Having trouble with streaming MKVs

[apav]

Hey there,

 

I have three devices that I can stream to: an Xbox One, a Playstation 4, and a Sony Smart TV. Originally I have been using mainly Universal Media Server to stream MKVs to my Xbox One (our Sony TV isn't in my bedroom, and the PS4 didn't originally have DLNA support but even though now it does I still use my XB1 because my univeral remote doesn't work with my PS4).

 

Everything has been working without issue, until a few months ago I noticed that on my XB1 when I streamed through UMS I wasn't able to fast forward or rewind. After some trial and error I found that disabling subtitles allowed me to fast forward and rewind again, but I need the subtitles on, so you see the dilemna. With UMS, subtitles work, but fast forward and rewind don't. I used Serviio in the past as well and it worked without issue too, so I downloaded it again and now I couldn't get the subtitles to display, but I am able to fast forward and rewind, the complete opposite of UMS. I also tried Windows 10 streaming, and still no subtitles were displayed. The strange part is, I don't have this issue on my Sony TV, it only started to affect my Xbox One a few months ago and now my PS4 too (today is the first time I tried it on my PS4 though). Meaning I can watch mkvs with subtitles on my Sony TV while being able to fast forward and rewind. That, plus the fact that my settings are the same as they always have been, lead me to believe it isn't the fault of UMS or Serviio. But the issue affects both consoles, and I know for a fact it used to work on the XB1.

 

I'm stumped, I've tried a lot of things on my own but nothing worked. Anyone know why this is happening or if there is a way to fix? Someone explained to me that if it's transcoding the video you won't be able to fast forward/rewind if subtitles are displayed, but then how was I able to stream mkvs with embedded subtitles in the past and fast forward/rewind?

 

Thank you very much!

[apav]

Hmm, something interesting I just found out, I guess it's a partial solution. Some mkv files seem to work fine (both subtitles and the ability to fast forward/rewind), others don't. I just tested it, played a different mkv with subs and was able to fast forward and rewind on my XB1. Lately, all the mkv videos I have been streaming have been unable to do both, so I assumed that I was having a technical issue.

 

But there's still something not right. Even with those problem mkvs that don't work on my consoles (btw, if I play them on my computer they work fine) they work as intended on my Sony TV. They look more like close captioning (white letters in a black box) opposed to the more detailed subs that the video normally plays on my PC and console though.

 

I really have no idea what's going on here. Can anyone explain? Thanks!

[Rmusic10891]

I've run into this same issue with Plex, XBMC and MKV files. There are a lot of things at play when you're trying to do this. Issues could be network related, transcoder related or decoder related on the playback side. In my particular case I actually narrowed it down to audio codec issues.  The playback devices I was attempting to use (Roku 3, PS3, Samsung 6500, Raspberry Pi) just don't have the ability to decode certain audio codecs. You're issue could be any number of things, we're really going to need more information about your network performance, transcoder performance etc.

[techguru]

 

Hmm, something interesting I just found out, I guess it's a partial solution. Some mkv files seem to work fine (both subtitles and the ability to fast forward/rewind), others don't. I just tested it, played a different mkv with subs and was able to fast forward and rewind on my XB1. Lately, all the mkv videos I have been streaming have been unable to do both, so I assumed that I was having a technical issue.

 

But there's still something not right. Even with those problem mkvs that don't work on my consoles (btw, if I play them on my computer they work fine) they work as intended on my Sony TV. They look more like close captioning (white litters in a black box) opposed to the more detailed subs that the video normally plays on my PC and console though.

 

I really have no idea what's going on here. Can anyone explain? Thanks!

 

your playing anime would be my guess

and not all groups use the same encoding settings

 

your best bet is to not use the xbone for mkvs

use a dedicated pc with kodi on it

thats how I watch my anime..and it works perfect that way

[techguru]

I would look on kijiji or craigslist for a second hand pc under 100$ to make into a htpc

[apav]

your playing anime would be my guess

and not all groups use the same encoding settings

 

your best bet is to not use the xbone for mkvs

use a dedicated pc with kodi on it

thats how I watch my anime..and it works perfect that way

Mix of anime and foreign films. Yea, I am considering doing that. I remember Linus' video, would something like this work ok? I'd prefer a smaller mini-pc. Then again, maybe I'll just hook up my desktop to my TV via HDMI and run Kodi that way. Since sometimes I want to lay back and play games PC games with my controller anyway. The only thing that's stopping me is that I have to run an HDMI cable across my room, and since the back of my desktop is hard to get to, it's a pain to do it every time I want to watch/play something.