Server Version#: 1.22.2.4282
Player Version#: 6.7.18.6920
Server OS: Linux Mint 20 / i5 / 16GB
I tag my MKV files using two tools: MKVToolnix (aka MTx) and MKV Tag Editor (aka MTE). I’ve noticed a strange issue where, if I set the “title” Header tag using MTx, and then change some other informational tags using MTE (eg dates, episode/season, comments etc), then when watching the MKV via my Roku it will no longer accept forward or rewind commands, or jump-to-chapter – instead it always jumps back to the beginning of the movie.
Today I started deep-diving into the Info panel of MTx to see what was happening, and eventually spotted that the files that won’t seek properly all have split “seek headers” sections – one at the beginning of the file, and one at the end, which while unusual isn’t disallowed by Matroska standards (the developer of MTx explains it in the page linked below). This “split section” can be fixed by remuxing the file (which isn’t the worst thing in the world but is a bit long-winded, and obvs not ideal for standard users).
I tested the “broken” file via four interfaces: my iPhone, Win10 Plex app, Win10 local web interface, and the Roku. The Roku player was the only one that had this seeking issue. (The Windows 10 app also has many other troubles, only one of which was failing to draw anything to screen). iPhone and Roku were both Direct Play, web interface was transcoding.
So there it is, a puzzler. If this specific formatting case occurs inside an MKV file, Roku player won’t allow time-skipping functionality, while other players do.
I’ve included logs that cover me trying to play via a test file via Roku, and then via the Win10 app.
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-04-09_02-11-23.zip (881.6 KB) )
