Can't playback Bluray's over 25mbps on any device...

[A_Aron 1]

I'm having a issue with any 1080 Bluray movie that spikes or plays over 25mbps. The screen goes all wonky (image attached) for a few seconds then goes back to normal when the framerate drops back down. It happens usually in action scenes. Weird thing is that I don't normally see this issue in 4k rips that I've done. Like Finding Nemo currently watching at 110.3 Mbps.

Logs (that I see) aren't showing any type of error at all.

Specs:

Hardware:
i7-8700K
Intel 630 (adv transcoding)
48G PC3200 Ram
250G SSD (nvme)
10G Mellanox Fiber card to 10G switch

OS:
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)

Software:
docker-ce/buster,now 5:20.10.2~3-0~debian-buster
docker-compose version 1.24.1, build 4667896b

 

I have tried enabling/disabling transcoding there is no difference. ANY playback over 25mbps with 1080 content gives me that glitchy issue. Plex (same server, and setup) does NOT have this problem, it's just emby.

[mastrmind11 717]

what happens when you don't use hardware acceleration?

[A_Aron 1]

1 hour ago, mastrmind11 said:

what happens when you don't use hardware acceleration?

Exact same thing... I'm only using hardware acceleration (AFAIK) on MPEG2 streams for watching live TV on our Roku's. It also happens when i use a web browser or even the Emby Theater app.

[speechles 1929]

Do you have the ffmpeg log when this is directstream, remux, or transcoded?

I am guessing this is a colorspace or pixelsize or something issue. Something in the DAR or SAR or something inside the stream itself if this is 10bit with SDR?

Seeing the ffmpeg log and knowing what the web app shows for the media details at the bottom of that items detail screen would help.

Edited January 10, 2021 by speechles

[Q-Droid 670]

Attach ffmpeg logs?

As far as specs go your server is about as good as they come for handling media.

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Q-Droid

[speechles 1929]

Without knowing what the media properties are for the stream it is difficult to "guess" why you have the problem. With proper attributes for the streams and how they are composed you get a better idea of what might be choking the playback and whether it be reference frames are ridiculously high with h264 or maybe the quantanizer was adjusted to obscene levels you can just guess. We do not like to guess because it just extends the length of your thread.

We would rather get to the gist and just know what you are expecting to play and how. Then we can see exactly why it happens and even replicate ourselves, possibly, if we have media in the same style of container/codecs and what not.

But just guessing is conjecture and we cannot solve your issue this way. We can just frustrate you with wrong answers until we guess right. To save you the trouble. We just need to know the media details of the file exhibiting the problem in your first post. That is all. I am sorry if I came off like your system or something you did was wrong. It is likely the media or the player cannot consume because something is off in the encoding or just off in how that player interprets that codec.

Edited January 10, 2021 by speechles

[A_Aron 1]

10 minutes ago, speechles said:

Do you have the ffmpeg log when this is directstream, remux, or transcoded?

I am guessing this is a colorspace or pixelsize or something issue. Something in the DAR or SAR or something inside the stream itself if this is 10bit with SDR?

Seeing the ffmpeg log and knowing what the web app shows for the media details at the bottom of that items detail screen would help.

I think you might have been on to something with your first response... but that still doesn't make sense to me why it works fine with Plex. Also, when I rip my Bluray's, I generally just grab the main movie and main audio.

I'm trying to pull the ffmpeg logs now to see.

1 minute ago, Q-Droid said:

Attach ffmpeg logs?

As far as specs go your server is about as good as it gets for handling media.

 

Thanks, working on grabbing them now.

[A_Aron 1]

3 minutes ago, speechles said:

Without knowing what the media properties are for the stream it is difficult to "guess" why you have the problem. With proper attributes for the streams and how they are composed you get a better idea of what might be choking the playback and whether it be reference frames are ridiculously high with h264 or maybe the quantanizer was adjusted to obscene levels you can just guess. We do not like to guess because it just extends the length of your thread.

We would rather get to the gist and just know what you are expecting to play and how. Then we can see exactly why it happens and even replicate ourselves, possibly, if we have media in the same style of container/codecs and what not.

But just guessing is conjecture and we cannot solve your issue this way we can just frustrate you with wrong answers until we guess right. To save you the trouble we just need to know the media details of the file exhibiting the problem in your first post. That is all. I am sorry if I came off like your system or something you did was wrong. It is likely the media or the player cannot consume because something is off in the encoding or just off in how that player interprets that codec.

Complete name                            : \\nas\videos\movies\Men in Black (1997)\Men.in.Black.1997.Bluray-1080p.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 17.6 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 37 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 25.7 Mb/s
Movie name                               : Men in Black
Encoded date                             : UTC 2021-01-08 21:40:59
Writing application                      : DVDFab 11.0.8.9
Writing library                          : libebml v1.3.4 + libmatroska v1.4.5

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 37 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 23.9 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.480
Stream size                              : 16.3 GiB (93%)
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : MLP FBA
Format/Info                              : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA
Commercial name                          : Dolby TrueHD
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Duration                                 : 1 h 37 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 1 801 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 3 564 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Stream size                              : 1.23 GiB (7%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Just a FYI, I use Passthrough mode for direct copies.

Edited January 10, 2021 by dadasaurus

[speechles 1929]

Everything up there looks fine. Except for the fact that the player likely cannot consume the TrueHD and this would cause ffmpeg to invoke. It will use HLS.

Maybe this is all something in the header that is incorrect?

