DVD/HD-DVD MKV's being transcoded now?!?!

[Harblar 29]

So... Sometime in the last few days, something must have gotten updated either in the Server or Theater end of things, but now my DVD's and HD-DVD MKV's are not being handled properly. I'm not 100% sure if they are being transcoded or not, but that's what it seems like.  

 

First off, the audio comes up as Multi-channel PCM everytime whereas it should be bitstreaming the track to my reciever and then decoding as Dolby, True HD, DTS, etc... 

 

Secondly, the subtitle tracks are locked on... Almost as if they were burned in. Bringing up the Theater menu shows only a single audio track (always Multi-channel PCM, even on Known Dolby True-HD tracks) and no subtitle options whatsoever, so, no way to turn them on or off.  I double checked all my video player settings and nothing seems to have changed there, so It has to be the way the Server is handling things.

 

For the record, all my Blu-ray MKV's are being handled fine. It's only a problem on the DVD's and HD-DVD's.

 

Any thoughts on where the problem is and how to fix it?

 

Transcoding is fine for feeding to tablets and remote tv's, but my primary use for Emby has always been to feed my HTPC full bitrate movies and let my dedicated hardware give me the best possible Audio/Video Playback. Hopefully this is just an easily correctable glitch from one of the latest updates.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, check out our wiki on library setup:

 

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Wiki/wiki/Library%20Setup

 

When Theater can access the library paths directly it will direct play, otherwise it will stream them through the server.

[Harblar 29]

The library paths shouldn't have a thing to do with it. ALL of my movies are MKV's and stored/organized the same way on my UnRAID server "Server://Movies/Movie Title(year)/Bla Bla Bla.mkv"  

 

All of my dvd's were ripped to Ts folders and later converted to MKV. My HD-DVD's and BluRay's were all direct ripped using MakeMKV. As of 2-3 days ago, EVERYTHING direct played in Emby Theater perfectly. Today, Only the Blu-Ray MKV's will direct play.

 

Something in either an Emby Theater or Emby Server update had to have changed to cause this as it would have been the ONLY change made to my setup in the last 3-4 months.

[Luke 42077]

The library paths have everything to do with it. I am trying to help you.

[Harblar 29]

I understand that, but what I'm saying is I already have the Library Paths setup according to that Wiki and have for quite some time. I have made ZERO changes to how I store, organize, and Direct Emby Server to the location of my media.

 

This is how Emby Server is currently setup to access movies for me.

 

"Media Location" (Direct dedicated server. No path Substitutions needed)

 

\\SERVER\Movies

 

 

Example:

Say I have three movies on the server.

 

\\Server\Movies\Random DVD Title(1990)\random title.mkv                        (Transcodes)

\\Server\Movies\Random HD-DVD Title(1990)\random title.mkv                  (Transcodes)

\\Server\Movies\Random Blu-Ray Title(1990)\random title.mkv                   (Direct Plays)

 

on Saturday night, all of these were Direct Play and working fine.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Harblar

[Harblar 29]

Ok...  I went to look at the logs and sure enough, there is a transcode log for every single DVD and HD-DVD mkv I tried to play today. There was no transcode log for any of the Blu-ray mkv's I also tried.

 

I've included the transcode log for one of the titles and the Server Log from the same time.  Hopefully that will help sort it out better. 

 

 

server-63586958410.txt

transcode-7737b119-7dfd-44a8-ad57-ebedc9e63aaf.txt

[Harblar 29]

All right... I even found a Blu-ray rip that won't direct play now.  I was thinking it had something to do with the VC1 and Mpeg2 Codecs, but now it's doing it on an H264 codec as well. The movie in question was Kill Bill Vol.1, which has an LMPCM 5.1 track, so maybe that's causing the issue for that particular MKV. Either way, these were all non-issues and working perfectly as of Sunday morning.

 

I've also been noticing a lot of other errors in Theater recently. Lot's of forced shutdowns of the program at random times. I had to disable cinema mode because it would always crash or freeze after playing the trailers. I've also noticed that if I watch a dvd mkv and then try to watch an HD mkv or vice versa, this will also crash the program. I've also had it blink out of full screen into windowed mode when trying to watch a couple of DVD mkv's.

 

Last night I watched a blu-ray MKV (Django Unchained) and had zero problems with it direct playing, so I went to watch a second one (Inglorious Basterds... I know. I'm on a Tarantino kick recently! lol). It's encoded identically to Django, yet it caused Emby Theater to lockup solid every single time I tried to play it.

 

I don't know if all this is due to a Theater update or a Server update. Either way, it's pretty frustrating.

