Strange interference in SDTV playback on FireTV Stick (3rd Gen.)

[Schneiderlein 0]

Dear emby team, I have an issue with LiveTV playback on FireTV Stick (3rd Gen).

My setup:
Hardware
- HP ProLiant MicroServer G8
- Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD USB Stick (DVB-C)
- FireTV Stick (3rd Gen.)

Software
- openmediavault 5.6.12
- emby server 4.6.4.0 (Docker image)
- Tvheadend 4.3 (Docker image)
- emby app 2.0.21a (on FireTV Stick, installed from amazon Appstore)

Configuration
- emby LiveTV via m3u tuner from Tvheadend

Issue:
Starting playback of any SDTV LiveTV channel on the FireTV Stick in the emby app, I get a distorted video (please see screenshot).
Playback of HDTV channels is ok without any issue.
I have a second FireTV Stick, same generation, which is showing the same behaviour.
Playback of SDTV channels on an iPad using the emby app is working fine.
Using the emby webplayer is working ok, too.

Fun fact: I tested the playback on a FireTV 4k Stick - no issues, SDTV channels are playing fine!

I have tried changing the playback settings in the emby app (Direct Playback, etc.) with no success.

The emby app development log has been sent on 26.07.2021 at 16:43 CET (10:45 UTC-5).
Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Carlo 4330]

Hi, See if you have an option called "DeInterlace SD Content" on the Playback option screen on the client.
Enable this option and let us know if this helps or not for SD content.

[Schneiderlein 0]

Activating the option "Deinterlace SD-Content" makes no difference and seems to have no effect for Live TV.
But: Playback of a SDTV recording with "Deinterlace SD-Content" activated is working fine, the video is getting transcoded and shows no distortions.

I did some further testing with the "Live-TV-Settings" in the emby App and found a combination that allows playing Live SDTV correctly on the FireTV Stick 3rd Gen:
- Direct Play Live TV: off
- Videostream Copy: off
This setup is forcing Live TV to be transcoded on the server and that seems to get rid of the distortions. Any other combination of the two settings is not working.

I double checked the settings on my FireTV 4K Stick, no issues at all on this device even with "Direct Play" and "Videostream Copy" activated.
Let me know if you need further logs from the emby App and/or Server.

[Carlo 4330]

Glad you got this worked out to a solution that works for that older HW.

Each android box has little quirks so usually adjusting things like you did will give you a solution for that device.

Good job.

[Schneiderlein 0]

Thanks.
But what do you mean with "older HW"?
The FireTV Stick 3rd Gen. has been released 09/2020 and as far as I know it is based on the same CPU and GPU as the FireTV 4k from 2018.
Main hardware difference should be the RAM size (1 GB / 1,5 GB).
Well, ok - 2018 is already 3 years ago

So, I am wondering why the 4k can play Live TV directly w/o transcoding.

[Carlo 4330]

Probably a poor choice of words on my part.  The Firestick is "older" than the 4K stick which brings new features and does some things better as you've experienced with Live TV.

[Schneiderlein 0]

Hm, not the answer I was hoping for.

Well, guess I have to get rid of the FireTVs and replace them with 4Ks or something else if I want to use Direct Play Live TV w/o transcoding.
Or maybe use Kodi as frontend. After a first test it is a little sluggish on the FireTVs because of the limited RAM, but it's working quite well with Tvheadend and plays SDTV correctly.

Thanks and regards.

[rbjtech 4265]

I don't think the FireTV's are at fault here - I use 2nd Gen FireTV' Sticks (AFTT - from 2015) and a 2nd Gen FireTV (AFTS - from 2015) - both direct play SD from a HD HomeRun without issues.

So I would say the issue is likely an issue with TVHeadend and/or combo with Emby.

In the Emby FireTV config - have you tried to use an external player for Direct TV - maybe try VLC ?

[Schneiderlein 0]

@rbjtech
Installed VLC and configured the emby App to use external player in Live TV settings.
After choosing any TV channel in emby App a messages comes up "Video format is not playable" (translated from german, original message is "Videoformat lässt sich nicht abspielen").

Next test was turning on usage of ext. player in playback settings in emby app and start playing a SDTV recording. This time I could choose VLC and the recording was played w/o an issue (integrated ExoPlayer shows described distortions in my initial post if not transcoded).

If I start the M3U playlist from Tvheadend directly in VLC, there are no issues: Playback of SDTV channels is working fine.

For the record, I have two FTV 3. Gen., both are giving the same bad picture in SDTV w/o transcoding if internal player is used. Testing with a FTV 4K everythings fine.

Since you have no issues with your older FTV devices, maybe it is a problem with the internal ExoPlayer and FireOS 7 (which is based on Android 9 AFAIK)?
Any FireTV Cube 2nd Gen. users out there?

[ebr 14913]

Hi.  I agree that this is probably down to the configuration or interaction between TVHE and Emby.  If you eliminate that and go directly to your HDHR, does this problem go away?

[Schneiderlein 0]

No HDHomeRun, I am using a Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD USB Stick (DVB-C).
Emby Live TV is configured to use M3U file from TVheadend.

[Luke 37066]

Can you try the standard Emby android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

[Schneiderlein 0]

Tried it, the standard Emby android app shows the same distortions for SDTV.

[rbjtech 4265]

If you record an SDTV programme and playback via the FireTV - is that ok ?

 

[Schneiderlein 0]

Doesn't matter if LiveTV or playback of SDTV recordings: Direct Play w/o transcoding is distorted.

[Luke 37066]

Have you checked the signal strength on your tuner device when this happens?

[Schneiderlein 0]

No. I have given up on Emby App and using Kodi with TVheadend and Emby addon now on the Fire TV Stick.
That combo runs quite well and is serving my needs.

Thanks so far.

[Luke 37066]

We're happy to help you resolve your issue if you'd like to try it again. Thanks.