Initial Playback Stuttering of Movie/TV Trailers When Direct Playing

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi

I'm currently running the latest stable release of Emby Server on a Synology NAS. My old man has a Nvidia Shield TV and is running the latest stable release of the Emby app.

I've created two media libraries for Movie Trailers and TV Trailers and when I come across a new movie/TV trailer on YouTube/the Internet, I download the file (using Internet Download Manager) and I put it in the corresponding section (for him to watch and see if he'd like to see it).

Even though my upload speed (and his download speed) are fast enough to Direct Play/Direct Stream to him, we can't seem to do so (the video stutters throughout -- it's like I can't upload to him fast enough and/or he can't download from me fast enough). We're both connected via an Ethernet cable directly to our routers.

I've given up on trying to Direct Play/Stream to him and I've set his Emby client Quality to 3 Mb/s.

That pretty much works for everything he plays, but here is the issue I'm having now... The trailers I download from YouTube etc. are usually less than the 3 Mb bitrate, so Emby tries to Direct Play it, but for the first 10 seconds or so, the trailer's video and audio stutter. From my experience, this usually indicates that my connection to him starts off slow and isn't fast enough to Direct Play/Stream the bitrate the trailer's in. The trailers are usually around 1-2 Mbps.

However, transcoding things over 3Mb (actual movies/TV episodes) down to the 3Mb plays things flawlessly (no initial stutter or anything).

I've gone so far as to re-encode a trailer I downloaded using a higher bitrate than 3 Mbps and when played on his Nvidia Shield TV via the Emby app, it transcodes and plays perfectly (no stuttering or anything).

Is there a way to always transcode to the Playback bitrate set on his Nvidia Shield TV, regardless if the file has a lower bitrate already? Basically I want to always transcode as Direct Playing/Streaming is causing me issues I can't seem to solve/figure out.

If there isn't an option that will do that, is there perhaps a configuration file I can edit to achieve that? I know it's probably not that simple and the answer is probably no, but I thought I'd ask anyway

[Abobader 2941]

Hello mrchristiecdn,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[GrimReaper 3269]

Hey up, I reckon more sensible approach would be to determine why are those files failing to direct play, as having a 1-2 mbps DirectPlays having issues whereas 3 mbps Transcodes work perfectly doesn't sound quite right and it likely does not indicate network problems but some media issues Exo is struggling with. What format are those files? How do you encode those? 

Edited October 23, 2021 by GrimReaper
Typo

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Here is my log file when he was watching the trailers. I've removed our IP addresses for security.

embyserver-63770371200.txt

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi Mr. GrimReaper

Sorry for the confusion. The Movie/TV Trailers I download are able to be direct played (they're lower than the 3 Mb quality set and are in compatible formats from what I understand (the server says it's Direct Playing them)), but their video and audio stutter for the first 10 seconds or so... like I don't have enough upload speed or my old man doesn't have enough download speed.

Yeah. I'm not sure why either.

[GrimReaper 3269]

1 minute ago, mrchristiecdn said:

Hi Mr. GrimReaper

Sorry for the confusion. The Movie/TV Trailers I download are able to be direct played (they're lower than the 3 Mb quality set and are in compatible formats from what I understand (the server says it's Direct Playing them)), but their video and audio stutter for the first 10 seconds or so... like I don't have enough upload speed or my old man doesn't have enough download speed.

Yeah. I'm not sure why either.

Yep, I understood such, I'm just saying that it might be possible the problem lies on the other side (Shield, AndroidTV client app/Exo player, as Exo does is somewhat inflexible with certain bad headers, for example), hence:

14 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

What format are those files? How do you encode those? 

 

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Ah, I see

The trailers I download from YouTube via Internet Download Manager are usually in an MP4 container, but I'm not sure what codec the video & audio are using, but I think I saw it listed in the log file or I can use a program like MediaInfo to find out.

I didn't encode the trailers myself, I just download them from YouTube via the Internet Download Manager application.

Here is a screenshot of one of the movie trailers (Killing Eleanor) in MediaInfo

 

[ebr 14903]

1 hour ago, mrchristiecdn said:

Even though my upload speed (and his download speed) are fast enough to Direct Play/Direct Stream to him

Hi.  Exactly what are those speeds and what is the actual ISP technology (fiber, cable, etc.)?

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi Mr. ebr

My Internet plan is 750 Mbps down and 125 Mbps up (cable) and my old man's Internet Plan is 300 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up (cable).

I've also went so far as to set his Nvidia Shield TV into Performance mode, in case it was his Shield somehow and it's power-saving/quiet mode.

At this point, I'm willing to buy different devices JUST to see if it's a Nvidia Shield TV thing and/or to rule it out etc. LOL

I'm by no means an expert, but from what I understand, things should be working just fine.

When things with higher bitrates than the trailers play, they're transcoded down to 3 Mbps and they play fine right off the bat (no stuttering issues at all etc.).

