously worked on ATV.

[troyhough 57]

4 hours ago, speechles said:

The lower power devices like the Roku express and first version of the Roku streaming stick cannot deinterlace. The rest of the Roku devices can. Roku TV is a different beast because I do not own all own those devices. I cannot test all the Roku TV. Not only financially is this impossible it is also hard to find all those different Roku models in one area.

Perhaps we need a setting "Deinterlace on your Roku device" or something to allow all the Roku devices to make their best attempt to direct play?

If it's an option on ATV, perhaps Roku should have the option too??? I just know it doesn't work at the moment. Maybe this is something you can put in the Beta and I could test it out?

@speechlesdidn't you say you had the exact the same model TV as me? Have you done any Direct Play/Stream testing with OTA network devices such as the HDHomerun?

Theoretically, if we can get this working on my TCL TV's, it will also be fixed on my Roku onn TV's which are behaving the same way. Fingers crossed!

[speechles 1917]

@troyhough

I have 2 of these. One always runs as the 4K Roku TV. The other can run other Roku devices.

I can compare what a Roku express looks like running on one of the 4K Roku TV against the normal 4K Roku TV software on the other 4K Roku TV. I have the two practically side by side in the same room. I can easily compare versions of the Roku app against itself this way. Different models of Roku models against each other and see how the app runs differently on each.

You can do a lot of comparing when you have two of the exact same television next to each other. I can also troubleshoot issues easier this way having side-by-side TV. It significantly speeds up model/device testing. I have Roku express (both 3800 and 3900), Roku Ultra (4610 [technically 4600], 4640, and 4800), Roku Streaming Stick (3810), 2 x Roku TV (7130)

Edited January 20, 2021 by speechles

[troyhough 57]

3 minutes ago, speechles said:

@troyhough

I have 2 of these. One always runs as the 4K Roku TV. The other can run other Roku devices.

I can compare what a Roku express looks like running on one of the 4K Roku TV against the normal 4K Roku TV software on the other 4K Roku TV. I have the two practically side by side in the same room. I can easily compare versions of the Roku app against itself this way. Different models of Roku models against each other and get speed results of the app compared instantly.

You can do a lot of comparing when you have two of the exact same television next to each other.

Sweet! Mine says C147X and yours says 7130X.

Not sure what the difference is or if it matters. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with testing.

Thanks!

Edited January 20, 2021 by troyhough

[speechles 1917]

5 minutes ago, troyhough said:

Sweet! Mine says C147X and yours says 7130X.

Not sure what the difference is or if it matters. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with testing.

Thanks!

The difference is usually enhanced capability. Yours will probably support DolbyVision/ATMOS. The letters at the front mean it has special capabilities. The difference is usually listed on the literature with your Roku TV. It might have a completely different remote than normal with actual numbers on it. The newer Roku TV include channel up/down, numbers for direct entry, and all the standard buttons most remote controls have.

The newer Roku TV remotes are not just one form factor any longer.

[troyhough 57]

Noticed last night that my sister was watching the Chiefs game (CBS) and it was transcoding. It's a cheap TCL TV (Android TV OS) like my Roku TCL. Had her go in Emby settings, Live TV settings, and check the "Direct Play Live TV" box and boom, it Direct Plays the Interlaced Live TV channels now.

@speechlesAny progress being done to get this working on the Roku OS versions by chance?

Thanks for your help!

[ebr 14910]

37 minutes ago, troyhough said:

Noticed last night that my sister was watching the Chiefs game (CBS) and it was transcoding. It's a cheap TCL TV (Android TV OS) like my Roku TCL. Had her go in Emby settings, Live TV settings, and check the "Direct Play Live TV" box and boom, it Direct Plays the Interlaced Live TV channels now.

That is to be expected.  The issue is related only to interlaced streams in HLS (when doing a remux or transcode).

