Emby through XBONE Internet Explorer

[johnbury 4]

I need to know where to direct the issues I am experiencing, so please let me know if you have seen any of these when accessing Emby video content via Internet Explorer and Emby Web Client.

 

1. Choppy / jerky playback playing high(er) resolution video directly in client (i.e. without 'Play To' option set) (previously reported but still a problem - http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/18564-server-upgraded-to-win-81-stuttering-video-now/?hl=johnbury&do=findComment&comment=180167
2. Screen icons display.  Some icons appear wrongly sized (too big - previously reported, much better now, but occurs occasionally (http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/20900-problems-using-web-client-via-xbox-1/?view=findpost&p=204231&hl=johnbury)
3. Client screen becomes unresponsive.  occasionally looks as if text is displayed as pointer moves over links and icons.  Eventually pointer stops changing colour and I have to restart IE
4. After selecting to 'Play to Xbox One' and pressing play icon, playback fails, may take 2 or more attempts to back out of Xbox video back to Emby screen and pressing play to make it work (around 50% of the time the 'Paly To' selection seems to reset although that might be me being too vigorous with my pressing the 'Back' button)
5. Occasionally a file will just fail to play, the same file will play back via the Xbox One Media Player app without an issue.

I know I have not provided any supporting info for these issues.  At this point I am looking for some feedback to see if others are experiencing what I see, and to try and establish if each issue is an Emby or Microsoft thing at which point I will report more fully to the appropriate team.

 

I also know that some similar issues have been reported here, and I believe MS are investigating issues with Xbox One IE seen by users in their Preview community

 

Thanks for reading, hope you can help

Edited August 12, 2015 by johnbury

[chef 3745]

I have experienced play to functions "resetting" on Xbox one.

 

Xbox video has too screens available:

 

1. Show case of Xbox video media items

2. A screen which will tell you: you may add another video to "play to" Xbox one, and a smaller selection of Xbox one video items on the right of the screen.

 

If the second screen is not the prominate screen, "play to" will reset, and the Xbox will show the second screen. If you press the play button again, the video will start playing.

 

This usually happens to me if Xbox video Is not running when the "play to" command is sent to Xbox one.

 

Pretty much (from my experience), you'll want to try and keep Xbox video in a suspended state on your Xbox one (open in the background) at all times.

 

This will help stop the "play to" resetting, although you will probably still experience it.

Edited August 12, 2015 by chef

[Raff 51]

The quick version is - yes, I see every one of the issues from time to time. I never gave much thought because the web client is my temporary solution until the actual Emby app comes out either as a universal or XB1 version. I also assume that IE will be replaced with Edge/Spartan which in many accounts is more compliant and faster. Worse case (like when all the icons were too big to even use) I use my Surface Pro 2 or iPad to navigate the client.

 

I need to know where to direct the issues I am experiencing, so please let me know if you have seen any of these when accessing Emby video content via Internet Explorer and Emby Web Client.

 

Choppy / jerky playback playing high(er) resolution video directly in client (i.e. without 'Play To' option set) (previously reported but still a problem - http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/18564-server-upgraded-to-win-81-stuttering-video-now/?hl=johnbury&do=findComment&comment=180167

Yes, but I almost never do video through the web browser. I am actually on wireless and pretty much anything over 720 does that in the browser, but works great on DLNA. I don't expect much from the version of IE on the console, but my guess is MS is to blame for the poor performance. By all accounts Edge performs better, so this may get addressed if/when the Win10 version of the XB1 OS shows up.

 

Screen icons display.  Some icons appear wrongly sized (too big - previously reported, much better now, but occurs occasionally (http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/20900-problems-using-web-client-via-xbox-1/?view=findpost&p=204231&hl=johnbury)

Yes. Most of the client stuff is fixed, but I do have some missing (the left/right arrows for seasons and shows, the three dots, etc.) and the left swing-out starts out too large. Sometimes it pops back in, but sometimes it doesn't. The button area still works, so until I forget the interface it is a minor issue to me. This is probably an Emby client issue because of the size of the CSS and an IE issue because of the way it loads and applies it.

