Solving playback issues

[MrXxx]

Been troubleshooting this issue for days now. The ONLY change anywhere in the chain has been the update to 11.5. Now suddenly many of my server videos are stuttering severely when played through Roku Media Player, and ONLY through the Media Player. They all play normally using my server's online interface. What the heck happened?

[atc98092]

RMP hasn't been updated for video issues in close to two years. The last handful of updates were all focused on music playback. They have closed the beta test group. I have no idea what's going on with RMP anymore, and have resigned myself to using other devices to play my local media. I use the Nvidia Shield and Kodi as my player.

[MrXxx]

Perhaps not but it is very obvious that the overall 11.5 system update has affected Media Player in some way. I had ZERO issues before the update. After the update, with zero changes to the entire system chain, many of my video files are now stuttering like mad. 

[atc98092]

Yeah, most likely something changed in the OS, which RMP actually uses for most functionality. The channel itself is more of a shell to handle the user interface. Since no one is paying attention to RMP, something must have slipped through without being caught.

Do you have some examples of your media? Container, video and audio codecs? I can see if I have some matching content and see how it plays on mine.

[MrXxx]

I'm not surprised really. Suits at all of these companies, since the days of Edison's cylinder  players they've wanted us all watching and listening to whatever they dictate. They hate it when we have control. Anyway, I'm not by any means a video codec expert. For the most part I mess with settings in Handbrake until things work. I know just enough to make things work after tossing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks.

Many of the videos were originally in MKV format. Some if these I converted to MP4. I have some MKV's that have never been converted which play fine, others that stutter. Some that stutter are MKV's converted to MP4, others that have been converted do not. Some are AVI's, not compatible with my server (Serviio running on a really old Mac running High Sierra), converted to MP4. It's all running over wifi 5.5 to the Roku, but the server is connected to the router via Ethernet. As stated in my OP, it all ran fine, and all the videos streamed without issues before this last update. Some did initially have problems until I found decent conversion settings. I'm sticking with MP4 since it seems to be the most consistently successful format with this server. Obviously if a file doesn't have issues I don't mess with it.

Unfortunately I didn't keep very good records of what I did with what. This is a pet project and not a pro job by any stretch of the imagination. I do think that since some of the videos are playing fine I will look into which those are and analyze them to see if I can convert the troubled ones to meet the same specs. If I manage to figure it out I'll be back here to post my findings. I'm just a bit frustrated atm because I already just went through a few months of converting and tweaking to get them ALL working perfectly, now it seems that about a third of them are busted. Back to the drawing board I guess.

[atc98092]

I just tested my Ultra 4800 with at least a dozen different titles. I'm on a wired network, Roku OS 11.5.0 build 4312, and my media is being streamed from a Serviio DLNA server on Windows 10. I have a wide variety of media, mostly in the MKV container, but I also have some in MP4 and TS/M2TS. My media server transcodes based on a number of rules, such as an unsupported container (like AVI or MPG), for unsupported video (VC-1 mostly) and unsupported audio (the lossless codecs like TrueHD or Master Audio). If the video is support but not the audio, then only the audio is transcoded and the video passes untouched. Most of my media is ripped DVD or Blu Ray discs (1080 and UHD), along with OTA recorded TV saved in the TS container with MPEG2 video and AC3 audio.

Everything I tested played without a stutter, with the exception of a file with basic DTS audio. However, this specific issue is known and is more than a year old, not something that just started. Everything else played smoothly, regardless of container, if the audio was transcoded, or any other condition.

If you can determine what codecs you have, and advise the containers used, perhaps I can be of more assistance. Also, what model Roku are you using? As I mentioned, I am testing with an Ultra 4800, which is the most capable of their players. How are you streaming your media? Is it using Windows Media Sharing? If so, I suggest trying something different. I use Serviio (disclaimer: I am also the author of the Roku profiles used by Serviio, but not employed or paid by them). But there's also Emby and Plex for streaming your local media. Both of those also offer a free channel (app) for Roku devices that might work better than RMP. I also have Plex on my server, but only use it when I travel, as my Roku Stick can connect to my Plex server over the Internet.

How to determine your codecs? There's a free program called MediaInfo you can download, and when you examine your media files with it you can see the video and audio codecs, along with tons of information that will make your head spin. 🙂 Don't worry about any of that, just the audio and video codecs, and the container they are in. There's also a way to gather the information using a command line application called FFMPEG. But if you're not too computer savvy I won't try to explain using a command line app. 😛

[MKR11teen]

After the 12/6/2022 update to 11.5, I can't get any app on my Sharp Roku TV requiring 3rd party authentication by my cable provider to even transfer data.  Those that don't require a 3rd party, like Amazon and Youtube, still work.

[MrXxx]

MKR11teen please post your issue as a separate request for help. Asking here about a totally different issue will only confuse the conversation. Thanks.

[MKR11teen]

Considering the issue was common to the latest software update and concerned both stuttering and non-performance issues, well, you can understand my confusion.

No matter.  I'll consider a different streaming service on my next purchase.

[MrXxx]

Sorry, but your reply mentioned problems with authorization, which is a completely different issue from stuttering. "Performance issues" is a broad category of issues which might include stuttering (a very specific phenomenon). You didn't mention anything about stuttering specifically, so you can understand why I suggested creating your own thread on the subjects that are specific to your issues. Doing so helps you and the entire community by not confusing unrelated issues with each other. Make sense?