NVidia Shield TV with LG OLED, Dolby Vision Prompt Keeps Popping Up

[planedrop 4]

So an issue I've come across while trying to get my whole media library working via Emby is that the Dolby Vision icon in the top right corner of my LG TV will pop up constantly while playing, every few minutes it shows up (sometimes a gap of a few minutes, sometimes only seconds) and it's very distracting from the film.

 

I will say that I watch plenty of DV content through my Shield without any issues, I don't believe it's a problem with the Shield TV or OLED, this only seems to happen on Emby (pretty sure it didn't happen on Plex at all, though it's been a minute since I had one of those running).

 

For clarity sake, this setup is on a gigabit ethernet connection with plenty of speed so it's not buffering or anything, content looks great, audio is great and in sync, and direct play is showing for both audio and video.

 

And in case it helps, I've had this on many films, but the one I've seen it the most frequent on is Dune, to the point where it's almost not watchable.

[Luke 37086]

Hi there, what version of the Emby app are you running?

[planedrop 4]

I am running 4.7.10.0 on Ubuntu right now.

 

However, was just about to update this post, happens with Plex too, so this isn't an Emby specific issue but I have no idea how to fix it and other users on both this forum and Plex's have posted about it but no one seems to know how to fix it.

[Luke 37086]

That's interesting. Thanks for the update 

[planedrop 4]

Yeah very odd indeed, seems to be more of an LG issue than anything else, or maybe a Shield Pro issue. If I find a solution I will report back, but it's clear to me this isn't directly an Emby issue.

[Sentinel 12]

I know my Toshiba TV i have in bedroom does that connected to a google box or Apple TV.
Pops up when it detects Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos in the bottom right corner, Annoying lol.

On the tv, in the menu, found option to turn it off, Maybe the same for the LG?

Good luck 

[AsheAshe 4]

We have the same issue with an lg c2 using nvidia shield pro. It doesn't do this on our main tv (lg c8) but the bedroom one (c2) does it regularly and hear a click in the audio when it does it. 

[Painkiller8818 203]

13 hours ago, AsheAshe said:

We have the same issue with an lg c2 using nvidia shield pro. It doesn't do this on our main tv (lg c8) but the bedroom one (c2) does it regularly and hear a click in the audio when it does it. 

this seems like a retry of the HDMI handshake.
Can you make a test and use the HDMI cable of the tv you don't have the problem and plug it into the problematic TV?

I think it is the cable thats probably not a certified 4K cable or it is going to die

So if you could test this, it would be possible to solve it by changing the cable on this TV

[planedrop 4]

On 12/29/2022 at 2:06 AM, Painkiller8818 said:

this seems like a retry of the HDMI handshake.
Can you make a test and use the HDMI cable of the tv you don't have the problem and plug it into the problematic TV?

I think it is the cable thats probably not a certified 4K cable or it is going to die

So if you could test this, it would be possible to solve it by changing the cable on this TV

See I thought so too when I was having the issue, but it's definitely not that, at least not in my case. I'm 100% certain the HDMI cable is good and certified for 48Gbps, but just in case I tested a few other 18Gbps and 48Gbps cables and had the same issues.

 

This only happens with Plex and Emby and only with Dolby Vision content. Any other DV content on any other application withing the ShieldTV works perfectly, so I really don't think it's a handshake issue.

 

Anyway, at this point it's all moot, I nuked both my servers and wiped all my movie data, going back to discs instead since I've spent over 5 years of pretty consistent work trying to get DV and uncompressed Atmos to work on any streaming system and it just can't be done at this point. Not to mention you don't get the FEL from DV discs anyway, so technically not as high quality. (to be clear I am talking specifically about ripping and streaming 4k BDs, plenty of streaming services have working DV)

[Luke 37086]

Can you try updating to the latest version of the sideload build?

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

We've updated our embedded video player to the latest version. Let's see if it plays better with that. Thanks !

[dbratt87 0]

I have had this issue myself for a while now same with plex, hoped it might have been resolved.... this is definitely not any HDMI issue I have tested this extensively with multiple types of DV files, setup combinations,  etc

The Dolby vision logos flashing like this only happens when there is an issue.. in this case emby is struggling to handle playing the file(s)

I have tested every beta version, every app (both plex and emby) all do the same, for testing purposes for example it will happen immediately after seeking (a very resource hungry task)

I've found It happens mostly only in files that have a large video bitrate and untouched atmos source, so basically files that use the most amount of resources , for example a video taken from a web source with lower video bitrate and encoded audio will be fine. (e.g most tv episodes)

It does however all play flawlessly in a certain build of kodi, which proves that the shield can handle and play these files in the exact usage scenario just fine, however I would much prefer it working via emby.. hopefully it can be resolved.

