Getting stuttering playback on a Roku 3 when Direct Playing some content

3 years ago by ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM to c/plex

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.

Faceman2K23 3 points 3 years 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.

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ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM 3 points 3 years 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

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Faceman2K23 4 points 3 years 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?

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ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM 2 points 3 years 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.

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linearchaos 2 points 3 years 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.

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Thormjolnir 2 points 3 years ago

Do you have a similar file to compare it to? Because the only thing I could think of is network bottleneck

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gingerman 2 points 3 years 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.

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