Serviio

I am new to serviio and I have to say I am very impressed. However I have a problem in that I cant get 5.1 sound out of any file I have. I have converted DVDs to mp4 format. The file plays perfectly but in stereo when I know it is 5.1.

The set up I have is that I have a Panasonic OLED TV, Sony 700 Ultra Bluray Player and a sonos 5.1 System. The DVD is connected to the TV via HDMI and the sound out from the TV to the sonos playbar via an optical cable.Both the TV and Bluray player have there own media players and I can access the files on either with the same result

If I use a Roku media stick in one of the other HDMI ports the media Server Software "Plex" plays the files in 5.1.


My question whether there are any settings in Serviio that can resolve this problem as Plex appears to play them fine. I would prefer to use Serviio if possible.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

What profiles are being used by the players? And we need to know what audio codec is being used. MP4 is a container, and there could be one of several different audio codecs used. Depending on the profile used, the audio might be transcoded into stereo.

I get 5.1 audio from my videos, using either Dolby Digital, DTS or AAC, depending on the player used. Please use the ffmpeg -i command line to get the codec information, as MediaInfo might report the codec differently and Serviio uses ffmpeg.

Also ensure that Audio Channels is set to "Keep Original" in Serviio Console, Delivery, Transcoding.

ps. I have a Panasonic 2018 model which I suspect would be the same as yours (at least as far as DLNA playback is concerned). You probably should assign the Generic Profile which should stream all files natively (without transcoding).

thanks for this . I didn't realise I had replies until now. I will get this info over the next day or so and feed back.

thanks again

The bottom line is that I want the best quality video and audio that I can get within an mp4 format. I have used VSO DVD ultimate to convert my dvds into mp4 format. The only option sound wise is AAC.
The problem is that I am playing it through my sonos system and the sonos system does not support AAC files. I get only stereo sound. Sonos has told me the following –

" For home theater audio, Sonos supports stereo PCM and Dolby Digital
(AC3) audio formats. As long as the audio track is encoded to Dolby Digital
by the video player, Sonos will play the sound"

When I look at the options in VSO software for mp4 AAC is the only option.
I have experimented with Handbrake And if I choose mp4 and AC3 pass through as, then I get 5.1 out of my sonos system. I am just not sure whether the quality of the audio is high quality i.e. at least equal to my current files.
So, in summary my preferred option would be to be able to put my mp4 files on my serviio server but in order to play in 5.1 sound Sergio would need to transcode the audio to a sonos compatible format. Is this possible? Or!!!
If I have to convert my dvds again bearing in mind that I want the highest quality for picture and sound in mp4 format, which is the best format and best settings, bearing in mind the sonos sound requirements. I have over 900 dvds to convert so to do it in batch format is important. Handbrake offers this although I don't seem to be able to get the batch process to work. Although I loaded 10 it only did the first one and stopped. Anyone with any advice much appreciated.
Preferably I would prefer to be able to get Serviio to transcode my existing mp4 files.
Any comments/suggestions welcome!

I've never attempted to use Handbrake in batches, but I've been told it works.

The problem with letting Serviio handle the audio transcoding is that you don't have a lot of control of how it does it. You can specify the bit and sample rate, per the Serviio transcoding help page:



I believe the bitrate can be set in multiples of 64. I've experimented with higher bitrates, and the Roku profiles I created use 512. Probably overkill, but I wanted as little impact to the audio as possible.

If you use Handbrake, I believe you have far more control of various parameters. The times I've used Handbrake I usually just used the audio passthrough setting, so haven't really paid attention to what else could be done.

If I understand what you are doing correctly, then it is better than your current files (whether perceptible or not is another issue).

If you are passing AC-3 through then you are simply copying the audio stream - so it is exactly as good as the source audio is. In your current files you are transcoding the AC-3 audio to AAC - and for every transcode there will be loss of quality (whether perceptible or not, there is always some transcode loss).

Yes, Serviio can transcode just the audio - so your existing MP4/AAC files will become MP4/AC3. But if I've understood it correctly you will be transcoding from AC3 (Source) --> AAC (limitation of VSO DVD) --> AC3. Much better if for new files you just get rid of the AAC middle man. Transcoding on the fly also comes at a cost - any sub-titles will be lost for example, plus some TV's dont like transcoded files.

ps. Have a look at XMedia Recode. I used to (been a while) use it a lot and it has a batch mode.

pps. The limitation in VSO DVD is likely because you are choosing the MP4 container. Has it got the option for MKV containers (if so, you may find you have more options). MP4 containers can support AC-3 -- its just not strictly to standard I believe.

Yes your right. If I was to choose mkv I can select an ac3 format. However mkv tend to be less universal. Plex for instance does not appear to even recognise mkv.

MKV is by far the most universal container, it that it can contain almost any codec. My Plex server has no issue with MKV files, and over 90% of my files are in MKV containers.

+1. It’s playable on most modern devices, certainly all my post ~2014 devices support it.

You could also batch convert all your existing MP4 files to MKV with AC-3 audio very quickly (would be almost as quick as a file copy) if you are keen - if done right, no video quality loss as that would be pass through .. audio will have a slight loss but no worse than using Serviio/Plex etc to transcode. The only way to avoid any audio loss is to go back to the source, which I suspect you won’t want to do as that will be time consuming.

Is there any windows software that would allow me to conver just the audio to ac3 5.1 without transcoding the video and still keep mp4 format?

Yes plenty: XMedia Recode, Handbrake and even ffmpeg that comes with Serviio are just a few that can all do the job. All are free (or were last time I looked).