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Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

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Rggoalie3

Serviio newbie

Posts: 5

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:05 pm

Post Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:40 am

Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

I was having quite a bit of trouble with audio with my Roku express. After a great deal of fiddling around, I found that really two lines fixed the issue:

<Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="dts-hd" />
<Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="dca" />

Felt a little dumb, when I figured out that it was literally commented in the profile. But the dca wasn't there, I think that matches for non-HD DTS as well. Anyway after adding both those lines, I now have 0 audio playback issues. YAY! From what I understand, the roku can PASS DTS. But not directly decode it. Might be nice if the dev was to add a Roku 1080 Media Player (2016+) No DTS profile or something similar to make this more accessible. But if not, at least it's here and some other poor soul will find this post instead of taking hours to figure it out like I did.

  Code:
   <Profile id="RokuNo4kApp" name="Roku 1080 Media Player (2016+)" extendsProfileId="RokuMPApp">
      <!-- NOTE:
            This profile does not restrict the audio to 2 channel stereo. If you are encountering audio issues, add forceStereo="true" to the targetContainer line after the targetACodec setting.
            The player should be able to play videos without requiring the maxVBitrate setting. You can experiment if desired.
            Roku players do not support mepg2 video.
            Every effort has been made to capture videos correctly. If you discover a file being transcoded unnecessarily, please report it in the Serviio forum in the Transcoding section.
                -->
      <Transcoding>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="512" maxWidth="1920" maxHeight="1080">
            <Matches container="*" widthGreaterThan="1920" />
         </Video>
         <!-- transcode HD video unsupported by device, transcode audio regardless of codec -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="512">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="vc1" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h265" />
         </Video>
         <!-- Remux h264 video stream, transcode audio only -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="512">
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="truehd" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="aac" aMultichannel="true" />
            <!-- if you have audio issues with DTS HD Audio, uncomment the following line to transcode DTS-HD to DD -->
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="dts-hd" />
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="h264" aCodec="dca" />
         </Video>
         <!-- Transcode non-H.264 video or FLAC audio -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="ac3" >
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="wmv2"/>
            <Matches container="*" aCodec="flac"/>
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="mpeg1video"/>
            <Matches container="*" vCodec="mpeg2video" />
            <!-- transcode non-supported containers regardless of codec -->
            <Matches container="wtv"/>
            <Matches container="avi" />
            <Matches container="mpegvideo"/>
            <Matches container="mpeg"/>
         </Video>
         <!-- Remux audio and video streams - for DivX/Xvid in AVI/Matroska -->
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts">
            <Matches container="avi" vCodec="mpeg4" />
            <Matches container="avi" vCodec="msmpeg4" />
         </Video>
         <!-- if you have issues playing audio files, uncomment the following section to transcode MP3 -->
         <!-- <Audio targetContainer="mp3">
            <Matches container="*" />
         </Audio> -->
      </Transcoding>
      <OnlineTranscoding>
         <Video targetContainer="applehttp"> <!-- dont transcode to ac3 -->
            <Matches container="mp4" />
            <Matches container="flv" vCodec="h264" />
            <Matches container="applehttp" vCodec="h264" />
         </Video>
      </OnlineTranscoding>
      <GenericTranscoding>
         <Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="ac3"/>
      </GenericTranscoding>
      <AutomaticImageRotation>true</AutomaticImageRotation>
      <LimitImageResolution>false</LimitImageResolution>
   </Profile>



Anyhow, onto where I need help. I've got a few videos that won't fast forward/rewind even after selecting the above profile and modifying it. I used ffmpeg to transcode the video stream to another codec and copy the audio stream, but to my surprise, this didn't fix it. I still couldn't FF/REW. But, then I transcoded the audio stream and copied the video stream instead and BOOM, I could RR/FF again. I've included ffprobe results for the problematic file. Could someone help me tailor this profile a bit more to get these types of files to FF/REW?

