Minor Issues/Annoyances

[markg22 2]

A few MINOR issues/annoyances I have been dealing with for a while now (v4.7 onwards).  Hoping this post may help to get them fixed.  Also curious if anyone else has run into any of these:

1) When viewing the Live TV guide on a web browser and setting 'sort channels by...' "date played" everything is good, the latest played channels appear at the top of the list.  When you login to the Roku, after changing this order on the web version, the channels are in 'default' sort order.  If you change it on the Roku to "date played" order, when you login to the web interface again, it has reverted to default order.  If you make a change on one and don't alter it anywhere else, it is remembered - for example setting the order on the web interface will be retained as long as it isn't changed on Roku.  Same applies the other way around.

2) Playlists for music videos seems to keep hanging, sometimes 3 videos will play, sometimes 20 but it always seems to hang on a black screen at the end of random videos.  If you hit the down arrow on the Roku remote and choose next video, the list will resume and follow the above pattern, playing another random amount before hanging again.  This also happens when choosing a playlist on the web version.  Videos will hang at a random point, ALWAYS at the end of a video when there is just a second or two left, but there is no defined pattern about the videos that I can pickup.  Hitting the 'next' button on the web browser also brings the next video up and the playlist continues until it randomly hangs again.  All videos are the exact same format (some playlists are all H264, others are all H265). 

3) Playlists that have, say 600 music videos in them will load the list and display correctly, but during playback - usually within an 15-90 minutes, the playlist will 'reach the end' even though it has only played some of the songs on the playlist.  On the web interface I've noticed this can be observed if you skip over a video, you'll notice the 'next video' button disappears - when that video ends, the playlist stops.  On the Roku, it simply just stops playing and returns to the playlist listing on the screen.

4) The random engine seems to love picking the exact same songs on playlists on a very regular basis.  It definitely picks favorites and will always play those during a running playlist, while others never get played.  This occurs on web and Roku. 

5) Still having issues where a user don't properly hit the 'back' button when done viewing Live TV.  This leaves the session open and continues to suck up space on the transcoding temp drive and keeps the channel active on the HDHomerun, even though no one is watching.  Restarting the Emby server clears them.

Specs: Currently on v4.8.0.80 (Windows) - browsers used FireFox/Chrome - Roku on latest O/S and Emby app version as of Feb 2024.  Nvidia hardware acceleration enabled on main server.  Transcoding enabled, no throttle.  Verified on multiple Roku devices/computers.

Edited February 5 by markg22
spelling/grammar fixes

[ebr 14913]

19 minutes ago, markg22 said:

Playlists for music videos seems to keep hanging, sometimes 3 videos will play, sometimes 20 but it always seems to hang on a black screen at the end of random videos.  If you hit the down arrow on the Roku remote and choose next video, the list will resume and follow the above pattern, playing another random amount before hanging again.  This also happens when choosing a playlist on the web version.  Videos will hang at a random point, ALWAYS at the end of a video when there is just a second or two left, but there is no defined pattern about the videos that I can pickup.  Hitting the 'next' button on the web browser also brings the next video up and the playlist continues until it randomly hangs again.  All videos are the exact same format (some playlists are all H264, others are all H265). 

Hi.  The next time this happens, note exactly what video it was.  Then try and play that one video by itself.  Does it also hang at the end?

[ebr 14913]

20 minutes ago, markg22 said:

When viewing the Live TV guide on a web browser and setting 'sort channels by...' "date played" everything is good, the latest played channels appear at the top of the list.  When you login to the Roku, after changing this order on the web version, the channels are in 'default' sort order.  If you change it on the Roku to "date played" order, when you login to the web interface again, it has reverted to default order.  If you make a change on one and don't alter it anywhere else, it is remembered - for example setting the order on the web interface will be retained as long as it isn't changed on Roku.  Same applies the other way around.

Thanks for reporting.  We'll take a look.

[ebr 14913]

21 minutes ago, markg22 said:

Playlists that have, say 600 music videos in them will load the list and display correctly, but during playback - usually within an 15-90 minutes, the playlist will 'reach the end' even though it has only played some of the songs on the playlist.  On the web interface I've noticed this can be observed if you skip over a video, you'll notice the 'next video' button disappears - when that video ends, the playlist stops.  On the Roku, it simply just stops playing and returns to the playlist listing on the screen.

So this is happening no matter what app you use?

[speechles 1918]

1. There may be a discrepancy between what the token used for the sort order is. When the clients (web/Roku/etc) choose default it is because they saw no prior setting ..or..is set but to a token they don't know and chooses default since it cannot understand that token. We need to check the tokens match we use. Thanks for this report.

