Emby Theater Windows Store and Desktop app issues

[heffeque 41]

Hello,

I just purchased the Emby Premium and I was doing some tests on the Emby Theater Windows Store App and Desktop App on my Win10 X64 PC laptop (MSI PS42 with updated Intel 620 drivers and nVidia MX150 drivers).

My setup is the PC -> Onkyo amp -> TV (Old WebOS 2.0 so I can't really use the Emby WebOS app because the TV is too slow and it can't handle certain audio streams)
The Emby server is in a Synology DS918+ with 8+8 GB or RAM; 256+256 GB of NVMe SSD and the most silent HDD drives I could find. It's located in another room and connected by 1 Gbps ethernet.

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On the Win Store I noticed 5 issues:

• The 1st minor Win Store issue is regarding the "Cinema Intros" configuration menu

It basically corrupts the GUI, you can't scroll down, etc. It's a very secondary issue IMHO, but it's there, just in case you want to fix it.

• The 2nd minor Win Store issue is regarding audio stream identification/selection

Atmos seems to passthrough just fine (the Onkyo amp detects it as Atmos correctly), but it seems to be buggy on the audio stream selection (when more than one audio stream is present).

As an example, with the "Dolby Atmos Helicopter" m2ts video there are 3 streams ("Und TRUEHD 7.1", "Und AC3 5.1", "Und EAC3 7.1") though if you open the video with VLC or MediaInfo it only shows 2 (The 1st and 3rd streams).
When selecting the 1st stream, it transcodes the audio (so no Atmos).
When selecting the 3rd stream, the audio/video doesn't play at all.
When selecting the 2nd stream, the EAC3 sounds, instead of the AC3 (the one that doesn't even appear in VLC and MediaInfo, but actually plays OK on the Emby Web, alas in 2.0 as expected).

Another example would be the "Unfold" mkv video (112 MB lossless version), which has 2 streams, and when you select and play one stream, the stats for nerds shows that stream, but it's the other one that is actually sounding.

So basically the Emby Theater Windows Store App is mixing audio streams, so you have to "test" the streams to see which one is the correct one.

• The 3rd issue is not major, but not minor: CPU/GPU usage

CPU/GPU usage is not a lot, but still enough to sometimes make the fans spin audibly louder (especially with 4K, and somewhat with 1080p videos). When in quiet scenes this can be bothersome. Programs like VLC or MPC-HC don't have this issue.

• The 4th issue is on par with the 3rd one: more transcoding than necessary

Transcoding is activated a bit more often than necessary: had to buy the HEVC WinStore extension to avoid transcoding on h.265 videos, but then when using it, more often than not it won't work properly (the video won't even start).
And TrueHD audio streams... I couldn't find a way of making them work without transcoding.
Even though I have HW transcoding enabled (for whenever transcoding is necessary), I prefer to always reproduce the video untouched (I have tons of bandwidth in and out of home).

• The last and IMHO major Win Store issue I noticed is with DTS:X

It's NOT doing passthrough to the amp, even though Emby is showing "Direct stream", so I'm getting a 5.1 output, losing the rest (back rear and height speakers "moved" to the 5.1 channels).
Best example is the "dts Sound Unbound Callout 11.1" mkv video (46 MB lossless version), where it's really clear that a lot of the information is lost.
Atmos does the passthrough without issues, and I don't have an nVidia Shield Pro or similar product to test if DTS:X is working OK there.

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On the Desktop app I noticed a major issue:

Huge CPU/GPU usage

Since everything in "Auto" wasn't cutting it, I tried different combinations, but they all result in huge CPU/GPU usage, making the fans go crazy on very high bitrate videos (4K and some 1080p videos). The one that I managed to get the least usage was manually configuring it to Video output: "gpu" and Hardware acceleration mode: "nVidia NVDEC copy back" or "None". With "Auto or "libmpv" I'm getting tons of dropped frames with 4K h.265 videos. Maybe there's an issue with the HW decoding? (some configs show as "No" when I activate "Nerd information", and some configs show it empty, so maybe that's just a "No" also).
Either way, right now on high bitrate 1080p or above, even the best configuration makes too much noise... by a lot, so it's a no-go.
Tried the External Player, and obviously "problem fixed", but then if you close the player half way, Emby counts it as if you've watched the whole thing, so that's also not good.

Maybe adding the option to have separate "Play internal" and "Play external" buttons so that I can chose which one I want to use each time?

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All in all, happy to have the Premium package and to see Emby so advanced, but I feel that the Windows players need some work, each of them in their own way.

Thanks for everything and... Cheers!

[Carlo 4331]

Hi, when using a PC with high bit rate video and advanced audio you will almost certainly have to configure both windows and then Theater to get the best playback and not be burning through CPU cycles.  Your issue on Desktop Theater for example sounds like a config change or two is needed.

Right now this OP post has a lot of things in it so it would be better to break these out one at a time.  Work through an issue, then post the next.  This way you won't have people in different threads having you changing different things.  Best to work through one item then move on to the next.

So if you could open a new topic per app with one specific issue that would be great.

Here is a good thread on the best way to report a problem and supplying the usual information needed.

 

[Luke 37200]

Hi, we'll take a look at these. Thanks for reporting.

[heffeque 41]

I see that you are launching new versions of Emby Theater these days.

Is there anything that you'd like me to test?

Out of all the issues above, is there any issue that you'd like for me to give additional info or create a new thread for it?

Cheers!

[Luke 37200]

Quote

• The 1st minor Win Store issue is regarding the "Cinema Intros" configuration menu

We currently can't do anything about this due to the way the app is built. The WinJS platform is preventing these pages from working due to a security restriction, however we are currently working on unifying the two apps and with the new way it's being built, It won't be an issue anymore.

[Luke 37200]

And I think the new app will also help with the cpu usage as well.

[heffeque 41]

Sounds great!

[romaing 4]

On 8/3/2021 at 11:35 PM, heffeque said:

My setup is the PC -> Onkyo amp

which model of Onky amp ? 

[heffeque 41]

Onkyo HT-S5915