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Roku Premiere Audio Stutter?


Dreakon13

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Dreakon13

I'll be honest, I'm not totally sure how it's best to report this issue.  It's such a random obscure thing but every 10 seconds for these particular video files I play on the Roku Premiere, I get audio stuttering for a brief moment.  It's too consistent to blame it on anything that might be randomly eating up resources on the NAS (which doesn't appear to be the issue anyways)... and the files play fine on my Roku Ultra (there is a tiny stutter at first but works fine the rest of the runtime), my android phone, my Samsung smart TV, etc.  It's pretty noticeable/distracting trying to watch on the Premiere.

 

image.png.bd0e0722395fd420912086c13f321e50.png

 

This is the format of the file in question.

I'm not sure if it would help to give any server logs.  I sent the one from the Roku app itself around 12:46pm ET.  Attached is the server log, the relevent playback begins around 12:38:25 I believe.

Appreciate any help.

embyserver (1).txt

Edited by Dreakon13
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Can you show us a picture of the stats for nerds in the Roku app? Press down as the video plays and it will open the OSD. Inside the OSD is the cog/gear to open the playback settings. Inside playback settings is stats for nerds.

Seeing directly how your Roku is consume the stream will let us know what is happening. It sounds like it is the pre-buffer in the Roku itself and these are direct play. Is your Roku on firmware OS 10.x yet? Supposedly that firmware version will fix these issues.

Edited by speechles
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Dreakon13

  

38 minutes ago, speechles said:

Can you show us a picture of the stats for nerds in the Roku app? Press down as the video plays and it will open the OSD. Inside the OSD is the cog/gear to open the playback settings. Inside playback settings is stats for nerds.

Seeing directly how your Roku is consume the stream will let us know what is happening. It sounds like it is the pre-buffer in the Roku itself and these are direct play. Is your Roku on firmware OS 10.x yet? Supposedly that firmware version will fix these issues.

 

Thank you for the quick response 🙂 Is this what you were looking for?

My Roku Premiere is 10.0.0 build 4195-91.  My Roku Ultra isn't 10 yet and doesn't seem to have the issue outside of that initial stutter on starting playback, on the Premiere the stutter happens roughly every 8-10 seconds.  Other videos seem to play okay but I'm not sure what others I have that are exactly the same format as these.

 

PXL_20210508_173240530.thumb.jpg.4f85c86ccfdac3f85bdb8ac3d45dcce9.jpg

Edited by Dreakon13
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That confirms they did not fix the issue with firmware 10. Since it is direct play it is related to the HDMI AUDIO setting you have on your Roku. Is this set to Auto? Or did you set it to Stereo? With it set to Auto it might not work correctly. If this is a stereo only TV setting it to stereo instead of Auto may solve the problem. If you have support for Dolby you might want to try DD.

Since it is using direct play the Roku app is playing the file in the original state. Both audio and video show direct and the stream type matches the container. This is unfortunately a fault with Roku firmware.

https://community.roku.com/t5/Channel-Issues-Questions/MKV-audio-delay-with-Roku-Media-Player-works-with-MP4/m-p/630166

It is specifically with MKV. If you repackage as MP4 the issue may disappear as well. I know these are not solutions. Just work-arounds. A real solution requires Roku.

Edited by speechles
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Happy2Play

So if OP used the Playback Correction option on the OSD this should correct the issue, correct? @speechles  But obviously that changes play back to Remux/Transcode depending on how many time it is clicked.

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It doesn't change audio though. It has EnableDirectStream to allow the container to change and AllowVideoStreamCopy to tell it when to swap the video codec. There is no such thing for audio because audio does not make the Roku hang/lockup/crash. Which means Playback Correction can only fix video issues. For Audio issues it must be handled on the Roku HDMI Audio or AUDIO settings. On Roku STB/stick there are both HDMI Audio and AUDIO settings. On Roku TV there is only AUDIO setting.

Edited by speechles
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We "could" change audio codec and transcode the audio when there is problems but that is also a huge giant problem.

Those problems are some of what follows:
A button after each item plays that says "Do you hear audio?" and they click yes or no. Click no you recover audio.
A button on the OSD for video and audio recovery individually. Have fun explain that to users.
etc...

That is why the other guys have issues is they try to do that to recover when it isn't necessary. We only have issues when the device firmware gives them to us regarding audio.

Edited by speechles
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Dreakon13
5 hours ago, speechles said:

That confirms they did not fix the issue with firmware 10. Since it is direct play it is related to the HDMI AUDIO setting you have on your Roku. Is this set to Auto? Or did you set it to Stereo? With it set to Auto it might not work correctly. If this is a stereo only TV setting it to stereo instead of Auto may solve the problem. If you have support for Dolby you might want to try DD.

Since it is using direct play the Roku app is playing the file in the original state. Both audio and video show direct and the stream type matches the container. This is unfortunately a fault with Roku firmware.

https://community.roku.com/t5/Channel-Issues-Questions/MKV-audio-delay-with-Roku-Media-Player-works-with-MP4/m-p/630166

It is specifically with MKV. If you repackage as MP4 the issue may disappear as well. I know these are not solutions. Just work-arounds. A real solution requires Roku.

Appreciate all of the information here.

The audio settings on the Roku Premiere are already set to Stereo, so I do not believe that will fix my issue.  Stereo and Auto are the only two options, I tried changing between the two with no improvement.

I guess it's a Roku issue, thank you for looking into it.  I may try remuxing into MP4 and see if it helps, just for information sake.  Unfortunately I've gotten into the habit of muxing to MKV so my entire library is that way and I can't imagine re-doing all of it, if it does work.  At least not for this particular issue.

