Hisense, TCL & Sony models - Playback issues on Emby for Android TV

[lastditch 0]

Gents,

Ran into an issue and am looking for the reasoning as to why its happening. I was using a fire tv 4k stick with emby app on a bedroom tv playing remux rips of movies no problem. I upgraded to a new hisense that has android tv but when I play anything that has DD or DTS the playback is so slow that its unwatchable, the audio is crackling and chopping and I get maybe a frame every couple of seconds. This isnt a bandwidth issue as I am on local lan hardwired. 

These movies are being direct streamed. First I check to make sure it wasnt a bandwidth issue by forcing a transcode by limiting the streaming rate down to 5Mbps, which kinda worked but the play back was choppy but viewable. When I played a 4k movie with truehd 7.1 without any stream limits it plays flawlessly. Which I thought was weird. So I went into the emby app settings and turned off DTS and DD and put output to 2.0, which to be fair is fine since I am using the tv speakers. What is confusing me is, with the 4k fire tv stick and tv speakers I never had to do this. Also why would truehd on 4k videos play fine?

Can anyone help explain? Is this an issue for emby for android tv rather than the emby android app?

 

Thank you!

Edited October 5, 2023 by GrimReaper
Topic title appended

[Luke 37068]

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.

 

[lastditch 0]

How can I do that?

 

Edit, let me look into it and report back. Is there not parity between the android versions ywt?

Edited November 29, 2022 by lastditch

[Luke 37068]

The standard app is a little bit ahead in terms of video player updates, so that's why I've asked you to try it. Thanks.

[ebr 14913]

14 hours ago, lastditch said:

and put output to 2.0,

Did this solve the problem?

[lastditch 0]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Did this solve the problem?

100 percent solved the problem, just thought it was weird I didnt need to do that with the android app and that truehd doesnt need that done. Ill try and get the other app sideloaded and test. Thanks guys. 

[Luke 37068]

34 minutes ago, lastditch said:

100 percent solved the problem, just thought it was weird I didnt need to do that with the android app and that truehd doesnt need that done. Ill try and get the other app sideloaded and test. Thanks guys. 

That would be great, thanks !

[lastditch 0]

Alright gents. I pulled the arm android package over to the tv and installed it. Same issue. Question:

I used the apk from this link:

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

When I ran it, it would only let me stream for 1 min as I didnt have premium, ive bought a few packages like the one for amazon fire tv since I dont get a ton of value out of premium but I do out of the apps, which is fine. Is this the reason why it would only let me stream for one min?

As to the original problem, still exists. It looks like if the movie has DTS-HD and I have passthrough enabled it causes problems. If I disable passthrough the movie plays smooth as butter but its software decoding it. 

Just confused as the fire tv app I didnt have to touch anything. 

[viking19 23]

On a Hisense u6h I can't get any high bitrate movie to play without suttering, it doesn't matter what codec the audio is, only low bitrate TV shows play smoothly. I've tried different app setting and TV settings with no success. I've tried both the Android TV app and the mobile app with the same poor result. The built in media player will play perfectly over dlna and casting to the TV from the mobile app with dlna works too but not ideal. The old LG tv app also worked perfectly, I even tried **cough** Jellyfin **cough** and it worked as well.

This thread suggests this has been an ongoing issue Two recent issues on Android TV.

[lastditch 0]

Bump.

[Exulion 0]

I am also having this problem with a U6H, if I do a Playback Correction it fixes the issue, but I have to do it every time a new video starts. 

[viking19 23]

21 hours ago, Exulion said:

I am also having this problem with a U6H, if I do a Playback Correction it fixes the issue, but I have to do it every time a new video starts. 

These work arounds, like playback correction and downmix to stereo shouldn't be needed. The TV is fully capable of playing these files and passing the audio through eARC.

Use the moble app or the server app and cast to the TV over dlna. The built in player will play the file and passthrough the first audio track that it supports (skips TrueHD) just fine. Of course, this is also a work around (dlna short comings) but it shows that Emby should be able to play the files correctly.

[TheClaus 11]

Chiming in here that I am having issues at well.  The workaround of downmix to stereo on my client is working.  Here is the information from the dashboard.  Everything is direct playing.

 

[TheClaus 11]

All my Android TV devices are experiencing the same issue.  Stuttering playback when I don't downmix to stereo.  They are all running the same version of the TV app(2.0.83g).  I have attached my server log embyserver.txt

Also since it is Android I enabled Debug Options and sent a log file.

I was watching Law and Order: Organized Crimes S03E08 and the time I sent the log was 5:10PM Eastern Time.

When I use the standard Android App I see the same issue.  Only difference is I cannot downmix to stereo using the standard Android App. 

[ebr 14913]

30 minutes ago, TheClaus said:

Also since it is Android I enabled Debug Options and sent a log file

Hi.  Thanks for the logs.  Unfortunately, there are no errors nor any indication of an issue at all.

31 minutes ago, TheClaus said:

All my Android TV devices

Exactly what devices are those?

