Recommended settings

[Wacind 1]

Hi 

 

I am sorry if this is not the right place to ask for recommended settings but I'm looking for advice on what changes I can make to improve playback.

 

I am using Emby mostly for Live TV. 

 

Here is my setup

 

Emby server (v 3.2.19.0) on Win 7

 - Connected via native tuner feature to HDHomerun Prime on local network. Both hooked to the router via Ethernet cables.

 - My ISP upload speed is 15Mbps 

 

 

Emby Home Theater (v 2.7.9) running on Win10 (not windows store app) on different network

- ISP speed is 25Mbps download

 

 

My objective is to minimize transcoding as i prefer not to tax my server..

 

 

I initially had all of my settings on Auto and I was getting Direct Play from my server however that causes my playback to freeze somewhat. More in the beginning of playback. I can circumvent this issue by simply pausing playback for 5 seconds and once i resume, my playback is smooth and never freezes. I noticed that this gives Emby HT enough buffer to run smoothly thereafter.

 

In order to try avoid having to Pause, I tried playing around with the MBPS settings on Emby HT. At 25Mbps, I get Direct Play but encounter the above freezing issue.

 

At 20Mbps, My server starts transcoding. I do not run into the above issue but because I want to avoid transcoding, this situation is not ideal either.

 

 

So my question is... Is there anything else I can do to keep my MBPS setting at either 'Auto' or 25Mbps, therefore stay on Direct Play but also somehow avoid the intermittent freezing. Can i somehow add extra buffer or change any other settings? My hardware acceleration, all video and audio settings are untouched and set to 'Auto'

 

Thanks

Edited June 6, 2017 by Wacind

[Luke 37008]

It sounds like you've just reached the limit of what the network crossover can handle, is that right?

[Wacind 1]

Yep. that sounds like it. This happens only with Live TV.  After switching to a channel, if I press pause for 5 or 6 seconds, it gives Emby HT enough time for the play timer to move up a bit and then once i resume, its smooth sailing there after.

 

So for example when i begin playing, the play/end timer will almost be one for one. as in 0:04 /0:04. If i pause for a few seconds, this gives the HT some buffer time and once the timers are something like 0:04 / 0:09 then i can continue playing smoothly as both will keep incrementing there on onwards.

 

This is happening only with the Live TV portion. I can Direct Play movies that are over 10GB in size without any issues. 

[Guest asrequested]

Are you using the windows store app or the app on the emby site?

[Wacind 1]

Are you using the windows store app or the app on the emby site?

 

the regular app downloaded from the emby website. 

[Guest asrequested]

And every TV channel, transcodes?

[Wacind 1]

Well I've limited my HDHomerunPrime to only HD channels. 

 

At 20Mbps, they all Transcode. 

At 25Mbps, they all Direct Play

 

The above freezing issue while Direct Playing is more noticeable in some channels than others. In order to avoid constant freezing I always tend to press Pause when switching to a new channel for about 5 or 6 seconds and then let it resume

 

Sometimes the freezing does disappear on its own after about 30 minutes or so but sometimes it does not and pausing and resuming is the only solution. As Luke mentioned above, I am probably right at the limit so if i could somehow decrease the live tv file size by a little or add some sort of extra buffer I may be able to avoid having to pause and resume

[Guest asrequested]

The reason I ask is because, with mine, some channels are MPEG2 and the rest are h264. I'm curious as to why either of those bitrates would force transcoding. The biggest stream I've seen in my programming was 10.5Mb/s. So at 20Mb/s you should have no problem. Can you post your transcode log?

[Wacind 1]

Thanks for the help so far Doofus! 

 

Similar to yours, some of my streams are MPEG2 and some are h264.

 

Ive attached my logs. I restarted my server and ran my client on 25Mbps for the first 5 minutes or so. So that should be reflected in the server logs. I stopped playing at about 16:09 per the server logs

 

I then changed the setting in Emby theater to 20Mbps and have attached the transcoding logs from that too. I started the transcoding stream at about 16:10

 

Both test runs were done on the same channel (CNBC which is an h264 channel)

 

Thanks

 

Edit: How would i find out what size / rate my streams are?

Server.txt

Transcoding.txt

Edited June 6, 2017 by Wacind

[Guest asrequested]

The easiest way to see what size the stream is, is to record a bit of it and look at its properties. I'll check your logs when I get home, later.

[Wacind 1]

So I recorded 20 mins of a tv episode and it was recorded using the "preserve origianal video and audio" settings checked. The overall bitrate was 13.3 Mbps of which the video was 12.6 Mbps

[Guest asrequested]

So I recorded 20 mins of a tv episode and it was recorded using the "preserve origianal video and audio" settings checked. The overall bitrate was 13.3 Mbps of which the video was 12.6 Mbps

 

So you should have more than enough bandwidth.

[Guest asrequested]

You've got some weirdness when playing MPEG2 streams

[mpeg2video @ 000000000049f500] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
    Last message repeated 7 times
[mpegts @ 000000000032d9e0] Could not find codec parameters for stream 3 (Unknown: none ([134][0][0][0] / 0x0086)): unknown codec
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options
Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://127.0.0.1:8096/LiveTv/LiveStreamFiles/49b6ee912c0f4950a15b1956b548529d/stream.ts':
  Duration: N/A, start: 80470.275311, bitrate: N/A
  Program 51 
    Stream #0:0[0xddb]: Video: mpeg2video (Main) ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), yuv420p(tv, top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], Closed Captions, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0xddc]: Audio: ac3 ([129][0][0][0] / 0x0081), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
    Stream #0:2[0xddd]: Audio: ac3 ([129][0][0][0] / 0x0081), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
    Stream #0:3[0xdde]: Unknown: none ([134][0][0][0] / 0x0086)
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mpeg2video (native) -> h264 (libx264))
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

It's not supporting MPEG2. Are you sure you aren't inadvertently using the store app?

[Guest asrequested]

@@Luke I noticed this. Possible issue?

[mpegts @ 000000000032d9e0] Could not find codec parameters for stream 3 (Unknown: none ([134][0][0][0] / 0x0086)): unknown codec
Consider increasing the value for the 'analyzeduration' and 'probesize' options

Edited June 7, 2017 by Doofus

[Wacind 1]

Thanks Doofus. I definitely installed the regular windows installation (I'm not a fan of the win10 store apps) I can try reinstalling again tomorrow.

Also since my upload speed is only 15Mbps, could that be why a 13.3Mbps stream might be struggling? That's pretty close isn't it?

[Luke 37008]

He's not on the store app. It's transcoding the video due to the bitrate setting. You'd have to pick something higher than 20mbps in order to have that direct play.

 

If your upload speed is 15 I think a value around 12 is probably best.

[Wacind 1]

I see. So my options are either let it Direct Play and have to deal with freezing and pausing for a few seconds and resuming or option 2 is to transcode video which would tax my server a bit?

 

Ok thanks. I'll look to see if I can check with my ISP to increase my upload speed

[Guest asrequested]

Your ISP upload bandwidth may fluctuate.