I can upload the trailer I downloaded from YouTube via my Internet Download Manager in case that might help to see what's going on (to see if you guys can reproduce the issue). I'm using the latest stable build of Emby Server on a Synology NAS and my old man is using a Nvidia Shield TV Pro and the latest stable version of Emby from the Google Play Store.

[ebr 14903]

I'm pretty confident the Shield is not the issue.

What kind of disc is the media on and how is it attached to the server machine?

[mrchristiecdn 5]

My Synology NAS is running with 3x 4TB NAS mechanical hard drives and I did a manual install (downloaded from your guys' website) of the latest stable Emby and I'm running DSM 7.

I just have one volume setup with separate shared folders for the movies and TV shows I offer to my old man.

Movies

TV Shows

Movie Trailers

TV Trailers

etc.

How is the media attached to the server machine? I'm sorry, I'm not 100% sure what you mean by that. The trailers themselves are in a shared folder on my Synology NAS and I'm also running the Emby Server off the NAS as well.

My Dad & I live in the same city and he streams stuff from my place to his, via his Nvidia Shield.

[ebr 14903]

Hi.  I meant how are the discs attached - e.g. SATA, external USB, etc.

Are your discs allowed to sleep?

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Ah, okay

They're plugged directly into the internal SATA ports inside the Synology NAS.

I haven't changed those settings, so they're probably enabled by default.

The stuttering with the trailers I download from YouTube only happen when they're being Direct Played (which is basically all the time because the file's bitrate is lower than the 3 Mb quality I set on his Nvidia Shield).

When he goes to watch a TV episode or an actual movie though, it starts to transcode down to the 3 Mb (because those files have a higher bitrate) and plays flawlessly (no 10 second stuttering in the beginning).

It's not just with a single trailer either, I usually have a good handful of trailers of movies for him to watch and he watches them all in a row usually, and he tells me they all stutter for about 10 seconds and then they start to play normally.

I can still try disabling sleep to see if that helps though  

It's just more annoying than anything for him and he said he can live with the trailers doing that via Direct Playing (as long as the actual movies/TV episode don't etc.).

Transcoding seems to solve the issue (I tried once re-encoding one of the trailers to a higher bitrate with Handbrake than 3 Mb and when he played the re-encoded trailer file again, it started transcoding and the file played flawlessly right away).

I don't know... maybe the files/streams Internet Download Manager detects and downloads from YouTube videos/links somehow aren't fully compatible with the Emby Player?

I can also try using an external player like VLC (I believe Emby allows that/has that option) to play the original files downloaded from YouTube to see if they do the same thing still.

Thank you guys for taking the time to try and figure out what's happening by the way  

[GrimReaper 3269]

2 hours ago, mrchristiecdn said:

My Internet plan is 750 Mbps down and 125 Mbps up (cable) and my old man's Internet Plan is 300 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up (cable).

Tbh, your setup sounds like you should be playing anything directly, without limit on either side (and I'm unclear why's there that 3 Mbps limit), having that much bandwidth and Shield as a client - I know I'd be certainly upset if it wasn't, if I were in your shoes. 

As a test, could you sideload vanilla Android app on the Shield and see how does that compare? 

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi again Mr. GrimReaper

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought too. I mean the files for the movies/TV episodes are usually just encoded with a bitrate ranging from 6-20 Mbps max and are 1080p -- which is only a small percentage of my upload speed and my old man's download speed.

And they would actually direct play according to the Emby Server on my side, but he said it would still stop and start throughout the entire movie/tv episode (again, usually indicating a connection issue in my experience, but then the 3 Mb transcodes play fine, but not a trailer I downloaded that has a bitrate of 1k that's direct playing).

Could the bitrate of the trailers I'm downloading from YouTube not be detected properly by Emby and Emby is perhaps setting the detected bitrate higher than my upload speed can handle? I don't know, I'm just spitballing some possible ideas as to what's happening. Do the server logs indicate the on-going connection rate by chance or indicate the bitrate of the file being played?

So I went over his place to see it first-hand and I monitored my connection remotely from my phone via AnyDesk (I have AnyDesk running on my PC and I logged into Emby Server via a Chrome tab).

I also loaded an FTP server on it to test my upload connection to him and it maxes out my upload 99% of the time.

I chose the 3 Mb quality myself as the difference of setting his device to 5, 8 or 10 Mbps (or to any other Mb) really didn't make that much of a difference quality-wise when it was being transcoded because of the distance of their TV to their couch and I wanted a setting low enough to transcode everything all the time (since that solved our issue).

But then I had the idea to download TV show trailers and movie trailers from YouTube and copy them over to my NAS for him to checkout (to see if he wanted to see them), but since their bitrate is lower than the 3Mb, it tries to Direct Play them and that's where the issue arises.

The issue isn't like playing an actual movie via Direct Playing though... in that case, like I said above, the movie stops and starts like it's buffering because the speed can't be kept up throughout the entire movie. In this case though, the trailers Direct Play and for the first 10 seconds, it stutters like my upload speed isn't fast enough, but then plays fine.