[TheClaus 11]

Just now, ebr said:

Hi.  Thanks for the logs.  Unfortunately, there are no errors nor any indication of an issue at all.

Exactly what devices are those?

I have the following devices:
NVidia Shield Pro (2019 Model) hooked up to Denon AVR-S540BT receiver
Google Chromecast 4K with Google TV directly connected to a TCL - 55" Class 5 Series (55S525)
Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H)

[ebr 14913]

14 hours ago, TheClaus said:

NVidia Shield Pro (2019 Model) hooked up to Denon AVR-S540BT receiver
Google Chromecast 4K with Google TV directly connected to a TCL - 55" Class 5 Series (55S525)
Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H)

And ALL of those devices are experiencing stuttering when bitstreaming audio?

[TheClaus 11]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

And ALL of those devices are experiencing stuttering when bitstreaming audio?

I have tried only EAC that was on that file.  I have some anime that are doing the same thing only they freeze the video and then play catch up.  If I downmix then freezing stops.  If there is some video test file you would like me to try let me know.  I will test things out and give any logs that are needed.

[TheClaus 11]

Been playing around with this on my Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H) and NVidia Shield Pro (2019 Model) hooked up to Denon AVR-S540BT receiver and noticed that either I get stuttering audio/video or just a black screen depending on the type of media.  This only occurs when I don't set the client to Downmix to Stereo.

[rbjtech 4266]

1 hour ago, TheClaus said:

Been playing around with this on my Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H) and NVidia Shield Pro (2019 Model) hooked up to Denon AVR-S540BT receiver and noticed that either I get stuttering audio/video or just a black screen depending on the type of media.  This only occurs when I don't set the client to Downmix to Stereo.

Assuming your Shield is connected to one of the AVR's inputs and the TV is connected to the AVR's output (monitor), then there should be zero reason why the Shield should not be able to play ALL Audio formats - incl True-HD / DTS-HD etc - as that's what the AVR natively supports.    What the TV supports is irrelevant, as you are not using ARC/eARC in this setup.

Ensure your Shield is set to 'Audo' in the advanced Audio setup - and turn off any 'Dolby processing' on the shield as well - you do not need any of it - the AVR does it all.

 

[viking19 23]

I feel this thread has become a little confused lately. The initial problem was for the Android TV app built in to the Hisense TV, I think TheClaus may have a different issue?

I was able to get a server log while playing a movie that stutters (only very low bit-rate videos play smoothly) but of course I don't see any errors in it. This is with wired ethernet and nothing about the setup has changed other than moving to Android TV from LG (which played correctly). I have no other Android TV devices to compare to, also side loading the mobile app makes no difference. This file plays perfectly over dlna as well as with the "other guys" server setup, since this is not my TV I have limited time to do troubleshooting.

Playback begins at 10:35:48.417 and lasts for three minutes with major stuttering, playing longer does not resolve the problem.

 

embyserver.txt

 

[TheClaus 11]

1 minute ago, viking19 said:

I feel this thread has become a little confused lately. The initial problem was for the Android TV app built in to the Hisense TV, I think TheClaus may have a different issue?

As stated above I have the a Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H) along with a Shield Pro and a Chromecast 4K.  All are experiencing this issue.  If the developers want me to open up another thread I will be more than happy to do that.

[viking19 23]

15 minutes ago, TheClaus said:

As stated above I have the a Hisense - 55" Class A6 (55A6H) along with a Shield Pro and a Chromecast 4K.  All are experiencing this issue.  If the developers want me to open up another thread I will be more than happy to do that.

The more people with this problem the "better". I just though they were focusing on the Shield instead of the TV. With you having problems with multiple devices perhaps it's a bigger issue than just us.

Edited December 8, 2022 by viking19
Clarity

[andyxoxo 4]

On 12/9/2022 at 2:30 AM, viking19 said:

The more people with this problem the "better". I just though they were focusing on the Shield instead of the TV. With you having problems with multiple devices perhaps it's a bigger issue than just us.

Been having audio dropout problems with Emby for at least six months on my Sony X85J Android TV which is why I quit using it and just use Plex instead (and experience no dropouts whatsoever). And this is trying out both the Emby Android & the AndroidTV apps on my TV.  Am here just checking in on the forum to see if they are ever going to fix the problem or even know about it (which I guess they do but seem to not have fixed yet)

[TheClaus 11]

12 hours ago, andyxoxo said:

Been having audio dropout problems with Emby for at least six months on my Sony X85J Android TV which is why I quit using it and just use Plex instead (and experience no dropouts whatsoever). And this is trying out both the Emby Android & the AndroidTV apps on my TV.  Am here just checking in on the forum to see if they are ever going to fix the problem or even know about it (which I guess they do but seem to not have fixed yet)

My hope is that this is getting enough visibility that they can fix the issue.  I am not a big fan of Plex and my wife would laugh at me if I was to switch from Emby to Plex because I switch from Plex to Emby like 2 years ago.