Emby unnecessary maxes out bandwith usage

[Marcus1305 17]

For a long time, I was curious why Emby on Samsung  TV starts the movies/tv shows so slowly and laggy, but I found the reason. I turned on the task manager on the PC that hosts the emby server and noticed that when I play a movie/tv show, emby uses all 100mbps of the local network even when average bitrate of the movie/tv show is max 20mbps. That's why it takes a few seconds to play the movie, and this is most noticeable when fast-forwarding and rewinding, emby again uses the maximum network bandwith of 100mbps for several seconds, which causes a huge lag and non-fluidity, these files simply don't need that much local network bandwith. When we compare it with kodi, it works much better, the task manager almost never uses 100mbps(bandwidth corresponds to the bitrate of the scene, fast-forwarding and rewinding doesn't cause huge bandwith spikes), only when watching 4k bluray remuxes in certain scenes over 100mbps bitrate, but then it is expected. The only way to solve this is to connect the Samsung  TV to a 5ghz wifi network(ethernet port is 100mbps only), then in the task manager the bandwidth spikes are 200 mbps+, which in my opinion is totally unnecessary. How is it possible that this is implemented so much better in kodi.

[FrostByte 5055]

Have you tried setting the network quality settings under Playback to see if that helps?

[Marcus1305 17]

A little bit, there are still huge spikes that cause lagging, especially fast forwarding and rewinding. It seems like for some reason Emby needs more than 100mbps for smooth fast forwarding and rewinding. Kodi is working flawlessly with the same files never maxes out bandwith. 

[Marcus1305 17]

I think one of the reasons for this is when you press fast forward/rewind button on Emby it instantly jumps forward and when you try to fast forward longer period by pressing the button several times it will freeze because it will rewind 30 seconds several times instead of first calculating the number of presses and then rewinding like Kodi(which even makes it easier by making rewinds bigger with every button press). Only way to bypass this is to use chapters to rewind. This change would make it a little bit smoother.

[FrostByte 5055]

Is it remuxing or transcoding also?   I haven't noticed any problems myself and all my stuff direct plays.

The devs may need logs though.

[SamES 893]

Hi, can you please let us know what model TV and the app and server version? 

Your OS version and basic hardware/network config would also help.  For example, are the files on a NAS, or local PC, etc.

Thanks

[Marcus1305 17]

4 hours ago, FrostByte said:

Is it remuxing or transcoding also?   I haven't noticed any problems myself and all my stuff direct plays.

The devs may need logs though.

Direct play no transcoding

[Marcus1305 17]

4 hours ago, SamES said:

Hi, can you please let us know what model TV and the app and server version? 

Your OS version and basic hardware/network config would also help.  For example, are the files on a NAS, or local PC, etc.

Thanks

Samsung Q70R , 1.4.1 app version. 

Windows 10, files are on local pc. The problem is with Emby Samsung app, it's very demanding and inefficient causing high bandwith usage. When I was connected to the wifi 5ghz, it was much smoother but using 200+ mbps of bandwith for rewinding which is too much. I don't know what's causing that spikes. Also as I mentioned you can't rewind larger period because it will rewind every time you press the button, no delay for potentially more presses. And that's causing heavy lagging when you try to rewind multiple times. Only way to bypass it is with chapters.

[Marcus1305 17]

I can't connect it to the router now because it's little bit too far and signal is not good enough on 5ghz

Edited September 30, 2022 by Marcus1305

[Luke 37166]

 

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

 

[SamES 893]

4 hours ago, Marcus1305 said:

Samsung Q70R , 1.4.1 app version. 

Also as I mentioned you can't rewind larger period because it will rewind every time you press the button, no delay for potentially more presses. And that's causing heavy lagging when you try to rewind multiple times. Only way to bypass it is with chapters.

This doesn't sound right if you are using 1.4.1 You should be able to press FF/REW multiple times in succession and when you press enter or stop pressing for a second or two then it will jump to the location.  Have your tried multiple quick presses?

If you are having long buffering/lagging then this is possible server or network performance or issues,

Can we work though one specific example with the media info and server log for playback?  Thanks

[Marcus1305 17]

I will try to provide example in the following days. It is network performance issue because 100mbps is not enough for smooth playback for some reason. When I press ff/rew quickly multiple times it will max out 100mbps bandwith for several seconds. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Marcus1305

[Marcus1305 17]

I was doing some testing on an Android phone connected to the 5ghz wifi,. Any movie I play in the first few seconds regardless of the bitrate Emby for some reason starts to nearly maximize the bandwidth which in this case is around 300mbps and then it drops significantly to normal value, it looks like Emby downloads large part at the beginning. FF/rew will always make Emby maximize the bandwith and only with 5ghz wifi or gigabit ethernet it will be smooth.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Marcus1305

[SamES 893]

It’s not really Emby doing this. That’s how all the media players work. They try and buffer some content to ensure they can handle any small network disruptions 

[Marcus1305 17]

I know but it's little bit too much and inefficient in my opinion. Kodi doesn't have such huge spikes when ff/rewinding. Those spikes on 100mbps network are making lag I was referring to

Edited October 2, 2022 by Marcus1305