2. On the Roku we have not figured out a cure for this. It happens when using HLS and the Roku has requested ranges outside boundaries after ffmpeg has successfully ended. We will have something on this soon. Roku isn't helping us on this part with a firmware update so we will do something.

3. Can you go into more detail about this one in its own thread? This problem with playlists sounds larger and needs more details on how to replicate. If you can open a new thread with just this issue it would be awesome. Thanks.

4. This is a limitation of the SQL query RANDOM command. Random on a machine is always pseudo random.  The server sends back the reply in a random order. The clients could then run their own random sort on this two or three times. That would produce a better random. But the issue is the SQL query RANDOM pulls the data. All the client can do is then random this data. If you have a playlist with 3000 songs it will just choose 100 at random. The best the client could then do is produce a better random of those 100. It doesn't fix the issue of the original dataset of the SQL query RANDOM needs to get better.

5. We will have a fix for this where users change the input device on their Roku. When they do not press BACK but leave the Roku purposely playing. Then switch to their cable box and watch stuff. The entire time that Roku session is consume bandwidth and server CPU on you for no reason. We will have something that can determine when users have changed the input from their Roku and will react accordingly and end those streams. The server should already be cleaning up the issues with the Roku and users press HOME. It is the changing input issue that leaves the Roku stranded that might be your issue and we will have a fix for that soon.

Edited February 5 by speechles

[ebr 14913]

11 minutes ago, speechles said:

We will have a fix for this where users change the input device on their Roku. When they do not press BACK but leave the Roku purposely playing. Then switch to their cable box and watch stuff. The entire time that Roku session is consume bandwidth and server CPU on you for no reason. We will have something that can determine when users have changed the input from their Roku and will react accordingly and end those streams. The server should already be cleaning up the issues with the Roku and users press HOME. It is the changing input issue that leaves the Roku stranded that might be your issue and we will have a fix for that soon.

The server should already handle this situation so we probably need to investigate why it isn't in this case.

I suspect it may be solved now with 4.8.

[markg22 2]

50 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  The next time this happens, note exactly what video it was.  Then try and play that one video by itself.  Does it also hang at the end?

I rarely play them like this, but YES - there are a handful of videos that I've sampled individually and although these are all H265, they are obviously different ages.  The common variable is the video stream Main Profile, when using a tool like MediaInfo.  It looks like "Main@L3@Main" videos are hanging, on both Roku and Web app.  "Main@L3.1@Main" and "Main@L4@Main" are ending correctly. 

[speechles 1918]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

The server should already handle this situation so we probably need to investigate why it isn't in this case.

I suspect it may be solved now with 4.8.

On RokuTV when the input source changes it will instinctively kill the Roku app running. Good!
On anything non-RokuTV when changing the input source the Roku will still play on as if the user is still interested in what is streaming. Bad!

PR#1552 fix this problem.

To keep that from happening is the fix will notice and terminate the stream. You can test this yourself watching the Emby dashboard. Start something on the Roku. Now change your TV input source back to normal OTA or Cable TV box input. The Roku will show on the dashboard it is still going. This also happens if the user just turns off the TV. The Roku will still keep streaming to the turned off TV. These are problems we can fix in the app.

Edited February 5 by speechles

[speechles 1918]

@markg22Is your item being transcoded at that time? Are there any ffmpeg logs created that link to that item? It may be different that the range-request past boundary at the end of playback issue.

Edited February 5 by speechles

[ebr 14913]

3 minutes ago, speechles said:

On RokuTV when the input source changes it will instinctively kill the Roku app running. Good!
On anything non-RokuTV when changing the input source the Roku will still play on as if the user is still interested in what is streaming. Bad!

PR#1552 fix this problem.

To keep that from happening is the fix will notice and terminate the stream. You can test this yourself watching the Emby dashboard. Start something on the Roku. Now change your TV input source back to normal OTA or Cable TV box input. The Roku will show on the dashboard it is still going. This also happens if the user just turns off the TV. The Roku will still keep playing on to non-turned on TV. These are problems we can fix in the app.

Okay, yeah, that's a different issue from the pressing the home button problem.

[markg22 2]

Update: most all of the above reported issues are still present in 4.8.1.0 for me - the Roku keeping live channels open if a user doesn't hit the back button does seem to be improved, but it is still happened here and there.  And with the upgrade to 4.8.1.0, we have added an issue where the DVR is re-recording all series, regardless of whether or not they already exist in the library.  I have verified each series is set to 'don't record in already in my library'.  I chimed in on another thread where people were reporting this same issue from earlier this month - this has only started since the update to 4.8.1.0 for me.  Hopefully a fix will be released soon! 

