Transcoding DTSHD Master 7.1

On Nework DLNA playback, my Core i5 CPU maxes out to 100% and the playback is very slow/jerky/stops and audio is extremely intermittent.
Is there anyway this can be eradicated? OR may be improved to watchable?
Regards

[atc98092]

Are you transcoding H.265 to H.264? That takes a ton of processing power. What is your playback device? Transcoding audio takes very little power, so you're apparently transcoding the video as well. Depending on your player, perhaps you're transcoding more than necessary.

Are you transcoding H.265 to H.264? That takes a ton of processing power. What is your playback device? Transcoding audio takes very little power, so you're apparently transcoding the video as well. Depending on your player, perhaps you're transcoding more than necessary.

DLNA Master,
You have helped me before. My player is Panasonic BDT 110, which can ONLY playback in DD 5.1 and Serviio does that well for all DTS & DD 5.1 MKV files. To save space I have re-encoded the MKV by HandBrake that saves me 30% disc space.
I am trying to play this DTSHD Master 7.1 file and I am having the problem. (The Panasonic plays the disc just fine)
1. With the present player will I be able to have satisfactory play back by Serviio transcoding without maxing CPU resource? OR
2. Do I need a player that will not need transcoding by Serviio?
Regards

[atc98092]

1. Many Blu Ray players do not support lossless audio over DLNA. My Sony in the bedroom will do one of them (TrueHD or DTS MA), but I always forget which one it does play. In general, I just use my Shield for my lossless media, including 4K.

2. Having a player that doesn't require transcoding is really nice. I use the Nvidia Shield on my two 4K TVs, and it plays everything I have, including all captions, without transcoding. Your BD player is really old, so it doesn't support H.265 video, and apparently won't do DTS MA over DLNA either. I'd have to look at the profile you're using to see why it's running the CPU at 100%, but that's a sure sign you are transcoding the video as well. As long as your media isn't H.265, we can probably find a better profile for you to use, but I'd need your media info to ensure what is needed.

1. Many Blu Ray players do not support lossless audio over DLNA. My Sony in the bedroom will do one of them (TrueHD or DTS MA), but I always forget which one it does play. In general, I just use my Shield for my lossless media, including 4K.

2. Having a player that doesn't require transcoding is really nice. I use the Nvidia Shield on my two 4K TVs, and it plays everything I have, including all captions, without transcoding. Your BD player is really old, so it doesn't support H.265 video, and apparently won't do DTS MA over DLNA either. I'd have to look at the profile you're using to see why it's running the CPU at 100%, but that's a sure sign you are transcoding the video as well. As long as your media isn't H.265, we can probably find a better profile for you to use, but I'd need your media info to ensure what is needed.

I believe it is H.264 (see below)
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2 h 3 min
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 804 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Writing library : x264 core 157 r2935 545de2f
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:
Do you need any other info?
What profile would you provide?
Thanks

[atc98092]

Yes, that is H.264, which your player should be fine with. So, you're transcoding the video without the need. Try using the Roku TV profile, as that will not transcode H.264 but does transcode lossless audio codecs.

Yes, that is H.264, which your player should be fine with. So, you're transcoding the video without the need. Try using the Roku TV profile, as that will not transcode H.264 but does transcode lossless audio codecs.

Tried Roku TV (4K) and Roku TV (non 4K). On the TV screen it goes into play but no video shows up, Transcoding takes about 27% CPU resource, wuite low compared to Panasonic profile.
But still problem ic not resolved.not

[atc98092]

Well, depending on your computer 27% might not be out of line transcoding the audio. The 4K Roku TV profile will not transcode H.265, so if you have any videos with that you can't use that profile. Otherwise those two profiles are identical.

The other thing is that the Roku profiles all use the HLS (applehttp) container for transcoding, so it's possible your player doesn't like HLS. I'm away from home this week, so I can't examine any other profiles to suggest to try. But as I said, 27% isn't all that bad, and certainly shows that video transcoding isn't being done.