  Code:
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'file.mkv':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : libebml v1.3.6 + libmatroska v1.4.9
    creation_time   : 2018-05-09T00:24:07.000000Z
  Duration: 02:20:13.25, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 11154 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x800, SAR 1:1 DAR 12:5, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 9642618
      DURATION-eng    : 02:20:13.238000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 201716
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 10140705526
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 1509000
      DURATION-eng    : 02:20:13.248000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 788742
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 1586948904
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
    Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: subrip (default) (forced)
    Metadata:
      title           : English Forced
      BPS-eng         : 130
      DURATION-eng    : 00:00:06.173000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 2
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 101
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
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Rggoalie3

Serviio newbie

Posts: 5

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:05 pm

Post Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:10 am

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

Well, guess I was wrong about having all the audio playback working. This file won't play audio. But when I transcoded it to mp3, it worked fine. And that's a bit strange considering it says the audio is mp3...

file2 just the audio section, because the rest was a bit of a mess of subtitles and chapters.
  Code:
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: mp3 (libmp3lame) (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
    Metadata:
      BPS-eng         : 1280000
      DURATION-eng    : 02:14:46.720000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 252710
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 1293875200
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v26.0.0 ('In The Game') 64-bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-09-17 13:24:54
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
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atc98092

User avatar

DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:42 pm

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

Can't say why the MP3 audio wouldn't play. That should be supported by the Roku. It appears to be a standard MP3 track. Are you using an AVR?

Unfortunately, I can't create a Roku profile for every possible configuration. I have 6 is them already! :D That's why I added the commented lines for DTS, with the suggestion to uncomment if necessary. I'd like to have a separate profile that works for everyone, but there are far too many potential setups. So the player profiles are written based on the assumption that the player is connected to an AVR which can handle DTS audio, with the commented lines for people that don't use an AVR. Usually someone that has gone to the trouble of setting up a DLNA server is using an AVR. ;)

The DCA line is for standard DTS, while DTS-HD is for the Master Audio tracks that can be found on Blu Ray discs. In theory, Roku players are supposed to be able to pass the lossy DTS core from a Master Audio track, and it does work with most of my movies that way. However, there are a few, specifically the first 6 Star Wars movies, that just can't seem to play on a Roku unless the audio is transcoded to Dolby Digital. Just this week Roku has confirmed in their forum that the latest generation players (not sure if your Premiere is one of them) will now pass the full DTS Master Audio bitstream to a supporting AVR. My Ultra is the last generation, and so far does not have that support.
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
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Rggoalie3

Serviio newbie

Posts: 5

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:05 pm

Post Sun Jan 20, 2019 4:22 am

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

atc98092 wrote:Are you using an AVR?


Nope, straight Roku to TV.

atc98092 wrote:Unfortunately, I can't create a Roku profile for every possible configuration. I have 6 is them already! :D That's why I added the commented lines for DTS, with the suggestion to uncomment if necessary. I'd like to have a separate profile that works for everyone, but there are far too many potential setups. So the player profiles are written based on the assumption that the player is connected to an AVR which can handle DTS audio, with the commented lines for people that don't use an AVR.


Fair enough, might consider adding DCA to that commented section as well. I had everything from old DVD files, to kids TV shows to BluRays not playing without it on my non-AVR TVs. I'm set on that now, just took a bit of time to figure out it was dca I needed to match, not dts.

atc98092 wrote:Usually someone that has gone to the trouble of setting up a DLNA server is using an AVR. ;)


Ugh, don't rub it in. :) I do have access, but my wife in INCREDIBLY sensitive to low freq. sounds, so every time I set one up, it's a problem because I can't do a woofer.


Any thoughts on how I can resolve the issues above where it won't FF/RR unless I transcode to MP3?

Here's the FFPROD info again:

  Code:
    Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'file.mkv':
      Metadata:
        encoder         : libebml v1.3.6 + libmatroska v1.4.9
        creation_time   : 2018-05-09T00:24:07.000000Z
      Duration: 02:20:13.25, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 11154 kb/s
        Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x800, SAR 1:1 DAR 12:5, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
        Metadata:
          BPS-eng         : 9642618
          DURATION-eng    : 02:20:13.238000000
          NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 201716
          NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 10140705526
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
          _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
        Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s (default)
        Metadata:
          BPS-eng         : 1509000
          DURATION-eng    : 02:20:13.248000000
          NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 788742
          NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 1586948904
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
          _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
        Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: subrip (default) (forced)
        Metadata:
          title           : English Forced
          BPS-eng         : 130
          DURATION-eng    : 00:00:06.173000000
          NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 2
          NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 101
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v23.0.0 ('The Bride Said No') 64-bit
          _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2018-05-09 00:24:07
          _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES



