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lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

I recently purchased a 4800X Roku Ultra (4800 series).  Using the Jellyfin app to playback my media I have found that any file with DTS 5.1 audio stutters and drops frames to the point that it is unwatchable.  I found a short thread that mentions this bug from two years ago and also found a long thread on the Plex forums about the same issue, but as of January 2022, no solution was found other than to let the Roku transcode DTS into Dolby, which is obviously not ideal. I don't have this problem on either of my Roku 4640x's.

It gives me pause about keeping the 4800x if this two year old bug hasn't been fixed and basic funtionality that works on older models isn't present in the new flagship.

I'd be happy to provide any other information needed.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you.

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26 REPLIES 26
lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

To update this topic, playing back the same MKV file via Jellyfin, via DLNA and on a USB stick all yield the same choppy playback, which confirms it is something going on at the Roku level and not the Jellyfin app or server.

I am also now runnin Roku OS 11 Build 5003, which is the latest available of this post.  Updating to OS 11 did not alleviate the issue.

I opened a support ticket with Roku.  They have contacted me several times to let me know that the issue has been passed to the engineering team as well as to ask me follow up questions and for contact info should they need to get in touch with me about the issue.  I hope this means it will get solved as it is a fairly fundamental feature of the device and DTS is a popular format.

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RokuDanny-R
Retired Moderator

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

@lakerssuperman

Thanks for the posts.

We would be more than happy to look further into the issue for you but need more details. Can you please provide us the following information:
-Roku device model, serial number, device ID, and software OS/version (these can all be found in Settings > System > About)
-does this issue occur on a specific channel? if so, what channel and what version/build is the channel (this can be found be selecting the channel on the Home screen and pressing the * button)
-tracker ID when this issue occurs (when you see this issue occur, press the Home button 5 times, followed by the Back button 5 times)
-steps to reproduce the issue you are seeing

Once we have this information, we will be able to pass it along to the appropriate Roku team to look into further.


Thanks,
Danny

Danny R.
Roku Community Moderator
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lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

Thank you for your reply.  I very much appreciate it.  In the time since I made my original post I also filed a support request with your very polite and helpful support staff.  My support ticket number is 5524083, but here is the info you requested:

Serial: X01000115MLW

Software version: (10.5 at the time of the support request) but now 11.0.0. build 5003-C2

Issue ID on my support ticket request: ID LW-148-237

This issue occurs on the Jellyfin channel, as well as through the Roku Media Player all playing the same .mkv file either via DLNA or directly off of a USB drive in the case of the Roku Media Player which seems to indicate to me that it isn't an app issue, but something more low level.

I also found reports on the Plex forums about this issue, as I mentioned in my original post above.

https://forums.plex.tv/t/movies-with-dts-are-stuttering-on-latest-roku-ultra-2020/653197

All of my files with DTS play perfectly fine on my 4640x, as well as if I disable DTS on the 4800x and force it to transcode the audio into DD+.  So whatever is going on it seems clear that it is something to do with the 4800x.

As I already have a support ticket number for this issue, I'm sure some of this is redundant, but I really appreciate your reply and time.  If I can provide any more information to aid in solving this issue I will be happy to. Thank you!

 

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

@lakerssuperman how are you processing the DTS audio? Is your 4800 connected through an AVR that supports DTS, or playing to a TV with DTS support? 

My 4800 is connected to a Yamaha AVR, and I haven't noticed any playback issues with DTS audio. My DLNA server does not transcode lossy DTS, but does transcode DTS Master Audio. In theory the lossy core is supposed to passthrough to the AVR, but I have found that some titles, specifically the Star Wars series, have something embedded in the audio that interrupts the audio stream via Roku devices, so transcoding all DTS-MA simplifies things. My files are either MKV rips (using MakeMKV) or ripped to M2TS format using a program that is no longer available. 

I'm heading to bed for tonight, but I'll experiment with my 4800 tomorrow after work and see if I can duplicate the issue. Do you have any specific titles that it occurs with, in case I have the same title?

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

@atc98092 Both the 4800x and my older 4640x are connected to an Onkyo TX-NR 676.  DTS plays fine via the 4640x as well as my little Kodi based Raspberry Pi 4 that is also connected.  On the 4800x I get stutter.  As a point of clarification, when I say stutter I mean the audio appears to play smoothly, but it's the video that becomes stuttery and not fluid.

Having the 4800x transcode the DTS into DD+ eliminates the video stutter.  I also tried disabling the DTS stream in one of my mkv files at the header level and the video played smoothly, just without audio.