[Luke 37068]

6 hours ago, markg22 said:

Update: most all of the above reported issues are still present in 4.8.1.0 for me - the Roku keeping live channels open if a user doesn't hit the back button does seem to be improved, but it is still happened here and there. 

Hi there, can we please see a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks.

[markg22 2]

Updates: 

1) When viewing the Live TV guide on a web browser and setting 'sort channels by...' "date played" everything is good, the latest played channels appear at the top of the list.  When you login to the Roku, after changing this order on the web version, the channels are in 'default' sort order.  If you change it on the Roku to "date played" order, when you login to the web interface again, it has reverted to default order.  If you make a change on one and don't alter it anywhere else, it is remembered - for example setting the order on the web interface will be retained as long as it isn't changed on Roku.  Same applies the other way around.

I'm hoping this was/is an easy fix and will be in the 4.8.4.0 release?

2) Playlists for music videos seems to keep hanging, sometimes 3 videos will play, sometimes 20 but it always seems to hang on a black screen at the end of random videos.  If you hit the down arrow on the Roku remote and choose next video, the list will resume and follow the above pattern, playing another random amount before hanging again.  This also happens when choosing a playlist on the web version.  Videos will hang at a random point, ALWAYS at the end of a video when there is just a second or two left, but there is no defined pattern about the videos that I can pickup.  Hitting the 'next' button on the web browser also brings the next video up and the playlist continues until it randomly hangs again.  All videos are the exact same format (some playlists are all H264, others are all H265). 

So in further testing of this, it is happening mostly on 640x480 videos (Main@L3@Main profile).  It happens on Roku and web interface and is totally random, some 640x480s will play 10-20 in a row, then will hang on #21 - sometimes it happens within the first few videos (in a music video playlist).  Playing of individual video also hangs, so the playlist itself isn't the issue - more of a possible FFMPEG issue or the way it communicates end of file info back to Emby?  The 720x480 (Main@L3.1@Main and higher) seems to play through with no troubles.  In the latest testing it happens also with the 640x480 television shows, instead of playing the next episode it hangs at the final frame of the credits.  The fix on Roku is to hit Down -> Right and OK to hit the next episode, this happens frequently.  Again with the L3.1 widescreen videos it will play though to next episode with no problem.  Side note: I have reviewed the log files and the ones that hang and the ones that play through have the same info in ffmpeg logs (nothing appears out of place).

3) Playlists that have, say 600 music videos in them will load the list and display correctly, but during playback - usually within an 15-90 minutes, the playlist will 'reach the end' even though it has only played some of the songs on the playlist.  On the web interface I've noticed this can be observed if you skip over a video, you'll notice the 'next video' button disappears - when that video ends, the playlist stops.  On the Roku, it simply just stops playing and returns to the playlist listing on the screen.

Still not sure on this one, it still happens but I cannot put a finger on what is causing it.  Happens local and remote.  Still digging.

4) The random engine seems to love picking the exact same songs on playlists on a very regular basis.  It definitely picks favorites and will always play those during a running playlist, while others never get played.  This occurs on web and Roku. 

Per speechles comment above, sounds like this one is a known issue with no easy fix.  Even in 4.8.3.0 this is still occurring.  Certain songs always get played while others are untouched or never played.  It might be helpful to look at total play counts along with the random engine to determine what a better selection may be, bringing those rarely touched into the mix?

5) Still having issues where a user don't properly hit the 'back' button when done viewing Live TV.  This leaves the session open and continues to suck up space on the transcoding temp drive and keeps the channel active on the HDHomerun, even though no one is watching.  Restarting the Emby server clears them.

4.8.3.0 has greatly improved the Roku leaving channels not being watched anymore staying streaming on HD Homerun.  It has only happened once in the past two weeks which I can totally live with. 

 

[speechles 1918]

11 hours ago, markg22 said:

Updates: 

1) When viewing the Live TV guide on a web browser and setting 'sort channels by...' "date played" everything is good, the latest played channels appear at the top of the list.  When you login to the Roku, after changing this order on the web version, the channels are in 'default' sort order.  If you change it on the Roku to "date played" order, when you login to the web interface again, it has reverted to default order.  If you make a change on one and don't alter it anywhere else, it is remembered - for example setting the order on the web interface will be retained as long as it isn't changed on Roku.  Same applies the other way around.

I'm hoping this was/is an easy fix and will be in the 4.8.4.0 release?

