Blank screen during direct play

[ITGuy1024 13]

New issue - direct play on chromecast and my galaxy s23 shows a blank screen during direct playback. On my phone if I skip ahead it starts to play fine. On the chromecast skipping ahead fixes the video but audio stops working. 

It's only been an issue with certain episodes - I think the only difference is the audio type? Und AC3 Stereo?

[Luke 37106]

 

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

 

[XcOM9876 9]

I'd add to this that I've been experiencing the same issues recently but on an Android TV.

 

• Describe the problem in your own words, including what you're trying to accomplish, and where you're getting stuck. Make sure to indicate which Emby App you're using. If you're using a browser, then please indicate what browser you're using.
  • some files/films/shows will play fine, others either won't at all or I need to do a playback error correction multiple times for it to start, when I encounter the issue the timer counter for playback remains at 00:00, on emby server it either stays at 00:00 or will increment for a few seconds then freeze.
  • Checking multiple files when the issue is encountered, there is no difference between file formats, containers, codecs, audio or subtitle streams.
• If you saw error messages, please tell us what they were. If the problem is difficult to explain, please include screenshots that demonstrate the issue.
  • N/A
• Please attach the server log from the time frame the activity occurred. See the section below titled Emby Server Logs. Please supply the full and complete log file, and avoid attempting to extract relevant sections. Everything is relevant to us. If a server transcoding log was also generated during playback (in the server logs folder), please attach that as well.
  • I've attached the entire file but sanitised it.
  • Attached the transcode log, for some reason it's transcoding the file when I did payback correction 3 times
• If you are using the Roku or Android TV specific app, please also follow the instructions below to send a log from the app.
  • Will attach these once I've enabled debugging and next reproduce it
• Versions:
  • Server: 4.7.14.0
  • App: Emby for Android TV 2.0.90g (nodpi) - Prior to this was using the latest version

emby server log.log ffmpeg-transcode-cf361ec7-14e1-4870-a8bc-c4aaed5df946_1.txt

Edited October 28, 2023 by XcOM9876
Added versions

[ebr 14927]

2 hours ago, XcOM9876 said:

Emby for Android TV 2.0.90g

Why are you using an old version?  Have you tried to update the app?

[XcOM9876 9]

I actually rolled back to a previous version to see if the issue was introduced in the latest version of the app, wanted to rule that out before I came here to check or report an issue, seems strange what's causing it.

Could be an anything between the emby app, android version, and server version

[ITGuy1024 13]

I'll upload some logs later today. 

Imo it feels like playback has gotten worse with the last few emby server updates. But that's only my observation. I started to have issues with playback in the web browser and now on other devices. 

[XcOM9876 9]

I've updated everything to the latest versions (Server, Android TV App, Android WebView, TV), I've just uploaded 2 sets of logs directly from the app, once when it failed to play, and again after doing playback correction a couple of times and it started playing.

[XcOM9876 9]

Here's the server and transcode logs for the occurrence, seems that if you do playback correction on the 3rd attempt it transcodes and works, but what's also strange is sometimes I can come back to a file and it will work.

N/B TV logs were:

• The time you sent the log (in Eastern Time please - UTC -5): Approx 15:00 UTC
• The name of the Emby user on the local server that was logged in at the time: User: fsutherland

ffmpeg-transcode-1bcb7e06-d25d-4bc8-9bd2-d0aaa1880545_1.txt embyserver (1).txt

Edited November 6, 2023 by XcOM9876

[ebr 14927]

I do see an error trying to process the audio.  Have you tried re-muxing these items?

[XcOM9876 9]

A lot of them are new items, oddly though in the tv under stats for nerds it's doing a direct play, I will double check one of the files that has an issue and if it's still happening re-encode it and try again.

Odd though as I'd have thought Emby should detect the audio isn't supported and then transcode? or are we suspecting something funky in the audio track.

N/B- to confirm the one you see an issue with was Rick & Morty?

Edited November 6, 2023 by XcOM9876

[ebr 14927]

7 minutes ago, XcOM9876 said:

the one you see an issue with was Rick & Morty?

Episode title is "That's Amorte"

7 minutes ago, XcOM9876 said:

or are we suspecting something funky in the audio track

Correct.  It is a supported format.