 

My Current versions are:

Emby Theater 3.0.5744.24672

Emby Server 3.0.5800.2  (if I had to pin it down, I'd say I started having issues somewhere around when 3.0.5800.0 got installed)

 

So, Is this a bug? And if it is, is there anything I can do to fix it, or will I just have to wait and hope a future update solves the problem?

 

Any help and/or suggestions either way would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[Luke 42077]

Try to hang tight. A beta of the new version is imminent so all our efforts are focused there right now. thanks.

[Harblar 29]

Understandable and thanks for letting me know. Was just hoping there might be a tweak I could make on my end to get things rolling right again. For the record, I tried a couple videos on the Ipad app last night and didn't have any issues at all. So at least something is working right for me! hahaha ;-)

[bret1958 27]

Try to hang tight. A beta of the new version is imminent so all our efforts are focused there right now. thanks.

Those r very nice words to hear my friend... oh us impatient ones..

[Harblar 29]

Ugghh... I think I might have finely narrowed down what's going on and why nobody else seems to be having the same issue.

 

I'm currently running Win 10 Pro 64bit on both my HTPC and my Desktop (Emby Server) and have been since this summer with zero problems. I have a third computer I use for file storage that runs unRAID. 

 

Since my intial post I've come across a number of Blu-Ray Mkv's that won't direct play either. There is no rhyme nor reason to it as ones that direct play often are using the exact same codecs as ones that transcode. What the heck!  It got me thinking, maybe it will only directplay MKV's off from a a certain disk on my Server. I go to check my theory only to discover that "DVD" is no longer showing up in my network list in Windows file explorer! It always has before. I just copied files to it right before I had the problem with no issues. Turns out Microsoft pushed out a Win 10 update I was unaware of that has somehow made my unRAID server disappear from my Networked computers list. Oddly enough, I can still access the server via ip address/web interface and I can even Telnet into it via it's network name, no problem. Even Emby Server has no trouble seeing it as it continues to populate my library and allow me to browse and stream on all my devices.  It just won't show up in File Explorer and it's my guess that this is why it won't directplay files on my HTPC.

 

Anyway, that's my theory for now. I've got a help request thread up on the unRAID forums and am waiting for some responses and/or possible solutions. In the meantime, If anybody here has a clue on what might be causing Win10 to not see my unRAID sever, I'm completely open to suggestions!  :-\

Edited January 4, 2016 by Harblar

[Swynol 375]

i had an issue where i had a movie that is usually direct play but it was being transcoded and it was due to some psg subtitles. removed the psg subtitle from the mkv folder and it was direct playing again.

[Harblar 29]

i had an issue where i had a movie that is usually direct play but it was being transcoded and it was due to some psg subtitles. removed the psg subtitle from the mkv folder and it was direct playing again.

 

Yeah, I doubt that's the factor in my case since it's doing it on DVD rips as well. And several of the MKV's that do direct play have PSG subs that work fine. I'm 99% sure at this point that it was a Microsoft automatic system update that screwed me up here.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Harblar

[Logos302 86]

try playing the file in Microsoft player (film and movie I think its called), and media player and see what you get.  

[ebr 16170]

try playing the file in Microsoft player (film and movie I think its called), and media player and see what you get.  

 

I think he has already diagnosed his issue.

 

If explorer doesn't see the file location then that probably means that theater can't see it either, which would then cause it to fall back to transcoding through the server.

[Logos302 86]

must have missed that when reading the posts . 

[Lawrage 13]

Thought I would chime in here as well.

 

As of last night a few of my mkv files I was playing through Emby Theatre were starting up slower than usual, unable to skip, audio and subtitle options were not showing up. Logon to the server while its playing and its transcoding. Tried a few shows I have watched before that used to work fine and they were doing the same thing.

 

Not sure what has changed on the server side - will have a look tonight and post back if I can find the cause of this.

[Luke 42077]

You guys might just want to try out the new app

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/29774-new-version-testing/

[Lawrage 13]

No Waaaaaaaai

 

Teaches me to not check the forum regularly.

 

Thanks Luke.

[Lawrage 13]

Confirmed Direct Play is working in the new app

[Harblar 29]

Lawrage, are you running Win 10? 

 

Today I reset my win 10 to the previous build and installed the new theater app and everything is working again  (sort of... but my new issues are more with the new app than anything.)  My server is once again showing up in file explorer and none of the 10,000 other windows bugs I've been experiencing recently are present.  Gotta love how Microsoft pushes out a major automatic update and manages to absolutely break EVERYTHING!  sheesh....