Direct Stream is also Transcoding?

[hakras 5]

I am using the Emby docker containing on Unraid.  I am viewing using the Emby client on the Nvidia Shield TV (2015) connected to a newer receiver.  I noticed the past 2 times trying to watch a movie that I got a lot of stuttering/freezing for the first 5-10 minutes and then it played flawlessly.  Tonight, I got around to trying to figure out what was the issue.  The file is a .m2ts with 1080p H.264 and DTS 7.1.  While the movie was playing, I checked Emby and it displayed Direct Stream.  However, it was also displaying transcoding.  I took a look at the logs and saw this:

 

2020-01-18 19:38:12.318 Info HttpServer: HTTP GET http://10.10.10.2:8096 /emby/videos/666532/master.m3u8?DeviceId=f66186d659d13b36&MediaSourceId=3cbdfe6d41f4dbc1c48318846e04a3c1&PlaySessionId=1874830bbc51429098eff37ca6845590&VideoCodec=h264,mpeg2video,hevc,h265&AudioCodec=ac3,eac3,dts,dca,dtshd,truehd,aac,mp3&VideoBitrate=109616000&AudioBitrate=384000&AudioStreamIndex=1&SubtitleMethod=Encode&CopyTimestamps=true&SegmentContainer=ts&MinSegments=2&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&ManifestSubtitles=vtt&h264-profile=high,main,baseline,constrainedbaseline&h264-level=52&hevc-profile=Main,Main10&eac3-audiochannels=6&ac3-audiochannels=8&dts-audiochannels=8&dca-audiochannels=8&dtshd-audiochannels=8&truehd-audiochannels=8&aac-audiochannels=8&mp3-audiochannels=8&TranscodeReasons=ContainerNotSupported. User-Agent=Emby/1.7.54g (Linux;Android 9) ExoPlayerLib/2.10.2, Host=10.10.10.2:8096, Connection=Keep-Alive, Accept-Encoding=gzip

 

I have my shield setup in advanced sound settings to use the formats that the audio device reports supporting and can see Dolby Atmos, Dolby MAT, AC3, E-AC3, DTS, DTS-HD, and Dolby TrueHD are supported.  Any idea why Emby thinks this needs to be transcoded?  The only thing I can think of is that there appears to be an AAC audio stream.  Could that be it even though it shouldn't be needed for playback?

Edited January 19, 2020 by hakras

[vdatanet 1617]

Can you post full transcode log?

[hakras 5]

I have attached a log from this morning.  The movie started at 2020-01-19 08:37.  Thanks

EmbyServer.txt

Edited January 19, 2020 by hakras

[mastrmind11 722]

I have attached a log from this morning.  The movie started at 2020-01-19 08:37.  Thanks

if it's direct streaming, what you're seeing is a remux.  also, attach the transcode log.

[hakras 5]

Here you go.  Thanks

ffmpeg-remux-e484aec7-2dd8-4b10-ac65-a43b0d79a573_1.txt

[vdatanet 1617]

Container is not supported, so direct stream is necessary. I think DTS-HD MA it's not compatible with HLS streams, so audio is transcoded to AC3. Try to select AC3 track and content will delivered via direct streaming.

[vdatanet 1617]

I would repack your m2ts file to mkv, no information is lost:

ffmpeg -i input.mt2s -scodec copy -acodec copy -vcodec copy -f matroska input.mkv

Then you can direct play that file using Nvidia Shield.

[vdatanet 1617]

The question should be, why m2ts container is not supported? Nvidia Shield should support that container. It is a limitation of the exoplayer?

Edited January 19, 2020 by vdatanet

[hakras 5]

According to the Nvidia Shield specs found here https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/specs/:

Video Format/Container Support: Xvid/ DivX/ASF/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MPEG-TS/MP4/WEB-M

Audio Support: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WAVE, AMR, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, PCM, WMA, WMA-Pro, WMA-Lossless, DD+/DTS (pass-through),

Dolby Atmos (pass-through), Dolby TrueHD (pass-through), DTS-X, and DTS-HD (pass-through)

 

I assumed a m2ts file would direct play and the audio would pass-through.  I'm not sure why that is not happening.  I don't see any mention of m2ts for ExoPlayer here: https://exoplayer.dev/supported-formats.html.  I'm guessing that is the issue.

[Luke 42078]

@@ebr can comment on that. Thanks.

[hakras 5]

Repacking to mkv does resolve the need to transcode. However, before starting to repack all my rips, I’ll wait for @@ebr to chime in.

[ebr 16177]

Direct support for m2ts is something we'll have to test.  We can do this in the next beta round if you'd like to join in on that.

 

Thanks.

[hakras 5]

Absolutely.

[hakras 5]

@@ebr I am in the beta for the Android TV client (currently on version 1.7.77g). I am still seeing transcoding for m2ts streams. Is there a timeline for this implementation?

[Luke 42078]

It's something we can look at in future updates to the app. Thanks.

[hakras 5]

It's something we can look at in future updates to the app. Thanks.

Just noticed that direct stream for m2ts is working. I’m running client 1.7.88g

[Luke 42078]

Thanks for the feedback !