Out of control Captions

[Sirbyteme 9]

Hello everyone.
I have an issue with the closed captions only on the emby Roku client.
I attached a photo to show it.
I don't see the issue on Windows or my Android TV client (which is amazing BTW - wish Roku was as good!).
I tried searching but did not find anyone else with this issue.
It happens every week on Survivor (CBS) that I record from Live TV.
I can play the video file in VLC with no problem so I don't think it is a recording thing, just a client issue.

Any help would be highly appreciated.
At this point my whole house is on the Roku clients which is great except for the emby app.
Any chance the app for Roku will be updated to the level of the Android TV app?
And why does the Roku app not allow for background color changes?

Thanks!

 

[speechles 2055]

@SirbytemeThese are EIA-608/708 subtitles? Embedded within the video stream? If they are this is an issue presently with Roku when it does not direct play them. Since it has to transcode these become WebVTT and the Roku isn't displaying them correctly and scrolling previous entries quickly enough. Instead it clumsily shows them without any gaps. Because it cannot render line breaks correctly which are those \h you see.

What is reason given for transcoding in your screenshot? If you correct that and make this direct play it should resolve the problem.

Edited November 16, 2024 by speechles

[Sirbyteme 9]

Yes, EIA-608. I simply recorded it (nothing custom) so I assume they are embedded.

No reason for transcoding that I know of.
I just noticed that the files that are recorded are as 1080 interlaced.
The Roku shows options for 1080P not 1080i.
Could that be why it is transcoding? Its deinterlacing?

Here is Dashboard info;

If that is the case, how do I fix it?
As I understand, it is likely that the show it broadcast in 1080i.

???

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  As indicated in that information, the quality setting in the app is causing the transcode.  Is this a remote client?  Have you restricted remote clients to 4Mb/s?

[Sirbyteme 9]

This is a local client over WiFi with a Roku Streaming Stick (No Ethernet port).

Not sure why in the "Stream" section on that image it shows "Reducing bitrate due to quality setting" ... it usually says "Converting subtitles directly into video".
But under "Video" it always says from 1080i MPEG2VIDEO to "Transcode (H264 8mbps)".

The quality setting on the client has been "Auto" but I reduced it all the way down to the bottom and worked my way back up and it continued to transcode everytime.

It definitely seems to me that it is related to the interlaced source.
Even on my Windows PC this file does not play Direct but the subtitles are great.
As shown in the first attached image, both clients are "Deinterlacing".

 

I tried the "Convert" option with Profile="TV" and Quality=4Mbps and it created a 720P file that Direct Plays on both clients but on the Roku only, it lost the subtitles completely. It says they are there but they don't show up at all. They play fine on the Windows/Web client.

 

Note that he is talking and there are no subtitles.  (EDIT: Whoops, lost this image. It showed Jeff speaking, Direct Play, but no subtitles. Can repost if necessary)

So it seems that the emby for Roku client has an issue while transcoding (like speechles said above) and the reason it is transcoding is the interlaced source.
If so, I'm not sure what to do about it.
If any of these shows I record (over the air via antenna) are sent/recorded in 1080 interlaced, what is the best way to handle them until the Roku bug is fixed? (Any chance that will be soon?)
I record a number of different shows that way.
   Can I force it to deinterlace during recording?
   If I have to transcode it after recording it, why did the subtitles disappear on Roku? Another bug?
 

Thanks for the help guys.

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2024 by Sirbyteme

[Sirbyteme 9]

FYI - I now see that on the Roku client, with Live TV (Football game - also on CBS), it is  currently transcoding/deinterlacing a 1080i stream and the subtitles play great.
So is it something in the recording process?
I have multiple recorded files from this source that have run away subtitles but I can't make that happen on Live TV.

 

[Sirbyteme 9]

Anybody?

This is making my DVR hard to use.

[ebr 16169]

If you use the "Playback Correction" option on the cog menu during playback, does it make a difference?

[Sirbyteme 9]

While playing the file with the run away titles I went to the cog and selected
"Attempt Playback Correction (Transcode)"
It went black for a bit then came back the same (Was Transcoding and still Trancoding and still run away titles.)

[Luke 42077]

Hi, please attach the emby server and ffmpeg log files from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

[Sirbyteme 9]

Was out of town for a bit...

The problem occurs every time I play a show recorded from Live TV from CBS and probably others.
My test case is Survivor from 11/13/24.
I have just played it on my Roku where it transcodes and has the errors then the same file again on my Windows PC where it also transcodes but the subtitles look great for comparison.
I  have attached the logs you asked for.

