Roku Unnecessary Transcoding

Hi-

I recently purchased Mezzmo Pro it has been working great. However, I recently started streaming to my Roku 3. While many of the formats are supported, .avi files need to be transcoded.

However, if I enable transcoding, many of my other video files start to transcode unnecessarily. Specifically MKV files with DTS audio.

I was wondering if there is a simple way in the device profile to just have transcoding occur for .avi files without having to add all of the supported audio formats etc. for the other container formats. I would rather just disable transcoding as it is unnecessary for my WDTV boxes, but if I could just add the .avi for Roku exception that would be ideal.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Are you using the (free) Mezzmo for Roku app? See http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide. It's the best way to stream your files to your Roku from Mezzmo server.

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Originally Posted by Paul

Are you using the (free) Mezzmo for Roku app? See http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?...oku_user_guide. It's the best way to stream your files to your Roku from Mezzmo server.

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I tried the Mezzmo app, and while at first it looked great, there a couple of issues that prevent me from using it. First, the scrolling is not smooth like the other Roku apps. It is very jumpy when scrolling through the titles. The other issue is that after using it and just browsing titles, I noticed my computer was at 100% cpu. There were 5 different ffmpeg processes running. It appears that they were creating thumbnails. I let them run for a while, but after 2 hours, they were still running and taking up 100% cpu. I guess at this point, the app seems too buggy for my use.

I am currently using the Roku Media Player. It works great with transcoding off. When it is enabled, it transcodes the majority of my files even though they do not require it.

Thanks for the response.

Go to the Media Device dialog and make sure the device profile for your Roku is 'Roku Streaming Player'. If it already set, then can you let us know which files are not required to be transcoded but are being transcoded? We'll tweak the Roku device profile and send it to you to try. In Mezzmo, right-click on the files that don't require transcoding and click 'Get FFmpeg information'. Email this to us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paul

Go to the Media Device dialog and make sure the device profile for your Roku is 'Roku Streaming Player'. If it already set, then can you let us know which files are not required to be transcoded but are being transcoded? We'll tweak the Roku device profile and send it to you to try. In Mezzmo, right-click on the files that don't require transcoding and click 'Get FFmpeg information'. Email this to us at support [at] conceiva [dot] com.

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Will do, thanks a lot!

Hi, Paul,

I thought I'd piggyback on this thread, as it is very close to what I am experiencing.

DTS HD-MA is where the problem lies for me. Roku does not support DTS HD-MA (possibly TrueHD as well, although I haven't fiddled with that yet). 7.1 is apparently no bueno.

BUT...

This isn't the first device I've purchased that doesn't support the standards, so I always grab 5.1 audio streams, and sometimes stereo as well.

The problem is, when I rip a disk, the default is the 7.1, which I like, as when it is supported, it plays it.

However, I'm unsure where the problem lies, but when the default audio track is an unsupported format for the Roku, the Mezzmo app does not allow me to optionally select a supported format (which is in the .mkv container). I'd like to be offered the opportunity to select a different audio stream rather than do a forced transcode. Ideas?

On a separate note, when I *do* get offered the ability to select (in the Roku Mezzmo app) because the audio is supported and it does not transcode, it looks like "English 5.1" and "English 2.0" get (the text) shrunk down to just English. Maybe i'm missing something there though.

Cheers!

The Roku only supports stereo audio, if you have an audio receiver connected then the Roku will pass the audio to the receiver. When there are multiple audio streams and the first audio stream is stereo then the Roku should be able to play the stereo stream, it will ignore the unsupported audio stream. If the first stream is 7.1 then it will not try to discover further audio streams and will usually fail to play the file so you should encode your files with the stereo stream as the first stream if possible. Pre-transcoding to mkv will encode a stereo aac and an AC3 5.1 so that if you have a receiver connected you will get multi-channel and if not then the file will still play.

This isn't really the behavior I am seeing.

What I've noticed is that with the Roku plugged into an HDMI port on an audio receiver (or TV that can decode it/pass it through, and does so from other sources) that supports TrueHD and DTS HD-MA (.mkv), Mezzmo transcodes the file and remixes the audio.

If it is DTS or DD, then it passes through. The Roku can only pass through 5.1 streams, and the Roku Media app (not the Mezzmo app) will refuse to play the file, but the Mezzmo app will transcode and remux the audio down.

All 5.1 streams play (i.e. DVDs), but a Blu-ray with 7.1 transcodes every time.

I can repro this on 2 televisions that support 5.1, and a Harmon-Kardon receiver that supports all formats (except Atmos).

