I’ve recently upgraded my Plex instance to separate out the storage side and the compute side. In general, I couldn’t be happier - the compute side is a little HP prodesk with a quicksync-capable CPU, and the results have been phenomenal.

I have one user who has been complaining about stuttering playback when doing Direct Play on a Roku 3 (2015). When they switch to transcoding, it works perfectly. The only time I’ve seen it, it has been doing a direct stream of MKV -> MPEGTS for the video container with a transcode of DCA 7.1 -> Stereo audio.

Bandwidth is not the issue and they were the only ones streaming at the time.

Do you think the Roku choking on it somehow? My 2017 Shield TV can fully direct play it without issue.

  • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    What’s the full codec and format breakdown of an example problematic file?

    Is it something barely supported like 10bit H264? Or perhaps an ass subtitle incompatibility?

    Could also just be as simple as bad wifi to the roku.

    • ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      Nothing crazy. No 10bit HEVC or anything. Full codec info:

      General
      Unique ID                                : 898317064945381349172254457243775154 (0xAD027368905BC5EA73277A3F7230B2)
      Complete name                            : Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (2023) Remux-1080p.mkv
      Format                                   : Matroska
      Format version                           : Version 2
      File size                                : 33.3 GiB
      Duration                                 : 2 h 4 min
      Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
      Overall bit rate                         : 38.3 Mb/s
      Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
      Movie name                               : Ant-Man.and.the.Wasp.Quantumania.2023.1080p.BluRay.REMUX.AVC.DTS-HD-MA.7.1-UnKn0wn
      Encoded date                             : 2023-05-16 17:47:08 UTC
      Writing application                      : MakeMKV v1.16.4 win(x64-release)
      Writing library                          : libmakemkv v1.16.4 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)
      
      Video
      ID                                       : 1
      ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
      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 4 min
      Bit rate mode                            : Variable
      Bit rate                                 : 31.7 Mb/s
      Maximum bit rate                         : 35.4 Mb/s
      Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
      Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
      Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
      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
      Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.638
      Stream size                              : 27.6 GiB (83%)
      Language                                 : English
      Default                                  : No
      Forced                                   : No
      Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
      
      Audio #1
      ID                                       : 2
      ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
      Format                                   : DTS XLL
      Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
      Commercial name                          : DTS-HD Master Audio
      Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
      Duration                                 : 2 h 4 min
      Bit rate mode                            : Variable
      Bit rate                                 : 4 757 kb/s
      Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
      Channel layout                           : C L R LFE Lb Rb Lss Rss
      Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
      Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
      Bit depth                                : 24 bits
      Compression mode                         : Lossless
      Stream size                              : 4.14 GiB (12%)
      Title                                    : Surround 7.1
      Language                                 : English
      Default                                  : Yes
      Forced                                   : No
      Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
      
      Audio #2
      ID                                       : 3
      ID in the original source medium         : 4352 (0x1100)
      Format                                   : DTS
      Format/Info                              : Digital Theater Systems
      Codec ID                                 : A_DTS
      Duration                                 : 2 h 4 min
      Bit rate mode                            : Constant
      Bit rate                                 : 1 509 kb/s
      Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
      Channel layout                           : C L R Ls Rs LFE
      Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
      Frame rate                               : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
      Bit depth                                : 24 bits
      Compression mode                         : Lossy
      Stream size                              : 1.31 GiB (4%)
      Title                                    : Surround 5.1
      Language                                 : English
      Default                                  : No
      Forced                                   : No
      Original source medium                   : Blu-ray
      • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        It’s the DTSXLL audio track, I guarantee it, there are people having issues on other apps like emby with high bitrate 8ch DTS on some devices.

        If you force the second 5.1 audio track to be the default does it still have issues?

        • ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          1 year ago

          I’ll reach out and ask them to try swapping audio.

          The issue’s on the Roku side, correct? Or am I going crazy? I’ve checked everywhere a long the stack and don’t see bottlenecks.

          • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I have 4 Roku’s When they’re great, they’re the greatest. Stuff like this on large content is sadly not uncommon. They fix it in an update, break it in another. For single titles, i’ll just run optimize on it.

            It still runs better than the plex client on my smart TV’s, but that’s not saying much.

  • gingerman@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I was recently having issues with my Roku Premier stuttering on some media. It’s hardwired to the same network as the server.

    What fixed it for me was changing the audio output in the main Roku settings to stereo. This Roku use to be setup with a receiver to decode the audio stream but is currently sending audio directly to the TV. I think decoding the audio was too much for the Roku.