 

Client screen becomes unresponsive.  occasionally looks as if text is displayed as pointer moves over links and icons.  Eventually pointer stops changing colour and I have to restart IE

Yes, and you don't have to do anything to replicate this except wait - about 5-10 minutes of doing nothing the cursor will stop turning blue and only a restart of the browser will fix it. I suspect it is an issue with IE memory management but all the Emby javascript could be choking it. I don't do a lot of browsing with my XB1, but I don't see this behavior when I hit a game forum linked in one of my games. I didn't have the issue with early versions of the client, only with this new, much prettier interface in the last version or two. Without a way to debug the browser it will probably be hard to address.

 

After selecting to 'Play to Xbox One' and pressing play icon, playback fails, may take 2 or more attempts to back out of Xbox video back to Emby screen and pressing play to make it work (around 50% of the time the 'Paly To' selection seems to reset although that might be me being too vigorous with my pressing the 'Back' button)

Yep, and as chef points out, once you get the Video app started it works fine. I like closing my apps when done (so games that use a lot of resources are more stable) so that is a pretty minor issue for me. I believe that the Play To in the browser is reset because the page is refreshed and it is cleared. You can test that by using the menu to refresh the page and notice the setting changes in most cases.

 

Unless Emby is doing something goofy with the session/cookie when setting the Play To target, I would say it is an IE/MS issue. As for the app not being open results in the file failing, maybe Emby is starting the stream too quickly, but that would be pure speculation. Since I don't stream to my XB1 outside of Emby I can't compare the failure rate to other applications. If other applications stream successfully at least 75-80% I would say Emby is the issue. Otherwise, MS is to blame.

 

Occasionally a file will just fail to play, the same file will play back via the Xbox One Media Player app without an issue.

So, I do have some files that will play in the web browser but not Video and a few that at one point in time would play in Media Player but not Video via Play To. I haven't run into the latter in a while but I suspect it was because the different players work differently. I'd guess this is a MS issue - why they didn't use Media Player to play stuff and make Music/Video simple storefronts is beyond me. It probably has to do with the Media Player app rolling out after launch. This may change with the big update.

 

What I can say is once we get everything working it is great. Generally we watch 2-3 shows (currently rewatching Firefly) a night and jumping back to Emby by using the B button twice seems to always work unless we linger too long on the page. It is just getting that first show to play that is sometimes tricky.

 

@@chef - eh, I didn't even know there were options in the Video app. I jump back to the web client and use it as the UI. I need to take a look at what it actually does. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Commodus 0]

I need to know where to direct the issues I am experiencing, so please let me know if you have seen any of these when accessing Emby video content via Internet Explorer and Emby Web Client.

 

1. Choppy / jerky playback playing high(er) resolution video directly in client (i.e. without 'Play To' option set) (previously reported but still a problem - http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/18564-server-upgraded-to-win-81-stuttering-video-now/?hl=johnbury&do=findComment&comment=180167
2. Screen icons display.  Some icons appear wrongly sized (too big - previously reported, much better now, but occurs occasionally (http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/20900-problems-using-web-client-via-xbox-1/?view=findpost&p=204231&hl=johnbury)
3. Client screen becomes unresponsive.  occasionally looks as if text is displayed as pointer moves over links and icons.  Eventually pointer stops changing colour and I have to restart IE
4. After selecting to 'Play to Xbox One' and pressing play icon, playback fails, may take 2 or more attempts to back out of Xbox video back to Emby screen and pressing play to make it work (around 50% of the time the 'Paly To' selection seems to reset although that might be me being too vigorous with my pressing the 'Back' button)
5. Occasionally a file will just fail to play, the same file will play back via the Xbox One Media Player app without an issue.

I know I have not provided any supporting info for these issues.  At this point I am looking for some feedback to see if others are experiencing what I see, and to try and establish if each issue is an Emby or Microsoft thing at which point I will report more fully to the appropriate team.

 

I also know that some similar issues have been reported here, and I believe MS are investigating issues with Xbox One IE seen by users in their Preview community

 

Thanks for reading, hope you can help

 

I have experience all these issues. Things were working much better before. I tried also chaning the stream quality (720p/30, 1080p,30) still very choppy playback.

