Roku autoplay next episode has suddenly stopped working

[JDMoody 4]

Tested this afternoon. Running 4.8.0.46. Ran solidly for 3 hours from 5:15 until about 8:08. Then is said an episode had ended, when in fact it froze with 1 second left again. I checked it at 10:00 and found it frozen, I hit the right arrow on the remote and it advanced to the next episode. Interestingly it again almost 2 hrs after on the activity log, it states the episode ended again when I hit the button and it advanced. 

 

 

[Luke 37066]

OK we'll take a look at it. Thanks for reporting.

[rotational467 31]

As far as we've seen here, this issue seems to have stopped as of Emby 4.8.0.45.  Currently on .46 and still no problems.

[tampoon 8]

I see this issue constantly on current beta. 

 

[jim3211 1]

same prob. running on linux  4.7.14  wakes me up being too quiet in the middle of the night. should i down grade until this is fixed ? 

[JDMoody 4]

Running 4.8.0.51 beta. The issue still persists on Roku. iPad runs flawlessly. Several different series have shown the issue. Multi formats. Episode stops with one second remaining and a click of the right arrow advances to next episode. For some reason, not sure of the relevance, but 30 minute shows seems to be the only ones that don't automatically advance. 1 hour shows I don't recall having any issues with. 

[speechles 1917]

@JDMoody Apologies for the issue. I have replicated the same issue you have presently, just last night on an item I have. I can replicate the issue repeatedly with that file. We do have logic that is supposed to skip over these problems but I do not think they are throwing the correct buffer underflow error on the Roku player when it happens. Since I can replicate I will test out some new methods for us to detect this problem and promptly skip at that point. We will have something to finally fix this very soon. The Roku player on some versions of firmware will use range-requests and get stuck waiting. This problem will only happen when using HLS not when using the original container. This is why you see it rarely as most of your items must fully direct play. Please stay tuned. Thank you.

Edited October 8, 2023 by speechles

[JDMoody 4]

Tested it again last night and it froze after every single episode. The right directional arrow will progress it but it will not auto start. Running beta 4.8.0.59. Can we please resolve this, it has now been a year with no resolution. ROKU is up to date with emby v4 build 85. 30 min shows seem to be the most problematic. Big bang, forensic files, etc. Longer shows don't seem to have the issue as often if at all. 

 

 

[JDMoody 4]

Running 4.8.0.60 beta. Issue still persists. Have only been able to continuously watch up to 5 episodes. Usually stops advancing episodes after 2 or 3, again almost exclusively on short episodes. Hour long shows don't seem to have this issue. Any updates on a remedy? 

 

[Luke 37066]

On 12/8/2023 at 1:05 PM, JDMoody said:

Running 4.8.0.60 beta. Issue still persists. Have only been able to continuously watch up to 5 episodes. Usually stops advancing episodes after 2 or 3, again almost exclusively on short episodes. Hour long shows don't seem to have this issue. Any updates on a remedy? 

 

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[beens 4]

I've been having this problem as well, for quite a while. I always assumed it was because of something in my virtualization environment, or maybe just crappy wifi. But everything else works as expected, and I have not been able to identify any bottlenecks or issues in my server or network environment. The issue seems to only happen on Roku devices.

What I'm seeing is exactly as described by everyone else. Videos will appear to play to the end, but it will stay on a black screen with 1-3 seconds remaining, with the UI offering a pause button, which seems to indicate that it's still playing or trying to play the file. It will not advance to the next video on its own. The next episode must be loaded manually by using the remote.

The issue happens randomly. Sometime it's every single video, sometimes it'll play 2 or 3 or more in a row, sometimes it will play all night without problem.

I've experimented with different filetypes and bitrates, but it doesn't seem to affect the behavior. I've never experienced any quality issues or buffering issues when playing content from the web interface on my laptop. My video files range from SD to 4k, and I rarely run into playback issues on Android or Chrome on PC. I've had surprisingly good results using the web interface from my laptop to play pretty much any file regardless of resolution or bitrate, even over VPN.