But we've got to get your video working as well. Off the top of my head, you might try the Samsung J Series. I'm not certain there's any more recent (letter further down the alphabet) Samsung profile to try. But it doesn't use HLS, so that might be a good test.

Well, depending on your computer 27% might not be out of line transcoding the audio. The 4K Roku TV profile will not transcode H.265, so if you have any videos with that you can't use that profile. Otherwise those two profiles are identical.

The other thing is that the Roku profiles all use the HLS (applehttp) container for transcoding, so it's possible your player doesn't like HLS. I'm away from home this week, so I can't examine any other profiles to suggest to try. But as I said, 27% isn't all that bad, and certainly shows that video transcoding isn't being done.

But we've got to get your video working as well. Off the top of my head, you might try the Samsung J Series. I'm not certain there's any more recent (letter further down the alphabet) Samsung profile to try. But it doesn't use HLS, so that might be a good test.

Apology. When I was running the tests my Internet speed was well below 25Mb (My VirginMedia should be 200Mb) but they are carrying out some upgrades/maintenance,
When my Broadband is back to normal I will test again and feed back results.
Cheers

Well, depending on your computer 27% might not be out of line transcoding the audio. The 4K Roku TV profile will not transcode H.265, so if you have any videos with that you can't use that profile. Otherwise those two profiles are identical.

The other thing is that the Roku profiles all use the HLS (applehttp) container for transcoding, so it's possible your player doesn't like HLS. I'm away from home this week, so I can't examine any other profiles to suggest to try. But as I said, 27% isn't all that bad, and certainly shows that video transcoding isn't being done.

But we've got to get your video working as well. Off the top of my head, you might try the Samsung J Series. I'm not certain there's any more recent (letter further down the alphabet) Samsung profile to try. But it doesn't use HLS, so that might be a good test.

I tried 2 videos on Roku TV (non 4K) profile. One DTSHD Master 7.1 MKV & MKV converted by HandBrake. Other MKV DTS HD 5.1. Results on the excel doc. Samsung J series gave message "Cannot play"
I intend to use MKV files for all DVD & Blue Ray discs. If you can find me a profile that will play all MKV files, I will be very happy (if not I may need to get Android or Nvdia)

[atc98092]

OK, let's look at The Blind Side. The video codec is VC-1, which I would expect your Panasonic BD player to support. The audio is DTS Master Audio. Now, your spreadsheet doesn't list the Serviio profile assigned to your Panasonic, so considering the Roku TV profile, it would attempt to use HLS as the destination container, transcode the video to H.264 and the audio to Dolby Digital. In theory, I would expect that to play. Since I'm 700 miles from home, I can't review other profiles to see what else might be worth attempting.

But again, it's possible your Panasonic won't support VC-1 over DLNA. But if memory serves me I included a VC-1 matches line, so it should be transcoded to H.264. And that will push your CPU to almost 100%. But if I placed the VC-1 Matches line in the wrong place, it might match a different line first that doesn't transcode the video, only the audio. And that would cause the error you see. Again, when I get home this weekend I'll look closer at the profiles and see if something might match your player better, or if I need to tweak the Roku profiles.

I can't see any reason why The Borne Identity won't play after the Handbrake conversion. Since the original played, and the Handbrake version appears to be the same video codec, I don't know what differs. But based on the CPU usage something changed. Fortunately you can play the original, so no need to run it through Handbrake.

OK, let's look at The Blind Side. The video codec is VC-1, which I would expect your Panasonic BD player to support. The audio is DTS Master Audio. Now, your spreadsheet doesn't list the Serviio profile assigned to your Panasonic, so considering the Roku TV profile, it would attempt to use HLS as the destination container, transcode the video to H.264 and the audio to Dolby Digital. In theory, I would expect that to play. Since I'm 700 miles from home, I can't review other profiles to see what else might be worth attempting.

