Universal Media Server | Forum

Hi, I have been having a consistent stutter when playing mp4s via UMS on my Samsung 8 UHD TV. The file will start, and the video will then restart about a second or two in, with the audio continuing as normal. I then have to fast forward to resync them. I cannot otherwise fast forward or rewind, it will only fast forward to where it syncs up. I will also frequently not be able to change audio tracks or subtitle tracks. I have recreated it twice in the logs, once with Bedknobs and Broomsticks and once with Mind Game.

I haven't included the debug.log.prev.zip file as it made the overall file too big to attach, but have included everything else.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is streaming so UMS is not transcoding that video and sending it unaltered.

I think the reason for the sync is because you have a very poor network connection to the TV with only have 0.61mb/s speed. Your SynologyRouter has a great speed of over 350 and 490mb/s in the 2 speed tests in the logs so the problem is probably from the router to the TV. Is your TV connected to Wifi and how far away is it from the router?

For Mind game, and about half of the videos that will not be streamed, I can see this is being transcoded because encoding level is too high according to the conf, If it is over 4.1 then it will be transcoded. Looking at some of the TV's specs it supports

• H.264 FHD: Level 4.2 supported (FMO/ASO/RS not supported).
• H.264 UHD: Level 5.1 supported, seamless resolution change supported up to 3840x2160.
• HEVC FHD: Level 4.1 supported.
• HEVC UHD: Level 5.1 supported.

Mind game is using H.264 level (5.0) and I don't think it is 4K (UHD)

You can test to see if this is correct by seeing if those will play without transcoding. Try playing from the #--TRANSCODE--# folder and choose "No transcoding"
(if you do not see it, enable "show the #--Transcode--# folder" in the GUI on the navigation tab, in the web GUI it is in the "virtual folders/files" section)
If it plays then I can alter the conf to remove this limit.

The other videos being transcoded are because there are external VOBSUB or PGS subtitles which are not supported on the TV (internal VOBSUB are supported).
If you replace then with .srt or .sub subtitle files they will be streamed. Or you can disable subtitles from the transcoding settings if you do not need them.

I am surprised not more videos are being transcoded due to the low network speed though but this would also severely reduce the quality if they were to be transcoded for this reason to keep below the available bitrate.

The TV is connected to the wifi. I live in an apartment so the router is only about 35 feet away, but it is an old building so there's a wifi extender at the back of the apartment another 12 feet away. This has been a problem since before I switched to the Synology router a few months ago, so it is possible it's just an old brick building. I'll have to investigate that further and report back, thanks for the help!

Sounds like a poor Wifi signal that is limiting its speed.
The further away it is and the more obstacles the signal has to pass though then the slower it will be. Brick is a good at blocking it too.

It would be better if you could have a wired connection but if that is not possible and you can't move the router then you could try powerline network plugs that use the electrical mains to create a network.

I think I solved the wifi problem, the TV was not connecting to the Wifi Extender. That's fixed and it's getting 21mb/s, which is a vast improvement, if still silly because of how fast the actual router is. I know it was a very simple solution, but thanks so much for the help! I probably would not have figured it out on my own.