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

[martincom 25]

1 hour ago, troyhough said:

Is this something we can ask @speechlesto implement? I would love to test it in a beta if needed.

@ebr made reference to that in the other thread:

With the new networks season upon us and Emby now our DVR, I've developed a workaround for the mean time.  Transcoding does not occur until playback of an interlaced recording.  So there is no impact to the recording process, assuming you are not simultaneously viewing a live broadcast that does.  So rather than performing playback through the Roku Emby app, we are utilizing the Roku Media Player app (DLNA) for playback, as it does not force Emby to transcode during playback of live or recorded interlaced channels.

It is not convenient,as you have to access the Emby app to check the program guide.  FF, RW and pause do not function when viewing through the Roku Media Player (DLNA).

[troyhough 57]

10 minutes ago, martincom said:

@ebr made reference to that in the other thread:

With the new networks season upon us and Emby now our DVR, I've developed a workaround for the mean time.  Transcoding does not occur until playback of an interlaced recording.  So there is no impact to the recording process, assuming you are not simultaneously viewing a live broadcast that does.  So rather than performing playback through the Roku Emby app, we are utilizing the Roku Media Player app (DLNA) for playback, as it does not force Emby to transcode during playback of live or recorded interlaced channels.

It is not convenient,as you have to access the Emby app to check the program guide.  FF, RW and pause do not function when viewing through the Roku Media Player (DLNA).

This workaround sounds like a bad option. Would this workaround work when not on the LAN?

[Carlo 4330]

No. DLNA is for computers local to the network.

If it were me, I'd rather set up a conversion job to convert the ts file to mp4 or mkv.  You could deinterlace and convert to mp4 or HEVC as well to save space.  This is what I do but use mcebuddy in the process so I also cut out commercials as well.

[BillOatman 501]

14 hours ago, cayars said:

They are removing Clear-QAM from the basic channel lineup. That means you won't be able to plug the coax cable directly to a TV or tuner and get the "clear" channels.  Now you will need a cable card or STB (set top box) to decrypt the channels.

Well doesn't that just suck.

Edited September 22, 2021 by BillOatman

[martincom 25]

Spectrum (Charter) did away with QAM a few years ago here.  At first, it was either a cable box or a Roku with their app.  Then, there was apparently some kind of issue between Roku and Spectrum and their app was no longer available form Roku and the existing, in place, apps ceased to function shortly thereafter.  I see the Spectrum app is now available on Roku again.  So they must have resolved their differences.  It was likely not a good move for Spectrum.  The only option available to their CATV customers was their cable box, at $7.00/month/each, when the Roku ceased to function.  I'm sure many, like myself, just discontinued service at that point.

Spectrum's products perform very well and are reliable here.  Lord help you if you have to contact customer service, however.  They screw something up every time I have contacted them.  I use to have my business phone service with them.  Every time I would contact them about a service change, they would disconnect my business phone two days later.  It was usually a day or two before I realized the phone was not ringing or a customer would stop by and tell me.  It was a minimum of two hours on the phone with them and usually around three hours.  I'd have to answer all the stupid people questions and be transferred three or four times until I finally reached someone who could walk and chew gum at the same time.  Very frustrating.  I'm down to just internet with them, as they are the only provider with a decent level of service.  So I can visualize Roku's pain and why they parted ways for awhile.  My bride has spoke of moving her cell phone---I told her she was on her own and I would be a deaf ear when she went into crisis mode when it ceased to function.

I'm going to speculate their cable box is IP based.  I would think it would simplify their distribution infrastructure quite a bit with everything (internet, phone, cable) being IP based.

[troyhough 57]

12 hours ago, cayars said:

No. DLNA is for computers local to the network.

If it were me, I'd rather set up a conversion job to convert the ts file to mp4 or mkv.  You could deinterlace and convert to mp4 or HEVC as well to save space.  This is what I do but use mcebuddy in the process so I also cut out commercials as well.

This doesn't help me at all. I rarely record Live TV, just watch it Live. And usually, when not at home!

[martincom 25]

1 hour ago, troyhough said:

This doesn't help me at all. I rarely record Live TV, just watch it Live. And usually, when not at home!

It functions for live TV, but not remotely.

[troyhough 57]

@speechles @Luke

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 and impossible???

Current server version: 4.6.7.0

Edited January 16, 2022 by troyhough

[Luke 37095]

32 minutes ago, troyhough said:

@speechles @Luke

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 and impossible???

Current server version: 4.6.7.0

Have you given it a try lately?

[troyhough 57]

8 minutes ago, Luke said:

Have you given it a try lately?

What a try exactly? Had 4 different Roku devices connected last night, all Transcoding while Android TV boxes were Direct Playing the same OTA channel (1080i).

Here is a Roku right now...

[troyhough 57]

Apparently this Roku can't even Direct Play the 720P channels

[Luke 37095]

6 minutes ago, troyhough said:

Apparently this Roku can't even Direct Play the 720P channels

Did you look at the reason? It's not resolution related.

