Universal Media Server | Forum

Sorry to bring this back up, since the renderer you built for me is working great!

That said, there is one issue that I haven't been able to sort. If I skip to the transcode folder and select "No Transcoding" everything plays great, and I can move forwards and backwards, but if I play it with the default option from the new renderer, it says that's not supported. I thought this may have been tied to the SeekByTime setting, but I tried it with each value, and didn't see any difference. If this is in fact that correct property that should make a difference, I may have to fiddle around to make sure the changes are actually being updated, but I figured I'd ask in the mean time.

Thank you!

If something is transcoding when you can play with no transcoding option then that format is supported by the TV and could be added to the supported section in the conf.
Ideally you want to avoid transcoding whenever possible as it has its limitations like being unable to seek on some devices.

The information I found of what is supported was not very detailed so you will have to experiment and see what works and make any tweaks yourself.

If the problem is that transcoding itself is not working then that I can't really help with.
Just try experimenting with the transcoding options and profile by referring to DefaultRenderer.conf

Also look at other confs to see what other TV's use that might work.
Some options to try are SeekByTime, TranscodeVideo, TranscodedVideoFileSize, ChunkedTransfer etc in various combinations.

I just had a look what I had set and I don't think MPEGTS-H264-AC3 was the right profile as AC3 (Dolby digital) is not supported.
Give MPEGTS-H264-AAC a try instead.

If it is supported I suggest trying HLS for the transcoding profile (HLS-MPEGTS-H264-AAC) as it will enable seeking if normal transcoding does not and should support switching multiple subtitles and audio tracks.

Forgive my difficulties understanding.

I finally figured out my issue. Both ac3 and eac3 are supported (and, who knows what else, since, as you said, supporting documentation is very vague/poor). Since the file I wanted to play had eac3 audio, but it wasn't in the supported section, so it was using the transcoding setting to convert the audio to ac3 (ironically, not in the supported section either), I guess that breaks fast-forward and rewind... and (apparently) internal subtitles?

All I know for certain is that once I changed the supported line to include eac3, everything worked as it was supposed to. I could fast-forward, I could rewind, and I had subtitles (and could select from them all, though this may have been tied to a separate change I'd made to SupportedInternalSubtitlesFormats).

I guess I'll need to experiment a bit more to figure out specific settings here and there.

One thing I'm still dealing with, and I suspect it will warrant a separate post, is that even when I play something without transcoding (and I'm pretty confident this applies whether it's in the supported section or played from the Transcode folder and specifying "No Transcoding"), if I exit, and then resume playing a file, seemingly at random it will decide it can't resume, and instead starts transcoding the file from it's best guess as to where it was at. I've had the same file resume correctly, without transcoding, only to later resume and suddenly be transcoding. It'd be weird enough if it was happening even when in the supported line, but to do so from the "No Transcoding" option shouldn't be possible.

Again, I can create a separate post for that issue, since my assumption is it's not tied to the renderer, but if it is, I guess I can keep it here.

Since both ac3 and eac3 work then you can add these to each line in the a: section under supported formats.

If you ever notice it transcoding something then try and play with no transcoding and it works you can tweak the conf to add that as supported.

Problems with resuming is probably due to the resume feature in UMS being turned on.

That feature is for those devices that do not have any resume capability (like the PS3) so UMS will keep track of the last played location and create a virtual file by transcoding from that last position. As this works by transcoding it relies on the transcoding settings to be correct for that renderer and will have the downsides like unable to seek and change subs.

Most modern devices do remember the last position and will request this when playing a video again so it is better to have this option turned off and let the renderer handle resuming.

I have mentioned that this could be set as off as default as usually not needed, but there are also just as many renderers that would need it to be on.
Also this would effect all renderers on the network not just that one.

There is an option you can put in the conf that turns it off (DisableUmsResume) for just that renderer.
I really need to remember to add this whenever I do confs for new TVs.

Thanks for the tip about DisableUmsResume! That sounds like it's exactly the problem. I've set it now, so hopefully it resolves that specific issue. I turned it off universally, but I added it to the conf for good measure as well.