 

 

[planedrop 4]

Yeah I honestly just gave up on streaming this high quality if content on any device and have instead gone back to playing the blu-rays from a player directly.

[rbjtech 4276]

On 31/01/2023 at 15:07, dbratt87 said:

I have had this issue myself for a while now same with plex, hoped it might have been resolved.... this is definitely not any HDMI issue I have tested this extensively with multiple types of DV files, setup combinations,  etc

The Dolby vision logos flashing like this only happens when there is an issue.. in this case emby is struggling to handle playing the file(s)

I have tested every beta version, every app (both plex and emby) all do the same, for testing purposes for example it will happen immediately after seeking (a very resource hungry task)

I've found It happens mostly only in files that have a large video bitrate and untouched atmos source, so basically files that use the most amount of resources , for example a video taken from a web source with lower video bitrate and encoded audio will be fine. (e.g most tv episodes)

It does however all play flawlessly in a certain build of kodi, which proves that the shield can handle and play these files in the exact usage scenario just fine, however I would much prefer it working via emby.. hopefully it can be resolved.

 

 

Do you have samples files to test ?

I've honestly never had any issues playing full bitrate (remux ~100Mbit) 4k hdr/dv with hd audio from emby on my Shield.  

There were some recent issues with 'some' dv8 profile and Exoplayer but this has been solved with the latest Exo build - all dv5, dv7 and the majority of dv8's were fine prior to this.

If we have a sample - then it can be tested - and if it plays fine for us, then we can suggest infrastructure issues (non-emby) which may be the cause.  Remember Kodi is a direct play client, Emby/PX/JF are client > server via http streaming (for the most part). 

[smgsmagus 0]

I have the same situation when I have Shield connected to TV and audio output format on TV set to Auto. When set to passthrough it works without any problems.

 

 

[planedrop 4]

7 hours ago, rbjtech said:

Do you have samples files to test ?

I've honestly never had any issues playing full bitrate (remux ~100Mbit) 4k hdr/dv with hd audio from emby on my Shield.  

There were some recent issues with 'some' dv8 profile and Exoplayer but this has been solved with the latest Exo build - all dv5, dv7 and the majority of dv8's were fine prior to this.

If we have a sample - then it can be tested - and if it plays fine for us, then we can suggest infrastructure issues (non-emby) which may be the cause.  Remember Kodi is a direct play client, Emby/PX/JF are client > server via http streaming (for the most part). 

The primary issue, at least that I and some others are having, isn't that it doesn't play, it plays JUST FINE, but for some reason LG TVs will continuously pop up saying "Dolby Vision" in the top right corner, happens more frequently in some titles than others, and doesn't happen with HDR10 content.

 

However, for me this was an issue with Plex, Emby, and direct playing, it's not a infra issue, it's some kind of issue either with LG TVs or something along those lines.

 

But, even with all that, you can't get the FEL layer from DV content on ANY form of streaming, it can't even be ripped right now AFAIK, so I moved back to using discs on a UB820 from Panasonic and won't be looking back (already nuked my storage repo of all my movies and nuked my VMs for Plex, Emby, etc...), it "just works", is quick and easy, and looks fantastic (especially with Panasonic's excellent tone mapping of HDR10 content).

 

Anyway, that is just my two cents, nothing against Emby and it wasn't an issue with it in specific, just eventually become not worth the hassle for me. Especially because I buy all my movies physical anyway, i.e. not pirating (not complaining about those that do either), I just like having physicals so it worked out better for me.

 

Hopefully this is something that can be resolved though. My first question to you would be, what are you playing things back on TV wise? If it's not an LG then that is probably why you aren't seeing it as an issue, I had no issues on other TVs, just my LG C1 and C8.

 

And if it helps with anyone at all, my setup was quite well built, Emby was in a VM, with no transcoding enabled (and 16 cores and 16GB of RAM assigned to it, only for a single stream), the host had a 10 gigabit network link back to my primary firewall, that was then connected over gigabit ethernet to the Shield TV pro. Firewall I use (and things were not setup in a flat network so the data here DOES interact with my firewall) is a pfSense 6100 capable of 10 gigabit routing without much trouble. And again, everything played 100% fine, never a stutter, seeking was fine, everything was perfect (and I'm very sensitive to stutters) but the DV icon kept popping up. In some things it was once every few minutes, so not too bad, other movies it was every 10 seconds.

