Troubleshooting Quick Reference

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

Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Problem Action(s) to Resolve
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, see About the touch screen.

OR

Check the Dashboard interface in Epiphan Live, see Monitor video and audio input sources using 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 Mini to verify audio, see About the touch screen.

OR

Check the audio meter from the Dashboard view in Epiphan Live, see Monitor video and audio input sources using 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 Mini 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 Mini as a time synchronization server for your RTSP source, see Configure a time server.
My NDI|HX source keeps connecting & disconnecting. The timecode sent from the source may not be stable. Set the Ignore timecode parameter for the connected NDI source, see Connect an NDI|HX source.
My NDI|HX source won't connect.

The NDI source may not send a timecode. Set the Ignore timecode parameter for the connected NDI source, see Connect an NDI|HX source.

My NDI|HX source isn't detected. Pearl Mini supports different versions of NDI|HX depending on the firmware version. There may be an incompatibility between Pearl Mini and your NDI |HX source. Contact Epiphan support to determine which version of NDI|HX your Pearl Mini currently supports. Then check with the manufacturer of your device to see which version of NDI|HX it supports. Some NDI|HX devices using version HX 1 may use non-standard discovery protocols and you may need to use other mechanisms to discover their existence, such as manually adding the IP address or using an NDI Discovery Server if the device supports that.
My RTSP (or SRT) video source isn't detected. Hardware encoding is the default setting for a channel and is the recommended encoding for use with Pearl Mini. However, if you are ingesting an RTSP (or SRT) stream as a video input for a channel and Pearl Mini does not recognize the signal, switch to using software encoding for that channel, see Configure video encoding.
There's an audible clicking noise in recordings and live streams of my RTSP video source Remove the RTSP source using the Admin panel and recreate it to resolve the issue.
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, see Selecting an audio source for Pearl Mini. Modify the input gain if necessary, see Adjust audio gain and delay.
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 Mini. Check if the selected recording format in Pearl Mini 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:

  1. Ensure the source resolution is used as the output or recorded resolution. Up-scaling and down-scaling can affect picture quality.
  2. Increase the Bitrate value and/or decrease the Limit frame rate value in the Encoding menu. See Configure encoding.
Frames per second are lower than expected.

The following tips can help improve frames per second (fps):

  1. Increase the Limit frame rate value and/or decrease the Bitrate value in the Encoding menu. See Configure encoding.
  2. 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).
  3. Enter a low negative value (i.e. -5) in the Frame Grabber's Vertical Shift field.
  4. Reduce the number of channels encoding data.
  5. 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. See Share a live broadcast stream (HTTP, HTTPS, or RTSP) and Streaming to a media player or smart TV.

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:

  1. Ensure the source resolution is used as the output or recorded resolution. Up-scaling and down-scaling can affect picture quality. See Configure encoding.
  2. Increase the Bitrate value and/or decrease the Limit frame rate value in the Encoding menu. See Configure encoding.
  3. 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, see Set up traffic shaping.
Recording won't start. If recording will not start, check the Disk Status Information to see if the system is out of storage space. See Storage capacity and maintenance and Manage recorded files.
AFU to my CIFS server doesn't work. Pearl Mini 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:

  1. 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.

  2. VLC doesn't play MP4-fragmented files normally.

  3. 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:

  1. VLC 2.2.4 (Microsoft Windows) if MP3 audio encoding is at 48 kbps.
  2. Movies & TV 10.16122.1029 on Windows 10.
  3. 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 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.
There's noticeable latency on the video output port. Disabling the audio on the video output port improves latency for the port, see Disable or enable audio and output port volume.
Pearl Mini doesn't boot up when powered on. Confirm that the power cable is connected to a working power source. If Pearl Mini is still not powering up, remove any HDMI cables connected to the output ports on Pearl Mini and try again. If you're still unable to power up Pearl Mini, contact Epiphan Support.
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.
I can't register my Pearl Mini with Kaltura using the same device name that I just deregistered. If you deregister Pearl Mini from Kaltura and then too quickly register again using the same name, you may receive the following error message "Unable to register device: System name [MyPearl] already exists". To avoid this, ensure the deregistered Pearl Mini entry in the list of encoder devices disappears before registering again using the same device name.
My login attempt to create an ad hoc event from Pearl Mini was denied. Kaltura or Panopto has denied you access to create unscheduled ad hoc recordings and webcasts using Pearl Mini. Contact your CMS administrator to either activate your CMS account or enable the necessary access rights.
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.