[troyhough 57]

Just now, Luke said:

Did you look at the reason? It's not resolution related.

So this particular Roku, we'll worry about the other 3 later, doesn't support the HDHomerun (TS files)??

[troyhough 57]

Here are a couple other Rokus from last night...

[ebr 14924]

Hi.  They are all the same reason. 

[troyhough 57]

4 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  They are all the same reason. 

Hi @ebr and @Luke thanks for the replies. After over a year and 6 pages of posts I still don't see a resolution to getting these Roku devices to Direct Play the HDHomerun 1080i channels. Is there a setting or can they just not do it??? Thanks

[troyhough 57]

Do Roku sticks and TV's with Roku on them not support Direct Play of HDHomerun 1080i streams then? If they can't do it I am going to have to add/swap out several of them for Android TV Steaming devices. The onn seems to do a pretty darn good job for just $20!

[ebr 14924]

Hi.  it is the TS container, I believe, that is not supported and that is what your screenshots show as well.

[troyhough 57]

4 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  it is the TS container, I believe, that is not supported and that is what your screenshots show as well.

Thanks @ebr

What's odd is even though they say "container not supported" they will still Direct Play the video on 720P channels, but NOT the 1080i ones. So they must not support TS containers and not be able to de-interlace the 1080i streams. Double wammy!

I'll just try to get away from the Roku interface TV's (and Vizio!) and stick with ATV TV's/dongles going forward!

Edited January 20, 2022 by troyhough

[akmoney 2]

Hi all,

I'm evaluating Emby as a replacement for Plex and I've also run into this issue.  I have a Roku Streaming Stick+ (3810x) on one of my TVs. 1080i/MPEG2 recordings and/or OTA live streams are being transcoded unnecessarily to H264 and drop to 30fps.  As a data point, when I play the exact same files and/or streams using the Plex app on the exact same hardware, Plex Media Server sends a direct stream and the Roku stick does the de-interlacing and plays the file at 60 fps.  NFL games play back with all the smoothness you'd expect.  So this is definitely not a hardware limitation on the Roku side, or at least not with this particular Roku model.

720p60 MPEG2 files are not transcoded and play natively at the expected 60fps frame rate.

Curiously, I have the exact opposite problem with my other TV which uses an AppleTV 4K.  The Emby ATV app plays the 1080i sources at 60fps natively without transcoding (the ATV is clearly doing proper motion-adaptive de-interlacing) while the Plex ATV app plays them at 30fps! 

[martincom 25]

From what I understand, the issue is a very few Roku models that will not support interlaced streams (1080i).  As such, Emby treats all Roku models as such.

There was some discussion about a switch being added to the setup screens whereas a user could disable this automatic de-interlacing.  Another option would be for Emby to query the Roku model and apply the transcoding/deinterlacing to only those models that will not.

The current approach is a poor one.  It consumes a lot of processor unnecessarily and that creates other issues--not to mention the problem you reported.  It has been plaguing us for months.

[troyhough 57]

6 hours ago, martincom said:

From what I understand, the issue is a very few Roku models that will not support interlaced streams (1080i).  As such, Emby treats all Roku models as such.

There was some discussion about a switch being added to the setup screens whereas a user could disable this automatic de-interlacing.  Another option would be for Emby to query the Roku model and apply the transcoding/deinterlacing to only those models that will not.

The current approach is a poor one.  It consumes a lot of processor unnecessarily and that creates other issues--not to mention the problem you reported.  It has been plaguing us for months.

It appears that Emby has a bug, hopefully @cayars or @Luke can provide more specific details as I believe they are working on a fix at the moment. I have fought this problem forever but @cayars found a "workaround" until the bug is fixed. If you go to the user settings and disable playback for videos that requires transcoding, it Direct Plays on all my Roku devices that I had issues with!

See Screenshots.

Before Disabling Transcoding

 

 

Disabled Transcoding Here

 

 

After Disabling Transcoding it Direct Plays!

Edited February 8, 2022 by troyhough

[speechles 1920]

 

@Luke Is there some "flag" like the "AllowVideoStreamCopy" and "EnableDirectStream" that client applications such as Roku can send to get around always having the server deinterlace? Maybe there is an "DeinterlaceOnServer" field we set to false and it sends it directly? Is there something similar to this for deinterlace? Can there be? Presently the Emby server will always transcode the interlaced/MPEG2 streams when they can be direct played on 98% of Roku devices.

Edited February 8, 2022 by speechles

[martincom 25]

@troyhoughWhere are you finding the "Media Playback" menu you posted the screenshot of?

[troyhough 57]

26 minutes ago, martincom said:

@troyhoughWhere are you finding the "Media Playback" menu you posted the screenshot of?

@martincom

users, mouse over the user,  click on 3 dots, edit, make the change, save.

Edited February 8, 2022 by troyhough