LiveTV used to work. Doesn't now.

[brosselle 8]

I don't know what changed.  Emby used to work just fine with my Hauppauge USB tuner.  All of a sudden, it started having artifacts and pausing.  Not only on my TV, but even from a web browser on the same PC Emby is installed on.

I pulled out my HDHomeRD and tried it.  Same thing.  It also used to work just fine with this.  Local media plays OK, it just doesn't work with either of my tuners anymore.

Any idea?

Edit:  please move this to the proper forum area.  My bad.

Edited April 20, 2022 by brosselle

[ebr 14910]

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[brosselle 8]

There are quite a few different logs.  This is from me trying it just a few minutes ago.  

embyserver.txt embyserver-63786056788.txt ffmpeg-remux-4daada33-f92c-4da2-a9c3-87198632a361_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-b0b7f075-8e9b-4b86-ada7-33531e2ad732_1.txt

[justinrh 174]

May be silly, but did you verify your antennae isn't messed up?  That happened to me once.

[brosselle 8]

Antenna is good.  WinTV works.  So does Plex.

[Luke 37060]

Hi, are you still having an issue with this?

[brosselle 8]

Of course I am. 

Nobody has offered any troubleshooting steps, except one person that suggested that I check my antenna.  Antenna is fine, but at least they tried. 

It's a good help desk technique though. Wait long enough, and maybe the problem has gone away, and then I won't have to deal with it.  Nope.  Didn't go away.  Not feeling too confident about subscribing to Emby if this is the standard support model.

[Scott D 62]

Doesn't sound like an Emby problem to me.  I am just a user, but I have Live TV set-up and working just fine.  I have used both HDHomeRun and Hauppauge.

You mention that not only is Emby giving you trouble, but also a PC and a TV attached.

Help desk technique 101:

What have you changed recently?  Have you tried power cycling all of the equipment from antenna to viewing device?  Have you checked all connections between antenna and viewing device?  Have you checked or inspected any splitters (shouldn't have any, but...)?  Have you run a channel scan (just in case the signal freq. have changed)?  Do you have all of the devices running most current versions of software/firmware?  Have the trees between your antenna and transmitters begun to show signs of spring growth?  

Using the Hauppauge tuner, what do the signal strengths look like?  Just because one device can receive a decent signal, does not indicate that your antenna system is working 100%.  I assume that each device has its own cable (from a splitter???) which introduces different problems for different devices.

Suggestion:

I am just a user, and if moderators feel it appropriate to remove my post, I would understand.  But in reading your initial post from Wednesday (4 days ago) until today, to jump from "Help me" to "Not feeling too confident about subscribing..." seems to be a quick shift.  My experience on this forum has been awesome.  Every question or request has been addressed not only by Emby staff, but also other users.  If you help yourself a little, seek help when you have exhausted your abilities or knowledge, THEN reach out for assistance and be a bit more patient in your DEMANDS for assistance.   I am more than willing to help in your attempt to further your knowledge, but it won't take long for this user/help desk tech to transfer you back into the call queue and let you sit on perpetual ignore.

[brosselle 8]

"You mention that not only is Emby giving you trouble, but also a PC and a TV attached."

I did not say that at all.  I said that both the Hauppauge and the HDHomerun work fine with Plex.
"Antenna is good.  WinTV works.  So does Plex."

As far as being demanding, when you pay for a service, 4 days without even a hint of a real response doesn't seem appropriate to me.  Your mileage may vary.  I actually work in IT, and have for over 20 years, so you can rest assured I HAVE done everything I can to troubleshoot this issue before I posted here.  The first step was to see if the tuner cards or the OS were the problem.  Well, both work just fine with Plex, so there's that.

 "Just because one device can receive a decent signal, does not indicate that your antenna system is working 100%.  I assume that each device has its own cable (from a splitter???) which introduces different problems for different devices."

Actually, it does.  If the antenna is the problem, it would be a problem for every application using it.  FWIW, the signal strength is outstanding, and always has been.  I get 62 channels, and am within line of sight of the towers.  And no, each device does NOT have it's own cable.  I do not have both devices connected simultaneously.  I tried each with the same antenna and cable.

WinTV and Plex both work flawlessly with the antenna and cable.  Emby USED to work, and then stopped.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[pwhodges 1527]

3 hours ago, brosselle said:

Emby USED to work, and then stopped.

Changes have a cause.  Even if it doesn't seem relevant, rack your brains for a change which happened around when the behaviour changed (with 20 years in IT, you must be used to this advice too!).

Given that the behaviour of Emby has changed even though Emby itself hasn't been updated, then I'd initially be looking at Windows update, and particularly at the video device drivers.  But you know your machine's setup better than us, and may have other ideas as well.

Paul

[brosselle 8]

11 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

(with 20 years in IT, you must be used to this advice too!).

This is my troubleshooting flow chart.

Is it plugged in?
If yes, then continue.

Is it turned on?
If yes, then continue.

Have you restarted three times?
If yes, then continue.

Did it ever work? 

If the answer is no, then it's not broken, it was never completed in the first place.
If the answer is yes, then when did it stop working?  What changed?

Trust me, if I knew what changed I would have fixed it already.  Part of the problem is that I don't know exactly when it broke.  It pains me that Plex works and Emby doesn't anymore.  I much prefer Emby, because it streams local content to my Firesticks better than Plex does.

