AVI files - video stops audio continues but file is AOK

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Hi Guys,

Sony Android TV, pretty solid performer, Ethernet connected, Unraid server + "official" emby docker installed from Apps, v4.6.7.0 (but earlier ones did it too).  

I can't but think someone already knows the answer to this one.

It's happened to many AVI files on my system on many occasions, and once it happens, it's done for.

Playing back a normal AVI file (plays OK in VLC and the Emby web client) but the TV freezes the image & the audio continues.

Stop & restart the playback & it will always happen at exactly the same frame.

Adding a different AVI file - still the same, even if a slightly different aspect ratio.

Delete that file & repolace with MKV and it doesn't happen again.

I've attached some logs just in case they might help, I wish I could understand what to look for in the logs but...

Grateful for any suggestions or pointers.

Thanks in advance.

emby-freezing.zip

Edited October 14, 2022 by salvadordalisdad
spelling

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Update - a movie stopped at 35:47 - almost the exact same time as the TV show did...never noticed that correlation before.

Also - "Playback Correction" made it work AOK for the TV show, but the film not so - "too many errors" & it drops back to the menu.

So at least I can re-create if ther are more logs needed. I really don't want to have to re-rip all the DVDs in case of this, so it'd be great if there was a known fix.

Thanks in advance,

[ebr 14917]

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

[salvadordalisdad 5]

13 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

 

Hi CBW

Sorry my bad, I should have mentioned that it was a Sony Android TV running the official APP. Not sure what version, but it was re-installed recently so it's quite recent.

I will look up how to side-load in case the appstore didn't have the latest..

I noticed another interesting oddity - another TV show which got stuck at 35 1/2 mins  &  it also recovered when I used the "playback correction" and it worked OK.

I'd be very interested to understand what that function does...

TIA

[ebr 14917]

11 hours ago, salvadordalisdad said:

I'd be very interested to understand what that function does...

It tries to play the item in a different manner.  For instance, if it was direct playing, it would try a remux.  If remuxing it would try a transcode.  AVI containers are very old and problematic with some of the more modern players that aren't really expecting to see them.  We try to direct play them but this doesn't work for all of them.

[salvadordalisdad 5]

On 16/10/2022 at 13:54, ebr said:

It tries to play the item in a different manner.  For instance, if it was direct playing, it would try a remux.  If remuxing it would try a transcode.  AVI containers are very old and problematic with some of the more modern players that aren't really expecting to see them.  We try to direct play them but this doesn't work for all of them.

Hiya

Thanks very much for that info, very much appreciated, It's great to find out such things, bit by bit when you need them.

It's very interesting. Is there some way I can tell from the logs what it's doing?

I tend to get bogged down in the logs, as I don't really know what I'm looking at, and there are millions of lines for one action, so let me know what I need to look at & I can work out the difference between tham that will be a great start to finding out the answer...

Thanks

[salvadordalisdad 5]

On 16/10/2022 at 02:42, salvadordalisdad said:

Hi CBW

Sorry my bad, I should have mentioned that it was a Sony Android TV running the official APP. Not sure what version, but it was re-installed recently so it's quite recent.

I will look up how to side-load in case the appstore didn't have the latest..

I noticed another interesting oddity - another TV show which got stuck at 35 1/2 mins  &  it also recovered when I used the "playback correction" and it worked OK.

I'd be very interested to understand what that function does...

TIA

Quick question following on...

TV says current installed version is "2.0.79g Registered"

Is it fair to assume that this "side loading" will end up with the same version as this, as was loaded from the Google Appstore on the Android TV ?

(I'm quite prepared to give side-loading a go if it will help...)

[Luke 37090]

When the store version is updated it will automatically update on top of the side load install, if that's what you're asking.

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Hi Guys,

 

Sorry got hijacked onto other jobs. Still looking for an answer here, or at least a way of finding out the answer - or even a better question!

Is there any help file on "how to understand the log files" at all ?