But again, it's possible your Panasonic won't support VC-1 over DLNA. But if memory serves me I included a VC-1 matches line, so it should be transcoded to H.264. And that will push your CPU to almost 100%. But if I placed the VC-1 Matches line in the wrong place, it might match a different line first that doesn't transcode the video, only the audio. And that would cause the error you see. Again, when I get home this weekend I'll look closer at the profiles and see if something might match your player better, or if I need to tweak the Roku profiles.

I can't see any reason why The Borne Identity won't play after the Handbrake conversion. Since the original played, and the Handbrake version appears to be the same video codec, I don't know what differs. But based on the CPU usage something changed. Fortunately you can play the original, so no need to run it through Handbrake.

Thank you.
Before I subject you to spending valuable time, I would like you to to see the excel doc. The Bandwidths available for my streaming are the Den (TPLink) to my lsptop & HD storage and Lounge (TPLink) to my Panasonic BDT 110.
Are the Bandwidths sufficient to stream the videos I want to stream?
Hope you can clarify that.
Then the rest of the problems can be addressed.

[atc98092]

40 Mbps should be enough for about anything other than 4K material. I do have a few 1080 Blu Ray rips that can exceed 40 Mbps, but most are below 30, even with peaks. 40 Mbps is still more than enough for any online streaming site, including 4K. Those top out at less than 20 Mbps. And DVD rips rarely even reach 10 Mbps.

Notice your Blind Side video info shows an average bitrate of 29 Mbps. That’s pretty typical for 1080 Blu Ray rips. As I said, a 4K/UHD rip will exceed 100, approaching up to 175 Mbps, so wired Gigabit Ethernet to a device that supports it is the preferred connection.

40 Mbps should be enough for about anything other than 4K material. I do have a few 1080 Blu Ray rips that can exceed 40 Mbps, but most are below 30, even with peaks. 40 Mbps is still more than enough for any online streaming site, including 4K. Those top out at less than 20 Mbps. And DVD rips rarely even reach 10 Mbps.

Notice your Blind Side video info shows an average bitrate of 29 Mbps. That’s pretty typical for 1080 Blu Ray rips. As I said, a 4K/UHD rip will exceed 100, approaching up to 175 Mbps, so wired Gigabit Ethernet to a device that supports it is the preferred connection.

OK. The speed available is 75 to 100 Mbps-so there should be no issue here.
I am completely foxed! I have done many tests and recorded on excel. The file properties are on Word.
I like the Roku TV (non 4K) profile as it does not transcode the video and light on the CPU usage.
Please find me a profile that will handle all those movies (MKV files) at least. MKV HandBrake files I can do witout if MKVs work.
My TV Video setting is set to 2160p. There are other settings & you advise which one/s to use.

[atc98092]

Your Internet speed has nothing to do with your internal network speed, so don't focus on it. Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) is enough for everything but ripped UHD Blu Rays. And unless you're still on 802.11G for wireless (which maxes out below 50 Mbps), you shouldn't have any issues there either.

I'm home from my trip, so I've looked over the Panasonic profile closer. I've also downloaded the users manual for the BDT110. Frankly, it has very poor support. It appears to only support .MKV and .AVI containers, and doesn't provide any detail about supported codecs. However, since it plays DVD and Blu Ray discs, we should expect support for MPEG-2, H.264 and VC-1 video. But due to the fact that it won't play The Blind Side, which has VC-1 video, I expect their DLNA support is limited.

Looking at the current Panasonic BD Player profile, I would expect it to be transcoding everything that is giving you a problem. Since no DVD contains DTS-MA audio, it doesn't look for that. It does capture DTS-MA in the MKV container if the video is H.264. So it's working correctly with The Borne Legacy. What changed with your Handbrake version, I have no idea, but since the original plays fine, nothing to do there.

It appears your player has a bitrate limitation, as the profile author has all transcoding lines capped at 15.3 Mbps. That really seems low for a BD player, but I don't have one to test with, so can't experiment myself.

But I'm puzzled by The Blind Side. That should be captured by line in the last transcoding block. All I can figure is it's being missed for some reason, so let's try adding an explicit Matches for it.

