2021-03-30, 04:42 PM
There are many generations of Roku players that have support for various video and audio formats. Some older players in particular don't support MPEG video support and many players old and new don't support AC3 audio decoding.
The good news is that most TV's with build in Roku do support AC3, otherwise the options can be limited if your player doesn't support AC3 decoding. First see if you have the option on your TV, receiver or soundbar, you might be able to use AC3 pass through. If not, you will need to disable direct play for Live TV and transcode recordings. Fortunately transcoding audio is fairly straightforward. I will be creating an additional thread for transcoding.
A secondary issue is the the Roku cannot play all MPEG TS containers. Some testers have reported errors on playback, typically reporting "Malformed URLs". These will require remuxing of recordings and disabling Direct Play.
For 4K playback note Roku players do not scale 4K to 1080p.
It probably is a good idea for users to post experience with their hardware with the NextPVR channel. Here are mine:
Roku Premier 3920x. No AC3 decoding but AC3 passthrough works. MPEG TS works with my tuners but MP4 is better. No mute on the remote.
Roku Ultra 4800x. AC3 decoding works MPEG TS works with my tuners but MP4 is better. 16:9 SD MPEG2 video is not rendered full screen. It is a modern player though and can play new media formats like Dolby Vision, AV1, AC-4 in mkv and mp4 containers that many other player don't support.
Martin
The good news is that most TV's with build in Roku do support AC3, otherwise the options can be limited if your player doesn't support AC3 decoding. First see if you have the option on your TV, receiver or soundbar, you might be able to use AC3 pass through. If not, you will need to disable direct play for Live TV and transcode recordings. Fortunately transcoding audio is fairly straightforward. I will be creating an additional thread for transcoding.
A secondary issue is the the Roku cannot play all MPEG TS containers. Some testers have reported errors on playback, typically reporting "Malformed URLs". These will require remuxing of recordings and disabling Direct Play.
For 4K playback note Roku players do not scale 4K to 1080p.
It probably is a good idea for users to post experience with their hardware with the NextPVR channel. Here are mine:
Roku Premier 3920x. No AC3 decoding but AC3 passthrough works. MPEG TS works with my tuners but MP4 is better. No mute on the remote.
Roku Ultra 4800x. AC3 decoding works MPEG TS works with my tuners but MP4 is better. 16:9 SD MPEG2 video is not rendered full screen. It is a modern player though and can play new media formats like Dolby Vision, AV1, AC-4 in mkv and mp4 containers that many other player don't support.
Martin