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Transcoded streaming video doesn't recover after temporary dip in network connection quality


MKANET

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MKANET

I normally have very good 4GLTE and wifi connection quality/speed 95% of the time.  Emby Android client is happily streaming UNTIL the network connection quality dips down temporarily.  As soon as that happens, my Android Emby client streamed video will have a micro-glitch every 7 or so seconds; even, when the signal quality returns back to normal.

 

This never happens with my Plex Server/Client on the same exact server/client devices and respective network connection.

 

I'm using the latest public release of both Emby Server and Client; although, I've seen this issue with Emby since back when it was called Media Browser 3 (on my old Samsung Note 2).

 

Maybe, someone has a tip to prevent this from happening?  I'd really appreciate it

Edited by MKANET
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MKANET

I've also noticed that when I jump around the time line during video playback (on my web client as well as Android), this also causes the video to stutter.  However, it seems this problem is more related to Emby's transcoder in general.

 

If I use Plex to do the same things, video ALWAYS is smooth, no matter what I do (on both Android and web client); even, with more demanding video quality.  I thought that both Emby and Plex use ffmpeg to encode; but, there's obviously a big difference between the way their transcoding performance and reliability.

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MKANET

Okay, I "think" I know what's causing this... the videos that are being transcoded are 1080p (transcoded down to 1.00Mbps 480p). This doesn't seem to happen on 720p transcoded videos.

 

Unless, someone has a better explanation for what I'm seeing, I'm just going to have to accept that Plex just transcodes 1080p more efficiently than Emby (at least on my Intel 2.4Ghz quadcore CPU server with 8GB's of RAM).  It's really a shame, I really, REALLY spent a lot of time troubleshooting to avoid this issue.  There really isn't much room for experimentation.

 

PS:  Plex transcoder uses ~95% of my CPU on the server (Windows 7 64bit) for transcoding 1080p.  Emby uses ~60-70%.  Same problem if I uncheck "CPU throttling" for Emby.  In fact, I've tried all the transcoding options for Emby.

Edited by MKANET
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I wouldn't call that "more efficient".  I'd say it is more willing to use all of the resources of the machine.

 

Perhaps we can create a mode that will allow that same level of greediness for lower powered devices.

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MKANET

Thanks for the reply EBR!  I thought unchecking the throttling would do that; but, apparently, it doesn't do what I expected.

 

I just checked, I had set the Plex transcoder to use "Prefer higher quality encoding".  Plex does seem to do more than just blindly use all the CPU power, it seems to throttle right below full use of the CPU; and, do it quite well (no weird stuttering or glitches).. enough CPU resources left for me to even RDP to the server desktop and do other things during heavy transcoding/streaming in plex.

 

This should hopefully be pretty easy to reproduce on less powerful CPUs.  This is really the only problem stopping me from switching to Emby permanently.

 

I'd be happy to test any improvements made to Emby's transcoder to avoid these types of performance issues.

 

Thank you for the great support!

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And which setting do you have our Transcoder set to?  Just so you are comparing apples to apples...

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MKANET

I really appreciate you looking into this. It happens at the default Emby transcoder settings, "Auto" with or without throttling enabled. The problem seems to he even worse for the more aggressive settings.

 

I knew the problem seemed to be a lack of resources; since the problem seemed to be more pronounced with complex, fast moving video scenes.... Plex transcoder would climb up in CPU utilization (up to 98% CPU utilization) during these scenes... while Emby trancoder seems to take no more than around 80% CPU utilization.

Edited by MKANET
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  • 2 weeks later...
MKANET

I currently dont have Emby installed (still using Plex).  No rush, but, just curious if there's a way to find out when the Emby transcoder will get enhanced to handle these conditions?

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MKANET

Please don't kill me.  But, the symptoms below are still there using the latest dev build for Emby Windows Server.  There's definitely a significant difference between how Emby and Plex in how they transcode/stream to Android mobile clients (Samsung Note 2, Samsung Note 4).

 

Scenerio:     When Transcoding 1080p to 1Mbps or lower

 

EMBY: 

-At full signal quality and speed... After 5 seconds video streaming starts on Android client, hiccups for a second, then starts streaming (video starts out blurry (compression artifacts), then eventually gets sharper).  HOWEVER, after the network speed drops from 4GLTE to 4G (still good signal quality), immediately, the Android client streaming video starts to hiccup every 5-7 seconds.  However, video playback quality still stays sharp, despite the hiccups.  Restarting the stream results in same behavior (even with other similar media files).

 

PLEX:

-At full signal quality and speed... After 3-4 seconds video starts streaming... no hiccups, consistently clear.  Does not hiccup, ever.  I even verified that videos aren't synched to local device (since streaming is pretty much perfect).  Plex seems to be unaffected by network speed changes, unless complete loss of network connection.

 

 

NOTES:

- Both Windows Server and Android clients more than enough system resources (no 3rd party apps interfering with either Emby or Plex). 

- Using same media files to stream on both Emby and Plex.

- Using default transcoder settings on Emby and Plex.

Edited by MKANET
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MKANET

It seems like the mechanism Emby uses to handle the transcoded stream (on network/network condition changes) doesn't seem to work very well; at least, not when compared to Plex using the same scenarios.  This has always been the case for me, even when Emby was known as Media Browser 3.  There seems to be more than enough CPU power on my Intel Quadcore 2.4GHz CPU with 8GB's or RAM.

 

Also, I'm not sure if this is related... even when the network condition is perfect (with stable network condition), on 1080p media files, Emby always seems to start playback (during transcoded stream) on the client a couple of seconds slower then Plex on the same media, (first, with a hiccup/stutter), then, and compression artifacts when first starting to transcode/stream.  On Plex, transcoded video starts out little a couple seconds faster and video immediately starts playback clear; and, stays clear (no compression blurriness or stutter when starting steaming the video).

Edited by MKANET
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jamvids

Hi, I haven't remotely played a video for a few months, last time I did I was only using 60% - 80%, now it only plays 6 seconds and stops, CPU is at 100% again. I don't know what has changed. My CPU is quad core 2.8 gig (I think) athlon.

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