Regional settings, bit rate error

[Jennice 19]

Hi all,

 

Can someone please post a screen shot of (working) regional (country) settings in numbers / formats?

 

Some of my recordings get a much too low video bit rate in Emby (the meta data on the TS file itself seems OK, and it plays in Windows TV and other apps).

With the bit rate too low, the displayed length of a duration is in excess of 730 minutes, rather than the correct 50 minutes.

Also, for playback, the resolution is (force-transcoded?) to really low quality.

Is there a way to manually edit the bit rate info (and other recording description, which is also corrupt in Emby)

 

I am thinking that since the TS stream file has correct bit rate data, Emby must get its info from somewhere else (but where?), and probably interpret it incorrectly. This truncates my description of the recording, and gives a wrong stated bit rate (which Emby uses as limit for playback).

 

Maybe regional settings cause mis-match between commas, punctuations, and thousand-seperators.

 

 

[Luke 42079]

Hi there @@Jennice, can we please look at an example? please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[Jennice 19]

I'm running 3.2.60 as 3.2.70 broke the recording of some channels. But if I have a regional setting issue, it's not changing by version.

 

The TS file info says approx. 50 minutes. Emby says 731 minutes. 2 of 3 recordings have messed up Meta data.

 

Notice the bit rate (danish: Datahastighed) is wrong in Emby,

 

 

 

 

 

[Luke 42079]

It's not regional. We've seen ffprobe occasionally produce incorrect values with .ts recordings.

[Luke 42079]

Bitrate is not necessarily wrong because one could be displaying peak bitrate, the other average.

[Jennice 19]

I have seen there is an option to transcode recordings into a "streaming friendly" format.

 

Is bit-rate (approximately) and resolution maintained, or will it be a compromise?

It's little use if it's really CPU intensive to transcode to a ca 12 mbps output stream, as I want the ability to transcode to other users as well.

 

What happens if I choose to transcode during recording (good quality for archive), and also want to to stream it at 2 mbps to my tablet?

 

On a side note, the ratio between the 11787 kbps (ts file properties) and the bit rate reported by emby is approximately 14.

I don't think it's random that the ratio between true recording time (ca. 50 minutes) and reported 731 minutes is ... *drum roll*... appromimately 14. (!).

 

If I choose to transcode when recording, will it bypass the known occasional errors in ffprobe?

[Luke 42079]

 

 

What happens if I choose to transcode during recording (good quality for archive), and also want to to stream it at 2 mbps to my tablet?

 

There would be two transcoding processes. generally speaking i would advise against using this option.

 

Are you using an HDHR?

[Jennice 19]

Yes, but the european DVB-C tuner does not have on-board transcoding.

 

So I suppose both transcode tasks would be using the CPU?

 

But would it solve the ffprobe error issue, if i used transcoding during recording? If not, then there' no point in the exercise.

[Jennice 19]

I played a bit with the mkv conversion option.

 

CPU load on my i7-8700k is around 15-18%, but while the original bit rate (ts file) is around 11 mbps, the mkv is around 2.3 mpbs.

 

Is it a matter of better compression, or plain data loss, which would be visible on a large TV (only testing at my PC).

 

In case of lossy transcoding, can the output quality be selected somewhere?

[Jennice 19]

Hmm... according to the sites I have found, there is not much size difference between mkv and TS files.

 

In other words, the Convert to streaming friendly is lossy compression when the data is 1/4 the TS size.

 

Where is the option to adjust the compression quality for the automated conversion? If missing, please add.

[Luke 42079]

We don't currently have an option for it. It's possible for the future, but it is more likely that we will eventually drop the feature as soon as we have an option to convert recordings after the recording process. Simply because the realtime conversion setting is not stable for everyone and can't support all features like seeking while recording.

[Jennice 19]

I tried transcoding to mkv.... and the bit rate (as well as show duration) is stated as wrong.

 

Please consider (an option to?) updating the meta data from the file system data (which seems to be correct).

 

 

Edit: Alternatively, please allow editing of this data on the screen where meta data can be edited.

 

Edit 2: My bad... mkv time / bit rate was correct. But quality could be better.

Edited February 28, 2018 by Jennice

[Jennice 19]

We don't currently have an option for it. It's possible for the future, but it is more likely that we will eventually drop the feature as soon as we have an option to convert recordings after the recording process. Simply because the realtime conversion setting is not stable for everyone and can't support all features like seeking while recording.

But if converting AFTER recording, then the meta data from ffprobe will still be wrong. For me, it's approx. 1 of 3 recordings I can't play from Emby due to wrong bit rate info.

 

Alternatively, if ffprobe data is used regardless, please give this area some care and attention. It's a serious issue when a recording can't be used from Emby.

[Luke 42079]

But if converting AFTER recording, then the meta data from ffprobe will still be wrong. For me, it's approx. 1 of 3 recordings I can't play from Emby due to wrong bit rate info.

 

Alternatively, if ffprobe data is used regardless, please give this area some care and attention. It's a serious issue when a recording can't be used from Emby.

 

Not necessarily because a full re-encoding is generally a good way to repair files that have these kinds of issues.

[Jennice 19]

Interesting thought, Luke.

 

Is there a way / tool to trigger re-encoding to it's original data (no further loss) of TS files to itself, in order to fix the meta data issue?

 

 

In which file does Emby store the bit rate / duration info for a recording? It's not the file itself, as it works well with other players no matter which mistakes ffprobe/Emby has made to it's bit rate data.

 

As plan C (obviously not first priority), can I take a TS file, use 3rd prty tool to convert it to mkv, and place it in place of the original recording? Or would that upset Emby's data structure?

[Luke 42079]

Yes you could convert it externally

[Jennice 19]

If I figure out how to make ffmpeg re-mux the TS file to a copy of itself, will that be enough to give Emby the correct meta data to play the stream correctly? Or do I need to tell the corrected meta data (bit rate) to Emby manually?

 

I made a copy of the folder which contains the particular show, with a TEST in the name. How to make Emby re-scan the Recorded TV folder to "see" the newly created "fake" recording?

 

Edit: I tried to remux, and replace the original TS file. Now, Emby refuses to play the file (the waiting circle just keeps spinning), and the Emby meta data still shows wrong show duration.

 

How to make Emby refresh the data, and accept the corrected TS file?

 

Edit 2: Both the original (wrong Emby meta data) and the re-muxed file play in other players. None of them play correctly in Emby.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Jennice

[Jennice 19]

Ahh... I managed to manually refresh the TV recording folder, and the file now plays!

 

If I make a batch file to remux whichever TS file, is there a way from that batch file to trigger a library scan, or somehow else refresh the recorded TV folder content?

[Luke 42079]

Well you can scan that library manually, or you can also enable the realtime monitor for it.

[Jennice 19]

Where can I find the real time monitoring? I must have missed IT...

[ebr 16184]

Where can I find the real time monitoring? I must have missed IT...

 

It is one of the options on every library (click on it in the library setup page).

[Jennice 19]

Thanks, found it.

I also made a Windows batch file to remux whatever ts file is in the batch folder to a copy of itself in a remux folder, rename the original file OLD, move the copy back to the correct folder, and delete the remux folder.

With real time monitoring, this should get the job done.

 

Edit: Corrected various nonsense from my danish cell phone auto correct

Also noticed that Windows10 does not seem to monitor real time for file changes. I need to manually update/scan the folder :/

Edited March 2, 2018 by Jennice