I'm an older guy, so I've learned to not let things bother me that're out of my control and everyone's human, so if there is a cause/fault somewhere, I don't blame it/them or stress about it. Everyone does the best they can 

Yeah I can do that  I'm actually going up there tomorrow morning to spend some time with him, so I can sideload the vanilla android app and do a few tests after  

I'll respond with the results tomorrow when I get back

Thanks again for helping me troubleshoot this

[Carlo 4330]

Hi, I'm with @GrimReaper in the fact I would check settings on both the client side and Server side to make sure no bitrate limits are in place that would force transcoding as you should have plenty of bandwidth available to direct play just about anything.

Have you check or had them look/adjust the Internet bitrate on the Shield's Emby client to bump it up to 100 Mb?

 

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi Mr. cayars

I 100% agree. On "paper" I should be able to play the files directly without any issues  I can set the Playback Quality on his Shield back to Maximum and try playing the files directly again.

That said, you said 100 Mb, should I set it to that in the Emby app on his Nvidia Shield instead of setting the Playback Quality to Maximum or should I try both? From my understanding, it shouldn't matter if I set the option to Maximum or 100 Mb because the files being played are only 6-20 Mbps and will be direct played regardless.

But I can try both Maximum & 100 Mb to see if there is any difference

I'll be going up there tomorrow morning, so when I get back. I'll let you know how it went  

I'll do your test first and then if it's still having the issue, I'll try using the x86 apk I downloaded with GrimReaper's link sideloaded on the Nvidia Shield  

[GrimReaper 3269]

1 minute ago, mrchristiecdn said:

I'll try using the x86 apk

You need arm apk. 

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi again GrimReaper

My Synology DS920+ NAS uses an Intel processor, from my understanding x86 is for Intel CPUs.

Are you sure I need to use the arm apk?

[GrimReaper 3269]

1 minute ago, mrchristiecdn said:

Hi again GrimReaper

My Synology DS920+ NAS uses an Intel processor, from my understanding x86 is for Intel CPUs.

Are you sure I need to use the arm apk?

It does not relate to your NAS, you sideload it onto the Shield. 

1 hour ago, GrimReaper said:

As a test, could you sideload vanilla Android app on the Shield and see how does that compare? 

 

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Oh right! I got my NAS and the Nvidia Shield confused lol

Thank you for the catch!

I'll let you both know how it goes tomorrow  

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hey guys

I tried the following:

- I double checked that the server wasn't limiting my bitrate and I put the bitrate on the Nvidia Shield TV back to Auto and things were still stuttering for the first 10 seconds or so. I also changed the Auto to 100 Mb and it did the same thing (everything I played were being Direct Played according to what it said on the server side).

- I then changed the Quality to 1 Mb on the Nvidia Shield to force the transcode process on the low bitrate trailers I downloaded (since transcoding seemed to fix the issue the last time I tested things) and even they started exhibiting the 10 second stuttering of the video & audio. So I thought that would be my answer, but it appears not.

- I tried using VLC as an external player via the Emby Options, but it exhibited the same stuttering.

- I installed the vanilla Android Emby app and that seems to have worked. I tested movies, tv show episodes and even the low bitrate movie/tv trailers and everything played perfectly with no stuttering while direct playing

I feel like I'm forgetting a few other things I tested... but I can't remember what they were lol

I told my old man to keep an eye on things and let me know if anything else crops up/happens over the next week or so, but based on what I saw, I'm hopeful he won't run into the same issue

Thank you guys for all your help/suggestions

[Luke 37008]

9 hours ago, mrchristiecdn said:

Hey guys

I tried the following:

- I double checked that the server wasn't limiting my bitrate and I put the bitrate on the Nvidia Shield TV back to Auto and things were still stuttering for the first 10 seconds or so. I also changed the Auto to 100 Mb and it did the same thing (everything I played were being Direct Played according to what it said on the server side).

- I then changed the Quality to 1 Mb on the Nvidia Shield to force the transcode process on the low bitrate trailers I downloaded (since transcoding seemed to fix the issue the last time I tested things) and even they started exhibiting the 10 second stuttering of the video & audio. So I thought that would be my answer, but it appears not.

- I tried using VLC as an external player via the Emby Options, but it exhibited the same stuttering.

- I installed the vanilla Android Emby app and that seems to have worked. I tested movies, tv show episodes and even the low bitrate movie/tv trailers and everything played perfectly with no stuttering while direct playing

I feel like I'm forgetting a few other things I tested... but I can't remember what they were lol

I told my old man to keep an eye on things and let me know if anything else crops up/happens over the next week or so, but based on what I saw, I'm hopeful he won't run into the same issue

Thank you guys for all your help/suggestions

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[mrchristiecdn 5]

Hi Mr. Luke

Will do  

[mrchristiecdn 5]

1 Week Update Since Original Post:

My old man says everything is still playing perfectly since changing the app over from Emby for Android TV to the vanilla Emby for Android on his Nvidia Shield TV