I may look into an Amazon Firestick since Roku has been the cause of a number of issues for me lately.

 

Again, your insights are appreciated.  It's nice that the staff is so active in the community here. 👍

Edited by Dreakon13
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https://community.roku.com/t5/Roku-Device-Features-Settings-Updates/Roku-OS-10-0-Update-Breaks-Surround-Sound/m-p/679620

There are also reports that firmware OS 10 gives problems with surround sound. You might be able to downgrade your Roku firmware from 10.x to 9.4 and get back acceptable playback until Roku delivers the next firmware.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Dreakon13
On 5/9/2021 at 11:13 AM, speechles said:

You might be able to downgrade your Roku firmware from 10.x to 9.4 and get back acceptable playback until Roku delivers the next firmware.

Any idea how to do this?  I'm not finding many reports online of downgrading firmware being possible.

(EDIT: Though re-reading that Reddit post it sounds like the OP did it somehow)

(EDIT 2: On the home screen if you press Home button 5x, Fast Forward 3x, Rewind 2x, you get a secret menu.  People say the Update option under there may come with the option to rollback.  That option wasn't there for me, I could only re-update to 10... may be a feature they discontinued or maybe previous versions go away a little bit after updating... but just for anyone who happens to come across this thread looking for something to try.)

Running into more files that have this audio stutter, and now my Roku Ultra upgraded to 10 too, making media server playback through my house pretty dicey.

 

Also: Changing container from MKV to MP4 does seem to fix the issue also, so thank you for that suggestion.  But it'll be a huge project to change everything I have and I don't like what I'm reading about MP4's soft subtitle/SRT support (or lack thereof).  Probably just do it case by case and keep my MKV's set aside to bring back if/when this is fixed or I figure out how to roll back.

Edited by Dreakon13
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  • 4 months later...
ThePaladinTech

I have the same issue on a Roku ultra. Been having it for 6 months? My brother actually gave up on Roku because of this. Is there a fix in the works?  Is there Something I can do short of re encoding my entire library?

Edited by ThePaladinTech
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On 10/12/2021 at 8:56 PM, ThePaladinTech said:

I have the same issue on a Roku ultra. Been having it for 6 months? My brother actually gave up on Roku because of this. Is there a fix in the works?  Is there Something I can do short of re encoding my entire library?

HI, is content direct playing?

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  • 2 weeks later...
MSOBadger

I’m having the same issue on my Roku Premiere Plus.  Content is direct playing but the audio cuts out for a split second every 15 seconds or so.

I’m direct playing a file with AAC audio.  No issues with the same file on other platforms (tested on web browser on Windows, iOS, & Shield).  Screen shot with the Nerd Stats attached.

422AC841-873B-4431-A0C3-2E6A9C23F5D5.jpeg

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MSOBadger

I just tried playing a different file that does not direct play, but also has AAC audio and it does not have the audio issue.  Nerd stats screenshot attached:

 

6AE6203C-0573-43FA-9B1D-9229542197F3.jpeg

Edited by MSOBadger
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Hi.  Yes, I believe this is a known issue with the Roku firmware.  If you turn on the option in the app to convert multi-channel AAC audio, does it clear this up?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been having this problem for a while and I've assumed it was bad files.  Since reading this I've confirmed it only happens on my roku and only on AAC encoded files.  You said "... turn on the option in the app to convert multi-channel AAC audio...".  Can you direct me to the place to set this?  Is it in the server or in roku?  I couldn't find it either place.

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10 hours ago, mchahn said:

I've been having this problem for a while and I've assumed it was bad files.  Since reading this I've confirmed it only happens on my roku and only on AAC encoded files.  You said "... turn on the option in the app to convert multi-channel AAC audio...".  Can you direct me to the place to set this?  Is it in the server or in roku?  I couldn't find it either place.

Hi.  In the Roku app.  Settings->Playback

image.png

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Ah.  I have a bad habit of not noticing I can scroll down for more menu choices.  Anyway, it was already set.  I just tried it turned on and turned off and it doesn't fix the problem.  Is there a way to verifying it is actually converting?  Is there a way to convert from the command-line?  Is there a way to run a script every time a new file is discovered?  Sorry for all the questions.

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MSOBadger
8 minutes ago, mchahn said:

And yet I ask another question.  How do I bring up Nerd stats?  I see that is a way to verify conversion is happening.

While playing the content, push Down on the Roku remote to bring up the play/pause/setting on screen buttons.  Go to the Settings button and then Stats for Nerds should be one of the options there.

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Thanks.  When doing that I noticed the stats show the original audio was just 2 channel stereo.  So that means it wouldn't do any conversion since that option is for 5.1 audio, right?  I assume conversion from AAC to something else is needed to fix the problem.  Is there a way to force the conversion for all AAC audio?

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33 minutes ago, mchahn said:

Thanks.  When doing that I noticed the stats show the original audio was just 2 channel stereo.  So that means it wouldn't do any conversion since that option is for 5.1 audio, right?  I assume conversion from AAC to something else is needed to fix the problem.  Is there a way to force the conversion for all AAC audio?

Yes, that's correct.  The option currently only will apply to multi-channel sources.  It was designed for the fact that the Roku will accept those but silently mix down to stereo.

I guess there isn't really a work-around to this issue other than playback correction at this time.

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I had not heard of playback correction.  I'll try that.  Is there an emby manual somewhere that I can study to ask less ignorant questions?

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It's in the video player but no worries, it's something you only need in rare situations such as this 

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Thanks everyone.  I can now fix the problem with a few clicks whenever this happens.  I wish I had known about playback correction earlier.  🙂

 

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