As to specific titles, I have been looking through my collection since my initial post and, to my surprise, I have found that some files with DTS actually play without stutter.  Though looking at the mkv info compared to files that stutter, I can't find any differences, and the DTS audio as well as the video tracks clearly seem to be intact as they play perfectly fine on other devices and even on the 4800x if I disable DTS and force transcoding.  I have tried remuxing the files into new mkv containers to see if that fixed it, but to no avail.

A separate issue I had with the 4800x was that it was incorrectly going into HDR10 mode with some of my latest Bluray rips that I used HEVC on.  Investigating that issue further, I found that removing the color info from the mkv headers stopped this from happening.  This is also an issue that isn't present on my my 4640x with the same files, but also doesn't show up on older Bluray rips I've made so it may be something Handbrake is doing now that the 4800x is seeing incorrectly.  For this issue, the workaround might take a little time, but it's simple enough to fix the color info the mkv header and move along.

Given that DTS passes through without issue on my 4640x, Kodi (RPI4) and also from VLC on a computer via optical, it has to be something with the 4800x and if I had to guess it would be something with how the 4800x is seeing the mkv file properties, but despite looking at all the mkv properties in the files with stutter, I can't find anything that would seem to be causing the issue.

I'm working to re-encode my movies away from DTS, but I'd like to be able to also figure this issue out as I would like to be able to use DTS on the 4800x without worrying if I'll bump into the stutter issue.

Thanks for your reply!!

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

Thanks for the clarification. I know of only one title in my files that has standard DTS (not Master Audio), so I'll check it this afternoon when I get home. I probably have others, but "Die Hard with a Vengeance" is the only one I know of for certain. All of my 1080 rips are the same H.264 that was on the disc (except for a couple that are VC-1).

I don't convert any of my titles to H.265. I know it would save space, but from past experience using Handbrake it isn't worth the time it would take, and hard drives are relatively cheap. My only titles with HEVC are my 4K rips (other than some test clips with DD or AAC audio), and they all have lossless audio, so for Roku devices my DLNA server transcodes the audio to DD. 

VLC will play virtually anything, so I don't consider it a good comparison for other players. Great player, terrible user interface. I have it on my Shield players for testing purposes, but I stick with Kodi for my local media playback.

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

Oh yes, Kodi is great.  For a long time I've used Libreelec to play my files back, but recently I've begun migrating my media to conform to Roku specs (x264/x265 with EAC3 or AC3 for the most part)  Lossless is nice, but even on my nicest speakers, I struggle to hear the difference.  And since I have Roku's already, I've really been trying to get down to one device and one remote for ease of use for the rest of the family lol.

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

OK, I tested my 4800 with my known DTS H.264 title. I first tested it with the 11.0 build 5000something version, then tried again with the new firmware that was released today (11.0 b4193). In both cases, Roku Media Player showed a very light video stutter during playback. I would rate it watchable, but still something that was noticeable and could get annoying if I watched the entire movie. I also tried it using Plex, and playback there was smooth. That makes me think it's something specific to RMP, which of course uses the Roku core OS for playback functionality, so likely something in the OS itself that Plex bypasses or otherwise doesn't use for video playback. In both cases my server was feeding both the video and audio without any transcoding. 

I also tested  a couple of DTS Master Audio movies, one H.264 1080 and one H.265 UHD. My server transcodes the audio to Dolby Digital, and both titles played smoothly. Of course, RMP hangs up on my UHD rips after a short time playing, so not really watchable. But for the time it did play, it was smooth. 

I also have a number of test videos with H.265. Some have HDR, HLG or Dolby Vision colorspace, while some are standard. All play correctly without stuttering, with the exception of some high bitrate clips. I start running into some stuttering a video with 160 Mbps steady bitrate, and this is when I'm connected to my WiFi and the Roku is reporting about 200 Mbps connection. The Roku simply runs out of gas with video bitrates beyond around 120 Mbps or so. 

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution."
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Kudo.

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lakerssuperman
Binge Watcher

Re: Rou 4800x Stuttering During Playback with DTS Audio

So after messing around a bunch today I seem to have figured it out.  I opened a working mkv file with DTS and examined it with MKVToolNix GUI.  Then I looked at a non working one.  I missed it the first time, but the working mkv file has several embedded tags not present in the non working one.  One is tag is the "Global" tag and the others are simply listed as tags, but they have ID numbers that correspond to the video, audio and subtitle streams in the file so I assume they are some type of stream identification data.

I took the working mkv and removed these tags and sure enough without the tags the video stuttered.

It seems the 4800x is hypersensitive to the tag structure of mkv files in a way the older ones were not.

I have not yet figured out how to add these tags into a mkv file, but I will report back if I do and if a non working file can be fixed via this method.