Troubles with codec VC-1

[Kurt13 11]

Hi, 

I have a Blu-ray Remux with VC-1 video encoding that Emby and Emby for Android TV can't play properly; constantly freezing.

It don't think it has anything to do with my Mi Box S 2nd gen since if I choose an external video player (MX Player Pro) it plays just fine.

 

Thanks 

[Luke 42077]

@Kurt13

 

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

 

[Kurt13 11]

Hi, 

Sorry for the late reply. 

 

So:

- For the movie in question (with VC-1 video encoding) on Emby for Android TV now it's working fine but with "Quality (80 Mb/s)". Don't know if it's normal with this app to not show "Auto - Direct". 

Tried with 2 other movies, both 4K Dolby Vision HEVC, and one only gives sound (but plays using MX Player Pro, just can't FF or FR) and the other seems to play fine with the internal player.

 

- Emby ("normal" app) on Android TV (Quality Auto-Direct) , doesn't run smooth for the VC-1 movie. I don't know how to send logs with this app on Android TV.

Using an external player (MX Player Pro) it works fine.

 

- Using Emby on a smartphone (Galaxy S23 Ultra), that VC-1 movie plays well because it's being transcoding. The quality shown is "Auto 1080p - 60Mbps" and not "Auto - Direct".

 

I decided to try the other two movies referred previously. The both played fine with the first showing "Auto - Direct" and the second showing "4K - 200Mbps"

[Luke 42077]

@Kurt13

Quote

- Emby ("normal" app) on Android TV (Quality Auto-Direct) , doesn't run smooth for the VC-1 movie. I don't know how to send logs with this app on Android TV.

You can use playback settings in the app force it to transcode if your device can't play it smoothly enough with software decoding.

[Kurt13 11]

Hi, 

The intention was to not having to transcode,specially being on my home network.

[Luke 42077]

16 hours ago, Kurt13 said:

Hi, 

The intention was to not having to transcode,specially being on my home network.

Then you need a device powerful enough to handle vc1, which most are not. What I would suggest is using the server's convert media feature to pre-convert it to h264 or hevc:

Convert Media

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[Kurt13 11]

22 minutes ago, Luke said:

Then you need a device powerful enough to handle vc1, which most are not. What I would suggest is using the server's convert media feature to pre-convert it to h264 or hevc:

Convert Media

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

Not saying that you aren't right but like i mentioned, if I choose to play with an external player (precisely using HW+ decoding), the file plays fine.

 

Also, regarding emby for Android ( now talking about my smartphone) you think that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 512GB/12GB isn't powerful enough to play it??? The file has 2 audio options: TrueHD 5.1 with which Emby automatically transcode the video file and shows "Auto 1080p - 60Mbps" and plays just fine, and AC3 5.1 that doesn't transcode shows "Auto - Direct", and play without any issue.

[Luke 42077]

On 7/1/2025 at 4:36 PM, Kurt13 said:

Not saying that you aren't right but like i mentioned, if I choose to play with an external player (precisely using HW+ decoding), the file plays fine.

 

Also, regarding emby for Android ( now talking about my smartphone) you think that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 512GB/12GB isn't powerful enough to play it??? The file has 2 audio options: TrueHD 5.1 with which Emby automatically transcode the video file and shows "Auto 1080p - 60Mbps" and plays just fine, and AC3 5.1 that doesn't transcode shows "Auto - Direct", and play without any issue.

So your mi box has a hardware decoder for vc1? Are you sure?

[Kurt13 11]

17 hours ago, Luke said:

So your mi box has a hardware decoder for vc1? Are you sure?

Don't know/didn't said that. 

What I said was:

Quote

- For the movie in question (with VC-1 video encoding) on Emby for Android TV now it's working fine but with "Quality (80 Mb/s)". Don't know if it's normal with this app to not show "Auto - Direct". 

Tried with 2 other movies, both 4K Dolby Vision HEVC, and one only gives sound (but plays using MX Player Pro; just can't FF or FR) and the other seems to play fine with the internal player. 

 

- Emby ("normal" app) on Android TV (Quality Auto-Direct), doesn't run smooth for the VC-1 movie.

Using an external player (MX Player Pro) it works fine.

 

[Luke 42077]

Quote

- For the movie in question (with VC-1 video encoding) on Emby for Android TV now it's working fine but with "Quality (80 Mb/s)". Don't know if it's normal with this app to not show "Auto - Direct". 

@Kurt13that means it is using server transcoding. Emby for Android has an option in the app to force this for vc1. It's just not on by default.

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks !