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Problems with Live TV and Playback of Recordings Android TV / Sony W80C


vfrjim

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vfrjim

First, running latest beta on Linux for the server and not having any of these problems with my Nexus player running Marshmellow, it is practically perfect on that combo, BUT, my Sony TV (w800C) with 5.1.1 is having major problems.  Live TV pixelates  constantly and playing back of recordings has framedrops.

 

I installed VLC and it plays back from the emby server almost perfectly, files and live tv with hardware acceleration enabled and disabled.  I am also able to play live tv and recording through Kodi using UpNp, no problems there.

 

 

So, is this being caused by the google framework not being updated yet in your sticky? or is it something else?  I know it is not a bandwidth issue since everything plays fine from my HDHomerun Prime directly without breakup via UPNP.

 

Jim

Edited by vfrjim
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Hi, it probably can't handle quite as much as the nexus player can. try dropping the app's bitrate setting down to a low value to force server transcoding, see if that resolves the pixelation. thanks.

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vfrjim

well, I finally got it working(crossing fingers) because when I first tried it, it worked fine but the next day it started to stutter really bad.

 

What I did was unchecked the box to use embedded vlc player and it seems to be working now but it says it is transcoding it, not sure why since I chose the box to direct stream it.  I attached a picture of the stream I am testing it on when I connected directly to the HDHomerun Prime via UPnP in Kodi.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tinfn3ah5847b8t/IMG_20160502_185303.jpg?dl=0

 

Jim

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Based on your experience, I agree with Luke.  It sounds like your TV doesn't have the on-board horsepower to decode and playback the streams - at least in software.

 

One other thing to be sure of is that you are on the latest FW for your HDHR.  You need to install their beta DVR software to get it but then you don't have to actually use the DVR software.

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vfrjim

I don't believe it has to do with the CPU power. Here is a link to a feed of a similar channel with CPU load showing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1ai4ogekw3s6wx/IMG_20160503_091649.jpg?dl=0

 

My Sony TV seems much quicker then my Nexus player IMO.

 

I was wondering was there a way to get the beta firmware for the hdhr prime without purchasing their DVR software? Since I will not be using it anyways.

 

Jim

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I was wondering was there a way to get the beta firmware for the hdhr prime without purchasing their DVR software? Since I will not be using it anyways.

 

Yes.  You just install it (search out here there is a link) and then it will kick off the firmware update and you never have to actually use the DVR.

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vfrjim

I have a question, is there a way to prevent Emby from transcoding when viewing live streams, both my NP and sony tv show that it is transcoding the live feeds, is there a setting in the server that I am missing?

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I have a question, is there a way to prevent Emby from transcoding when viewing live streams, both my NP and sony tv show that it is transcoding the live feeds, is there a setting in the server that I am missing?

 

That depends on a lot of factors, like what the content of the stream is and its origin but also:

 

 

One other thing to be sure of is that you are on the latest FW for your HDHR.  You need to install their beta DVR software to get it but then you don't have to actually use the DVR software.

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i think there is a firmware only download because i don't have the dvr stuff, that i know of at least

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vfrjim

OK, I finally figured out what is happening (sort of), If I connect only one device, either the NP or the Sony TV to the Emby server, they will BOTH play fine without any stuttering, but if I have both connected at the same time, it fails miserably and stutters and screeches really bad.  But if one is playing back and I connect to the server via my phone and set transcode to 480p, the phone and the other device play back fine.  So, it appears it cannot handle two direct streams from the HDhomerun Prime which I would assume it would since MythTV, ServerWMC, TVHeadend can handle 2 streams at the same time.

 

FYI, the server that is running the emby server is a Lenovo TS-140 with a I3-4150 (3.5GHZ) with 8 gigs of memory, Linux Mint 17.3, os is on a SSD and storage is on a 5400 rpm 500 gig drive (which is where I have emby set to record and all recordings play back fine)

 

Any ideas?

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vfrjim

OK, it did not occur with two connections but when I connected my third device, it pretty much did not want to hear about it.  It gave me an error that it could not stream and tried to recover, then it gave me an error that it could not load the video.  I tried it again and it  launched the video stream but it just started to cough and stutter, I snapped a screenshot to show what it was doing.  I had my Sony TV and my NP connected at this time and they worked fine, but when I added the 2nd NP to the emby server, that is when it failed.  Attached is the server logs, including the transcoding logs.

