Universal Media Server | Forum

hello, new UMS user here and so far i love it. however, ive finally figured out why im unable to seek while playing some video files on my PS4 using the PS4 Media Player. at first i thought a few files were just randomly acting up, as most of my stored movies are able to be fast-forwarded and reversed...however, i just figured out that the only ones which are not seeking are MKV files which have DTS encoded audio! i apologize if this is a known issue, but it took me a few days to figure out why these certain files were behaving this way....

again, if ive failed to explain myself so far, most of my video files play back perfectly fine in all ways. they load fast, sound and look good, and i can use the PS4 controller to fast-forward or rewind just fine. however, the select few video files which are MKV files that have DTS encoded audio simply CANNOT be fast-forwarded or rewound. when they load up and i press triangle to see the time elapsed bar, it is static with no time being shown as elapsed/remaining. the time just shows dashses on the right hand side. and the biggest problem is that i cannot fast-forward or rewind these files. so if i have to stop watching one halfway through and come back later, i have to sit through the entire first half again if i want to get back to where i was. either that or just leave on my PS4 until i return.

so i do apologize if this is a known issue. but i find it rather odd and i cannot figure out how to fix the problem other than manually transcoding these files into MP4 formats, or perhaps altering the audio codec somehow? is there a workaround? am i doing something wrong? thanks in advance! great overall program FWIW.

edit: a rather strange phenomenon is that if i enter the TRANSCODE folder and select the [No transcoding] option, the video file will play perfectly fine and suddenly i can fast-foward and rewind. however, i get no audio. a black bar pops up temporarily that says "Cannot play audio. The audio format is not supported." this bar disappears quickly. but again, if i select that option i can forward/reverse these files but without audio. what gives?

Yup I'm getting the same problem with PS4

Did you try the config suggested on viewtopic.php?t=1010 ?

that config doesnt solve anything, and isnt exactly relative to my problem. again, the audio plays perfectly fine. the entire movie works correctly in all aspects EXCEPT for fast-forwarding and rewinding. ive tried reconfiguring the audio and various other settings on the UMS client but to no avail. for some reason the PS4 does not like MKVs encoded with DTS audio, but only when it comes to fast-forwarding and rewinding them! quite strange, as all other file types with varying audio encodes can be seeked. this is the only major problem i have encountered thus far with my UMS/PS4 experience.

another thing i just figured out is that this is likely a problem native to the PS4, as my sister has a PS3 and i have played back the problem files successfully on her system, with all of them being able to both rewind and fast-forward.

so im stuck. im considering converting these MKVs to MP4s so i can play them at my leisure and not have to worry about stopping halfway through and being forced to watch all the way through again to where i left off if i want to finish whatever it is i was watching.

quick recap of the problem....any help would be much appreciated.

-PS4
-stock PS4 Media Player
-MKV files encoded with DTS audio fail to fast-forward or rewind, along with not showing time progressing on the time elapsed/remaining bar. it just shows dashes where the time elapsed should be. ONLY files encoded with DTS audio have this problem. all MP4s play fine, all AVIs, and all other MKVs that are encoded with any audio that isnt DTS.

I've been stuck with the same issue! BTW, thanks for figuring out that the issue lies with videos which have DTS audio... I had not figured that one out yet. I will stay away from them, I dont need DTS anyways...

I'm really surprised to see that not that many people complain about this on this forum! Is there a better media server solution for the PS4 out there?

Thanks... I'll keep an eye on replies, I sure wish this gets a fix.

You must read more here. There are discussions about no support of FF/RW on PS4 when TRANSCODING is used as PS4 lacks this support.
It means if file is streamed as is, directly to PS4, FF/RW works. But when UMS have to TRANSCODE or REMUX video/audio, you will lose FF/RW support.
If you will find another server which supports it, place it here so it can be coded also in UMS but from what I read it seems support is missing on PS4 side (Plex and also Serviio behaves same way)
Btw. if you are using renderer which doesn't support DTS audio but audio is DTS, UMS will convert it to AC3/AAC etc. what leads to losing FF/RW. Same is done when subs are required or video is not compatible.

Much appreciated.

Thanks for the info!

yes, it appears to be PS4 related, as i have stated previously there is no issue when playing the same files through my PS3.

the only way ive been able to skirt the issue is use Popcorn Converter to remix the DTS track into a Dolby Digital track. i sometimes lose some of the bitrate, as DTS bitrates can be quite high sometimes (~1500 kb/s), and when remixing them to DD the max bitrate for audio is 640 kb/s. however, the quality change is hardly noticeable and it fixes my problem. i can now fast-forward and reverse all my files. it takes a little time to remix the tracks with Popcorn, depending on the file size, but in the end it works like a charm and now my whole catalog is working properly....i just dont have any films/TV shows with crystal clear DTS audio anymore. oh well! if i want superb audio quality i just watch a blu-ray instead.

for those with the same issue with PS4 that want to fix their files with Popcorn, here is the link: http://www.videohelp.com/software/PopCo ... oConverter ...be warned that you will also need to download additional audio utilities, like MKVToolNix, aftenGUI, and eac3to audio converter. however, all of these are simple to download and install as Popcorn has built in buttons linking you to websites where you can download and install each additional utility. its quite intuitive. have fun, guys.