Roku can't play long recordings?

[sfatula 207]

Remote, been playing Olympics remotely, all seem to play except every evening recording, which is 4hr 32min. None of those play (3 thus far). they say playback error - too many errors, moving on. Play fine on IOS. Emby then proceeds to mark the recordings as played! The recording played fine a few minutes before the recording stopped since Emby thought it was not that long I am guessing. 

To test this theory, going to take my latest fail and ffmpeg it in half. Near as I can tell, transcoding never starts as there is no log. I see nothing in the Emby server log. See near end of attached log. It just never starts on Roku emby app. Suspect Roku is rejecting it for some reason. 

Update: theory tested. I used ffmpeg and segment_time to split the video about in half, plays fine. Converting to mp4 but not splitting, so still same length, still fails.

 

 

embyserver.txt

Edited February 8, 2022 by sfatula

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  There is currently an issue on the Roku with videos over about 4 hours.  We are working on ways to get around it.  Thanks.

[sfatula 207]

For me at least, if the Emby "convert" function would allow me to split also, good enough for the rare time this happens (not too many Olympics). I.e. a segment_time option essentially under the custom options. 

[bcm00re 18]

I am seeing the issue issue with Olympic recordings as short as 3 hours.  The only one I can watch is one that is only 2 hours.  It really sucks that I cannot watch most all the Olympic content that I've recorded so far!

 

[bcm00re 18]

On 2/8/2022 at 7:56 AM, ebr said:

Hi.  There is currently an issue on the Roku with videos over about 4 hours.  We are working on ways to get around it.  Thanks.

Any headway being made?  Seems like I had this exact same issue with the Olympics a few years ago.  I used to have it with NFL games too but not this past season.

 

[bcm00re 18]

FYI:

I did some more testing and I was wrong about not be able to play 3 hour recordings -- they do work. I did try a wired (ethernet) Roku and even the emby Beta version (45) and neither helped with this problem.  Did a new version of the emby Roku app create this issue?  Is it possible for me to try older versions to see?

 

[ebr 16169]

5 hours ago, bcm00re said:

Did a new version of the emby Roku app create this issue?

Hi.  No.  This is a long-standing issue with the Roku and these types of streams.

[bcm00re 18]

27 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  No.  This is a long-standing issue with the Roku and these types of streams.

Thanks for the info.  I agree this has been an issue in the past, but things are definitely different now.  In the past one could use Convert or re-encode then be able to watch the long recording, but that is not the case today.  So unlike in the past, we don't have a workaround.  Is this actively being worked or just added to someone's to-do list?

 

 

 

 

[sfatula 207]

1 hour ago, bcm00re said:

Thanks for the info.  I agree this has been an issue in the past, but things are definitely different now.  In the past one could use Convert or re-encode then be able to watch the long recording, but that is not the case today.  So unlike in the past, we don't have a workaround.  Is this actively being worked or just added to someone's to-do list?

 

 

 

 

Yeah, that's why I wish they would at least allow splitting the video in the convert function, at least there's a way to play them. Right now, have to ssh in, type long ffmpeg command line to convert, then move it into place. 

It's been worse than that for these long Olympics, say 3 hour. After playing (and skipping a lot), comes near end, I hit Roku left arrow and Roku crashes. Every single time. So, now been hitting home button and rerunning Emby since that saves time over crash and restart.

Edited February 12, 2022 by sfatula

[ebr 16169]

14 hours ago, sfatula said:

After playing (and skipping a lot), comes near end, I hit Roku left arrow and Roku crashes. Every single time. So, now been hitting home button and rerunning Emby since that saves time over crash and restart.

An update for that issue is in review.  You can install the beta of the Roku app if you want to get it now.

[bcm00re 18]

15 hours ago, sfatula said:

It's been worse than that for these long Olympics, say 3 hour. After playing (and skipping a lot), comes near end, I hit Roku left arrow and Roku crashes. Every single time. So, now been hitting home button and rerunning Emby since that saves time over crash and restart.