[troyhough 57]

4 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is to be expected.  The issue is related only to interlaced streams in HLS (when doing a remux or transcode).

Are you saying we don't need any additional setting option in the Roku Emby app to fix this?

This is a server-side issue that will be fixed in an upcoming release (or current beta)?

[Carlo 4330]

25 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is to be expected.  The issue is related only to interlaced streams in HLS (when doing a remux or transcode).

The question is still why was this recently changed to transcode on the server when many clients like the Roku and Android can deinterlace just fine.
This breaks functionality like CC.

Other threads like this one are caused by this:

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by cayars

[Y2KFirehawk 0]

Long time reader, first time poster. Have been faithfully running Emby Premier (DVR) since late 2019 with retail (non-beta) updates as time goes on and have loved it.

As of recent, issues with CBS have cropped up. My initial issue was chasing the inability for the SHIELD to direct-play CBS when watching live. This thread got me past that. (Swapped to Emby beta app, swapped the various client settings.) The current pain in my side relates to Emby Server transcoding CBS recordings to playback on the SHIELD. When it does so, it happily builds a playback buffer, but as soon as you FF, the audio goes off. The more you FF, the further the audio playback is behind. I have tried multiple measures (stop/start, rewind, change playback quality, etc.) to make it better, but it never improves from that point on, short of using another playback device. Any advice?

Emby Server 4.5.4.0
Intel i5 running Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
NVIDIA Shield P2897 (2017)
Emby App 1.8.73g
HDHomeRun PRIME )3-Tuner) w/ CableCARD
Gigabit hard-wired networking (don't feel it is throughput/network related, so I'll save those bits)

[msloat 1]

Just started Emby yesterday.  This almost sounds like the issue I am seeing.  Do we have a fix for this?

[Y2KFirehawk 0]

Bump! Any ideas for a fix? One workaround is to record the CBS show, play it back, but don't pause, FF or RW until complete

[troyhough 57]

1 hour ago, Y2KFirehawk said:

Bump! Any ideas for a fix? One workaround is to record the CBS show, play it back, but don't pause, FF or RW until complete

I believe this requires a Emby server fix and they are currently working on it??? Maybe @speechles @ebr @Luke can confirm!?!?

[Carlo 4330]

EBR has already commented this is being fixed for a 4.6.x release.

[troyhough 57]

@ebr

@Luke

I have tested this again with some devices I have on hand and there still appears to be a problem. Here is an update.

MY HDHomerun currently tunes 7 channels.

7 of the 7 will Direct Play on my Nvidia Shield

7 of the 7 will Direct Play on my Tivo Stream 4K

7 of the 7 will Direct Stream on my Benq TK850i Projector (cheap Android TV dongle)

2 of the 7 will ONLY transcode on my Pixel 4 XL (CW 1080i and Fox 720p are the problem channels)

2 of the 7 will ONLY transcode on my Acer Chromebook Spin (CW 1080i and Fox 720p are the problem channels)

2 of the 7 will ONLY transcode on my Pixel 1 (CW 1080i and Fox 720p are the problem channels)

Just for fun I also installed the Emby Android TV app on the Chromebook and Pixel 1. The results were exactly the same. Both devices would only Direct Play 5 of the 7 channels.

Edited August 25, 2021 by troyhough

[Carlo 4330]

What the reason given for CW & Fox transcoding according to Stats for Nerds on those devices?

[troyhough 57]

7 minutes ago, cayars said:

What the reason given for CW & Fox transcoding according to Stats for Nerds on those devices?

Pixel 4 XL says "Direct Play Error".

 

[Carlo 4330]

If you look at the server log after trying to play Fox or CW do you see anything?

[troyhough 57]

1 hour ago, cayars said:

If you look at the server log after trying to play Fox or CW do you see anything?

@cayars Man there's so much data in there I don't know what to look for! I'm going to PM you now.

[ebr 14910]

My guess would be no mpeg2 decoder on those other devices...