Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Use the follow quick reference table for help if you are experiencing problems or unexpected behavior from your Pearl-2.

Table 80 Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Problem	Action(s) to Resolve
4K features not working	The most likely problem is that the 4K Feature add-on is not activated.
Not sure if the connected video inputs are being captured.	Check each source's input from the source preview in the Admin panel. OR Check the touchscreen interface to view confidence monitoring for each channel OR Check the Dashboard interface in Epiphan Live
No sound is coming from an audio source.	Verify that you are using the correct audio input by following the steps in Configure encoding. OR Check the touchscreen interface for audio monitoring or use the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the front panel of Pearl-2 to verify audio OR Check the audio meter from the Dashboard view in Epiphan Live
Captured SDI audio contains audible "clicking" sound or other audio distortions upon playback.	Ensure audio sample rate is set to 48 kHz. Lower sample rates (i.e. 32 kHz and 44 kHz) can sometimes cause audio distortion.
When previewing a channel using the Live broadcast link or the preview link in the Admin panel, some web browsers do not play audio.	The Flash (FLV) plugin must be installed for your web browser to play back audio that's encoded as PCM. Web browsers that use Flash players to preview video do not support audio that's encoded using 48 kHz MP3 or 48 kHz PCM.
All my input names don't look normal in the Admin panel menu after I applied the default preset	Refresh your browser to clear the cache and restore the proper input names displayed in the Admin panel.
Time stamps between Pearl-2 and an RTSP source are not synchronized.	Reconnect your RTSP source to reset desynchronized time stamps. Verify that you are using a local NTP server on your Pearl-2 as a time synchronization server for your RTSP source
Pearl-2 doesn't show up as an NDI source	Ensure Pearl-2 is connected to the network and that the network discovery port 5557 on Pearl-2 is enabled
My NDI source keeps connecting & disconnecting.	The timecode sent from the source may not be stable. Set the Ignore timecode parameter for the connected NDI source
My NDI source won't connect.	The NDI source may not send a timecode. Set the Ignore timecode parameter for the connected NDI source
My NDI source isn't detected.	Pearl-2 supports different versions of NDI and NDI
Too much noise is present in the audio output.	Check the input level of the audio source to make sure it's the correct level. Modify the input gain if necessary
Video playback is fine, but when I play the clip in Adobe Premiere Pro the audio and video are out of sync.	Adobe Premiere Pro has a known issue handling video that is recorded using a variable frame rate. Convert the clip to a constant frame rate using a third-party software, such as Handbrake, before editing in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Adobe Premiere Pro won't load my .mp4 recording from Pearl-2.	Check if the selected recording format in Pearl-2 is MP4-Fragmented. Adobe Premiere Pro does not currently support fragmented .mp4 files. Before editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, convert the clip to progressive .mp4 format. Run the file through ffmpeg or a third-party software such as Handbrake to preserve both audio and video output.
I can't preview my channels using the Epiphan Live Dashboard on Chrome even after I updated the security certificate for my website	Some versions of Chrome and Microsoft Edge don't display channel previews from the Dashboard if you're on an HTTPs network and your website has an insecure or invalid security certificate, even after you update the security certificate. Use a different web browser such as Firefox or update the version of your web browser, then add the security certificate for the website to the exceptions list.
Image quality is poor or insufficient.	The following tips can help improve image quality: Ensure the source resolution is used as the output or recorded resolution. Up-scaling and down-scaling can affect picture quality. Increase the Bitrate value and/or decrease the Limit frame rate value in the Encoding menu.
Frames per second are lower than expected.	The following tips can help improve frames per second (fps): Increase the Limit frame rate value and/or decrease the Bitrate value in the Encoding menu. Reduce the number of actions happening simultaneously on the system (i.e. if streaming, recording, and copying files, consider waiting to copy files until after streaming and recording are complete). Enter a low negative value (i.e. -5) in the Frame Grabber's Vertical Shift field. Reduce the number of channels encoding data. Ensure the hardware-accelerated H.264 encoding preset is chosen for all channels.
