Problems streaming to Rokus

[jwclack52]

I'm having problems streaming on all of my Roku devices. Most are TCL tv's w/ gigabit ethernet connex. I also have a Roku streaming stick hooked up to a Samsung MU6290 4k TV. When I try to play using either the Roku media player or the Mezzmo app (which, by the way, never successfully finds the server on my LAN - have to manually add!) I get the dreaded "retrieving" message for minutes at a time. Movies finally load and play, but only after 2-3 minutes. I also have problems w/ FF - if I do, I get another 2-3 minutes of frozen app. Interestingly, the Samsung plays these streams fine w/ no delay, either from the start or after fast forwarding.

I'm attaching a log file of my attempts to play the same movie on the Roku Mezzmo app and then on the Samsung.

Jim

[Peter]

Hi Jim,
we would need to see the logs from the MezzmoMediaServer folder to try and determine why the problem occurs. Most likely is that transcoding is going too slowly. When you seek in a transcoded file Mezzmo needs to stop the transcoding and start it again from the new location so you would see the same delay. You can try using the Roku Streaming Player (Mkv) profile which will transcode to mkv but seeking will not be available until transcoding completes.

[jwclack52]

Hi Jim,
we would need to see the logs from the MezzmoMediaServer folder to try and determine why the problem occurs. Most likely is that transcoding is going too slowly. When you seek in a transcoded file Mezzmo needs to stop the transcoding and start it again from the new location so you would see the same delay. You can try using the Roku Streaming Player (Mkv) profile which will transcode to mkv but seeking will not be available until transcoding completes.

Okay - have others seen this? I'm seeing this even with files that conform to the Roku's/Mezzmo app's native compatibility. I don't think my server is underpowered - Dual Xeon X5650s for a total of 12 cores, 48GB RAM, about 14TB total storage. If I were to pre-transcode, will Mezzmo create a separate copy of each movie for each Roku device or do they share?

I've attached the log files.

Jim

[ftanner]

Okay - have others seen this? I'm seeing this even with files that conform to the Roku's/Mezzmo app's native compatibility. I don't think my server is underpowered - Dual Xeon X5650s for a total of 12 cores, 48GB RAM, about 14TB total storage. If I were to pre-transcode, will Mezzmo create a separate copy of each movie for each Roku device or do they share?

I've attached the log files.

Jim

Since you asked,

My streaming host is a single Intel i7 (four cores) with 16GB of RAM running Windows 7. So MUCH lower specs than your system. My Roku devices (both Ultras) are streaming just fine. All of my files are natively supported format. I've streamed everything from old standard def all the way up to 4k HDR. Both h.264 and h.265 encoding.

It almost sounds like there's something going on with your installation of Mezzmo itself.

[jwclack52]

Since you asked,

My streaming host is a single Intel i7 (four cores) with 16GB of RAM running Windows 7. So MUCH lower specs than your system. My Roku devices (both Ultras) are streaming just fine. All of my files are natively supported format. I've streamed everything from old standard def all the way up to 4k HDR. Both h.264 and h.265 encoding.

It almost sounds like there's something going on with your installation of Mezzmo itself.

Definitely a problem w/ transcoding. If I turn all transcoding off or turn it off for my Roku devices, they stream fine - which begs the question, why is Mezzmo transcoding if the Roku Mezzmo app can play the file (matroska h.264) natively??

[jwclack52]

I've switched the device drivers to Roku (mkv) and that helps. However, I'd like to try to choose formats to pre-transcode for the Rokus. Problem is that no formats are highlighted when I try to choose formats for transcoding, meaning Mezzmo doesn't consider any of my files to be necessary for transcoding. Despite that, Mezzmo transcodes the movie on the fly and this is what causes things like inability to FF. I sure would appreciate some guidance on what to pre-transcode for Rokus. AND I'd like to understand why movies are being transcoded even when the native format is supposedly supported by the Mezzmo app on Rokus.

[ftanner]

I've switched the device drivers to Roku (mkv) and that helps. However, I'd like to try to choose formats to pre-transcode for the Rokus. Problem is that no formats are highlighted when I try to choose formats for transcoding, meaning Mezzmo doesn't consider any of my files to be necessary for transcoding. Despite that, Mezzmo transcodes the movie on the fly and this is what causes things like inability to FF. I sure would appreciate some guidance on what to pre-transcode for Rokus. AND I'd like to understand why movies are being transcoded even when the native format is supposedly supported by the Mezzmo app on Rokus.

I have mine set to Roku 4k, since my devices are the Ultras. I'm not sure what difference that makes.

[Peter]

The Roku 4k profile has a max resolution of 4k and support for h265 codec.

[jwclack52]

The Roku 4k profile has a max resolution of 4k and support for h265 codec.

Tried it. Didn't work. And these aren't 4k files.