In the Transcoding section, above the first "<Video targetContainer" line, add this:

  Code:

 <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" maxVBitrate="15360" DAR="16:9" maxWidth="1920" maxHeight="1080">
     <Matches container="*" vCodec="vc1" />
 </Video>


After you add that line, save the file and restart the Serviio server. Then see if Blind Side will play. If it doesn't, then I'm at a complete loss and it's time to think of something else to use as a player. Just be aware that your CPU will likely be maxed out, since you're transcoding video. I've had both a Panasonic BD player and a TV in the past, and both were less than satisfactory as a player for my videos via Serviio. Nothing Serviio can to to fix a poor DLNA player I'm afraid.

Your Internet speed has nothing to do with your internal network speed, so don't focus on it. Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) is enough for everything but ripped UHD Blu Rays. And unless you're still on 802.11G for wireless (which maxes out below 50 Mbps), you shouldn't have any issues there either.

I'm home from my trip, so I've looked over the Panasonic profile closer. I've also downloaded the users manual for the BDT110. Frankly, it has very poor support. It appears to only support .MKV and .AVI containers, and doesn't provide any detail about supported codecs. However, since it plays DVD and Blu Ray discs, we should expect support for MPEG-2, H.264 and VC-1 video. But due to the fact that it won't play The Blind Side, which has VC-1 video, I expect their DLNA support is limited.

Looking at the current Panasonic BD Player profile, I would expect it to be transcoding everything that is giving you a problem. Since no DVD contains DTS-MA audio, it doesn't look for that. It does capture DTS-MA in the MKV container if the video is H.264. So it's working correctly with The Borne Legacy. What changed with your Handbrake version, I have no idea, but since the original plays fine, nothing to do there.

It appears your player has a bitrate limitation, as the profile author has all transcoding lines capped at 15.3 Mbps. That really seems low for a BD player, but I don't have one to test with, so can't experiment myself.

But I'm puzzled by The Blind Side. That should be captured by line in the last transcoding block. All I can figure is it's being missed for some reason, so let's try adding an explicit Matches for it.

In the Transcoding section, above the first "<Video targetContainer" line, add this:

  Code:

 <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="mpeg2video" targetACodec="ac3" maxVBitrate="15360" DAR="16:9" maxWidth="1920" maxHeight="1080">
     <Matches container="*" vCodec="vc1" />
 </Video>


After you add that line, save the file and restart the Serviio server. Then see if Blind Side will play. If it doesn't, then I'm at a complete loss and it's time to think of something else to use as a player. Just be aware that your CPU will likely be maxed out, since you're transcoding video. I've had both a Panasonic BD player and a TV in the past, and both were less than satisfactory as a player for my videos via Serviio. Nothing Serviio can to to fix a poor DLNA player I'm afraid.

Apology for the delay in responding.
I now have NVDIA & CODI which is working quite well so I feel I do not need anymore twiking in Serviio.
Thank you very much for all your help.
Regards
William

[atc98092]

Yep, the Nvidia Shield and Kodi is a perfect combination. It plays everything I have without transcoding, and sends all the lossless audio codecs to my AVR and displays whatever captions the video has. I love it.

Yep, the Nvidia Shield and Kodi is a perfect combination. It plays everything I have without transcoding, and sends all the lossless audio codecs to my AVR and displays whatever captions the video has. I love it.

Sorry!
Just as I thought I had it all, I cannot playback MKV ripped 3D files by my setup- 2D is fine.
Any suggestions<
Thanks

[atc98092]

I'm not familiar with 3D video, so I can't say it's supported. Chances are good that it's not, and there's nothing you can do from the Serviio side. I don't know if it's possible to transcode 3D to 2D.

I did find this after a quick search. The page is a couple years old, so I don't know if this still works: https://emby.media/community/index.php? ... -playback/
It's talking about Emby, but it sounds like they are still referring to using Kodi and the Emby is just acting as a DLNA server. In that case, it should work equally well with Serviio.