I'm comfortable looking through logfiles, but I have no idea what I'm looking at, way too detailed & I don't get any of the references.

 

BTW - Since I took a photo of the Android Emby client on the TV, I just looked at the Emby dashboard & now it appears to be  "AndroidTv 2.0.83g"  so I guess it updates automatically...Probably on reboot would be my deduction...

Thanks

Edited November 1, 2022 by salvadordalisdad

[Luke 37090]

HI, has the new version helped?

[liamsoren 0]

Today there are very few programs that support IOS, and this is a big problem. The same situation is with video editors for Mac. Of course, I'm not talking about programs like adobe after effects because it is cross-platform software. However, I do not even consider such programs because they are challenging to use. Movavi is one of the market leaders, and it supports various platforms. Here you can see all the functions of this program.

Edited November 7, 2022 by liamsoren

[salvadordalisdad 5]

On 03/11/2022 at 18:56, Luke said:

HI, has the new version helped?

Hi,

 

Sorry for the hiatus, got distracted by more urgent work. Also needed to find a quick workaround.

Yes it's the new version, no it didn't help - if anything it's worse!

 

Now, it seems to be happening on almost every AVI file I try ...either won't play at all (probably something not the same as this) or hits the exact time of 35:47 and stops video but continues soundtrack.

It happened twice this evening. 1st occasion it failed I tried to replay with "Playback Correction" but it complained "too many errors".

So I restarted from the beginning of the recording & it also complained of "too many errors" and gave up.

So I restarted both the TV and the Emby server & then it worked. Interesting.

 

It also happened today at 22:22:26 and here's an utterly useless log entry for that time:

2022-12-12 22:22:02.752 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:02.753 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 1ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:12.757 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:12.758 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 1ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:19.957 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 206 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 136417ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/videos/10671/stream.avi?DeviceId=57751a1d886dd854&MediaSourceId=8e313adccbc32651fcb032385fc36507&Static=true&PlaySessionId=fc2ea13c2f8e420f97fb4284b00fc2f4
2022-12-12 22:22:20.282 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 129548ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/videos/10671/stream.avi?DeviceId=57751a1d886dd854&MediaSourceId=8e313adccbc32651fcb032385fc36507&Static=true&PlaySessionId=fc2ea13c2f8e420f97fb4284b00fc2f4
2022-12-12 22:22:22.763 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:22.765 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:32.763 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:32.765 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:42.768 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:42.770 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:52.778 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:52.781 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:22:58.919 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Users/2d7b325584b04979b34cbf4fe4e2c096/Items/10671?format=json. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:58.922 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 3ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Users/2d7b325584b04979b34cbf4fe4e2c096/Items/10671?format=json
2022-12-12 22:22:58.948 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Stopped. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:22:58.949 Info SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app AndroidTv 2.0.83g playing Arabica and the Early Spider. Stopped at 2147673 ms

 

Clearly no errors there.

 

 

I will try "enable debug mode" and see what that gives me, as it's very predictable & repeatable.

;-/

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Update with debug log enabled:

Event happened at 22:36:08

 