 

Jim

serverlogs.zip

post-129021-0-29118800-1462737070_thumb.jpg

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vfrjim

After more research, I am betting that since Emby is trying to transcode everything, it is causing the problem my my server not being able to handle the load.  An option to turn off transcoding on the LAN would be a great option and just passing the link to the HDHomerun Prime in it's native MPEG2 format would solve this problem for those of us that have hardware and wired networks that can handle the data.

 

I know that if I connect directly to the HDHomerun Prime, live feeds play back fine with limited drop frames.

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It already does that if it can determine that it will play properly.

 

How do you know it is transcoding "everything"?

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vfrjim

It shows the word "trans" on the info screen on every channel that I view, so I figured that it was transcoding the original steam, unless that's not what it means

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I was confused because earlier you mentioned direct streaming the channels and now you say they are transcoding.  You also started out saying the problem was on a particular setup (and you disabled VLC on that setup which would explain the transcoding probably).  But then  you said maybe it wasn't just that setup.

 

What are the playback settings in the app?  Specifically, the "Direct stream live TV" and the "Audio mode".  Also, please confirm the version of the app and if it is related to a specific installation or whichever one is last.  Thx.

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vfrjim

I will update what I did test, even I was confused what I tested on my 3 different setups.

 

Now that I am running the latest beta on the HDHomerun :20160426atest1

 

Setup 1 which is my Sony 50W80C, app version 1.1.76g Registered, I was able to now use VLC and choose Direct Stream and now it shows Direct in the info line BUT I get some dropped frames.

 

Setup 2, which is a Nexus Player, app version 1.1.76g Registered, when choosing Direct Stream, it gives me an error stating: Error streaming live tv, will retry.. , then it attempts to play it transcoded and it works

 

Setup 3, which is another Nexus Player, app version 1.1.76g Registered, I am forced to use compatible mode audio since when I don't, I get no sound.

 

In the middle of this test, I got pushed an update to version 1.1.90g and end up redoing the tests.

 

Setup 1 actually got worst, it was not transcoding but my frame drops increased dramatically.

 

Setup 2 got better, it now can direct stream, but also suffers frame drops

 

Setup 3 got better and now audio is outputted directly and does not need to be downmixed to stereo, but also suffers frame drops like setup 2.

 

Good thing that I backed up the 1.1.76g, it was near perfect in my Setup 1, so I will use that till your next update (or I will beta test if you want)

 

Jim

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vfrjim

I doubt it, it is only happening on the high-def channels, sd channels have no frame drops.

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Then it must be processor on the client device or VLC itself.  Although, we've been using VLC for Live TV since the beginning so nothing is really different there.

 

If you turn off the option to direct stream Live TV, what happens?

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vfrjim

Then it must be processor on the client device or VLC itself.  Although, we've been using VLC for Live TV since the beginning so nothing is really different there.

 

If you turn off the option to direct stream Live TV, what happens?

It transcodes the stream and plays it fine.  It seems that since my TV is running 5.1.1, the MPEG2 codec is not embedded in the system till Sony updates to 6.01 Marshmallow, I will have problems since I am having the same problem using HDHomerun View App and they responded to me on their forum that it won't get fixed till Sony updates my TV.

 

I called Sony and it is in the works to get updated, I just have to wait.  Do not know if it will fix the problem with Emby since HDHomerun View works perfectly on the NP but Emby does not when direct streaming, there are some dropped frames, definitely not as bad as my Sony TV, but they are there on the highest bit-rate streams (15-18mbps), lower streams play fine with Emby on the NP. 

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raven-au

It shows the word "trans" on the info screen on every channel that I view, so I figured that it was transcoding the original steam, unless that's not what it means

 

My QNAP TVS-463 uses around 90-95% of all 4 cpus (@2.4GHz, 16GB RAM) when transcoding a 1080p movie.

It's not a stretch to think that transcoding multiple lower resolution shows is going to overload your server pretty quickly (although you didn't give any details other than Intel i3 and I don't know if that's a dual or quad core).

 

Not only that, even when the server is handling the transcoding load ok there are possibly client problems as well.

For example, for me a single 1080p transcode will stop every couple of minutes on my Android TV but the same transcode will play OK on the Apple TV 4.

I don't use my Nexus Player much now so I don't have a comparison to that.

 

Ian 

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