HEVC Playback Issues on Roku 2

[Nisten 15]

I appear to have the same issue as previous post/thread Older Rokus, Roku software v10.0.0, & HEVC's

I have an old roku 2; To my knowledge drivers are up-to-date for my machine and I'm not having any luck with HWA disabled or enabled nor with lowering playback bitrate. I would say a month ago, I didn't have any problems playing these same HEVC files. I've reproduce the issue two days straight (usually it buffers every minute or so before I get a red banner pop-up saying "Too Many Errors. Giving Up ... Moving On" (some of that wording may be switched around)

 

Logs are from 9/7/21 when trying to play the same HEVC movie

9-7-21-embyserver-log-63766655999.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log1-ffmpeg-3e2cac98-36a7-4e6d-866d-6442425c95c8_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log2-ffmpeg-transcode-08dba59c-f9fb-47b3-842e-4ffc9667dd2a_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log3-ffmpeg-transcode-e0f10b6a-3711-4e99-8a6f-764bd50b9c14_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log4-ffmpeg-transcode-20119992-229c-44db-bb5a-6fe6d4d27a0f_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log5-ffmpeg-transcode-b5918e86-c2b1-4973-b589-a66065014861_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log6-ffmpeg-transcode-765d21a5-bb67-4a92-8f0c-599b958071f8_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log7-ffmpeg-transcode-1ebb970e-f933-4e14-ae38-44775fb47449_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log8-ffmpeg-transcode-48a88523-420e-43b7-a3c9-bea7a318989d_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log9-ffmpeg-transcode-209e121a-20b9-4670-b049-4feb6bfb7d62_1.txt 9-7-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log10-ffmpeg-transcode-58768f21-0cbe-4abf-9444-505e861279c6_1.txt

[Nisten 15]

Logs are from 9/8/21 when trying to play the same HEVC movie

 

9-8-21-embyserver-log2.txt 9-8-21-embyserver-log-63766678645.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log1-ffmpeg-transcode-79a433d4-e5d5-42de-b594-89e334f07511_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log2-ffmpeg-transcode-9e96d576-579b-4a6d-aa99-a4b6fe748f03_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log3-ffmpeg-transcode-1251db3e-99d6-4b13-9e52-de08b7c38003_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log4-ffmpeg-transcode-a5d02212-9433-45c7-92a9-6dc183af939a_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log5-ffmpeg-transcode-3381a618-18e2-46af-822e-ab203953f80e_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log6-ffmpeg-transcode-a8739431-8dcc-4166-948e-d1b47f6a7961_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log7-ffmpeg-transcode-285fd7cd-726a-424c-918e-a6dc2fd69d03_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log8-ffmpeg-transcode-c08d63d3-e3b3-4b0c-8db4-b6c5e6c3c6ec_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log9-ffmpeg-transcode-ddfefccb-990f-4f13-862a-0072a70ad49a_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log10-ffmpeg-transcode-392dc226-f5da-44ca-bc04-e7777c08502a_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log11-ffmpeg-transcode-78f6100f-d883-4780-94aa-11824bcb0f72_1.txt 9-8-21-ffmpeg-transcode-log12-ffmpeg-transcode-1e1b3336-c496-45c6-88c0-9aabcb773164_1.txt 9-8-21-hardware_detection-log-63766678674.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, as a test, one thing you could try is disabling hardware transcoding and see if that helps.

[Nisten 15]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, as a test, one thing you could try is disabling hardware transcoding and see if that helps.

From OP, "...  I'm not having any luck with HWA disabled or enabled nor with lowering playback bitrate" 

HWA Transcoding has been off since 9/8/21

[ebr 16169]

16 hours ago, Nisten said:

usually it buffers every minute or so before I get a red banner pop-up saying "Too Many Errors. Giving Up ... Moving On"

Can you please send a log from the app right after this happens?

Thanks.

[Nisten 15]

Sure, the next time I play a movie I'll enable debugging - I've noticed that playing shorter content (like cartoon episodes) are not impacted even though they're also in HEVC; only differences appear the shorter runtime and that the initial movie I reproduced this on is 480p and not 720p like the cartoon series

[Nisten 15]

@ebr Issue reproduced approx 531pm CST today under user "Sonja"

[ebr 16169]

15 hours ago, Nisten said:

@ebr Issue reproduced approx 531pm CST today under user "Sonja"

You sent the log from the app?  I cannot find it.

[Nisten 15]

On 9/17/2021 at 9:16 AM, ebr said:

You sent the log from the app?  I cannot find it.

@ebr Tried it again, sent logs under the same effected user at 1135am CST today, got submission confirmation this time

[ebr 16169]

@speechles this is transcoding to 60fps.  Why?  Maybe that is too much for these devices to handle.

[Capabilities] prefHEVCuse60=ON : HEVC using 60fps limit

 

[Nisten 15]

@speechlesare you able to chime in?

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  In your Playback settings in the app, is there an option to transcode HEVC to 60fps?  If so, can you try turning it off?

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi.  In your Playback settings in the app, is there an option to transcode HEVC to 60fps?  If so, can you try turning it off?

If you install the latest beta, that option will be in your settings.  Try turning it off and see if this item will then play smoothly.

Thanks.

[Nisten 15]

On 9/27/2021 at 12:44 PM, ebr said:

If you install the latest beta, that option will be in your settings.  Try turning it off and see if this item will then play smoothly.

Thanks.

@ebrdid a quick test on another roku (STB 3600X) after turning off the aforementioned option but ran into the same issue; Debug log sent today under user "Sonja" @ 918pm CST - While viewing playback with "stats for nerds" enabled, I noticed the transcoding reason would momentarily change to "direct play error" after "Retrieving" 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Nisten

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Can you please attach the ffmpeg logs that went with that playback?

[Nisten 15]

it seems the specific file I was using to test, needed to be replaced. As another measure, I've replaced HEVC files with H.264 copies