Problems playing movies from NAS Drive

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

Problems playing movies from NAS Drive while drive is being written to.
I Have been struggling to figure out what is causing this problem.

My System:
Dell 5820 Xeon W-2295 18 core processor
128 gb of Ram
Quadro GPU's (2)
Intel 10gbit network card with appropriate switches.
Windows 11 for Workstations.
(4) SSD drives on Dell's Superspeed Card.
(1) SATA SSD used as a Transcode/Temp drive.
(4) 14TB spinners for DVR usage.
(3) External USB drives used for 4k files.
(5) WD EX4100/PR4100 NAS drives where the bulk of the library is stored.

This PC runs Emby and Plex side by side.
I like both for what each brings to the table.

The issue is that Emby stalls anytime I am transferring files to the NAS drive that Emby is currently reading from.
When I say stall, it freezes and buffers for a time, then plays a bit, stalls again....repeat.
As soon as the transfer has completed, Emby starts playing normally again.

Obviously, this looks like a network problem. 
To test this, I played 3 different movies (from the NAS being written to) simultaneously using a media player accessing the files over the network while the file transfer was taking place.
The files were played on the same PC that is running the Emby Server. No problems were observed.
I stopped at 3 because at that point it seemed like the network was up to the task.
Note that Plex does not have this issue at all. If it were not for the features I value in Emby, I would just run Plex exclusively.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the problem goes away if Emby's Transcoder is running regardless of bit rate.
In other words, a 2mbit direct play stream will stall, but a 20mbit transcoded stream will play fine.

Any ideas?

 

[Luke 37049]

@PetesEmbyServer

 

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

 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

See Attached Log File

After a minute or two of playback, I started a file transfer to the NAS.
Shortly after that, playback stalled, buffered, and played briefly and stalled again.
I stopped the File transfer and playback resumed normally.

This happens regardless of playback device, but in this case it was the Nvidia Shield.

Thanks!

embyserver.txt

[pir8radio 1292]

45 minutes ago, PetesEmbyServer said:

See Attached Log File

After a minute or two of playback, I started a file transfer to the NAS.
Shortly after that, playback stalled, buffered, and played briefly and stalled again.
I stopped the File transfer and playback resumed normally.

This happens regardless of playback device, but in this case it was the Nvidia Shield.

Thanks!

embyserver.txt 209.87 kB · 1 download

he will probably need the media log too..    sounds bandwidth related.    NAS's (at least in my experience, residential versions)  suck for video...

 

[RanmaCanada 343]

No cache disk on the NAS?  I have no issues with my UNRAID server when it's copying files from the cache drive to the array.  How is your array setup?  Is it just jbod?

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

1 hour ago, RanmaCanada said:

No cache disk on the NAS?  I have no issues with my UNRAID server when it's copying files from the cache drive to the array.  How is your array setup?  Is it just jbod?

Raid 5.

As stated in original post I was able to play 3 different movies from the NAS simultaneously using a media player, while I was transferring files.

Also Plex does not have this issue at all. 

So it is a head scratcher.

 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

2 hours ago, pir8radio said:

he will probably need the media log too..    sounds bandwidth related.    NAS's (at least in my experience, residential versions)  suck for video...

 

As stated in original post I was able to play 3 different movies from the NAS simultaneously using a media player, while I was transferring files.

Also Plex does not have this issue at all. 

So it is a head scratcher.

[pir8radio 1292]

23 hours ago, PetesEmbyServer said:

As stated in original post I was able to play 3 different movies from the NAS simultaneously using a media player, while I was transferring files.

Also Plex does not have this issue at all. 

So it is a head scratcher.

so doing the same test using movies on the local emby OS drive does what?   Just curious.

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

9 hours ago, pir8radio said:

so doing the same test using movies on the local emby OS drive does what?   Just curious.

Good Question....

NAS Raid 5 - Emby Fail, Plex Pass

USB Raid 0 drives - Emby Fail, Plex Pass

Internal SATA Raid 5 - Emby Pass, Plex Pass 

 

[pir8radio 1292]

13 hours ago, PetesEmbyServer said:

Good Question....

NAS Raid 5 - Emby Fail, Plex Pass

USB Raid 0 drives - Emby Fail, Plex Pass

Internal SATA Raid 5 - Emby Pass, Plex Pass 

 

sounds like it a bottle neck on the nas..     I know it works with plex.     have you tried setting the local SATA drive as the "TRANSCODE" drive in emby settings (if it is not already)..    if it is not already?   You dont want the transcode drive on the nas,   emby will pull video from the nas, send it back to the nas, then the client will pull it from the nas (either directly or through emby)  so one video could use 3 streams worth of data.   

Edited September 18, 2022 by pir8radio

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

10 hours ago, pir8radio said:

sounds like it a bottle neck on the nas..     I know it works with plex.     have you tried setting the local SATA drive as the "TRANSCODE" drive in emby settings (if it is not already)..    if it is not already?   You dont want the transcode drive on the nas,   emby will pull video from the nas, send it back to the nas, then the client will pull it from the nas (either directly or through emby)  so one video could use 3 streams worth of data.   

This is all direct play. When I do Transcode, I do that on an SSD. Check original post for details. The NAS drive seems to be plenty fast enough as I was direct playing 3 movies at the same time using a media player on the host OS while transferring files to test its capability. 

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

I did some more testing on this issue and found that configuring the NAS drives for iscsi solves the problem.
However this is not a reasonable solution for me at this time.

Besides the work of moving all the files, the drive is only assessable by one PC on the network.

 

[Luke 37049]

Why is it not a reasonable solution?

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

As stated, my backup server would no longer have access to the files. Only 1 PC can use iscsi at a time.

Also, I would have to move all that data off the Drive someplace, and then send it all back. I have 5 of these things.

Many TB's. I would have to purchase another storage solution in order to do it.

I don't get why this is such a problem with Emby....makes no sense to me.

My read/write speeds are 110MBs

(My USB 3 drives have the same problem, and those are faster)

Apparently this can't be duplicated by the Emby Devs, so I have about given up.

Edited September 27, 2022 by PetesEmbyServer

[visproduction 122]

Priority settings?  Just a guess.
https://www.qnap.com/en-me/how-to/faq/article/can-i-configure-priority-transfer-settings-according-to-file-type-in-hybridmount

[PetesEmbyServer 11]

The Solution to this was found.

I needed to do unbuffered File Transfers to any external drives.

I'm using Directory Opus Pro for file copies.

Something like XCOPY /J or Robocopy /J should also work.

For whatever reason, buffered file transfers stop Emby in its tracks.

Please read previous messages in this thread for context.

Thanks!

-Pete

 

 

[Luke 37049]

On 2/25/2023 at 11:45 AM, PetesEmbyServer said:

The Solution to this was found.

I needed to do unbuffered File Transfers to any external drives.

I'm using Directory Opus Pro for file copies.

Something like XCOPY /J or Robocopy /J should also work.

For whatever reason, buffered file transfers stop Emby in its tracks.

Please read previous messages in this thread for context.

Thanks!

-Pete

 

 

Thanks for following up !