Serviio

For some reason my h264 encoded movies are being transcoded and I can't figure out why.

1. Is there a way to turn on debugging info on why a video is being decoded or is that not logged in anyway?

Here is the relevant info:




It's also a 4.0 level

I thought maybe this was the relevant part of the the Profile:



but as you can see I commented out the h264 with aac section but it is still transcoding. Or am I reading the profile wrong. To me that reads transcode to mpegts if file is any container with h264 vCodec and an aCodec of aac.

The file plays fine if I choose the Samsung C/D profile.

The existing (and only) Roku profile transcodes almost everything because the older models could not keep up with a h264 stream higher than about 15 Mbps. Any Roku built in 2015 or later can handle much higher streams, and of course the 4K boxes even more. However, your particular file has HE-AAC audio, which I don't believe the Roku can handle either.

So, depending on your Roku model, it might be able to handle the stream without transcoding. Since it worked with the Samsung profile, that pretty well proves it. We are working on new Roku profiles that are more tailored to the box's abilities. Right now there's a hangup with transcoding HD audio. Once that issue is resolved, there should be at least four new Roku profiles to support the various models.

If you want to make some tweaks to the profile, you could remove the targetVCodec="h264" maxVBitrate="12000" section and leave the audio transcoding alone. Or simply turn all transcoding off and see how many of your files will play.

Ok I must be mistaken then...

Does -
<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" maxVBitrate="12000">

Not mean what it's going to transcode the matches to?

Yes, it does. But if you remove the target video codec then it passes the video through untouched and only transcodes the audio. That's usually referred to as transmuxing. Of course, that particular line does touch the audio either, so in reality you could comment the entire section out. I didn't think that line was video only, so I was assuming you only copied a portion of the line.

What Roku player are you using? Unless you're using an older player like the 2 XS or 2 LT, the max bitrate is probably not needed. For a test, use the generic profile. That transcodes nothing, so you can see which of your videos will play and if there are any playback issues. As I mentioned, new profiles are being developed that better support the newer players.

Thanks I'll give it a try.

I'm using a Roku 2.

Unfortunately, there are several different models of Roku 2, so that doesn't precisely tell me which model you have. It makes a difference in its bitrate capacity. Yohu can find out the precise model number in the settings menu, and you can compare it to other versions at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku

It's a Roku 2 (4210)

OK, that has the same hardware as the latest model Roku 3 as well. It should be able to handle a high bitstream as well as my Stick, and I've seen it handle average speeds of 35 Mbps and peaks over 70.

I just looked at the Samsung C/D profile and I think the reason they play with that one is it appears to just be transmuxing the audio, although the exact transcoding profile line is eluding me.

You can completely disable transcoding on the console, but be aware that if you are burning in subtitles it will still transcode even with this box unchecked. And most likely your audio won't work. However, I believe Roku is working on supporting HE-AAC, if it's not already available. If not, you're still going to require transmuxing the audio.

I'm a little stalled right now with the new profiles. Roku had to make a change to their player, and Serviio is also making a change. Once those are completed, I think we'll have some improved profiles to offer fairly quickly.