Updated from 4.7.x to latest 4.8.1.0, UI overlays are laggy

[filecore 5]

Running Emby on an HP Elitedesk 800 G2 SFF (i5 6500, 16GB, GeForce GT 1030) with Ubuntu 22.04. Emby is installed natively, no VMs or containers. Playback is on localhost via latest Brave browser.

Everything was running smoothly until the last upgrade 4.7 -> 4.8. After this, the UI is laggy. Clear and reproducible examples:

• Side menu slides out jerkily when on home screen
• Context menu is jerky to animate on any object, and laggy on mouseover
• Video playback is smooth unless the OSD overlay is triggered (any mouse movement, for example), in which case video playback becomes really stuttery until the OSD overlay vanishes

First and foremost, I'm assuming from the huge list of features and fixes that something has been refactored on the UI. I'm wondering if there's an easy way to revert this, or some new option that I'm not seeing (I poked around in the user settings and in the admin but didn't see anything obvious).

If not, is it a possible hardware issue? Or something else? Happy to provide logs if needed. Have restarted both Emby server and the physical host, no luck.

 

[Luke 37067]

HI, this is almost certainly due to the background blur effect. How does Chrome or MS Edge compare?

[filecore 5]

Hi, sorry for the slow response - had to go to the office and dig out my work laptop in order to test with Edge and Chrome on Windows. Worked flawlessly. Came home, installed FIrefox on the Linux box, also smooth (wife is happy at the quickfix). Unfortunately I like Brave for its ad-blocking and other privacy features, so it would be a shame to swap away. Hopefully this gives you some ideas for a browser-specific bugfix, but it's weird, since Brave is yet another Chromium-based browser. I have nothing blocked as regards Emby or localhost.

[Happy2Play 8282]

Didn't test much but did not notice an issue in Brave browsing or playback.  Unless this is something specific on Linux as I am on localhost Windows.

 

[Lessaj 59]

What about other Chromium based browsers in your Ubuntu environment? Do you have hardware acceleration enabled?

[Happy2Play 8282]

Yes have had instances where browser hardware acceleration created issues per browser.

[filecore 5]

I don't have any other Chromium-based browsers installed right now, but I checked in Brave's settings, and hardware acceleration ("Use graphics acceleration when available") was set to OFF. I tried enabling it and the issue was the same.

[Lessaj 59]

That doesn't necessary mean it's actually enabled, additional tuning/flags may be required to actually enable it. I'm not familiar with Brave but chrome://gpu might still work to show if hardware acceleration is actually enabled.

[filecore 5]

I installed Chromium itself. Fresh install, same issue as Brave. Tried with hardware acceleration off (it was on by default), but still the same.

So to recap:

• With Emby 4.7.x
  •  Brave/Ubuntu
  •  Edge/Windows
  •  Chrome/Windows
• With Emby 4.8.1.0
  •  Brave/Ubuntu
  •  Chromium/Ubuntu
  •  Firefox/Ubuntu
  •  Edge/Windows
  •  Chrome/Windows

Edited February 28 by filecore

[filecore 5]

I've also noticed with usage that it's a tiny bit laggy in FF. Not enough to be a bother, but noticeable now that I'm watching for it. Any update/quickfix for this? I'm happy to edit a config file or database entry on my own risk, if that would resolve it (eg to disable the onhover blur effect), just need to point me in the right direction.

[Luke 37067]

Is it still laggy?

[filecore 5]

I just updated from 4.8.1.0 to 4.8.3.0, and tested on Brave. Something has definitely changed. It's still sluggish while the overlays are present, as if it's dropping frames, but it no longer has the sharp, aggressive stutter from before. I can post a video and/or logs as needed.