The interface is messed up since there was a bug recently that was partially fixed in Emby Server 3.0.5675.

[chef 3745]

One thing I have noticed regarding "play to" is if my videos have a bitrate over 10000 then they are choppy.

 

Recently I have changed some settings under DLNA and also playback settings, which have helped my experience.

 

Settings you may want to look at are under transcoding for your Xbox one profile in DLNA.

 

In most cases (not all but many of them) emby has to transcode because of the codec limitations of our beloved Xbox one (mostly audio codec limitations).

 

As a last resort I used ffmpeg to encode my movies at a lower bitrate, and with Ac3 audio so transcoding wasn't nessessary.

 

This helped me get a better experience with Xbox one using "play to" and Xbox video.

[FrostByte 5041]

Not sure how current this is, but this is what the XB1 will support within a MKV container.  Notice the lack of DCA/DTS support.  Hopefully that will change with the new OS

 

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/xbox-video/mkv-support

​

[Maudite 7]

I am experiencing all these issues as well.  I haven't been reporting anything as am waiting on the native X1 app.

 

 

 

 

Long ago there was no problem at all, and I would simply hit play within the browser session.

 

Then there were several builds that came out that had the jerky playback.  I simply had to change the quality of the playback (up or down, didn't matter) with the gear icon, and then it would stream smoothly.

 

I now most unfortunately use the DLNA and experience all the above listed issues.  All the devices in my home play together nicely, transcoding away.  Then an X1 comes along, and when Emby tries the stream directly to the X1, the app chokes and I have to restart Emby.  Very frustrating.

[johnbury 4]

There are new issues when using web client to access Emby and playing back content (Version 3.0.5713.7):

 

When either Series over views or episode details are displayed two issues occur:

1. The various control icons (play, like etc) are not displayed in the correct place (i.e. they do not appear in their related 'coloured' circles, rather they appear below them) (both the circle and icon appear to act as an appropriate hyperlink
2. When choosing a 'Play To' destination, the drop down list does not function properly, it seems to display but at greatly magnified size.

If the series overview or episode summary screen is refreshed, the icons are then displayed in their appropriate coloured circle, however the 'Play To' drop down does not function at all, when selected a white box containing the text 'Select Player' is displayed but no list entries.

 

Do you need screen shots (I think I can produce them!!)

 

regards

 

John

Edited September 2, 2015 by johnbury

[Luke 37004]

the first one would be nice for a screen yes. but for #2, why would you use that on xbox one?

 

in any event, new have new tv app options coming for this platform so that's where our energy is going to be focused, but if i can make a quick fix for the first one i will.

[johnbury 4]

@ Luke

 

Screenshots attached (eventually)... not sure what happened to second image.

 

First shows icons and placeholders misaligned, second shows odd, enlarged icons displayed from 'Play To' list

 

In terms of your comment, I do what I do from 'habit' as a way to circumvent past problems:

1. Playing high(er) resolution content always results in choppy playback of video (I used to be able to stop this by changing the 'Quality' setting either up or down (didn't matter which), this no longer works (anyway you only get stereo sound.
2. Playing Emby managed content via the XBone's own DLNA player is great, but the watched/unwatched flags are not updated so making what I have watched difficult to track.

Am I missing something?

 

Great news about the native app (presumably waiting for Universal apps between XBone and Windows).  I am in the preview program for both if you need a guinea pig

 

Thanks

 

John

Edited September 3, 2015 by johnbury

[Raff 51]

but for #2, why would you use that on xbox one?

The DLNA selection is unusable in the web client if you have more than a few devices. Assuming this is what we are talking about - why wouldn't we use it all the time? If I leave it as the default, it will play in the browser. Is there some setting/function I am missing that detects it is my XB and automatically streams to it?

 

Additionally, when you select play (or rather the green circle) from the Series screen it looks like a second menu is popping up. I am guessing this is "Play All" or "play from the beginning" which are welcome additions. Lastly, was there supposed to be a Play button on the Season? If so, that is completely missing in the new version.

