Errors expected/normal?

[Yoji]

Hi, to try and avoid wasting anyone's time, can I post my experience and if it not normal/expected I can try and recreate and post logs etc.

So its a universal media server, and in general I have good experience with it.
But I recently downloaded a film which was "xxxxxxxx WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv" and I can play it just fine on my PC with VLC media player.
So wanted to watch it on my TV (Samsung 8 something or other, recognised renderer by the UMS ).. so fired up UMS...
On TV i was able to navigate to UMS and find film... but it would not play... it threw up a box saying error and giving me options to skip or cancel.
I went to transcode folder (I never quite understand this folder and need to use... but have read a bit about it) and selected the VLC transcode option, it again errored out in same way..
No transcode options worked..
I did look at debug logs but got lost, I did see something about ver 5.1 not supported (only 4.1) and so transcode needed... (which is why I dived into transcode folder) but I had tried so many
options by then I could not corrolate the logs with which attempt.. so gave up..
So I went back to PC and used Leawo Prof.media to convert the original file to "Samsung TV" compatible video
Which increased size from 9.5GB to a 18.8GB MP4...
Which I assumed would work...
BUT... when now using UMS and navigating to this new file... it started OK, but when I tried fast forward.. it then threw the same error (i.e. "Error" with option to skip or cancel)
and I could not get it to work again..
I went to transcode folder and tried VLC again... and it still gave same error...
but when I went "back" on the controller... it all of a sudden started working... and I could fast forward (I had seen first 90 mins.. )
So ultimately it worked... but I am sure it was 1000% more Faff than it should have been..

So any kind soul able to give me a simple explanation? was it "pilot error" and I am an idiot.. or should it have worked seamlessly from the start?
I am cheap, so only have version 15.5

As I say.. happy to do tests and post logs if interested... (but let me know a good (simple?) tool if you want detailed info about the media file format details, I am a noob on the complexities).
Thanks in advance for any guidance.

[mik_s]

That video probably used a codec that the TV could not play.
Using transcoding will convert it into a format that is supported so it can at least play although some things may not work properly like seeking or being able to change subtitles or audio tracks.
It is best to use FFmpeg for transcoding as that should work in most cases and is what I am more familiar with. I cannot comment on using the VLC engine but I know Mencoder can have sync problems.

The 5.1 not being supported message probably meant the encoding level for h264 is not playable on the TV over 4.1 so it should have automatically started to transcode.
Sometimes higher levels will actually play without transcoding and you can test by selecting the "no transcoding" option in the #--TRANSCODE--# folder, but this seems to differ video by video so to be on the safe side it is set to what the TV's manual says it should be.

To know the full reason why it was not working I would need to see logs (see the red section above) as it should have been transcoding the first time and if that was not working your transcoding settings may not be correct.
It might be it just took a little longer to start so the TV timed out.
This can happen if subtitles need to be burned in and takes longer to get going. Usually immediately restarting the video will work as it has already cached that data.

Another thing that can help is making sure your GPU is enabled if you have one and turn on hardware encoding for h264 and h265 codecs in the transcoding settings for FFmpeg.

[Yoji]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply.
I thought that the fact it identified the TV as a recognised renderer would mean that it knows what it can and cant play and so should "do what it needs to do" immediately and "just play"?
with no need to venture into the transcode folder
I did check the FFmpeg settings and GPU decoding is set to "none" so (since I have a decent Video card) so I set it to "enable GPU acceleration" in the "common transcode settings" tab.

I will do a retest and post logs later..
Thanks

[mik_s]

Sometimes the renderer confs are approximate to cover a whole series of TVs from a manufacturer as it is not possible to physically test on each one.
Hopefully they all have the same file support but sometimes some models will have some support removed due to licencing costs, like what happened with DTS, so the conf may need tweaking.
Sometimes they change the naming convention of the model name so does not match the best conf and gets identified as something else.

Just try playing that video again straight away.
This would to happen a lot for me when playing h265 videos on my PS4 if that video had subtitles.
As h265 is not supported on it they needed to be transcoded but was slow to get stared sometimes and gave an error. If I played again it would work.

Also set the GPU acceleration method for FFmpeg to allow hardware encoding too as just enabling the GPU will use it in assisting but most of the processing will be done in software (CPU).
Pick the one appropriate for your GPU.

FFmpeg transcoding options.png (44.08 KiB) Viewed 58433 times

GPU acceleration method tooltip.png (20.3 KiB) Viewed 58433 times

[Yoji]

Thanks again... I didnt see your reply until I came here to post the logs..
So I will post and let you comment
Hopefully you can tell what I did/attempted from the logs files but in case it helps.
Started UMS.. then turned on TV
Tried to start the original download version... it failed with error/skip/cancel
Tried to start the converted version that was supposed to be Samsung TV compatible... it failed with error/skip/cancel
Went to transcode folder... to original file version FFmpeg option.... it failed with error/skip/cancel
Went to transcode folder... to Samsung tv version FFmpeg option.... it failed with error/skip/cancel.
Turned off TV..
Packed up logs which should be attached.

[mik_s]

It is using the right conf for your TV so I would say that the supported formats is correct.

I see the main reason why it is not working is that the network speed to the renderer is only 11mb/s but the bitrate for that video is much higher so has to transcode to a lower quality, however even this is still not enough.
And of course the level limit is making it transcode anyway.