[dbratt87 0]

On 01/02/2023 at 15:23, rbjtech said:

Do you have samples files to test ?

I've honestly never had any issues playing full bitrate (remux ~100Mbit) 4k hdr/dv with hd audio from emby on my Shield.  

There were some recent issues with 'some' dv8 profile and Exoplayer but this has been solved with the latest Exo build - all dv5, dv7 and the majority of dv8's were fine prior to this.

If we have a sample - then it can be tested - and if it plays fine for us, then we can suggest infrastructure issues (non-emby) which may be the cause.  Remember Kodi is a direct play client, Emby/PX/JF are client > server via http streaming (for the most part). 

I will make some samples when I have some time to do them asap, are you using a B1 or C1 series LG OLED TV? since this would be a first to find someone who doesn't have this issue, using these TV's with shield, during some more testing I found it even does it with some HDR files if they have TrueHD and high birate video

Also ruled out any chance of it being network related since its the same when I mount any local usb storage to test

Just wonder what it is exactly that kodi does to play these files perfectly that emby doesn't. tested also with emby plugin via kodi and these files work fine that way too.

Edited February 3, 2023 by dbratt87

[planedrop 4]

3 hours ago, dbratt87 said:

I will make some samples when I have some time to do them asap, are you using a B1 or C1 series LG OLED TV? since this would be a first to find someone who doesn't have this issue, using these TV's with shield, during some more testing I found it even does it with some HDR files if they have TrueHD and high birate video

Also ruled out any chance of it being network related since its the same when I mount any local usb storage to test

Just wonder what it is exactly that kodi does to play these files perfectly that emby doesn't. tested also with emby plugin via kodi and these files work fine that way too.

I am on a 77 inch C1 in specific, however I also had the issue happening on my 55 inch C8 (pretty old machine though) so seems LG specific as far as I can tell.

[rbjtech 4276]

22 hours ago, planedrop said:

I am on a 77 inch C1 in specific, however I also had the issue happening on my 55 inch C8 (pretty old machine though) so seems LG specific as far as I can tell.

I'm using a C8 (as per my sig) - zero issues.

I think if this was a common issue, the LG forum would be flooded with reports - it's not, so unfortunately - I think it's something that is causing it on 'your' system .. but 100% agree, it a very odd one !

[planedrop 4]

2 hours ago, rbjtech said:

I'm using a C8 (as per my sig) - zero issues.

I think if this was a common issue, the LG forum would be flooded with reports - it's not, so unfortunately - I think it's something that is causing it on 'your' system .. but 100% agree, it a very odd one !

I really wish this was the case but I think it is LG specific, I don't think most people are actually trying to play DV back from their media servers, I could be totally wrong but I'd guess a lot of people just use 1080p rips etc.... for things like Emby. I mean, if we are being honest a lot of people are just using it to play pirated content (not criticizing anyone here) which often isn't the highest quality rips and whatnot. So while some are certainly doing what I've been trying to do, I don't think we would see forums flooded with people complaining about DV not working even if it was an LG specific thing.

 

I mean with my setup there is nothing that should make this happen and I did a huge amount of troubleshooting over like a multiple year period with no luck. The only things I haven't done are replace the Shield itself.

 

But I've:

• Reset the shield
• Redone my rips
• Tried a flat network i.e. no firewall involved (just layer 2)
• Replaced cables
• Tried direct to TV vs going through my AVR
• Tried dozens of different files
• Tried a physical machine with a GTX 1070 in it just in case it was related to my VM being too slow (even though it was never under heavy load and transcoding is disabled)

 

And that's just my short list of obvious things that would cause this behavior, I've spent so much time on this which is why I personally finally gave up on it and went back to using discs despite how much less convenient that is. And it also doesn't make sense that the exact same issue happens with both Plex and Emby, I know they are similar in some ways but still.

 

Now MAYBE it's not an LG issue, but that's the area I'm pointing at being most likely because there doesn't seem to be anything else to try at this point.

 

Either way though I nuked everything so not like I can troubleshoot anymore now haha, just chiming in to maybe help others with it. And in the end I want FEL despite the small difference it usually makes AND a good BD player does tone mapping for you with HDR10 content which is fantastic (things look noticeably better than they did from the Shield, since LGs built in tone mapping is honestly kinda subpar).