Stream won't play in my media player or browser.	Verify that the Stream Type matches with the media player used and that you have the correct url or SDP file for the player. If you still cannot see the stream, try disabling your local computer firewall. If the issue is still not resolved, contact Epiphan Support at support@epiphan.com.
The stream interrupts or the image breaks up.	The following tips can help diagnose image problems: Ensure the source resolution is used as the output or recorded resolution. Up-scaling and down-scaling can affect picture quality. Increase the Bitrate value and/or decrease the Limit frame rate value in the Encoding menu. Check network settings including filters, routers and application settings. Packet loss can result in stream failure.
The video streamed to my set-top box is dropping frames.	If you're streaming to set-top boxes that have 10/100 Mbps interfaces on the same Gigabit Ethernet and you notice frames are dropping, you can limit the bandwidth of the stream using traffic shaping to adapt for lower bandwidth set-top boxes and prevent frame drops
Recording won't start.	If recording will not start, check the Disk Status Information to see if the system is out of storage space.
AFU to my CIFS server doesn't work.	Pearl-2 supports Automatic File Transfer (AFU) to CIFS servers (also known as SMB or samba) with samba version 1.
Firmware upgrade fails.	Reboot the system and try again. If the problem persists, contact Epiphan support at support@epiphan.com.
Certain Media players won't play encoded videos but others will.	Depending on the media player used, there could be different issues. If you encounter a playback issue, try using a different media player. Some issues we know of include: On Windows 10, the Movies & TV app sometimes fails to playback MP4-fragmented files with MP3 audio: try changing your MP4 audio encoding to AAC. VLC doesn't play MP4-fragmented files normally. Streams and recordings at very low frame rates (e.g. 1 fps) are not playable in VLC media player, use Windows Media Player and Quicktime Player instead.
Certain Media players won't play MOV videos.	Some media players won't play MOV videos that are recorded with MP3 audio encoding, including: VLC 2.2.4 (Microsoft Windows) if MP3 audio encoding is at 48 kbps. Movies & TV 10.16122.1029 on Windows 10. Windows Media Player 12. Choose a different audio encoding when recording MOV files or use a different media player to playback the recording. The MOV file type on Pearl-2 also has a time limit of 13h15m, exceeding this limit will render the file unplayable.
There's no audio when I playback an MP4 file in QuickTime 10.	Apple doesn't support MP3 audio. If your MP4 file is created with MP3 audio, you will not hear the audio during playback in QuickTime 10. Choose a different audio encoding when recording MP4 files or use a different media player to playback the recording.
I can't hear the audio in VLC or the video won't play.	VLC version 3.0.3 won't play audio for MP4 fragmented files. In VLC's Input/Codecs settings page, you can try increasing the file caching parameter. VLC version 3.0.6 (windows) won't play MP4 fragmented video files. This is a VLC issue.
Ubuntu not recognizing attached monitor.	Legacy Ubuntu systems have poor support for HDMI 2.0, and does not recognize a monitor being plugged into Pearl-2 unless the monitor is plugged into Pearl-2 before the system is turned on.
Feature add-on purchase/activation not working.	Currently, Pearl-2 requires internet access to activate new add-ons. If the system has internet access, ensure that there is no firewall preventing access to licenses.epiphan.com, Port 443.
In Epiphan Live, sources are sometimes invisible in the preview panel.	This can occur if the image is too large for the panel. Check the size of the source, and ensure that constraints are applied to each corner of the layout.
Video output port is configured to display 4K video, but the video is not appearing on the connected 4K monitor.	Not all AOC brand monitors are compatible with HDMI 1.4 output. Check the brand of your monitor and attempt on different display.
There's noticeable latency on the video output port.	Disabling the audio on the video output port improves latency for the port
System is not starting up correctly.	Ensure there is no USB stick inserted into a USB port during power up. A potential conflict with the internal hard drive could cause unexpected behavior.
Web camera is not working correctly.	There are several possible causes of poor performance on web cameras: The camera itself might be malfunctioning. Try hooking it into a computer to see if the problem remains. If the picture quality is below standard, try adjusting the settings using the instructions for how to Configure a video input source. Check that your web camera is on our list of supported models. If it is not, try using a supported camera, and if the problem persists, contact our support team.