2022-12-12 22:35:46.780 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 1ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:35:56.798 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:35:56.799 Debug SessionManager: OnPlaybackProgress TimeUpdate
2022-12-12 22:35:56.800 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:36:00.377 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 76016ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/videos/10671/stream.avi?DeviceId=57751a1d886dd854&MediaSourceId=8e313adccbc32651fcb032385fc36507&Static=true&PlaySessionId=44bbd3649d934cdbb9b43e8213639de2
2022-12-12 22:36:00.456 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 206 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 76087ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/videos/10671/stream.avi?DeviceId=57751a1d886dd854&MediaSourceId=8e313adccbc32651fcb032385fc36507&Static=true&PlaySessionId=44bbd3649d934cdbb9b43e8213639de2
2022-12-12 22:36:06.800 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:36:06.801 Debug SessionManager: OnPlaybackProgress TimeUpdate
2022-12-12 22:36:06.802 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:36:16.809 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:36:16.809 Debug SessionManager: OnPlaybackProgress TimeUpdate
2022-12-12 22:36:16.810 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:36:26.819 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:36:26.820 Debug SessionManager: OnPlaybackProgress TimeUpdate
2022-12-12 22:36:26.821 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2022-12-12 22:36:27.481 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Users/2d7b325584b04979b34cbf4fe4e2c096/Items/10671?format=json. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:36:27.483 Debug SqliteItemRepository: Public GetItemLinks
2022-12-12 22:36:27.484 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to 192.168.4.68. Time: 2ms. http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Users/2d7b325584b04979b34cbf4fe4e2c096/Items/10671?format=json
2022-12-12 22:36:27.519 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.4.6:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Stopped. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; BRAVIA 4K UR3 Build/PTT1.190515.001.S105)
2022-12-12 22:36:27.519 Debug App: ReportPlaybackStopped PlaySessionId: 44bbd3649d934cdbb9b43e8213639de2
2022-12-12 22:36:27.519 Info SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app AndroidTv 2.0.83g playing Arabica and the Early Spider. Stopped at 2147654 ms

File is AVI, mediainfo output is attached.

No clues as far as I can see.

Where do I look next please?sample-avi.txt

I can run any tests needed.

Thanks in advance.

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Hiya

Just some background...might help, might not.

My first gut-feeling assumption was "file corruption" as it only happened once in a blue moon...btu I checked the files & they worked OK in all the windows video players (vlc, etc)

Now it's happening on EVERY single AVI file, 35:47 every time. like 3 conspiracy theorists in a bar - coincidence??

Clearly this is systemic in nature, so I cannot solve this myself, I need some help please.

Thanks

[salvadordalisdad 5]

On 16/10/2022 at 13:54, ebr said:

It tries to play the item in a different manner.  For instance, if it was direct playing, it would try a remux.  If remuxing it would try a transcode.  AVI containers are very old and problematic with some of the more modern players that aren't really expecting to see them.  We try to direct play them but this doesn't work for all of them.

...are you saying "yeah, it's a thing, not going to fix that" ??

Need to know because I have a collection of old TV shows which I treasure. I'm not sure I want to ditch them because "reasons", "we've moved on"

I already got rid of my v2000 tapes, betamax tapes, VHS tapes, now AVI files too?

I am sure that there could be a solution, I just don't have the under-the-hood skills or knowledge to get there, hence my asking for that bit of assistance. If I can get to some form of debug which will highlight what's going on, and find a resolution, then we are all going to end up with a better product...Honestly, if I could resolve it myself I would do.

Thanks, optimistically.

Edited December 16, 2022 by salvadordalisdad
tone

[ebr 14917]

The "Playback correction" feature fixes it, correct?

The only other solution would be to force transcoding of AVI files and we don't really want to do that because many of them will be okay.

Are all of your problem videos divx?

[salvadordalisdad 5]

18 minutes ago, ebr said:

The "Playback correction" feature fixes it, correct?

The only other solution would be to force transcoding of AVI files and we don't really want to do that because many of them will be okay.

Are all of your problem videos divx?

Thanks for the update, much appreciated.

That's interesting, is there a setting to force transcoding for AVI files perchance?

I haven't checked all of the files, but the one I chose to deep-dive on was divx, yes.

What are they transcoding into, please? It's a bit of a faff to select "playback correction" every time, so maybe I just go through the collection & re-code them in a more convenient coding scheme?  h265 seems very popular recently, but the converter I have only does that to .mkv containers...now i need to do some more digging to work that out... or maybe not...(little voice of despair squeeks while glancing at the to-do list before adding "find out how to recode all the AVI files" to it...)

Thanks

[ebr 14917]

They would be converted to H264.  That would still be the most widely compatible and, since we're talking old TV shows, I don't see you getting a lot of benefit from H265.  MKV or MP4 container.