[Luke 37004]

what i meant was why would you go through the trouble of pulling up the web client on the xbox one only to use remote control and send playback to another player

[Raff 51]

what i meant was why would you go through the trouble of pulling up the web client on the xbox one only to use remote control and send playback to another player

But the XB1 you are using the web client on is in fact "another player" in the menu. This is what happens when you click the Play To thingy in the corner:

 

 

For the record, my other XB (the one in the living room, which I would actually want to use) isn't selectable at all. The only reason you can read the text on my Office XB is because I hovered over it. I'm pretty sure that order is always the same in the old fly-out, but that means I have to use an alternate device to play stuff on my XB1.

[johnbury 4]

@ Luke & @@Raff

 

Yep, Raff has it.  I load up the web client and select the XBone as my 'Play To' destination (Emby finds 4 possible destinations (the server IE installation, TV, Receiver and the Xbox).  This avoids choppy playback (as happens when web client pays the content), gives 'surround' sound and maintains the watched / unwatched flags.

 

If there is another way of doing this, I would like to know!

 

cheers

 

John

[brienj 1]

what i meant was why would you go through the trouble of pulling up the web client on the xbox one only to use remote control and send playback to another player

 

Because the web client is more useful than browsing the content with the media player, and in the case of someone like me, the Xbox One is in the basement.  So should I go upstairs and browse through on the web client on the PC, send it to the Xbox, and then walk downstairs?

[Luke 37004]

a smart phone in hand can do the same thing. we are working hard on a native app and like i said before, in the meantime if i can make a quick fix for the xbox one web client then i will do that. but the web client isn't really designed for tv so these scenarios are not really getting as much testing.

[brienj 1]

a smart phone in hand can do the same thing. we are working hard on a native app and like i said before, in the meantime if i can make a quick fix for the xbox one web client then i will do that. but the web client isn't really designed for tv so these scenarios are not really getting as much testing.

 

Personally I would rather you spent more time on the native app than the web interface on the Xbox One, I was just mentioning a use for it.  I really doubt it, but some people may not have a phone or tablet either.  I've tried working on the problems in the Xbox One web interface on my own, but haven't had much luck.  I do know that if you refresh a page, it will then show correctly, but it is quite the hassle to refresh each page you go to.

[Raff 51]

I do know that if you refresh a page, it will then show correctly, but it is quite the hassle to refresh each page you go to.

Do you have to refresh each time?

 

Sometimes when I use the B button to go back to the web client (typically one press if the media has ended) then many of the issues are fixed if they were before even when I navigate to other pages - specifically, the non-missing buttons find their way home and the DNLA menu looks normal (not that I needed it at that point) assuming the page doesn't reload from scratch when I do that. My guess is still that the browser (IE10ish) chokes on the complexity of the styles, but once they successfully load/get parsed it is okay.

 

Like you I am primarily waiting for the App, but the browser will also be replaced with an Edge based browser likely before we see the app. Since Edge appears to be better at HTML5, I suspect it will have fewer issues.

[Luke 37004]

yea that's another thing too. once the xbox one gets the edge browser, all of these problems will go away.

[Raff 51]

yea that's another thing too. once the xbox one gets the edge browser, all of these problems will go away.

That confirms it - you are actually an optimist!

 

C'mon, it's the web - webkit isn't consistent across its myriad version/variations/implementations, so even if Edge makes all the current problems go away I have faith that a crop of new ones will show up! Case in point - Edge appears as Chrome 42 in the Emby dashboard and looks good except for the "vertical more" icon which is still missing.

 

I just discovered that Edge has a very nice debugger - I definitely need to play with it more, but here are the errors reported:

 

HTTP404: NOT FOUND - The server has not found anything matching the requested URI (Uniform Resource Identifier).

(XHR): GET - http://localhost:8096/web/scripts/jquery.min.map

HTTP400: BAD REQUEST - The request could not be processed by the server due to invalid syntax.

(XHR): GET - http://localhost:8096/web/web-animations-next-lite.min.js.map%3C/script%3E

 

I didn't get hits in the log on either of those when using Chrome 45.