Some DVDs do not play via Roku Emby app

[makitso 1]

I am having problems playing some of my DVDs via my Emby app running on my Roku Ultra streaming device. For example, Hunt for Red October DVD, not Blue Ray, when I play it, I get the spinning wheel, with a percentage display. After about 15 seconds I get a very choppy Video. If I use the Emby app on my Android tablet it displays fine and with VLC is works as well.

My configurations are;

Emby on Android v 3.4.20

Emby on Roku. v 4.1.34

Emby server v 4.8.10 running on WD myCloud.

All my DVDs were ripped via Handbrake on linux and saved in .m4v containers, 480PH264.

I have tried ripping the DVD with VLC and saving as .mv4 file. The movie does display but the movie is very small.

Suggestions?

 

 

 

[Luke 42077]

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

My first question in instances like this is to ask exactly what you mean by DVD?
Is it a file the was ripped from a DVD or are you somehow trying to play DVDs through Emby via some kind of hardware or is it something else. 

I can say that your description is consistent with the stream being too high a bitrate or in some other way forcing your server to transcode and the stream is more than your server can easily handle.

I suggest reencoding the file to a lower bitrate (This usually makes the file smaller) and/or making sure that the audio and subtitle portion of the file does not force transcoding. 

I  have nearly 4500 movies and not one of them transcode except for some that transcode the audio only and I do not really need to reencode them as there is no video transcoding and my server has no other duties except being an Emby server.

[makitso 1]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

Luke, I will do as you suggested first thing in the morning.

[makitso 1]

2 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

My first question in instances like this is to ask exactly what you mean by DVD?
Is it a file the was ripped from a DVD or are you somehow trying to play DVDs through Emby via some kind of hardware or is it something else. 

It's a DVD ripped by Handbrake.  The file produced by Handbrake  is then stored on the Emby server.

2 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I can say that your description is consistent with the stream being too high a bitrate or in some other way forcing your server to transcode and the stream is more than your server can easily handle.

I suggest reencoding the file to a lower bitrate (This usually makes the file smaller) and/or making sure that the audio and subtitle portion of the file does not force transcoding.

I will try this suggestion.

2 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I  have nearly 4500 movies and not one of them transcode except for some that transcode the audio only and I do not really need to reencode them as there is no video transcoding and my server has no other duties except being an Emby server.

 

[makitso 1]

logs.

embyserver (1).txt ffmpeg-transcode-4bf3dcca-395a-4257-b1c1-acab23b4a5f2_1.txt

[speechles 2055]

  "AverageFrameRate":23.99255,"RealFrameRate":120,

Handbrake did something funny with your framerate. The Roku can only direct play lower than 60FPS. The Roku refuses to play the item causing a direct play error.

Your FFMPEG is failing to recover playback with transcoding once the playback error occurs which causes the stream to stall.

  06:56:44.011 Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): No such file or directory
  06:56:44.011 Error initializing output stream 0:0 --
  06:56:44.022 Conversion failed!
  06:56:44.023 EXIT

What extension is file? You might be able to alter the flags of the stream with MKVToolNix GUI and copy all the streams fixing the framerate and then remux into an MKV.

@softworkzDo you have an idea what caused the failure in ffmpeg?

Edited December 23, 2024 by speechles

[makitso 1]

The extension is m4v.   I converted 30 DVD and 3 Blue Ray with Handbrake.  Four of the DVD had a similar problem.  I re-ripped two with VLC and saved them as mp4 extensions.  They worked.  Two did not work, one being Red October.

I have no idea what is causing the ffmpeg error.  Again, if I use the Emby client app on Android it works fine, no error in the logs. Perhaps I should recreate the video using windows11 and handbrake?

[makitso 1]

> Handbrake did something funny with your framerate. The Roku can only direct play lower than 60FPS. The Roku refuses to play the item causing a direct play error.

OK, I recreated the video files with Handbrake and selected the consistent frame rate option.  It now plays correctly on the Roku.  Thanks for your great help.