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Just tested with Plex, (as a sanity-check more than anything).

Worked perfectly, out-of-the-box, no special settings.

So that suggested to me that it might not be Emby Server which is the issue, but perhaps the TV Emby client...if it is happy with forced "playback correction" but not with divx natively.

That would also explain the complete lack of any useful error messages in the Emby Server.

So...we're back to the same question, how can I help towards fixing it? Especially if the Plex client works fine...

Comparing the two players "playback info / stats for nerds...

	Plex	Emby
Source	Direct Play	Direct Play
Quality	720x400@1.5Mbps	720x400 1.3Mbps, 25fps
Container	AVI	avi
Video	Direct Play (MP4)	MPEG4 (direct)
Audio	Direct Play (AC3 Stereo)	Dolby (Software decode) 192kbps, stereo
Player	ExoPlayer	ExoPlayer

 

 

 

 

 

When using the "playback correction" option, the streaming info for Emby is H264, 3.44Mbps, conversion speed 571fps, Audio 7.1

I don't know about the software architecture, but it looks to me like they're both calling the same "ExoPlayer" which is part of the Android TV operating system (maybe?) .

So what's different & how can I fix it properly without spending hundreds of hours & kWatts & mouse clicks converting to h264 ?

Thanks guys, really appreciate your help with this. I'm sure I can't be the only person seeing this...Happy to do any testing, eg with beta or older version before something changed...

 

[binerf 2]

Hi,

Sorry to jump into your conversation but I'm facing the same the problem on my Emby installation.

After 35 minutes (didn't check de exact time in seconds), image freezes and sound continues.

Server is on Linux PC (docker install) with last version version released so far and Emby client is running on an Android Box.

[salvadordalisdad 5]

Please feel free to join in! The more the merrier (especially at this time of year!)

Sort of glad to hear someone else is seeing the same thing, was beginning to wonder if it was just me...

[binerf 2]

New test performed with same server but another Android box and Kodi (with Emby add-on) as client application: no problem.

Not sure how it could help....

Edited December 22, 2022 by binerf

[salvadordalisdad 5]

23 hours ago, binerf said:

New test performed with same server but another Android box and Kodi (with Emby add-on) as client application: no problem.

Not sure how it could help....

It really does help, as it implies confirms that it's a client-end problem, not a server-end problem...

Thanks, that's very helpful and not a test I would have though of.

Let us hope that it might one day be fixable (or I have to teach my wife when to use Emby and when to choose Plex...not an easy answer).

If it were more obvious from the Emby program page, it might be easier to recommend the use of "playback correction" but it's not obvious that this program falls into the "It's an AVI file, and it's longer than 35 minutes" circle of the Venn Diagram...

I'm always looking for an easy workaround, not finding one yet, but still wasting valuable thinking time every day trying to...

[ebr 14917]

@salvadordalisdad can you provide me with a sample that has the problem?

[salvadordalisdad 5]

On 23/12/2022 at 15:40, ebr said:

@salvadordalisdad can you provide me with a sample that has the problem?

Hiya,

Thansk very much for helping with this, much appreciated. I am sure that a previous version of the Emby client didn't have this issue, as we watch some of these files before...If i were to gues at a timeline, I would probably guess 3 months or possibly more (but I am not a good guesser, you could tell, I know).

Sorry, took me a while to find a suitable candidate...but I have 2 options for you:

1.Get a home video from here (link valid for 5 days)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wti0EH0gfk_XrmNaPOwbyfm9EoZypr8p/view?usp=share_link

2. Make your own using ffmpeg with the following options, using a file longer than 40 mins: (i found these after a google search)

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -vcodec mpeg4 -q:v 5 -vtag xvid output.avi 

 Please let me know how you get on.

Happy Christmas!!!

Edited December 25, 2022 by salvadordalisdad
time limit on file share