Back to PLEX i go..sad

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

31 minutes ago, ebr said:

You have more than just that one?

Well there is the fact that after playing a movie the display is screwed up. If you want more actually use the Roku to play content. While the Roku is, by far, my favorite client, there are lots of little glitches in the interface that has been reported many times but never fixed. 

While the Roku, mostly, plays everything fine the Emby interface is lacking. Just read the feedback that appears. 
There are even, according to @speechles, open tickets that have been around for over a year. Of course I cannot itemize them as I have no access to your bug tracker. 

It is only my responsibility to report bugs it is yours to track and fix them. It seems that Emby only fixes bugs that impact Emby directly. It gets frustrating to report bugs and see no progress toward a fix for often years. The lack of an alpha picker when browsing photos by photos in the web interface and the lack of the ability to even display photos in the last 1/3 of my photo library when browsing by folders has been around for a long time with no progress toward a fix shows that the "benign neglect" is not just for the Roku but for other interfaces as well. 

I suppose, if you want more i could somehow find my posts and give a link to all of them where bugs get reported but never acted upon but that list would be pretty long and, it seems, your searching tools should be superior to mine and, if you were really interested, you could find all the bugs that have been reported but not acted upon much easier and faster that I could.  

Don't get me wrong. I think you do a great job. There are just bugs that fall through the cracks and, it seems to me, that there is something wrong with the bug tracking and fixing by Emby and, as long as that flaw is not addressed, there will continue to be reported bugs that go unaddressed for a LONG time.

[ebr 14958]

2 minutes ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

Well there is the fact that after playing a movie the display is screwed up

Details?

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

5 minutes ago, ebr said:

Details?

Well a quick search turns up 

and

I found those within 30-40 seconds just searching for threads I started. There are more, many more, where i mentioned bugs in threads started by others. 

Again there are problems with the bug tracking when things just go unaddressed. 

I wonder how many bugs reported by others that I never see because of the simple way I use Emby that also go unaddressed like all the bugs in live TV that we see reported over and over. I stopped using live TV in Emby because it just failed too often in too many ways but, if i want to actually use Emby, I cannot avoid using other parts and stumbling through the interface. 

I simply report bugs. You should track them and fix them or at least indicate why you can't.

[ebr 14958]

Okay, I just needed a translation of what you considered "screwed up".  Some things like that are pretty tricky when they are only in very specific situations.  But, also, both of those are relatively recent and they are in the works.

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

On 4/1/2024 at 11:42 AM, speechles said:

 

Have some faith. We can work miracles. Just wait and see.

  

 

Yes. You are correct and it has actually been there 3 years and 3 months to be exact. Thank you for your keeping the pressure on us to fix things. Please keep this up. Being serious. It motivates a solution.

Expand  

This is a quote from one of those threads. I do NOT think 3 years + is recent unless you are talking in geological terms. I guess we just experience time differently.  

[ebr 14958]

1 hour ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

This is a quote from one of those threads. I do NOT think 3 years + is recent unless you are talking in geological terms. I guess we just experience time differently.

Speechles was misinformed on his timing of the issue.  The issue in that thread has only been seen recently and it is some sort of rendering anomaly in the Roku.  We think we've found a work around for the next release.

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

crossing fingers it fixes the alphapicker for the MOVIES TAB using titles

 

UPDATE:

Roku just pushed out a firmware update version 13.0.0 build 24042

Edited May 2 by chrisrobbins1970

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

1 hour ago, chrisrobbins1970 said:

crossing fingers it fixes the alphapicker for the MOVIES TAB using titles

 

UPDATE:

Roku just pushed out a firmware update version 13.0.0 build 24042

Well that is good but it is not for all at this time. I am still on 12.5.5 build 4174. Roku staggers their updates so i guess everyone will get updated in the next 6-8 months unless there are problems in which case it could be next week or next year. 

I am also wondering why the alphapicker works fine on my Rokus (Ultra) in movies while it does not work correctly for you or some others and in my browser it does not work at all for photos while it does work for others. Either there are some things that are more different than they appear across different devices/servers/libraries or there is a rather famous code snippet that activates randomly that basically says "On random screw random user" Or the general form of Murphy's law "The perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum" has taken total control of Emby and we just need to ride it out or "rub the Buda's belly" to get things back on an even keel.   