I can track all these. That way you know these are on our radar. This is on our issue tracker as #1559. The Roku app needs to match exactly what the web app is doing in regards to defaults with landing screens. We will make sure this is done on the Roku side. You can use these issue numbers in regards to Roku issues and we will know exactly what you mean.

 

11 hours ago, markg22 said:

2) Playlists for music videos seems to keep hanging, sometimes 3 videos will play, sometimes 20 but it always seems to hang on a black screen at the end of random videos.  If you hit the down arrow on the Roku remote and choose next video, the list will resume and follow the above pattern, playing another random amount before hanging again.  This also happens when choosing a playlist on the web version.  Videos will hang at a random point, ALWAYS at the end of a video when there is just a second or two left, but there is no defined pattern about the videos that I can pickup.  Hitting the 'next' button on the web browser also brings the next video up and the playlist continues until it randomly hangs again.  All videos are the exact same format (some playlists are all H264, others are all H265). 

So in further testing of this, it is happening mostly on 640x480 videos (Main@L3@Main profile).  It happens on Roku and web interface and is totally random, some 640x480s will play 10-20 in a row, then will hang on #21 - sometimes it happens within the first few videos (in a music video playlist).  Playing of individual video also hangs, so the playlist itself isn't the issue - more of a possible FFMPEG issue or the way it communicates end of file info back to Emby?  The 720x480 (Main@L3.1@Main and higher) seems to play through with no troubles.  In the latest testing it happens also with the 640x480 television shows, instead of playing the next episode it hangs at the final frame of the credits.  The fix on Roku is to hit Down -> Right and OK to hit the next episode, this happens frequently.  Again with the L3.1 widescreen videos it will play though to next episode with no problem.  Side note: I have reviewed the log files and the ones that hang and the ones that play through have the same info in ffmpeg logs (nothing appears out of place).

This is on our tracker as #1520. I experience the same problem with automatic episodic playback of TV series. Also have the issue with playlists just as you describe. I also cannot pinpoint the exact cause. But we do have something coming soon that will fix the problem. Once again apologies this is even a problem. But we can work around this just give us a little time.

 

11 hours ago, markg22 said:

3) Playlists that have, say 600 music videos in them will load the list and display correctly, but during playback - usually within an 15-90 minutes, the playlist will 'reach the end' even though it has only played some of the songs on the playlist.  On the web interface I've noticed this can be observed if you skip over a video, you'll notice the 'next video' button disappears - when that video ends, the playlist stops.  On the Roku, it simply just stops playing and returns to the playlist listing on the screen.

Still not sure on this one, it still happens but I cannot put a finger on what is causing it.  Happens local and remote.  Still digging.

This might be related to how the Roku requests the playlist from the server. We might need to make adjustments to that area. I just put this on our issue tracker as #1598. We will figure out why this happens.

 

11 hours ago, markg22 said:

4) The random engine seems to love picking the exact same songs on playlists on a very regular basis.  It definitely picks favorites and will always play those during a running playlist, while others never get played.  This occurs on web and Roku. 

Per speechles comment above, sounds like this one is a known issue with no easy fix.  Even in 4.8.3.0 this is still occurring.  Certain songs always get played while others are untouched or never played.  It might be helpful to look at total play counts along with the random engine to determine what a better selection may be, bringing those rarely touched into the mix?

Caused by the limitations of the SQL query RANDOM. There must be a way with seeding a random value in some way based off something. But since this is all conjecture there may not be. The best we could do is take the result and then shuffle it a couple times on the Roku. But think of it like cards. There are some you will never see since the best we can do is shuffle the few cards you might see. The others act as if they are never used in the deck. You are exactly correct. Something needs to be done in this area to produce a better random. Not really a Roku issue since it spans every platform which is why this isn't on the Roku tracker as an issue even though it is a glaring issue. Hope you understand. I believe you do.

 

11 hours ago, markg22 said:

5) Still having issues where a user don't properly hit the 'back' button when done viewing Live TV.  This leaves the session open and continues to suck up space on the transcoding temp drive and keeps the channel active on the HDHomerun, even though no one is watching.  Restarting the Emby server clears them.

4.8.3.0 has greatly improved the Roku leaving channels not being watched anymore staying streaming on HD Homerun.  It has only happened once in the past two weeks which I can totally live with.

The server has much better logic to determine when to cut off rogue streams. The Emby Roku app also has better intelligence at determining when the playback is no longer being consumed by the user and can self terminate streams in progress. I am glad our fixes our actually working for users that have the issue. Thanks for reporting back.

Thanks for the detailed issue report. We will work on getting these resolved and report back to this thread. If you see any other issues do not be afraid to mention them. Thank you again.

Edited April 13 by speechles