I think I saw that last night.  When it got to the end of a 184 minute Olympic recording my Roku crashed/restarted.  I thought it might be a fluke and wasn't sure if it had actually got to the very end of the recording so I went back into emby to watch the end of the same recording and it crashed the Roku again.  So for better or worse this other problem (that may or may not be related) is repeatable.  I say that because I too work in software, and sometimes the intermittent problems are the worst to track down and fix.

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by bcm00re

[bcm00re 18]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

An update for that issue is in review.  You can install the beta of the Roku app if you want to get it now.

Awesome!  I'll give it a try sometime today and let you know what I see.

[bcm00re 18]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

An update for that issue is in review.  You can install the beta of the Roku app if you want to get it now.

Just a bit ago, I updated the emby beta app on one of my Rokus and tried to watch a 275 minute Olympic recording but it still failed the same way.  I exited the app and did another update (just to be sure) but still no dice.

 

[ebr 16169]

4 hours ago, bcm00re said:

Just a bit ago, I updated the emby beta app on one of my Rokus and tried to watch a 275 minute Olympic recording but it still failed the same way.  I exited the app and did another update (just to be sure) but still no dice.

 

Hi.  I was referencing the issue that was quoted right above my response:

20 hours ago, sfatula said:

After playing (and skipping a lot), comes near end, I hit Roku left arrow and Roku crashes. Every single time. So, now been hitting home button and rerunning Emby since that saves time over crash and restart.

That is the issue that should be solved with the app beta.

Thanks.

[sfatula 207]

Tried one recording in Beta, did not crash. More later. 

Watched two more, no crashes!

Edited February 13, 2022 by sfatula

[bcm00re 18]

@ebr

My bad.  Can you give us an indication if the not-being-able-to-play-long-recordings problem is actively being worked or just added to someone's to-do list (or not even that)?

 

@sfatula

Thanks for the tip on using ffmpeg and segment_time to split the video into parts.  It seems to work fine on my .ts files, and since it doesn't re-encode it is pretty fast.  Also I agree it would be nice if we could check a box or something to let emby do it automatically -- especially if they don't currently have any plans to look into the issue.

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, bcm00re said:

Can you give us an indication if the not-being-able-to-play-long-recordings problem is actively being worked or just added to someone's to-do list (or not even that)?

Hi.  It isn't a simple issue.  It is an inherent limitation with the Roku that we need to find some way around.

[bcm00re 18]

13 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  It isn't a simple issue.  It is an inherent limitation with the Roku that we need to find some way around.

Understood.  Is it possible to just automatically split recordings scheduled longer than 3 hours into multiple recordings (or give the user the option to do that for all recordings)?  I am thinking this could be done real-time or after the recording has been made.  I realize this might not be the kind of solution you wish to make, but with this having been around causing problems for emby users for years, perhaps a stop gap fix like this should be considered now.  I still have my original long recordings so if there is anything I can do or try to help then please let me know.

 

Edited February 14, 2022 by bcm00re

[sfatula 207]

17 minutes ago, bcm00re said:

Understood.  Is it possible to just automatically split recordings scheduled longer than 3 hours into multiple recordings (or give the user the option to do that for all recordings)?  I am thinking this could be done real-time or after the recording has been made.  I realize this might not be the kind of solution you wish to make, but with this having been around causing problems for emby users for years, perhaps a stop gap fix like this should be considered now.  I still have my original long recordings so if there is anything I can do or try to help then please let me know.

 

Yes, I agree as you know. If Emby could just adjust convert function to allow us to do this, seems simplest possible way forward.

[Luke 42077]

We're looking into this, thanks guys.

[Luke 42077]

HI, this will be resolved in the upcoming Emby Server 4.7 release. Thanks.

[bcm00re 18]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Any one on beta server able to test this.

4.7.0.25 beta

• Fix Roku playback failures with very long recordings

[pwhodges 2012]

Too late for tonight, I'm afraid - but tomorrow morning for sure!

Paul

[pwhodges 2012]

My first test worked fine, thanks (playing a 4.5 hour MKV with PGS subs - hence transcoding).

Paul