Edit: I just did some further testing and, on first attempt with all filters turned off it took 15 seconds to go from # to z on my 4500 + movie library but subsequent seeks are virtually instant except after leaving Emby and loading another app and reentering Emby. (I guess that resets something) I just do NOT understand what is happening. But understanding is not needed, just acceptance.  

Edited May 2 by Gilgamesh_48

[richt 73]

Deleted

Edited May 2 by richt

[speechles 1929]

4 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

Edit: I just did some further testing and, on first attempt with all filters turned off it took 15 seconds to go from # to z on my 4500 + movie library but subsequent seeks are virtually instant except after leaving Emby and loading another app and reentering Emby. (I guess that resets something) I just do NOT understand what is happening. But understanding is not needed, just acceptance.  

The grid uses a cache. The alphapicker uses chunked loading, just as if you scrolled down, only it can load larger chunks at once. Once it has loaded in the cache subsequent jumps can be instant. But once you move back from that grid it causes the cache to get destroyed at the same moment the grid is destroyed. The cache can also get destroyed if the Roku needs memory and garbage collects as you move into things forward from the grid. That is why you see it jumping instantly on the second alphapicker jump since it can use the cache it has already built and doesn't have to load anything.

Also the current store app has a bug where the Folders view will attempt to load ALL the titles at once. This will cause a huge wait for that to load before you can even see any titles. But once it loads everything is fast because it has already been cached. But that initial wait can be huge if the user has a large library. That is why we want it to load in chunks to get to where you need to be rather than load everything at once. That is difference between folder view. This has been fixed in the Beta.

We want to fix the alphapicker issue and already have a few solutions. But I need to get with @ebrand see if these solutions are really viable or not. We also have other fixes and improvements happening at the same time. It isn't that we are trying to be deceptive. It is the fact that some of these are very hard to pinpoint a cause. The short answer is there likely needs to be something watching the jump to make sure it completes, such as a Watchdog timer. But please give us some time to implement a fix for this. I know it is fun to pick on the fact it is broken. Damn thing. But please give us a few days to get something together. Thanks.

tl;dr - That damned alphapicker hang thing will get fixed.

 

  

10 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

There are even, according to @speechles, open tickets that have been around for over a year. Of course I cannot itemize them as I have no access to your bug tracker.

There are many open tickets on the Roku tracker. Mind you some of these are my own suggestions turned into issues. But most of these are coming from users complete with forum posts in the issue tracker. I may get in trouble for showing the below image. But I want to show it to give you an idea of what goes on with the Roku tracker.

As you can see we have 80 open issues. We have 149 requests to merge code. All of us contribute to making the app better as you can see. I publish most of my suggestions as pull requests. Some of them make it some of them don't. But they are there later to go back with and build something with. That is what you are seeing happen except without having to read the back and forth of the conversations we have and us argue with each other. We cannot really share out issues because it gives away what we are working on and how we are going to do things. But I can hopefully show the image above without getting into trouble. This is honestly what is happening. Please give us a bit of time to work on the issue tracker list. I am always giving these issue/fix numbers as reference in posts. It gets discouraging when people think we are just sweeping everything under the rug and never listening to them. Believe me it is exactly the opposite. Thanks for listening. I just wanted to make everything clear how we operate.

Edited May 3 by speechles

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

39 minutes ago, speechles said:

The grid uses a cache. The alphapicker uses chunked loading, just as if you scrolled down, only it can load larger chunks at once. Once it has loaded in the cache subsequent jumps can be instant. But once you move back from that grid it causes the cache to get destroyed at the same moment the grid is destroyed. The cache can also get destroyed if the Roku needs memory and garbage collects as you move into things forward from the grid. That is why you see it jumping instantly on the second alphapicker jump since it can use the cache it has already built and doesn't have to load anything.

Also the current store app has a bug where the Folders view will attempt to load ALL the titles at once. This will cause a huge wait for that to load before you can even see any titles. But once it loads everything is fast because it has already been cached. But that initial wait can be huge if the user has a large library. That is why we want it to load in chunks to get to where you need to be rather than load everything at once. That is difference between folder view. This has been fixed in the Beta.

We want to fix the alphapicker issue and already have a few solutions. But I need to get with @ebrand see if these solutions are really viable or not. We also have other fixes and improvements happening at the same time. It isn't that we are trying to be deceptive. It is the fact that some of these are very hard to pinpoint a cause. The short answer is there likely needs to be something watching the jump to make sure it completes, such as a Watchdog timer. But please give us some time to implement a fix for this. I know it is fun to pick on the fact it is broken. Damn thing. But please give us a few days to get something together. Thanks.

tl;dr - That damned alphapicker hang thing will get fixed.