[XcOM9876 9]

I will have a look in to it, must be a frequent codec in use as it's happened a few times recently, might need to get tdarr up and running again

 

Edit: not codec sorry, funky encoding.  Thanks for your help, obviously got a much better eye for reviewing logs than me haha

Edited November 6, 2023 by XcOM9876

[XcOM9876 9]

Just had it happen on 5 files in a row, I checked the files and they seem fine, they will direct play on my laptop fine via Emby, I reinstalled the Emby Android TV App (Restarted during the reinstall) and this didn't solve the issue, oddly though, for giggled, I decided to install a REALLY old version of the emby TV app (A year old - 2.0.83g Registered), and it works?

What can I do to help diag this as I'd rather be using a newer version of the app if possible.

[ebr 14927]

16 hours ago, XcOM9876 said:

Just had it happen on 5 files in a row

And what happens with those same files in the standard app?

[XcOM9876 9]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

And what happens with those same files in the standard app?

With the latest app, all files refused to play, they were varying video and audio codecs, varying containers (MP4/MKV), and all were playing via direct play, on emby server checking the account it was showing as playing and the timer counter was increasing as if it was playing.

On the TV the counter remained at 00:00, the icon was showing as playing as it was presenting me with the option to pause, if I paused/played it made no difference, in addition to this I could seek though the video and it would update on screen to show the frame but was still frozen.

Starting the TV made no difference, reinstalling the app made no difference, installing the 1 year old version worked, I restarted the TV every time between uninstalls and reinstalls and after reinstalling to ensure there was nothing lingering.

I've sent logs from the new app when it froze, I have also enabled debug mode on the old version so I can upload logs from that if you like.

Apologies this seems really random and strange.

[pwhodges 1532]

30 minutes ago, XcOM9876 said:

With the latest app, all files refused to play,

Just to be clear, have you tried sideloading the "standard" Android app, which is being developed to take over from the specialised Android TV app?  That is what ebr was asking.

Paul

[XcOM9876 9]

Ahh my apologies, I was unaware of trying the "standard" app, I presume this is in reference to the normal one on the play store for phones rather than the TV dedicated one, if the old version continues to have issues I will try the standard one, I have been sideloading by installing the aged versions using ADB,

[ebr 14927]

Have you tried adjusting any of the settings on the TV itself?  Is there any outboard audio equipment involved?  If so, how connected?

It seems that any attempt to decode the audio with the internal TV decoders is throwing errors.  When you use the correction, we bypass those decoders and use ffmpeg.

[XcOM9876 9]

I have a soundbar installed but all decoding is done by the TV before passing it over to the soundbar, the soundbar supports most codes by default also, no settings have been changed, I am trying to refrain from doing a factory reset on the TV due to automations I have programmed via ADB and the emby sensor in Home Assistant, would need to go through and edit them, not a biggie but it is a bit of a pain lol.

I will feedback in a few days, if the problem continues then I will try the default app followed by a factory reset.

[Luke 37106]

You can get the standard app here:

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

Please let us know how it compares. Thanks.

 

[ebr 14927]

You might investigate any audio settings on the TV and try changing them to see if it makes a difference.

[XcOM9876 9]

It's been a while so I thought I'd feedback, I've not come across another instance of the issue since rolling back to a very old version of the app, so there is something in the last 2 versions it doesn't like and I don't know what.

[XcOM9876 9]

So after almost a month the issue returned, trying the standard Android app (v7a), getting direct play now on a file which it didn't like before

[Luke 37106]

4 hours ago, XcOM9876 said:

So after almost a month the issue returned, trying the standard Android app (v7a), getting direct play now on a file which it didn't like before

hi, so you're saying playback has improved with the standard app?

[XcOM9876 9]

Hi Luke,

Sorry it's been a while, yes playback has been improved as a result of using the standard Android app, I have had a few new issues with it where it won't open requiring a reboot of the TV but that's not major.

My only issue is I liked the interface of the Android TV app over the standard app (Missing Previous/Play/Next option), is there is somewhere I can suggest improvements?

I would point out that I had improved performance when I swapped to the old version of the Android TV app and eventually suffered the same fate so I'll hold judgement for a few weeks.