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Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 8:15 am
by gabier
Hello everybody,
This is my first post. I have just discovered Serviio because it was mentioned in another forum where i was discussing my video problems. I describe these problems shortly. I have a collection of dvds and i wish to put them on a Computer/NAS and retrieve them from my Samsung "smart" TV (C series). With DLNA it works somewhat. I transcoded my test DVD to a MP4 file. VLC tells me that this file has 2 audio tracks (french and english) and 2 subtitles tracks (french and english). And when using the TV the file is found on the DLNA source. The problem is that when playing the file I have no audio or subtitle choice. The "SUBT." and the "AD" keys on the remote answers "unavailable" and the "Tools" key has no such option.
I installed Serviio on the computer but the result seems to be the same. Did I miss something or there is no way to solve this problem with Serviio ?

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 5:32 pm
by atc98092
First, let me say that Samsung DLNA support is terrible. I don't bother with any of my Samsung sets, instead using external devices as my player.

That said, you should be able to get multiple audio tracks, assuming all such tracks are supported by the TV. That means they all need to be Dolby Digital or PCM. Subtitle tracks are more difficult. DVD and Blu Ray discs use imaged based subtitles (VOBSUB for DVD and PGS for BD). Your TV likely doesn't support decoding these formats. Again, I gave up long ago using the Samsung built-in player, and this is one of the reasons why.

Now, if your Serviio configuration is transcoding your files, that would explain the lack of audio selection. There's a setting in the Serviio console on the transcoding section that needs to be checked to pass all available audio tracks. That might solve that issue, assuming Samsung processes it accurately. You can also enable burned in subtitles during transcoding, but that will only give you the primary caption track, with no ability to change or turn them off.

However, it sounds like you've made your video into one that the TV should play without transcoding. Try setting the assigned profile in the Serviio console to Generic. That will stop any transcoding, and then you might get your multiple audio tracks, and if your captions are supported by the TV they too would be available.

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:02 am
by gabier
Thank you indeed, atc

Your answer seems quite complete and I will read it and use it carefully. For the moment I think that I will be able to switch audio tracks, because I can do it when the video is in an USB key. For subtitles, I think it is more doubtful.

:) gabier

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 2:03 pm
by gabier
I started to try to apply your recommendations. First is the format of audio files.

atc98092 wrote:That means they all need to be Dolby Digital or PCM.


Well, on the DVDs the audio tracks are "AAC Stereo". They have been transferred to the MP4 file as such. Should they be trans-coded to something else ?

:) gabier

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:41 pm
by atc98092
gabier wrote:I started to try to apply your recommendations. First is the format of audio files.

atc98092 wrote:That means they all need to be Dolby Digital or PCM.


Well, on the DVDs the audio tracks are "AAC Stereo". They have been transferred to the MP4 file as such. Should they be trans-coded to something else ?

:) gabier


AAC should be fine. The TV may or may not support 5.1 in that codec, in which case you won’t get any sound if yours are multi-track.

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 4:21 pm
by gabier
atc98092 wrote:
AAC should be fine. The TV may or may not support 5.1 in that codec, in which case you won’t get any sound if yours are multi-track.


I have sound (the first track which is French) but no choice in the "tools" menu. When the video is on an USB key, the menu "Tools" has one more choice named "Audio". But no such choice from DLNa or Serviio. I ticked "Keep all audio tracks", and I ticked also "Audio tracks: Keep original", but this choice is possible only with "Enable transcoding", then I ticked both.
Edit : I could eventually untick "Enable transcoding" and have "Keep all audio tracks" ticked. But the result is not better.

:) gabier

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 10:13 pm
by gabier
I am fed up with the problems of my TV set. It seems quite unable to read videos through my home network. I think I will give up, and look for another solution. Maybe I change my TV set, a newer Samsung or another TV make. Or I buy a multimedia box with a display screen!!

:) gabier

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 2:25 am
by atc98092
gabier wrote:I am fed up with the problems of my TV set. It seems quite unable to read videos through my home network. I think I will give up, and look for another solution. Maybe I change my TV set, a newer Samsung or another TV make. Or I buy a multimedia box with a display screen!!

:) gabier


Well, the Samsung C series is a pretty old TV, so perhaps an upgrade is in order. But just remember that Samsung still has a lousy DLNA player in their system. My NU7100 seems to work better than my JU7100, but it's still a lousy interface. If 4K isn't important to you, adding a Roku, Fire TV, or Shield media player might be a more worthwhile investment, as well as much cheaper than a new TV.

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:57 am
by gabier
atc98092 wrote:Well, the Samsung C series is a pretty old TV, so perhaps an upgrade is in order. But just remember that Samsung still has a lousy DLNA player in their system. My NU7100 seems to work better than my JU7100, but it's still a lousy interface. If 4K isn't important to you, adding a Roku, Fire TV, or Shield media player might be a more worthwhile investment, as well as much cheaper than a new TV.


I won't be able to do that very quickly, but I am quite decided to quit Samsung. The DLNA issue is not the only one I experienced.
1. No way to complete the network setup. The built in network test grants the ip scheme, but can't find the gateway. My gateway is easily accessible. It is wired from the TV to the internet box. Several other apparatus find it easily. But my Samsung TV cannot. I am not the only one experiencing this issue, googling a little convinced me that this problem is a real one in the Samsung world.
2. I wanted to update my TV and I could not update it by internet because of 1) then I downloaded the firmware from the Samsung site, put it on an USB key, and tried the USB update (it is a built in procedure). But the TV does not find any update file on the key. Again, googling says that this is another difficult problem.
Samsung is very competitive for many TV features, but very bad for important technical details, and what is worse, it does not devote any resource to solving these issues important for specific users.

:) gabier

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 1:53 pm
by atc98092
Well, I can't say I've had that problem with any of my Samsung TVs, but I never had a C Series, so perhaps it's specific to that model series. I have a D, JU and NU that all work fine over either wired or wireless networks. And I've also used the USB update method on the JU without a problem. Yeah, must just be that series.

Re: Is Serviio good for me ?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 2:05 pm
by gabier
Thank you for your help.

:) gabier