sciphi 1 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) I recently move my emby server from my old home server (i5, 8gb ram, desktop) to a new server (i7, 16gb, laptop, onboard nvidia card) and now some videos are stuttering badly during playback. My assumption is this is somehow transcoding related as it doesn't happen on all videos. From a very cursory investigation I noticed H264 videos are stuttering while H265 ones are not, but this is from a sample size of 4 videos. Both machines were running ubuntu 22.04. The new machine does have the nvidia drivers and container add ons installed. I've tried a few different things to remedy this situation. The biggest change from my old setup was I took emby from being directly installed to running in a docker, the one from the folks and linuxserver.io. I configured the docker with nvidia support. It did have the hardware decoding and encoding options available and I turned all of those on. The servers data was initially installed to an external usb3 5200rpm hard drive. If you pause a stuttering show for a few minutes and then resume it the show will run for a while before stuttering again. This is what makes me think transcoding is the culprit. So far to remedy the situtation I have disabled all of the hardware encoders and decoders and I moved the data drive from the external drive onto the root drive of the machine, the NVME hard drive inside the machine. I will attempt to recreate the docker image without the nvidia options enabled to see if that makes any difference. I'd like to avoid having to stop using the docker version if possible as it makes management easier but if this is a known issue it wouldn't be the end of the world. Its all very confusing and any insights anybody can offer would be greatly appreciated. BTW, props to the devs, backing up my install on one machine, moving the data drives, installing emby and then restoring from backup was really seamless and just work beautifully. Edited September 28, 2022 by sciphi forgot something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Droid 642 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 What spec is the laptop, like which i7 CPU? If new enough it would be better to use the Intel iGPU than the nvidia GPU. There are additional steps needed for HW accel in Docker, which you seem to have done for nvidia support. Did you do the same for Intel? Moving the Emby data (done?) AND the transcoding temp paths to the internal NVME drive should be your first steps. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 Thanks Q droid. It is an 9th gen Intel i7 I think..mobile version with 12 cores. In a dell laptop. I will have to look the brand up in the morning. Removing NVIDIA support from the docker and restarting did nothing to solve the problem. Yeah moved the install off the external drive and the transcoding directory is whatever the default location is, I didn't bind a path so I'm working on the assumption that will be on the main drive. The video files are all in the same icybox jbod array they were in before and running as 1 large volume via merger fs. But that is the same as the old setup. Ah, one thing I left out they are stuttering on my chrome cast. I havent noticed this problem streaming to my desktop in a browser window. But I haven't tried the problem files either. Will test tomorrow (10pm here) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 Just tried a known problem file to my android phone, plays fine. So I'm leaning towards something related to the chrome cast being the culprit. But is it possible to adjust those settings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Droid 642 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 Yes. Starting with the basics you can make sure that Transcoding Throttling is enabled. For the next one you might have to install the Diagnostics Plugin. Then under Advanced Transcoding change Throttling Method to "by Streambuffer Size". This takes care of known issues with streaming to Chromecast. After the above you still want to get HW accel working for your Intel iGPU. The 9th gen is definitely the preferred and easier way to handle transcoding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 I was googling around and I ended up turning the streaming speed for the android to Chromecast down to 1.5mb on 720p and it ran smoothly. I'm guessing it can run faster and I will need to experiment with it but that seems to have done the trick. I will try out those suggestions Qdroid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 28, 2022 Author Share Posted September 28, 2022 Q-Droid, I rebuilt the docker with nvidia support on again. Under Transcoding options, when set to advanced, I have the option of VAAPI and Quicksync. I gather VAAPI is the nvidia hardware and Quicksync the intel hardware? Do I just want to tick all the boxes? Use one over the other? Additionally it has an ordering option, currently what I assume are the nvidia devices are first in the list. Sorry fro all the question. I couldn't find the throttling method you mentioned so i'll install the diagnostics plugin and see if that enables it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Droid 642 Posted September 28, 2022 Share Posted September 28, 2022 You shouldn't have to guess. Quicksync is Intel, VAAPI is open API and NVIDIA would be NVDEC/NVENC. In the Advanced view it would be clear which is which. Such as Quicksync for CoffeeLake UHD Graphics 630 and/or VAAPI for CoffeeLake UHD Graphics 630, etc. Similar for Nvidia. For your case put Intel at the top for each codec, preferably QuickSync. It's fine to also have VAAPI enabled but I would not bother with Nvidia unless you want to try it. If it's not showing up then you haven't quite gotten the nvidia support docker working yet. I think you're far along enough to try again and see if it still stutters with Intel HW enabled. Still consider changing the throttling for the Chromecast playback. You can see what it's doing from the User Sessions console view. If it looks like the transcoding position is going well past the play position, like to the end, and the transcoding buffer getting bigger than a couple of minutes then you know it's not throttling like it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 29, 2022 Author Share Posted September 29, 2022 (edited) Thanks for the tips. I'll play around with it some more. I did get the diagnostics plugin and changed the transcoding to stream buffer as suggested. I'll fiddle with it more this evening. Is the nvidia worse than the built in intel stuff? Would have thought it would be better. Edit: Oh I just found the User Sessions pane and it shows whats playing, how it is transcading, the buffer etc. Is that the diagnostics plugin? That will make it much easier to work out what is going on. Edited September 29, 2022 by sciphi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Droid 642 Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 Chances are the Intel HW is slightly better for media while the Nvidia GPU is much better for gaming. Can't be certain without knowing the exact models and specs. Intel has the advantage in power usage and built-in Emby support. Gaming GPUs are power hungry and run hot, especially in laptops. The diagnostics plugin adds quite a few good features for tweaking and monitoring the transcoding activity. Which Chromecast are you using? Depending on the age/gen and your network this could also be a factor in the stuttering. But it's better to get your system optimized as a starting point then tackle the problem clients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 29, 2022 Author Share Posted September 29, 2022 Well that is weird. I tried a problem episode after making the changes and auto as the chromecast setting in the android app. Stutter stutter. I set the stream setting to 1080 4mb and it runs fine. The thing is the file is 720p 3mb and is direct playing in both cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciphi 1 Posted September 29, 2022 Author Share Posted September 29, 2022 Not sure of the age of the chromecast. ~3 years, it is a chromecast not a chromecast ultra which doesn't play well with my tv. Sounds like getting the nvidia stuff to work probably isn't worth the bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q-Droid 642 Posted September 29, 2022 Share Posted September 29, 2022 Can you attach the emby server log and the ffmpeg log from the stuttering sessions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survivorhosting 0 Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 Same issue since last update before it was fine hope it's fixed on the next release Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted September 30, 2022 Share Posted September 30, 2022 19 hours ago, survivorhosting said: Same issue since last update before it was fine hope it's fixed on the next release @survivorhosting Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survivorhosting 0 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 It's on almost everything it will be fixed once yall update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 4 hours ago, survivorhosting said: It's on almost everything it will be fixed once yall update Hi, what does that mean exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survivorhosting 0 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 Whenever you push the next server update it will be fixed this happend on a previous update also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 22 minutes ago, survivorhosting said: Whenever you push the next server update it will be fixed this happend on a previous update also Can't fix something if we don't know what the problem is How to Report a Problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survivorhosting 0 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 There's multiple reports I'm not the only one It's slow to load when playing something Click on playback correction and it fixs it . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
survivorhosting 0 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 Started the next day after doing the server upgrade Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37060 Posted October 1, 2022 Share Posted October 1, 2022 3 minutes ago, survivorhosting said: Started the next day after doing the server upgrade Can you please provide an example using the information that I've requested? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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