 

  

There are many open tickets on the Roku tracker. Mind you some of these are my own suggestions turned into issues. But most of these are coming from users complete with forum posts in the issue tracker. I may get in trouble for showing the below image. But I want to show it to give you an idea of what goes on with the Roku tracker.

As you can see we have 80 open issues. We have 149 requests to merge code. All of us contribute to making the app better as you can see. I publish most of my suggestions as pull requests. Some of them make it some of them don't. But they are there later to go back with and build something with. That is what you are seeing happen except without having to read the back and forth of the conversations we have and us argue with each other. We cannot really share out issues because it gives away what we are working on and how we are going to do things. But I can hopefully show the image above without getting into trouble. This is honestly what is happening. Please give us a bit of time to work on the issue tracker list. I am always giving these issue/fix numbers as reference in posts. It gets discouraging when people think we are just sweeping everything under the rug and never listening to them. Believe me it is exactly the opposite. Thanks for listening. I just wanted to make everything clear how we operate.

Thank you. Now everything is perfectly clear but I also think our tax code is clear.  

I just really want the browser alpha picker in photos fix quickly and the ability to favorite/unfavorite from the Roku interface. 

Again I have NO alphapicker at all when browsing by photos in the browser and, even though the picker works when browsing my photo library by folder, even though I have no subfolders, Emby errors in any attempt to display the last 1/3 or so of my photo library. I just do not understand why it is so hard to fix a very basic function in the browser (alphapicker not showing when browsing photos) and in the Roku (the ability to favorite/unfavorite photos) Other things I have reported do seem like there are complexities but those two seem like they should be very simple to fix.

BTW: My photo library is about 2000 items. So it is not even really big.

Clearly I can live with Emby even with the bugs but these just seem so simple. Like it takes more time and effort to describe the problem that it seems like it should take to fix. 

My frustration comes when Emby asks for more and more info but never really seems to attempt the fix. It feels a lot like asking for something triggers a large bunch of delaying tactics with no attempt at really fixing the problem. It is like Emby feels if you delay working on a bug long enough the bug will go away or the person that reported in dies of old age. 

I know this sounds bitter but, sometimes, when dealing with Emby bugs bitter is exactly how I feel.

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

For the one who started this thread...I thank you. As a tech; I deal with computer issues ALL DAY and having the end user tell me exactaly what is going can be a difficult one. Coming from the PLEX world. I see what works and what does not. Certain things that people consider a useless feature some use it all the time. From day one when I installed Emby and for a purposes it does what I want it to do. Even using the Symfonium has been a great expereince for me. I like emby becuase; unlike Plex, I can customize it..Just like the Onn 4K streaming from Walmart; I would rather use that than Roku becuase it can be customized and the product just works for ALL my purposes. However, since ALL my family and friends use Roku. The one issue for the alphapicker is a MAJOR issue for me.

BUT..Luke, Speechless and Ebr all of them has been "right on it' they have helped so much and THEY need a high five from me...Unlike plex forums that could takes to get a response back.

Still EMBY for the WIN!!

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

2 minutes ago, chrisrobbins1970 said:

BUT..Luke, Speechless and Ebr all of them has been "right on it' they have helped so much and THEY need a high five from me...Unlike plex forums that could takes to get a response back.

Still EMBY for the WIN!!

I fight with Emby developers often. I never fought with Plex developers, they just either did nothing or banned me for mentioning Emby. It was very frustrating to deal with Plex on any level. But dealing with Emby is at least a continued give and take. They may take offense at some of the things I say but I also take offense at some of the things they say. It is a robust give and take and, with Plex, it was all giving on my side and taking or theirs. 

Emby is mostly fun but Plex was almost never fun.

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

Any updates of this issue....

There seems to be other issues arising with Emby on Roku devices... Video freezing and audio keeps playing for like 2 or 3 seconds. The two remote users I have has had this issue off and on.

One with a Hisense Roku TV said he was going back to the PLEX until these issues are fixed.

[Luke 37233]

On 5/9/2024 at 3:28 PM, chrisrobbins1970 said:

Any updates of this issue....