This issue is significant to us because we keep the TV on at night to fall asleep. If there are any logs I can produce or anything else I can do to help, please advise. Thanks.

[beens 4]

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but for at least a week or two we haven't seen this issue anymore. It's been smooth sailing, all the way up to when the Roku's 4 hour bandwidth limit feature kicks in. 

[tampoon 8]

Hmm interesting. Still the same here pretty consistent with most content. 

I'll double check and make sure I'm updated. 

[tampoon 8]

18 hours ago, tampoon said:

 

I'll double check and make sure I'm updated. 

yeah im all updated with 4.9.0.1 beta. and roku beta 1.4.5 still occurs. i think with direct play it does not happen but transcodes always does (might have that backwards) but seems to be content dependent. i do think there are some cases where emby transcodes for roku when unnecessary maybe if that gets re-looked at the issue can be at least reduced. i was doing some comparison checks between emby and plex and there are cases where emby transcode a file but plex will just direct play, not sure what thats about but happy to help look into it. 

[beens 4]

I haven't installed any updates or betas on the Emby server or on the Roku devices. I've allowed them to automatically receive updates as they normally do. I'm pretty sure the issue I was seeing (won't automatically play next episode) was fixed before the date indicated on the event in the screenshot (2/7), so unless there was another recent update to Emby server, I'm guessing something on the Roku side may have been updated.

All TV shows of all lengths are now correctly advancing to the next episode.

@tampoonI suspect you're onto something about the transcoding, because I've noticed unusually poor performance and buffering when I change settings.

My experience with bandwidth and transcoding settings seems to be inconsistent on Roku devices, and I don't have a way to easily determine if the settings are actually taking effect. I gave up and left the transcode settings at Auto. As an experiment, I moved my Emby VM to to my workstation PC, which has an i7-12700 CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and an NVME SSD. The buffering/transcoding issues still persisted, no matter how many CPU cores I threw at it. I moved the VM back to my server with no noticeable difference in the user experience on the Roku side.

I should also add that I haven't messed with any bandwidth/transcode settings since things have been working correctly. There are rare instances when I want to limit traffic on the WiFi, but I'm having the most success leaving transcoding set to Auto.

[electricwildflower 12]

I currently have the issue with Roku and autoplaying the next episode.

Have Emby installed on a RCA Roku TV and after an episode has finished it will just go to a black screen and do nothing else. I have to manually go back to the Emby home screen and then choose the next episode if i want to play another. 

[rotational467 31]

This is happening reliably for me (again) on specific media, not everything. My wife is watching a show now that's H.264+MKV and autoplay is fine; I have an HEVC+MKV show where this issue occurs with every episode.  Mediainfo attached for one of the files that triggers this reliably.  I was watching this over the past few nights, and it hung at the end of every episode if autoplay was enabled.

I think this is ultimately a server-side problem.  Kodi + E4K will also reliably crash trying to autoplay this show. Whatever media works/does not with autoplay on the Roku, Kodi + E4K also works with autoplay or crashes between episodes respectively.

vb0601.txt

[ebr 14913]

11 hours ago, rotational467 said:

I think this is ultimately a server-side problem.  Kodi + E4K will also reliably crash trying to autoplay this show. Whatever media works/does not with autoplay on the Roku, Kodi + E4K also works with autoplay or crashes between episodes respectively.

Hi.  As you note with the behavior of the other software, it is actually a media problem.

11 hours ago, rotational467 said:

and it hung at the end of every episode if autoplay was enabled.

It doesn't hang at the end if auto play is not enabled?

[rotational467 31]

59 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  As you note with the behavior of the other software, it is actually a media problem.

It doesn't hang at the end if auto play is not enabled?

Hey there,

Correct, when playing a single episode (Roku or Kodi) there are no issues, the episode plays to completion and returns to app automatically immediately following the end of the file.  The problem only occurs if autoplay is enabled.

