Serviio

Good day all!

I mentioned this in the Samsung forum, but while one person kindly offered some assistance, it didn't help so I thought I'd bring it here as well. I just purchased a new Samsung UN50HU8550 4K TV. Karnith offered a Samsung H profile he had created, but it didn't work. Currently, using the Generic profile, the TV seems to play virtually all my local files, regardless of container or codec. The problem with the generic profile is a) the images of the movie art are distorted, b) DVD rips have some stutter to the video (audio is fine, as are Blu-Ray rips) and c) online sources will not play (Crackle is the only one I have configured).

The issue with all existing Samsung profiles is that every video is shown as unplayable. Since they play via Generic, that's obviously not the case. I understand the profile settings within each transcoding section (the Video and Online sections), but the sections before Transcoding loses me.

So, here's the Device Spy info for this TV. There must be something different with this UHD TV compared to the standard HD H model.

Still need some help, people (please!)

The Samsung H profile that was provided is working for most of my media, but it is not touching my WTV (Windows Recorded TV) files. It shows them in the lists, but they show zero size and when I attempt to play one I get an unsupported file error.

This line was in the H profile:


but of course most recorded TV is MPEG2 video, which the TV supports. If I remove the vCodec portion (to match every WTV file), no changes apparent. I've changed a number of settings, and it's almost like I haven't changed the profile at all.

I have a similar problem with M2TS files. I'm unsure how the TV recognizes this container. I've attached an image of what the owner's manual lists for file and codec support. Of course, the Device Spy info is listed above. I just don't know what it all means.

Can you post the profile or point to it. Does this profile fix the issue with a) the images of the movie art are distorted, b) DVD rips have some stutter to the video (audio is fine, as are Blu-Ray rips) and c) online sources will not play (Crackle is the only one I have configured).

Is it just wtv files now not working. If so, post MediaInfo for one of them.

It supports them according to the image - what is the problem?

Profile attached. The Samsung H profile is the last one in the file.
a) Yes, this fixes the distorted thumbnail images.
b) Any file with MPEG2 video codec stutters, regardless of container. I don't think this profile transcodes them. If I watch the same file from the same server, only using Windows Media Streaming instead of Serviio they still stutter. Any file with H.264 or VC-1 video codec plays perfectly.
c) Online (Crackle) plays fine.

WTV & WMV don't play. AVI plays. Here's a WTV example:




M2TS is hit or miss. This one plays:


This one doesn't play:


I must not understand the Profiles format like I thought I did. I made a test file with only the Generic profile and this Samsung H profile. I then removed all video transcoding and only had one setting:

<Video targetContainer="mpegts" targetVCodec="h264" targetACodec="ac3" aBitrate="192" >
<Matches container="*" />
</Video>

Nothing would play with that setting. I changed h264 to mpeg2video and still every file said zero size and wouldn't play. I thought this would transcode everything to H264 video, which is one thing the TV plays perfectly. Even with debugging enabled in the log showed nothing. Like I wasn't even trying to play from that server. Except I was

FYI: I am doing all this on my test server, not my primary. The only difference between the two is CPU and number of hard drives. Same versions of Serviio, everything connected to my gigabit network via cat5.

Its going to be a matter of playing. Take a backup of your profile.

Try removing or commenting out all of this:
This is the part dealing with WTV and WMV (asf) files. See what happens - this is the no transcode case.
Then try adding (just after the last </Video> statement):
This is the full transcode case (both video and audio transcoded). Try it with and without the forceVTranscoding="true" bit. Unfortunately you haven't given me the full details of the WTV file (no audio details in the one above?) to go the next level if we need to.

For your mt2s files the thing that stands out is that the second file has TRUE HD audio. This may be the problem. Try transcoding it, or changing the order of your audio tracks so that AC3 is the first track. To transcode it try changing the line:

<Matches container="mpegts" vCodec="h264" aCodec="truehd"/>

removing the bit in red. As always, restart the Serviio service (or your PC) after making any changes to your profile.xml file.

I'll give this a try when I get home.

I noticed the audio wasn't listed in the MediaInfo grab. Strange, because there is audio. It should be AC3, since that's the audio standard for US broadcast TV.

Thanks!

Here's the FFMPEG info from the same file. I have no idea why MediaInfo didn't show audio, but that's what I got from any WTV file I tried. I was right, it is AC3 audio. The channel I recorded this from is a sub-channel to the main TV channel. As such, I don't think they send 5.1 audio out. They certainly don't send the video 16x9, even if the video itself is widescreen. It gets picture-boxed instead. Boo, hiss...

Made the changes you listed above. WTV still shows zero size and won't play.

I am suspicious that this TV has a defect in its processor. It should play MPEG2 video perfectly, and it doesn't. I would think it would have a more difficult time playing HD MKV or M2TS files, but practically all of them play perfectly. They list this TV as a quad core processor. Should have plenty of power.

According to their documentation is should play almost everything without transcoding. Doesn't seem to be the case.

The one thing I never considered when I purchased it was the loss of HD audio. I should have thought of it, but just didn't process in my brain. Completely forgot that optical audio connections can't carry them, and I've researched HDMI ARC and it won't pass the bitstream back either. My Sony BD player would send the bitstream to my receiver. It might if is is LPCM, but that means transcoding everything. I may just get a new BluRay player and let it be my streaming player. Using the TV for Netflix and Amazon is fine, since they both top out audio at DD+. Plus I can stream the 4K videos that are available if I use the TV. I should probably wait to seen how long before a 4K BD player is available.

Here's something interesting. Using the standard H profile (none of the above edits) on my normal server, WTV files are playing fine. It's only on my test server (running the latest Serviio beta) that the WTV files won't play. Going to dig into the test server some more. I may uninstall Serviio and perform a clean install to see if anything changes. I've enabled debug logging, and the debug stuff isn't showing up. Makes me think something else might be a little screwy. I changed to debug before I installed the beta, so I don't believe that was the issue.