Video skips every 1 second in Android player

[fuxoft 4]

With some of my movies, Android playback skips a frame (or duplicates a frame?) every second, which is quite noticeable with panning shots. The image visibly "jumps" in exactly same interval which might be 1 second or slightly less than 1 second. The interval is constant and it happens absolutiely consistently throughout the whole video, e.g. I can now tell in advance that the image will "jump" at the exact moment the bicyclist passes behind this specific tree in this specific scene.

This happens with Android mobile app, also with Android app installed  "Chromecasts with Google TV" and also with older "black puck" Chromecast. It never happens when streaming the same videos from the Emby server through web browser so it's not a problem with video encoding. When stepping throught the frames of the original video file in VLC, there are not any missing or duplicated frames.

It happens only for SOME videos (about 25% of them). But when it happens, it happens consistently, at the exact same frames on the phone and on both Chromecasts.

I tried to find out why it happens on some videos and not on others but I couldn't find any pattern:

• All my movies are H264
• It doesn''t matter whether movie is 24 FPS or 23.98 FPS
• The bitrate and resolution also does not matter
• It doesn't matter whether I play the original stream or re-encode it when streaming
• Setting the Emby app option "match refresh rate" ON or OFF does not matter
• Changing the Chromecast output resolution or  refresh rate does not matter (including limiting it to 25 FPS or 24 FPS)
• Plugging the Chromecast into different TV set has no effect
• The sound is always perfect and never affected

Regardless of all the settings above, some of my movies always stutter in exactly same pattern on all three devices (Nokia phone and two Chromecasts), while other never stutter on any of these devices. All movies stream without stuttering to my web browser on laptop or desktop PC.

The server is the latest official version installed on XUbuntu machine. My home internet is very fast and reliable.

[Luke 38342]

 

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

 

[fuxoft 4]

I've captured (using digital camera) a short video from the screen of my Android phone. Unfortunately I don't know how to capture my phone screen in better quality. It looks exactly same on Chromecast. Specifically look at the houses in the background and cyclist going across the bridge. You can watch it or download full quality video here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/fuxoft_cz/s5X6k9Rqno

The server log is attached. It was downloaded right after the video was taken.

embyserver.txt

Edited December 27, 2023 by fuxoft

[Luke 38342]

HI, can you try updating to Emby for Android 3.3.56+ and see how that compares?

Also is this over a remote connection? Thanks.

[fuxoft 4]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, can you try updating to Emby for Android 3.3.56+ and see how that compares?

Also is this over a remote connection? Thanks.

The latest app version from Play Store says "Emby for Android 3.3.56" (without the "plus") on my Pixel 6a. This version does not fix the problem. If there is a newer version, where can I get it?

All my Chromecasts stream locally from my 192.168.69.1 server. My Android phone streams from "mypublicserver.com" (fake name) and the server's 8096 port is forwarded to my home server using ZeroTier. The "skipping" looks exactly same on all these devices.

[Luke 38342]

Can you provide a sample video for testing?

I also a Pixel 6 that I can test the same video with.  Thanks.

[fuxoft 4]

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

Can you provide a sample video for testing?

I also a Pixel 6 that I can test the same video with.  Thanks.

Can I contact you privately about that?

[Luke 38342]

6 hours ago, fuxoft said:

Can I contact you privately about that?

Yes you can.

[fuxoft 4]

A small update: When I hit the "Cast" button in the Android app and start casting the video to the "Chromecast with TV" (i.e. I am now using it just a dumb Chromecast, bypassing the installed Emby app), the video is perfectly smooth.

[fuxoft 4]

Another update: I found out that my LG TVs allow DLNA play from Emby, controlled by the TV remote. When playing videos in this way, they are completely smooth.

Playback on Android phone Emby app and on "Chromecasts with Google TV" (two of them on two different TVs) Android app is still exactly as choppy as described above.

When I use "Skip back 10 seconds", those 10 seconds play again smoothly, without skipping. Only after a few seconds, skipping starts again.

[fuxoft 4]

I have also recorded a new video of playback at 0.25x speed in the Android phone app. You can see the footage here.

You can further slow down this footage in YouTube player and I think there is a clear repeating pattern: 19 frames play smoothly, then the last of those 19 frames is duplicated, then 4 frames play smoothly and the next frame is skipped. This repeats every 24 frames (19 + 1 + 4 + 0).

 

[rbjtech 4683]

Have you tested with all the 'intelligent' frame creation turned off on the TV ?      You may need to set this per input.

[fuxoft 4]

6 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

Have you tested with all the 'intelligent' frame creation turned off on the TV ?      You may need to set this per input.

Yes, I have experimented with this. Also with FPS settings in the Android app. Note that this also happens on my Android phone. Also note that this happens when playing at 0.25x speed, i.e. one frame actually lasts for 4 frames and yet it skips in exactly the same way. All this seems to indicate that it's not beacuse of the TV settings.

[rbjtech 4683]

What Android hardware is it ?   If it supports AndroidTV, have you compared to the AndroidTV App ?  

Also, just as a test, on an affected file - have you tried to remux the file to see if it's a timing issue that Exoplayer (Android) is having issues with ?   I know you said other players work well, but they may be simply error correcting the file better than what Android is doing.

ffmpeg -i originalfile.mkv -c:a copy -c:v copy output.mkv

 This will remux the audio and video to a brand new file.

Edited March 14 by rbjtech

[fuxoft 4]

12 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

What Android hardware is it ?   If it supports AndroidTV, have you compared to the AndroidTV App ?  

Also, just as a test, on an affected file - have you tried to remux the file to see if it's a timing issue that Exoplayer (Android) is having issues with ?   I know you said other players work well, but they may be simply error correcting the file better than what Android is doing.

It happens on Pixel 6a phone  (in the Emby app) and on "Chromecast with Google TV" stick (with installed Emby app). When using the same device just as a "dumb Chromecast", the file plays perfectly. The problem is only playing the files in the Emby Android app (on various devices). I tried to describe the details in the posts above.

It happens with about 50% of my files. I don't see any pattern in the problem appearing / not appearing.

I will try the remuxing you mentioned.