 

Appreciate the input here though and hopefully I am wrong and there is a fix for those that want to do this, I just personally finally gave up on it which isn't something I do very often (and this wasn't just because of the DV issues, I had plenty of other reasons, such as MakeMKV being a pain in the ass) and I've been happier with it.

[rbjtech 4276]

The DV 'streaming journey' is littered with bumps - and still is for some but with the Shield 2019 Pro, an AVR capable of HD Audio passthrough and an LG OLED TV, you really do have the 'best' equipment that is the most DV capable - and thus the issues for DV 'should' be very little if anything.

If you wanna have a dabble at testing it again - I'm happy to try and help - but sounds like you have covered all angles, so maybe best just to accept the combination of your kit doesn't work properly with DV.

[neik 837]

2 hours ago, rbjtech said:

The DV 'streaming journey' is littered with bumps - and still is for some but with the Shield 2019 Pro, an AVR capable of HD Audio passthrough and an LG OLED TV, you really do have the 'best' equipment that is the most DV capable - and thus the issues for DV 'should' be very little if anything.

+1

Everything I through at the Shield Pro (connected to a LG G1) it just works, no matter if HDR, DV, HD Audio (DTS-HD (MA), DTS:X, Dolby Atmos, etc.) or high bitrate (tested up to 50/60 Mbit).

[planedrop 4]

On 2/5/2023 at 1:34 AM, rbjtech said:

The DV 'streaming journey' is littered with bumps - and still is for some but with the Shield 2019 Pro, an AVR capable of HD Audio passthrough and an LG OLED TV, you really do have the 'best' equipment that is the most DV capable - and thus the issues for DV 'should' be very little if anything.

If you wanna have a dabble at testing it again - I'm happy to try and help - but sounds like you have covered all angles, so maybe best just to accept the combination of your kit doesn't work properly with DV.

Yeah I think at this point I will personally just stick with discs. I'm sure there was some way I could get it working with enough work, but I spent so much time on it, at some point I just had to come to the conclusion that it's not really worth it for me. Especially given that I have all the discs for my content anyway, so it's just a minor convenience thing of having it all on a media server.

 

If I decide to dabble in it again though I'll be sure to reach out haha! Thanks!

[Audiomixer 328]

On 2/3/2023 at 10:37 AM, planedrop said:

I am on a 77 inch C1 in specific, however I also had the issue happening on my 55 inch C8 (pretty old machine though) so seems LG specific as far as I can tell.

I have 3 shield 2019 pro. Connected to two denon x4500 rcvrs and an Lg sound bar. I have 2 Lg CX and a C8. No issues either as @rbjtech states.

[dbratt87 0]

Finally gave up on this now, just checked the box in settings to use external player and use kodinerds for playback, can at least still use the emby interface that way.

My conclusion is that this is definitely not an emby issue,  the issue is the exoplayer, simply cannot process high bitrate files properly, in fact almost every external player I tested had 'issues' in different ways.

VLC works perfect - but no DV support

Justplayer - Works until wanting to seek or pause then goes nuts

Vimu - same as just player

kodi - works for everything

(the issues happen with both HDR and DV) if high bitrates

Read a few posts where people had luck using the hdfury arcana to strip the audio, might give it a go when I can be bothered to revisit this.

https://www.hdfury.uk/product/hdfury-arcana/

Edited February 10, 2023 by dbratt87

[rbjtech 4276]

35 minutes ago, dbratt87 said:

Finally gave up on this now, just checked the box in settings to use external player and use kodinerds for playback, can at least still use the emby interface that way.

My conclusion is that this is definitely not an emby issue,  the issue is the exoplayer, simply cannot process high bitrate files properly, in fact almost every external player I tested had 'issues' in different ways.

VLC works perfect - but no DV support

Justplayer - Works until wanting to seek or pause then goes nuts

Vimu - same as just player

kodi - works for everything

(the issues happen with both HDR and DV) if high bitrates

Read a few posts where people had luck using the hdfury arcana to strip the audio, might give it a go when I can be bothered to revisit this.

https://www.hdfury.uk/product/hdfury-arcana/

I can't remember the exact limit on the Shield - but my Emby (using Exo) can play files well over the UHD specification of 144Mbit/sec - I believe it started to croak at 300Mbit/sec.

Remember Kodi and VLC will be using direct file access.    The shield on Android 9 can use this as well (I still do) but it also works perfectly well via http streaming - so I'm really not sure why you have these issues.