Latest Season of Gilded Age fails, though I can download other titles from HBO Max

SFBaysailor

I was able to download episodes 1-6 of Season 3 of The Gilded Age, but when the 7th episode came out, it started failing. I tried episodes that I had already downloaded and they also fail now. Other series seem to be okay, so I don't know if HBO Max changed something or not.

Germania

Works fine for me:

Try to rename your cache (if SF closed) - like here

More I can't say without your StreamFab.log

jbinkley60

I was able to download episodes 1-6 of Season 3 of The Gilded Age, but when the 7th episode came out, it started failing. I tried episodes that I had already downloaded and they also fail now. Other series seem to be okay, so I don't know if HBO Max changed something or not.
SFBaysailor

I have the same issue. I was able to download it with H265 but H264 is failing.

Jeff

SFBaysailor

I was able to download in H265, H264 is still failing after renaming my cache file. [ATTACH]n466334[/ATTACH]

Germania

I was able to download it with H265 but H264 is failing.[/quote]
[QUOTE=SFBaysailor;n466333]I was able to download in H265, H264 is still failing
jbinkley60

H264 works for me .. but only max 720p - fails with 1080p

SFBaysailor

I was able to download 720p in H264, also. Up until Episode 7 came out, I had been downloading H264 at 1080p, I wonder what may have changed. For now, I will continue to download H265 episodes when they come out.

kingeilert

Same for me able to dl "The Gilded Age S03E07" in 720p
Same problem with "And Just Like That... S03E11" and i don't get Atmos Audio on it either
version 6.2.4.8

SFBaysailor

It looks like 6.2.4.8 still has the same problem, at least for me.

Germania

It looks like 6.2.4.8 still has the same problem, at least for me.
SFBaysailor

For me I can't also see no differences (for Max)

btw: I get And Just Like That..s03e11 also max 720p H264

SFBaysailor

I keep hoping with each new release that I will be able to download The Gilded Age episodes in H264 1080p again. 6.2.5.0 still fails.

Germania

I keep hoping with each new release that I will be able to download The Gilded Age episodes in H264 1080p again.
SFBaysailor

When I start the analysis during playback, I get "Movie Mode",
which analyzes the played s03e08 and there is no H264 1080p offered:

I checked the mpd manually and there is no 1080p offer with avc (H264) codec:

-= Open link in new tab for larger screenshot =-

It is not possible for SF to download something that is not on offer
(tested in USA and the same offer in Europe)

0xFeedBeef

When I start the analysis during playback, I get "Movie Mode",
which analyzes the played s03e08 and there is no H264 1080p offered:

Germania

It's actually becoming fairly common with HBO, their HEVC encodes are actually very good, there's no practical reason for people to still be getting AVC from them

Germania

Personally, I also limit (my few) HBO Max Downloads to H265

SFBaysailor

Thanks Germania for finding that out, at least the 6.2.5.1 automatically falls back to 720p on h264 now, instead of failing. The reason I don't like to get h265 is that I have a couple of Rokus that do not support HEVC, but I may replace them so that will no longer be a problem. Another reason I avoided h265 was because of the low video bitrate compared to h264 at the same resolution, but I don't really know how important that is. And since HEVC seems to offer much higher resolutions (at least on HBO MAX), I can download a higher resolution that takes up about the same amount of memory and is much closer to the lower resolution video bitrate.

At some point during the 3rd season of The Gilded Age, HBO MAX must have removed 1080p in h264, up until episode 7 of the third season, all of my downloads were successful using that. Now it doesn't matter which season I do, the h264 1080p is not available.

0xFeedBeef

Thanks Germania for finding that out, at least the 6.2.5.1 automatically falls back to 720p on h264 now, instead of failing. The reason I don't like to get h265 is that I have a couple of Rokus that do not support HEVC
SFBaysailor

According to this April 2023 (i. e. just over two year old) article, Rokus play HEVC just fine:-
[code]
https://www.winxdvd.com/video-transcoder/can-roku-play-hevc.htm
[/code]

Roku started selling 4k-capable devices as far back as 2015, so whatever doesn't support HEVC is literally almost a decade old.

Another reason I avoided h265 was because of the low video bitrate compared to h264 at the same resolution, but I don't really know how important that is
SFBaysailor

It's as though you're saying HEVC was devised for no reason other than members were bored out of their heads...

SFBaysailor

Newer Rokus do play HEVC, but the 4660X Roku Ultra does not. I spent a couple of hours with different Roku tech support until they finally were able to let me know that. It would be nice if their website had that information readily available.

Not sure where you got they were bored out of there heads, I just don't really understand video bitrates, as I had stated. At first they told me it was a software issue and since they no longer make the 4660x, it wouldn't be updated. But they finally did say it was also a hardware issue. I purchased the Roku Ultras in 2019 and they are the 2018 models.

I will take a look at the transcoder and see if I can use that on my older Rokus, thanks for finding that. I will post here later if it works.

After reading the information for WinXvideo AI, I don't see anything that could make my old Rokus play HEVC, they mention converting, which I can already do.

0xFeedBeef

All Rokus that can play 4K can play HEVC, doesn't matter when you bought your Roku, what matters is what technology is inside (e.g. you can still buy DVD-only players- decadeS old technology)...

The reason why you get lower bitrates with HEVC over AVC is exactly the same as you getting lower bitrates with AVC over MPEG-2- coding complexity changes, and you need WAY lower bitrates to transmit same quality

SFBaysailor

I beg to differ, I have one Roku Ultra 4k that does play HEVC, but the 2 older 4460x Roku Ultra 4k cannot play HEVC, as I said, it took almost 2 hours with Roku tech to find this out. The older Roku's are advertised as being able to play 4k, but it may be limited to HDR10 4k, I am not sure.

The description of the older Rokus:
Roku Ultra | HD/4K/HDR Streaming Media Player Voice Remote, Remote Finder & USB. Now includes Premium JBL Headphones. (2018)

Chat with RoKu Product Specialist: [TABLE="class: bodyContent, width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: contentLine"]Roku Advisor: [8/16/25, 4:23:52 PM] Upon checking 4660x do not support Player HEVC.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: contentLine"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

jpp72

I beg to differ, I have one Roku Ultra 4k that does play HEVC, but the 2 older 4460x Roku Ultra 4k cannot play HEVC, as I said, it took almost 2 hours with Roku tech to find this out. The older Roku's are advertised as being able to play 4k, but it may be limited to HDR10 4k, I am not sure.

SFBaysailor

You are confusing codecs with Dynamic Range.

HEVC is a Codec and HDR10 is the Dynamic Range.

HEVC/H265 is used for 4K content because the compression is way better than AVC/H264. A full 4K movie in H264 could be like 100 GB instead of 30 GB with H265.

I really doubt that the Roku supports H264 HDR10 as there probably isn't any hardware that supports 10-bit H264 aside from maybe professional equipment. The bitrates needed to encode 2160p H264 HDR10 would be insane.

If anything, it may support 4k H264 at Level 5.1 but absolutely not with HDR10. I still don't understand the logic of using H264 for 4K though...

SFBaysailor

Ah, I am not surprised I was confusing something. I know that the old Rokus are supposed to be able to play 4k, which I never use anyway. I only want 1080p in h264 so I don't have to convert h265 1080p in order for the old rokus to be able to play it. They can't play any HEVC. If a good sale comes up, I may replace the old ones and that will take care of that problem.