If you run that thru MKClean, or MKVToolNix GUI and just remux all streams into a new MKV would that solve the problem? The header does contain attributes that the player uses to determine how to compose those streams. If any of those bits are off this can cause the problem with higher bitrates since it can induce more cpu cycles when you change the header.

That might be all this and I've seen it quite often when certain encoding programs produce files that go off the rails at high bitrate fast complexity scenes and fixing the header and rebuilding it solved it. Try that and let us know if that is all this is. That is the simplest first step to take.

Edited January 10, 2021 by speechles

[A_Aron 1]

17 minutes ago, speechles said:

Everything up there looks fine. Except for the fact that the player likely cannot consume the TrueHD and this would cause ffmpeg to invoke. It will use HLS.

Maybe this is all something in the header that is incorrect?

If you run that thru MKClean, or MKVToolNix GUI and just remux all streams into a new MKV would that solve the problem? The header does contain attributes that the player uses to determine how to compose those streams. If any of those bits are off this can cause the problem with higher bitrates since it can induce more cpu cycles when you change the header.

That might be all this and I've seen it quite often when certain encoding programs produce files that go off the rails at high bitrate fast complexity scenes and fixing the header and rebuilding it solved it. Try that and let us know if that is all this is. That is the simplest first step to take.

Remuxing made no difference. Also, I was thinking... this isn't just this movie specific, I have a few others that this happens to.

Hopefully, i've attached the correct ffmpeg log.

ffmpeg-remux-64ff1690-ded5-4b7d-8175-c0cb0605f00f_1.txt

[speechles 1929]

TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported

12:46:00.627   Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
12:46:00.627   Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (truehd (native) -> ac3 (native))

It _HAS_ to be the fact it is going through ffmpeg. If you could get that truehd into ac3 inside the container this would direct play. I know you likely already know this. If it were direct playing that issue likely would disappear.

Edited January 10, 2021 by speechles

[Luke 37246]

Can you try the Emby Theater desktop app instead of the store app:

https://emby.media/emby-theater.html

You may see better performance with that.

[A_Aron 1]

On 1/10/2021 at 11:50 PM, Luke said:

Can you try the Emby Theater desktop app instead of the store app:

https://emby.media/emby-theater.html

You may see better performance with that.

Thanks Luke for the feedback, but this isn't just the theater from the store, it happens on ANY device (anything that can stream over 25mpbs)

I will confirm that using the Emby Theater from the link you provided works fine.

How can I fix it for my Roku's?

[Luke 37246]

2 hours ago, dadasaurus said:

Thanks Luke for the feedback, but this isn't just the theater from the store, it happens on ANY device (anything that can stream over 25mpbs)

I will confirm that using the Emby Theater from the link you provided works fine.

How can I fix it for my Roku's?

Can we please look at a Roku example? Thanks.

[A_Aron 1]

Hopefully you can see the difference...

[A_Aron 1]

I thought I would add this to show you it's anything over 25...

[A_Aron 1]

Is there a way that you can switch the ffmpeg version? I thought there used to be a way to test different versions. Newer builds appear to support TrueHD?

[speechles 1929]

The Roku must support TrueHD natively for pass-through of that codec to work. Right now Roku gives us absolutely no way to detect TrueHD. This is because it is an unsupported codec. The codecs which Roku does support they advertise in their device information lookup. We use that device lookup to detect which codecs each Roku supports and how many channels each codec supports.

On some device like the Roku TV it might detect 8 channel support when your equipment cannot support it. We are aware of this flaw. We are working towards a solution for it.

Knowing this, it is not your ffmpeg that is the problem. It is the fact you cannot direct play TrueHD on your Roku device. If this were a codec which your Roku supported this would direct play and likely remove this limit. The 25mbps limit might be how quickly ffmpeg can piece together the stream and your bottleneck is there. I doubt it is your network as this is nowhere near the theoretical limit of ethernet.

It has to be related somehow to ffmpeg on your architecture.

Just an aside.. Are you using WiFi or Ethernet on that Roku TV? I have all my Roku TV on Gigabit ethernet and the TV supports gigabit.

Edited January 14, 2021 by speechles

[A_Aron 1]

This TV is particular is hardwired gigabit. The only device that I have that isn't is our Roku soundbar, but I'm not as concerned with that as it has other issues

I guess I'm confused as to how it picks and chooses... if you notice, yes, the Roku doesn't support TrueHD so it Remux's the file (transcoding audio) but when transcoding everything it plays fine.. I also don't understand why it's only on certain scenes...(i'm assuming they are high framerate scenes with lots of action, based off what I can see)

This particular TV can play 110mpps 4k stream from the same box... I'll see if i can find a 4k movie that has TrueHD to see if I can duplicate the audio issue... but I only have like 5 4k movies...

 

Thanks for your input, it's greatly appreciated.

[speechles 1929]

There are certain Roku firmwares with issues with 1080P HEVC. They also struggle with 1080P H264 at high bitrate. It is the Roku software that needs updating. You might be able to use the Roku secret screen for Network.

Press Home five times, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up.
•This code will bring up a secret Wi-Fi menu to see things like signal strength. Maybe the Wi-Fi is faster than the Ethernet?

Press Home five times, RW three times, FF twice.
•This will bring up a bit rate menu where you can see quality settings and set bitrates.

Some Roku TV models have disabled this screens but they work on mine maybe they also does on yours?

Edited January 14, 2021 by speechles

[Luke 37246]

@dadasaurus has this helped?