I think it's DTS, so it should be transcoded the same as any other in the dca line I inserted, I think. But it will only FF/RR it I do a FFMPEG -i file -acodec mp3 -vcodec copy outfile
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atc98092

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DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:48 am

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

Good idea. I'll see where the best place to put a DCA matches line. Some of the profiles already have it, but I see I don't have it anywhere in the MPEG2 profile. My oversight. :oops:

As far as getting trick play, there's no way without a) using HLS as the transcoding stream or b) recoding the files yourself as you mention. The reason I don't use HLS is that it doesn't support multi-channel audio. If you switch to the Chaneru profile, you will get your trick play (with stereo sound), but it will transcode files that don't require transcoding, as it's written for the lowest level of Roku player, as is the basic non-specific Roku profile.

A file has to be playable by the Roku to have trick play available, including a supported container. So without using an AVR, every file has to have H.264/MP4 video, AC3/AAC/MP3 audio, and the container has to be MKV, MP4, MOV or TS. Don't forget that not every container will support all video and audio codecs. It gets complicated. :D
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
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Rggoalie3

Serviio newbie

Posts: 5

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:05 pm

Post Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:37 pm

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

atc98092 wrote:Good idea. I'll see where the best place to put a DCA matches line. Some of the profiles already have it, but I see I don't have it anywhere in the MPEG2 profile. My oversight. :oops:

As far as getting trick play, there's no way without a) using HLS as the transcoding stream or b) recoding the files yourself as you mention. The reason I don't use HLS is that it doesn't support multi-channel audio. If you switch to the Chaneru profile, you will get your trick play (with stereo sound), but it will transcode files that don't require transcoding, as it's written for the lowest level of Roku player, as is the basic non-specific Roku profile.

A file has to be playable by the Roku to have trick play available, including a supported container. So without using an AVR, every file has to have H.264/MP4 video, AC3/AAC/MP3 audio, and the container has to be MKV, MP4, MOV or TS. Don't forget that not every container will support all video and audio codecs. It gets complicated. :D


Thank you for that explanation! I also have the additional wrinkle of needing subtitles and that's been VERY spotty. I have 12TB of HDD space, so I've decided to batch transcode all my files to MKV/H.264/AC3 with and without burnt in subtitles. Probably not the right solution for everyone, but it'll make my life much easier. Thanks again for all the help!!
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atc98092

User avatar

DLNA master

Posts: 5205

Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:22 pm

Location: Washington (the state)

Post Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:15 pm

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

Yeah, subtitle support on a Roku is hit or miss. It's supposed to work with SRT files, but with the few I have it rarely kicks in. And the Roku doesn't support embedded image based captions, which is all DVDs and Blu Rays use. If I want to watch something and I absolutely need the captions, that's where my Shield is far superior. :D
Dan

LG NANO85 4K TV, Samsung JU7100 4K TV, Sony BDP-S3500, Sharp 4K Roku TV, Insignia Roku TV, Roku Ultra, Premiere and Stick, Nvidia Shield, Yamaha RX-V583 AVR.
Primary server: Intel i5-6400, 16 gig ram, Windows 10 Pro, 22 TB hard drive space | Test server Windows 10 Pro, AMD Phenom II X4 965, 8 gig ram

HOWTO: Enable debug logging HOWTO: Identify media file contents
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Rggoalie3

Serviio newbie

Posts: 5

Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:05 pm

Post Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:31 pm

Re: Profile For Roku Express & a little help needed

atc98092 wrote:Yeah, subtitle support on a Roku is hit or miss. It's supposed to work with SRT files, but with the few I have it rarely kicks in. And the Roku doesn't support embedded image based captions, which is all DVDs and Blu Rays use. If I want to watch something and I absolutely need the captions, that's where my Shield is far superior. :D


LOL, you mean hit and miss and miss and miss and miss and miss and miss. Yea, I tried copying SRTs into the folder with the exact settings it recommends. No dice. Nothing but burnt in CC works reliably. Good to know the shield works reliably though!

BTW, love the product. I bought the pro edition even though I don't really need it's features. I like the remote console abilities, art lookup and that I don't have to have a cloud account to run a local DLNA server like some of your competitors require.

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