Code: Select all

[TV] Samsung 8 Series (50) has an estimated network speed of 11.715577285899121 Mb/s
File "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv" will not be streamed because the H.264 level (5.1) is not supported by the renderer (limit: 4.1).
Final verdict: "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv" will be transcoded with transcodingSettings "FFmpeg Video (MPEGTS-H264-AC3)" with mime type "video/x-mkv"
File "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mp4" will not be streamed because the bitrate (16316609 b/s) is too high (11000000 b/s).
Final verdict: "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mp4" will be transcoded with transcodingSettings "FFmpeg Video (MPEGTS-H264-AC3)" with mime type "video/mpeg"

and the TV is not liking this so it is resetting the connection

Code: Select all

[StartPlaying Event] Started playing Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv (FFmpeg Video) on your [TV] Samsung 8 Series (50)
[StartPlaying Event] The full filename of which is: O:\Temp\Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv and the address of the renderer is: 192.168.0.246
[jupnp-stream-server-132] Sending stream with premature end: 262144 bytes. Reason: Connection reset by peer

Your logs were not in trace mode so I can not see the full details but I think this is what is happening otherwise I would see an error code from FFmpeg if it was failing to transcode.

Try and improve the connection to your TV. Ideally a wired connection is better but if you have to use wireless then it should be in direct line of sight with your router.
If the signal has to go though walls it will significantly reduce the speed.

Sometimes the speed test is not accurate as people have had success disabling it and higher bitrate videos would stream fine.
You could try and turn off "Use automatic maximum bandwidth" and set "Maximum bandwidth" to 0 which means unlimited, then try and play with and without "no transcoding" and see if the TV attempts to play.

[Yoji]

Thank you so much for your help.
AS I said in my opening post, I did get it to work (and when it was working, it was a decent and stable picture, and I could fast forward etc) so I guess its marginal
(though I somewhat surprised the TV will just reset connection rather than show as best it can... even if it results in blocky/pixelated picture).
I am house sitting for my daughter ATM so I best not mess with their set up, but now I can see what you look for in logs, I can play around a bit and know what to look for.
I didnt mention in my first post that I did test other programmes/videos and they seemed to work fine on the 2 or 3 I tested, suggesting it can routinely sustain an adequate bitrate for a good picture.
and my PC and graphics card should be PLENTY beefy enough to handle any kind of transcode work without breaking a sweat.
(PC is i7 14700kf, 32GB DDR5 and 16GB RTX 4070 ti Super).
Anyway - as I say, THANK YOU... you have given me plenty to help me with further investigations
Oh.. ome more question though (if I may)..
Could all this be related to the size of the file? the original was 9.5GB and the converted one for samsung tv ended up at 18.7GB
So thats a lots of bits to send to the tv... I normally try and get a film about 2GB... they seem perfectly good picture quality.. so why go bigger? (but for this film there were very few options).
So if I use my Leawo tool to recode it.. to be much smaller... would that make a difference and significantly improve the chances of it working?
Or would setting the max bitrate in UMS in effect do the same thing, force the transcode to scale back to something like 8Mb/s so well within the reported 11Mb/s max.
(if my maths is right... 8Mb/s over a 2.5 hour film is still 9GB... which should be enough for a decent picture?)

[mik_s]

Its more about the bitrate for the file. Large files will play as long as their bitrate is lower than your network speed.
If your TV is siting waiting for data it will assume a network error and stop.

A more efficient encoding will use less data and can allow the TV to build up a buffer so those scenes that are use more bitrate don't stutter waiting for more data.
When a video is being streamed the TV can do the decoding and handle that but for a video that is transcoded the bitrate is fixed and if it has to be limited then it will look pixelated.

I suggest you find a version of that video that uses h265 (HEVC) as your TV can play that. I have a version that is under 3GB.
h265 is more efficient so will have smaller file sizes and the TV should not have any problems playing it nativity.


With the speed your TV was getting it is barely enough for HD videos. About 20mb/s is around what you really need for smooth playback at the same quality.
For 4k videos you would need a lot more, I have seen some have a bitrate over 50mb/s.

I would see if you could improve your daughters setup as she would be having problems if using some other streaming services.
Depending on the setup the slow part of the network could be from your PC to the router which would mean using the internet would be slow too.

One thing I forgot to mention is to try playing that video from a USB drive directly on the TV. This will prove if the TV can actually play it by removing UMS and network speed from the equation.

[Yoji]

To put this one to bed..
I am back home now, so thought I would test there..
Pretty much same set up (i.e. my PC is same, and streaming to an older Samsung TV) but its mostly wired
i.e. wired all way from my PC to the Mesh wireless node (which is about 1 meter from the TV).

Looking at logs, it reported

Renderer [TV]Samsung LED50 has an estimated network speed of 59.86944 Mb/s
Final verdict: "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv" will be streamed
Final verdict: "Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mp4" will be streamed
Started playing Project Hail Mary 2026 1080p WEB AC3 H264-DJT.mkv ([No transcoding]) on your [TV]Samsung LED50

So significantly better than in my Daughters house..
Tests all ran fine, solid/stable picture with no problems fast forwarding or whatever..

So I guess I still a bit disappointed that it just failed at my daughters, when 11Mb/s is enough for a 1080p stream (IIRC) so since UMS knows the TV, knows the bandwidth, it should be able to
transcode as need and "just work"...