One piece of information I left out - the behavior is slightly different between Roku and Kodi + E4K:

Roku: Playback freezes on last frame (normally black) and does not advance without manual intervention

Kodi + E4K: The first few frames of the next episode will play, freeze, then Kodi crashes to desktop.

Re: a media problem - I can't accept that it's just an issue of defective/malformed media files.  I ripped these specific files in 2018, and have never had a problem with them with autoplay via Plex or native Kodi.  This autoplay failure comes and goes with server/app updates.  Just in this thread I personally have "It's broken" and "it's working again" posts going back to Oct '22.

As I can reproduce it on demand right now, I'm happy to gather any logs/etc. that could be useful in smoking this thing out.  If it truly is defective media, hopefully the specific defect could be identified?

Edited March 12 by rotational467

[ebr 14913]

27 minutes ago, rotational467 said:

The first few frames of the next episode will play, freeze, then Kodi crashes to desktop.

Okay so that makes more sense if the issue doesn't happen when the auto play is not on - because the issue is actually with starting the next episode, not ending the current one.

[tampoon 8]

maybe there could be another way to address this issue. 2 things are clear to me reading up on this/my own tests. 1 when autoplay is off it returns to menu and 2 i have plex running a mirror of my media , it does not have this issue autoplaying to the next ep. 

im no programmer so forgive my ignorance as a state this, but could it be programed to return to menu after a play completes and then check for some kind of play next and just move to play that next episode? or something else that can read x second to end of ep and instead of waiting for true end to be reached maybe it could just play next? 

[rotational467 31]

Following up - seeing this very frequently right now.  Have a show (MASH) that I ripped some time ago in H264 + MKV.  With autoplay enabled, after selecting any episode, at episode completion playback will hang and if left alone (e.g. you fall asleep), will sit ~ 2 hours until Emby finally kills everything.  Most recent:

Playback start:

2024-04-20 23:06:08.071 Info SessionManager: Playback start reported by app Roku SG 4.1.15 playing Hot Lips and Empty Arms. Started at 0 ms
2024-04-20 23:06:08.089 Warn App: Hardware-accelerated subtitle-overlay is disabled due to diagnostic option
2024-04-20 23:06:08.092 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: _sessionManager_PlaybackStart : Entered
2024-04-20 23:06:08.092 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to host6. Time: 25ms. POST http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing
2024-04-20 23:06:08.092 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: Adding PlaybackInfo to playback_trackers : 72526a5f-f140-5e51-9800-2a2223806745|6b4f07bd48d541aabde430a90737a359|26144|Transcode (v:h264 a:direct)
2024-04-20 23:06:08.092 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: Saving PlaybackInfo to DB
2024-04-20 23:06:08.100 Info App: >> ThrottleBySegmentRequest: Initialize - TargetBufferSize: 120s
2024-04-20 23:06:08.100 Info App: ProcessRun 'StreamTranscode d80a2b' Execute: /opt/emby-server/bin/ffmpeg -loglevel +timing -y -print_graphs_file "/var/lib/emby/logs/ffmpeg-transcode-d80a2b7b-81e9-463d-9d3f-9981400a6d85_1graph.txt" -copyts -start_at_zero -init_hw_device "vaapi=vad0:/dev/dri/renderD128" -filter_hw_device vad0 -f matroska,webm -c:v:0 h264 -threads:v:0 1 -hwaccel:v:0 vaapi -hwaccel_device:v:0 /dev/dri/renderD128 -noautorotate -canvas_size:s:0 "720:480" -i "/mnt/share/Video/TV/M-A-S-H (1972)/Season 02/M-A-S-H - S02E14 - Hot Lips and Empty Arms.mkv" -filter_complex "[0:2]scale@f1=width=718:height=-2:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease[f1_out0];[0:0][f1_out0]overlay@f2=x=(W-w)/2:y=(H-h):repeatlast=0,format@f3=pix_fmts=nv12,hwupload@f4[f4_out0]" -map [f4_out0] -map 0:1 -sn -c:v:0 h264_vaapi -b:v:0 4433318 -g:v:0 72 -maxrate:v:0 4433318 -bufsize:v:0 8866636 -keyint_min:v:0 72 -r:v:0 23.976024627685547 -profile:v:0 high -c:a:0 copy -metadata:s:a:0 language=eng -disposition:a:0 default -max_delay 5000000 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -f segment -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -segment_format mpegts -segment_list "/mnt/scratch/embyscratch/transcoding-temp/D47F84/D47F84.m3u8" -segment_list_type m3u8 -segment_time 00:00:03.000 -segment_start_number 0 -individual_header_trailer 0 -write_header_trailer 0 -segment_write_temp 1 "/mnt/scratch/embyscratch/transcoding-temp/D47F84/D47F84_%d.ts"