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[ellisd4 54]

On 4/20/2022 at 12:11 PM, brosselle said:

There are quite a few different logs.  This is from me trying it just a few minutes ago.  

embyserver.txt 43.54 kB · 4 downloads embyserver-63786056788.txt 2.07 MB · 4 downloads ffmpeg-remux-4daada33-f92c-4da2-a9c3-87198632a361_1.txt 23.64 kB · 4 downloads ffmpeg-transcode-b0b7f075-8e9b-4b86-ada7-33531e2ad732_1.txt 61.49 kB · 3 downloads

Just a community member here trying to help.... I can see in several logs that the live tv portion is having an issue with transcoding the audio.  Make sure your audio settings on the device haven't changed.  New soundbar? Something changed in the TV setup?  Also double check your transcoder settings.  One thing you haven't mentioned is if it happens on a single device for live TV, like your Android TV or does it happen when you watch in chrome?  One of your logs also mentions some missing directories while performing a scan.  I know you are transcoding to C:\temp but go through the steps of making sure there aren't any permissions issues or anything else like that going on. 

 

13:02:28.914 [segment @ 000001dc9bd1fb80] Opening 'C:\Temp\emby-server\transcoding-temp\C10642_22.ts.tmp' for writing
13:02:29.033 [mpegts @ 000001dc9bcc0f40] PES packet size mismatch
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] exponent -1 is out-of-range
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.033 Error while decoding stream #0:1: Error number -16976906 occurred
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] invalid coupling range (10 >= 10)
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.033 Error while decoding stream #0:1: Error number -16976906 occurred
13:02:29.347 [mpegts @ 000001dc9bcc0f40] PES packet size mismatch
13:02:29.348 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] expacc 126 is out-of-range
13:02:29.348 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.348 http://127.0.0.1:8096/LiveTv/LiveStreamFiles/6c0e864f9b804e5ca2e50c5f89c29412/stream.ts: corrupt decoded frame in stream 1

 

[brosselle 8]

4 minutes ago, ellisdustin said:

I can see in several logs that the live tv portion is having an issue with transcoding the audio.  

 

13:02:28.914 [segment @ 000001dc9bd1fb80] Opening 'C:\Temp\emby-server\transcoding-temp\C10642_22.ts.tmp' for writing
13:02:29.033 [mpegts @ 000001dc9bcc0f40] PES packet size mismatch
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] exponent -1 is out-of-range
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.033 Error while decoding stream #0:1: Error number -16976906 occurred
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] invalid coupling range (10 >= 10)
13:02:29.033 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.033 Error while decoding stream #0:1: Error number -16976906 occurred
13:02:29.347 [mpegts @ 000001dc9bcc0f40] PES packet size mismatch
13:02:29.348 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] expacc 126 is out-of-range
13:02:29.348 [ac3 @ 000001dc9c6ed8c0] error decoding the audio block
13:02:29.348 http://127.0.0.1:8096/LiveTv/LiveStreamFiles/6c0e864f9b804e5ca2e50c5f89c29412/stream.ts: corrupt decoded frame in stream 1

 

Thanks.  I'll look into this.  I did recently add USB speakers.  I'll try with them shut off, however the problem happens on my Firesticks, and when played locally in Chrome on the same PC Emby is installed on.  I don't know how the local USB audio would affect the Firestick playback, but stranger things have happened.

Is there an easy way to change all Emby settings to their defaults?

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[brosselle 8]

I just added the Emby logs to my local Splunk instance to make searching them easier.  Yes, I do see a LOT of this.

 

Error while decoding stream #0:1: Error number -16976906 occurred

[ac3 @ 0000016520e68bc0] error decoding the audio block

BTW, I did a complete uninstall/reinstall prior to this.  All default settings.

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[ellisd4 54]

Do you have this issue on anything else other than live tv?  Could the output of the hauppauge have changed?  Any recent firmware update there?

[brosselle 8]

Only with live TV, and only with Emby. It's only this combo that fails.
Emby plays local media fine, even better than Plex.  I also have an HDHomeRun that has the same problem with Emby.  Both tuners work fine with Plex.  

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[arrbee99 1559]

Apologies if you've mentioned already, I only skimmed, but any update to Emby server recently ? and as previously mentioned, Emby can write stuff OK, no transcoding directory getting full up or something ?

[brosselle 8]

I think it's fixed.  Need more testing time, but it seems to be working.

I un-installed ffmpeg for Windows.  

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_ffmpeg_for_windows.html

Audacity is an audio recording/editing program.  It can't natively handle some audio codecs, hence ffmpeg for Windows.  While I was at it, I also un-installed Kodi, an IPTV application, since I'm not using it anyway.

Thanks for finding the audio errors in the logs.  That scratched that part of my mind that made me look at the ffmpeg plugin/application I had installed.  I think that was the culprit.  Odd that it broke Emby, but not Plex, and only for Live TV.

Emby developers, you might want to make a KB for this.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[brosselle 8]

Confirmed.  It's fixed.  Emby works fine now.  Thanks for your help ellisdustin.

[pwhodges 1527]

Emby includes its own ffmpeg which they have modified.  If something else otherwise unrelated installs a different ffmpeg, then I guess this problem could arise.

Well done for finding it.  Even if some of us didn't directly find the problem for you, I hope we were sufficiently encouraging in trying to point you at some possibilities...

Paul

[brosselle 8]

@ellisdustin was very helpful.  He found the audio errors in the logs.  I should have found those myself.  It's funny that I spend many hours/week looking at log files, and didn't bother to crack open the Emby logs.  I guess I just get tired of looking at log files.

 

Edit:  In hindsight, this statement by me was incorrect.
"I HAVE done everything I can to troubleshoot this issue before I posted here".  I didn't go through the logs myself.  

Edited April 24, 2022 by brosselle

[ebr 14910]

Hi.  Glad you found the cause and sorry more staff weren't able to help in a timely manner.  You caught us on a busy weekend.  But, this does show how great our community of users is .

Thanks all.

[brosselle 8]

I'm glad it's working too, because I much prefer Emby over Plex.  It just works better.