Very unstable connection to ChromeCast and long pauses between tracks.

[iEiEi 1]

Hey Emby team,

After about 3 months of trying out Emby, I'm a bit disappointed. As a web developer, I have a basic technical understanding and know what work it takes to produce good software. For a user, however, it is annoying when this software only works poorly. I was initially impressed by how well you can manage your music archive with Emby, it's a really nice solution. But listening to music with Emby is very disappointing. I'd better describe this briefly:

My music archive consists mainly of self-produced MP3 files from my CD collection, they are usually encoded at 320 kBit. For newer purchases, I tend to look for the availability of FLAC or other lossless formats.

I use 2 ChromeCast speakers, one of which is about 6 years old and 3 meters (about 10 feet) away from the wireless router. I bought the other one a few months ago, it's in another room and there are two walls in between.
I only use the 5-GHz band because of too much neighbour traffic on 2,4 GHz.

Initially, the Emby server ran on my MacBook with Big Sur, where I streamed to the two ChromeCast speakers using the Google Chrome browser. The long pauses (sometimes 5 seconds or longer) between the tracks are very annoying. In addition, the connection to the ChromCast speakers repeatedly breaks off for seconds. I have noticed that FLAC files are played back more stably than MP3 files.

Then I set up an old iPad as a media player with the Emby app to stream the music from the MacBook to the ChromeCast speakers. Here, too, I have the same problems as when streaming with the MacBook: very long pauses and an unstable connection to ChromeCast. Also the play queue is disappearing, while still playing music. Wouldn't it be better to have a possibility to show the play queue, no matter if there are tracks listed or empty?

In the meantime, I have moved Emby to my home server with Ubuntu 22.04 to try my luck there - unfortunately, no luck. Here, too, it is hardly possible to listen to music with Emby for any length of time without interference.

Both the MacBook and the Linux server are connected to the router via cable (1 GBit). So it cannot be due to insufficient bandwidth.

I know from MP3 that it is not possible per se to play the next track without interruption due to the format design. Some players solve the problem with a crossfade. Shouldn't this also be possible with a player in the browser?
I have noticed that FLAC files seem to be streamed much more stable than MP3. I have started to convert some of the MP3 albums with freac to gapless/lossless FLAC files with CUE-Sheet, but this is too much work for my complete archive. And above all, the data then takes up 3-4 times the space.

In the meantime, I listen to my music archive on Ubuntu with Elisa and stream the output to the speaker group with Mkchromecast. This all works smoothly and with MP3 I only have minimal interruptions between tracks (< 250 ms).

Streaming to ChromeCast from the Apple system is apparently a pain in the a**e, no matter how you try it.

Nevertheless, I will keep an eye on Emby. Thank you very much for your work, I really appreciate it.

Kind regards,
Achim

[Luke 37068]

Quote

Initially, the Emby server ran on my MacBook with Big Sur, where I streamed to the two ChromeCast speakers using the Google Chrome browser. The long pauses (sometimes 5 seconds or longer) between the tracks are very annoying. In addition, the connection to the ChromCast speakers repeatedly breaks off for seconds. I have noticed that FLAC files are played back more stably than MP3 files.

Then I set up an old iPad as a media player with the Emby app to stream the music from the MacBook to the ChromeCast speakers. Here, too, I have the same problems as when streaming with the MacBook: very long pauses and an unstable connection to ChromeCast. Also the play queue is disappearing, while still playing music. Wouldn't it be better to have a possibility to show the play queue, no matter if there are tracks listed or empty?

Hi, the reason why it's the same between these two is because the Emby app is just sending an instruction to your chromecast receiver to stream from your Emby Server. Therefore it will perform the same no matter which device is casting.

Does that perhaps help you optimize the connection from Chromecast receiver to Emby Server? You could also try lowering the Chromecast quality setting. This will have the server transcode to a lower bitrate, which could help if it's just a matter of the data not getting there quickly enough.

[iEiEi 1]

I guess a wired 1-GBit connection of the sender should be fast enough to serve a client who is connected wireless with 300 MBit to the Fritz!Box router to play a mp3 file which is 320 kBit encoded.

I did some more research and found this extension for the Google Chrome browser:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/video-player-for-local-fi/kfcfjmdnmmokdhndbpfcachlkliggggc

This is a very rudimentary player, but you can play an entire album with it. It works without transcoding the files and the tracks are played almost seamlessly. This works on macOS without any issues and I can stream the tab to the ChromeCast speakers without any interruptions. No performance problems at all.

So it is basically possible to enjoy music on a Mac with ChromeCast speakers. Why is it so difficult to do this? Why doesn't this work with Emby? Is there a way to switch off this transcoding completely?

[Luke 37068]

On 2/27/2024 at 7:22 AM, iEiEi said:

I guess a wired 1-GBit connection of the sender should be fast enough to serve a client who is connected wireless with 300 MBit to the Fritz!Box router to play a mp3 file which is 320 kBit encoded.

I did some more research and found this extension for the Google Chrome browser:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/video-player-for-local-fi/kfcfjmdnmmokdhndbpfcachlkliggggc

This is a very rudimentary player, but you can play an entire album with it. It works without transcoding the files and the tracks are played almost seamlessly. This works on macOS without any issues and I can stream the tab to the ChromeCast speakers without any interruptions. No performance problems at all.

So it is basically possible to enjoy music on a Mac with ChromeCast speakers. Why is it so difficult to do this? Why doesn't this work with Emby? Is there a way to switch off this transcoding completely?

Are you saying that it was being transcoded before when you tried to play it?

[iEiEi 1]

12 hours ago, Luke said:

Are you saying that it was being transcoded before when you tried to play it?

No, that was a guess because of your advice:
"Does that perhaps help you optimize the connection from Chromecast receiver to Emby Server? You could also try lowering the Chromecast quality setting. This will have the server transcode to a lower bitrate, which could help if it's just a matter of the data not getting there quickly enough."

I am not involved in this topic and therefore may not have the right understanding. It's not clear to me why an mp3 file needs to be transcoded at all in a local network with good bandwidth if, for example, the Chrome browser can play the same file without help.

However, I also have some good news:
Since 2 days I can play the music albums from Emby without interference - but not from my MacBook. I use Firefox on the desktop of the Linux home server and stream the sound to the Chromecast speaker group with Mkchromecast.

I only have the dropouts and interruptions with Emby with the Chrome browser, both on the MacBook and under Linux with a native connection to the Chromecast devices. I occasionally stream a TV program from my MacBook with the Chrome browser to my TV with Chromecast. So far, this has always worked without any problems or interference.
So the interference with music playback seems to be related to Emby in combination with Chrome's connection to the speakers. If I can support the debugging with log files, please let me know.