Thanks!

ffmpeg-transcode-875913cf-4cb3-47d6-8cc4-ec3dd46b679a_1.txt ffmpeg-directstream-b280b0ea-ee61-4b50-86f1-66630a3e8c39_1.txt embyserver.txt

[Sirbyteme 9]

Anybody have time to check these logs I posted?

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we're looking into it. Thanks for reporting.

[Sirbyteme 9]

Any news on this?

I am continuing to struggle with this.

Thanks,

 

[Luke 42077]

On 12/21/2024 at 2:46 PM, Sirbyteme said:

Any news on this?

I am continuing to struggle with this.

Thanks,

 

Hi, we're still looking into it. Thanks.

[UCM_1 10]

I was just coming to post about this...  It's been happening for a very long time -- but only on select over-the-air TV shows.  It's annoying, but I would simply turn closed captioning off for these shows.  But, I just started using the Emby LG TV app, and that does not have the problem so I wanted to ask here about it....  Any updates on this?

There are also other over-the-air closed captioning annoyances...  Sometimes if you start watching a show, the closed captioning is garbled and/or totally missing.  But if you stop playback and then restart the station, sometimes the closed captioning is back and working properly.  This happens on both the Roku and LG versions of the app.

[Sirbyteme 9]

@LukeI see I am not the only one with this issue.  So Survivor is coming back in a week... any news?

Why is the Roku app so far behind the Android app?
I have access to both and the Android app does not have this issue; has access to the server; doesn't have the background color problem; etc.

Still hoping for a fix,

 

[speechles 2055]

9 hours ago, Sirbyteme said:

Why is the Roku app so far behind the Android app?

Roku certification requirements under Performance:
3.7 The channel's file size must be 4 MB or less.

https://developer.roku.com/docs/developer-program/certification/certification.md

That is 4MB zipped. It makes it difficult to include everything being restricted to that filesize. We cannot replicate everything on Roku. There is no javascript. We cannot copy any javascript code. Everything is custom built in brightscript.

With Android you can have up to  a 150MB APK and several GB of app data. Javascript is supported. It makes it possible for Android to replicate the web app faithfully.

 

Edited February 20, 2025 by speechles

[Sirbyteme 9]

Wow.
Thanks for that explanation speechles.
Obviously I had no idea.

With that in mind, any chance of having the captions issue resolved?
In my house Roku is perfect except for this one thing.
I could live with the other deficiencies of the emby app but for the Survivor recordings (and others) I have to use the Windows or Android apps which is very inconvenient.

Thanks again for all that you guys do.

 

[ebr 16169]

57 minutes ago, Sirbyteme said:

With that in mind, any chance of having the captions issue resolved?

Hi. I believe the issue is on the server end.  We are looking into it.

We don't really have any control over the caption placement in the Roku player.  

[CasaAtardecer 27]

On 2/20/2025 at 9:36 AM, speechles said:

Roku certification requirements under Performance:
3.7 The channel's file size must be 4 MB or less.

https://developer.roku.com/docs/developer-program/certification/certification.md

That is 4MB zipped. It makes it difficult to include everything being restricted to that filesize. We cannot replicate everything on Roku. There is no javascript. We cannot copy any javascript code. Everything is custom built in brightscript.

With Android you can have up to  a 150MB APK and several GB of app data. Javascript is supported. It makes it possible for Android to replicate the web app faithfully.

 

Hello friend,

In my attempt to try to drum up support and enthusiasm for the Roku UI Photo Viewer repairs and enhancements, I came across your remarks about Roku's channel size prohibitions.

THAT explains a LOT!

I think now that I can understand why there seems to be such great resistance from folks like @ebrto making the Roku UI Photo Viewer minimally functional -- let alone allocating any resources to make it more highly developed.

Not only are we poor little neglected shutterbugs queued at the back of the FR line, behind all the binge watchers and gamers and audiophiles, we are in competition it seems for physical "bandwidth!"

I had no idea that such resource allocations and quotas might be influencing whether a Roku UI FR gets advanced, while others wither on the vine.

If that is indeed the case, is it just too radical a notion to propose that a new, more equitable mindset be adopted toward your audience?

Could you not adopt a resource mindset in which the clamoring horde -- who expects to seamlessly bounce between binge watching TV/movies and listening to their curated playlists while gaming -- be supported just a little bit less so users -- such as myself -- can simply experience a bug-free and more highly developed Photo Viewer on my TV?

One certainly dares to dream of such a shift in mindset that might open up a pathway to getting your ideas about the Roku UI Photo Viewer (indeed, ALL form factor) improvements implemented.

Cheers! Ta!