Adding something a little more interesting to this...

If I disable transcoding to the Roku devices, and tell it to always deliver all content, it stops the transcoding, and the files play just fine.

Color me confused.

We have a Roku profile that has support for DTS we can give you to try, send an email to support [at] conceiva [dot] com and we'll send you the profile.

OK, I need to add more to this...

I use MakeMKV to rip stuff. When I elect to add subtitles (other than forced only) when the movie plays, the subtitles will tend to start by default, and I have to stop them through the clients UI. BUT, on the Roku, using the Mezzmo app, I get the following issues:

1) If I disable transcoding, the video will not play
2) If I enable transcoding only (leaving the subtitles options unchecked, the video plays but is being transcoded unnecessarily (and this is strictly related to subs, because I tested with video that passes muster on the audio issues mentioned above)
3) If I enable transcoding, and check the box "Stream external subtitles", the video still transcodes, does not display subtitles, and I cannot turn them on in the app.
4) If I enable "Burn subtitles into video files", the video transcodes, the subtitles are burned in, and there is no way to turn them off in the app.

In tests with Plex (which I absolutely HATE and isn't even close to Mezzmo) this is not the experience. Plex allows for subtitles to be optional, has them off by default regardless of whether or not the subtitles are "somehow" forced to on by default by the way MakeMKV rips stuff. Since most of what Plex does is under the covers, I'm sort of assuming that it does the same thing Mezzmo does, and based on the choppy video it offers, it is transcoding, but not burning the subtitles in, but rather forcing them off by default, and streaming them when needed (you can turn them on and off on the fly - I can't imagine that if Plex was burning them in that one could do this).

I'm stumped. None of this behavior happens in Kodi. I'd really like these little streaming sticks to work consistently and work well with Mezzmo, so anything that can be done to beat this up and get it to play smoothly would be awesome.

Thanks!
hsbrown2

If the video will not play with transcoding disabled then Mezzmo will need to transcode it, the Roku may be detecting the embedded subtitles and trying to decode them and failing and this is why the video will not play with transcoding disabled.

You can try going to the properties of the file in Mezzmo and on the subtitles tab select the subtitle and then click the button to extract them and if they are text based they should then be available as external subtitles when playing the video on the Roku. Burning subtitles into the video makes them permanently part of the transcoded video image and this is why they cannot be turned off.

Kodi has much better format support compared to Roku and this is why the streaming experience is so much better. Roku only supports certain formats and codecs so Mezzmo needs to transcode more than with Kodi.

This gets even stranger.

If I extract the subtitles, it still transcodes, and subtitles (closed captioning in the Mezzmo app?) are unavailable. I have to assume it's a format issue. It looks like the device profile only shows the Roku supports .vtt? I'm really in way deeper than I understand...

At any rate, if I disable the default embedded subtitles altogether (I'm just assuming that unchecking this option in the subs tab of the file itself treats it as though there are no subtitles), the video still transcodes. HOWEVER - if I uncheck the embedded subtitles and *disable* transcoding, then the video plays fine.

The only catch here is I am uncertain in what way this might effect forced subs. Obviously that would be detrimental to the experience if a Klingon begins speaking, since I don't speak Klingon.

The thing that gets me is that Plex seems to handle the embedded subtitles just fine. My girlfriend is a Plex fan, and I like the way Mezzmo is customizable for playlists and device experiences, and I hate that Plex is a proprietary app that stores everything in the cloud. In Plex they can be turned on and off, and it has no problems, but definitely is transcoding, which is fine, as long as there is control over the subs. I of course prefer to *not* transcode, since it can be a lossy process, but if the device doesn't work... Whaddaya gonna do?

There's definitely something wonky here though. Even with subtitles completely disabled, and using supported audio formats, Mezzmo always transcodes .mkv to the Roku Mezzmo app when transcoding is turned on.

Is there a way using a CLI I can disable subs for all the videos? Hopefully it won't kill forced subs.

Can you please right-click on the file in Mezzmo and select 'Get FFmpeg Information...' then copy and paste this into a post here or email it to support [at] conceiva [dot] com. Possibly something other than the subtitles is causing the transcoding, if the file has DTS then it will be transcoded because of this unless you are using the Roku Streaming Player (DTS) profile (I think I sent it to you). Mezzmo can transcode the subtitles to vtt format if they are srt or another text format so that the Roku can play them. The subtitles for when a Klingon is talking are usually burned into the original video, forced subtitles like these are usually not in an external or embedded subtitle.