Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

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smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

This might be a stupid question but Im not finding the transcode directory, is it in the UMS directory? Or do you mean the directory in the program itself, because I find not such thing as "dont transcode" or anything that resembles this. I will attach a picture of the page Im talking about.


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mik_s
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by mik_s »

No its not in the UMS program but on your renderer. you should see it alongside all your files.
If its not there then check to make sure that "Show the #-TRANSCODE-# folder" option is checked in the navigation settings.
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smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

I think I have found the problem, my Roku is receiving mpeg-ts video files which means the videos duration is unknown to it. I'm trying to add a line to the config file to make it receive mp4 instead of mpeg-ts but I don't know if I'm doing it right.
smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

BTW I tried the "no transcode" and it didnt play.
Nadahar
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by Nadahar »

UMS doesn't support transcoding to MP4. That said, the duration (in bytes, not seconds) would still be unknown so I don't quite see how it would solve anything.

In short, seeking while transcoding works on some renderers but not on others. The fundamental problem is that some use byte-based positioning (by number x from the start of the file) and some use time-based positioning. When transcoding, the duration in bytes in undefined, there's no way to know that until you have transcoded the whole file (aka played through it). The duration in time is known since it is the same as the duration of the source file. This means that renderers that use time-based positioning does support seeking while transcoding, but those that only accepts byte-based positioning doesn't.

That said, it's not quite that simple, as there are multiple details I left out, that can impact what the renderer supports and not. UMS doesn't handle all of these details properly, so there are probably some renderers where it could work had UMS done it correctly where it's not available. But, those that only support byte-based positioning regardless of if UMS had done all it should correctly, ultimately cannot seek when transcoding. There's simply no way to translate a byte-offset into a specific position when the data is being generated on-the-fly. The data that has already been transcoded isn't stored either, so UMS doesn't even know where it is byte-wise at any given time. When files aren't being transcoded, the situation is completely different, because the file is available on disk and the size is known, so jumping to any specific position in the source file is easy.
smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

I guess I need to find a file type that the Roku supports then turn off trans coding indefinitely. Is there any better way to do this than always selecting "no trans-coding" per video?

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mik_s
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by mik_s »

A standard mp4 or mkv using H264 video and AAC audio should work just fine.

you only really need to do the "no transcoding" for files you think should be streamed which are getting transcoded to get an idea if UMS is making the right decision, and then you can tweak the config if it gets it wrong.
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smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

My problem is that basically all of my videos are already mp4 with mp3 audio, theoretically this should work, but it still trans codes it. Also I have tried multiple different codecs,hevc,avc all with mp4 and mkv but so far nothing plays when I do "no transcoding". Every one of these files plays with trans coding but wont let me fast forward or go to a later time in the video. I have a small video that I keep re-encoding to try different settings, If I find one that works I will report.


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smokedporkroast
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by smokedporkroast »

Also, I working based on this info from Rokus website.

Roku devices support several audio/video container formats. These formats encapsulate one or several tracks into one file and include meta-data about each track:

Flac
Ogg with Vorbis audio
MP3
MP4, MOV, M4V

supported video codecs: AVC, HEVC
supported audio codecs: AAC, AC3, EAC3, AC4, ALAC, MP3, PCM
MKV, WebM

supported video codecs: AVC, HEVC, VP8, VP9
supported audio codecs: AAC, AC3, EAC3, Dolby Atmos, ALAC, DTS, DTSE, FLAC, MP3, OPUS, PCM, VORBIS
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mik_s
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Re: Cant fast forward Videos in UMS 9.3.1

Post by mik_s »

Do any of those play on yours when using no transcoding?
I don't know anything about Roku but looking at the available configs there must be different versions which have more support. Also check for a firmware update see if that improves it.
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