Episode reaches end:

2024-04-20 23:30:28.155 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/518.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=146500,bl=94400,nor="519.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:28.160 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 6ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/518.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:31.141 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/519.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155100,bl=94500,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:31.145 Info Server: http/1.1 POST http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU)
2024-04-20 23:30:31.145 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 4ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/519.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:31.147 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 204 to host6. Time: 2ms. POST http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2024-04-20 23:30:34.114 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=94500,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.114 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.114 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 0ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.123 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97500,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.123 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.123 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 1ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.142 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97500,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.143 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.143 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 1ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.160 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97400,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.161 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.162 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 1ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.176 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97400,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.177 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.177 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 1ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.190 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97400,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.191 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3
2024-04-20 23:30:34.192 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host6. Time: 1ms. GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841
2024-04-20 23:30:34.205 Info Server: http/1.1 GET http://192.168.2.5:8096/emby/videos/26144/hls1/main/520.ts?PlaySessionId=7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841. Accept=*/*, Host=host7, User-Agent=Roku/DVP-12.5 (12.5.5.4174-CU), CMCD-Session=st=v,sf=h,sid="PL01-b3f8b1b04345aad2",cid="3778721911", CMCD-Object=ot=av,br=5550,tb=5550,d=3000, CMCD-Request=mtp=155600,bl=97400,nor="520.ts%3FPlaySessionId%3D7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841"
2024-04-20 23:30:34.206 Info App: Returning empty segment at the end. RequestedSeconds: 1560, RuntimeSeconds: 1561.057, SegmentLength: 3

Log continues reprinting those last two messages until:

2024-04-21 01:36:34.219 Info SessionManager: Session 7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841 has gone idle while playing
2024-04-21 01:36:34.219 Info SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app Roku SG 4.1.15 on Roku Stick - MBR playing Hot Lips and Empty Arms. Stopped at 1561000 ms
2024-04-21 01:36:34.220 Info SessionManager: Removing playSession 7d49d19db5a446148c43f66adf9ea841 from session b534ab9473b7ad8b13d27a1c1e90a583
2024-04-21 01:36:34.220 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: _sessionManager_PlaybackStop : Entered
2024-04-21 01:36:34.247 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: Saving final duration for Item : 72526a5f-f140-5e51-9800-2a2223806745|6b4f07bd48d541aabde430a90737a359|26144|Transcode (v:h264 a:direct)
2024-04-21 01:36:34.287 Info PlaybackReporting - EventMonitorEntryPoint: Removing Old Key from playback_trackers : 72526a5f-f140-5e51-9800-2a2223806745|6b4f07bd48d541aabde430a90737a359|26144|Transcode (v:h264 a:direct)

Mediainfo for file attached and screenshot of server activity.

Running emby server 4.8.4.0 on Ubnuntu 22.04.   @speechles the "Returning empty segment at the end" makes me think this is the Roku app with the problem, not the server, but I don't have the ability to test with my Kodi box right now so I can't compare to my reports above for at least another week or two.

mash s02e14.html

Edited Sunday at 02:21 PM by rotational467

[ebr 14913]

3 minutes ago, rotational467 said:

the "Returning empty segment at the end" makes me think this is the Roku app with the problem, not the server

Hi.  It is a combination.  The Roku video player doesn't like what the server is sending.  The message you see there is actually an attempt to work around this problem.