There seems to be other issues arising with Emby on Roku devices... Video freezing and audio keeps playing for like 2 or 3 seconds. The two remote users I have has had this issue off and on.

One with a Hisense Roku TV said he was going back to the PLEX until these issues are fixed.

Hi, in regards to the freezing issue, since you have a dedicated topic for it already, let's continue there in order to avoid having the same conversation in multiple places. Thanks !

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

Any updates of this issue:

Roku alphapicker for MOVIES TAB using titles?

[ebr 14958]

2 hours ago, chrisrobbins1970 said:

Any updates of this issue:

Roku alphapicker for MOVIES TAB using titles?

I'm afraid I don't have anything new for you at this time.  It seems your issue has to either be server/database performance or network performance since others with even larger libraries are not seeing the same poor performance.

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

What are my options?

This is only with rokus. The remote users who use rokus same issue, one has a LG TV, no issue. I've used a onn 4k box, no issues.

What are my options?

Fresh install?

 

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

30 minutes ago, chrisrobbins1970 said:

What are my options?

This is only with rokus. The remote users who use rokus same issue, one has a LG TV, no issue. I've used a onn 4k box, no issues.

What are my options?

Fresh install?

 

I would recommend to all users that have real problems with their Rokus, I do not but others might, to add a Fire Stick to their setup. The Stick can be configured so that the Roku app is first and foremost and it is almost as easy to use as the Roku. I very much prefer my Rokus but the Fire ain't bad. 

It is not a perfect solution but it does work and, on the rare occasions that my Rokus do not work correctly, I find switching to my Fire stick almost seamless. 

Any other reliable Android device would probably work well too. But there are a LOT of real crappy Android devices and going outside the mainstream is dangerous.  

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

So basically what I'm seeing is... Roku has an issue with the alphapicker; no other devices that I've tested, firestick and onn 4k streaming has this issue. Nothing can be done to fix this. I need to tell ALL my family to drop Roku and Roku TV and use a Google TV or Android TV device??

I myself have no issues switching to another device, but doubt my family and friends will...so like I said sad to have to go back to Plex....grrrr

I do thank all who tried to help 

 

[speechles 1929]

2 hours ago, chrisrobbins1970 said:

So basically what I'm seeing is... Roku has an issue with the alphapicker; no other devices that I've tested, firestick and onn 4k streaming has this issue. Nothing can be done to fix this. I need to tell ALL my family to drop Roku and Roku TV and use a Google TV or Android TV device??

I myself have no issues switching to another device, but doubt my family and friends will...so like I said sad to have to go back to Plex....grrrr

I do thank all who tried to help 

 

We understand the issue with the alpha picker. We are working on it. This only happens to certain users with large collections. I myself experience the problem. We will fix it. There is no need to use another device. That would be ridiculous. Give us some time to devote to this. Thanks.

Edited Sunday at 04:02 PM by speechles

[Gilgamesh_48 947]

1 hour ago, speechles said:

We understand the issue with the alpha picker. We are working on it. This only happens to certain users with large collections. I myself experience the problem. We will fix it. There is no need to use another device. That would be ridiculous. Give us some time to devote to this. Thanks.

While I appreciate this and i believe it i do not think waiting for a "fix" is always the best action. There are unexpected bugs that creep into any software and more "complex" the system the more likely it is that an unexpected bug can creep into the system and some bugs impact some users and not others. That is why I have two different Emby clients available at all times. (Roku Ultra and Fire stick 4k) The current extremely low price for many clients makes it easy to be safe.

In fact, due to being forced to buy a new TV and the so called "smart" TVs being a lot cheaper than dumb ones of the same quality, I actually have three active Emby clients available with a few button pushes. However the TCL TV I have (with Google TV) has such a poor user interface that I only use it like a dumb TV and I have a Roku Ultra and a Fire Stick 4K plugged into it and all i do with the TV's remote is switch inputs. The Roku i use almost all the time but the Fire stick is always there and available, just in case.

I strongly believe in backups for both data and hardware. 

"We should strive to stamp out and abolish redundancy."  

[speechles 1929]

1) There is a way to fix this alphapicker jumping thing once and for all. So that it can never screw up this way ever again. It would even fix it for remote users when their fetches time out and cannot complete. It would complete and then restart those fetches. Give us a bit of time, at least a week, to solve this entirely. It can be done. We are up to the challenge. It will be worth the wait.

2) At the same time, the other big one is that automatic playback issue where it will hang at the end of certain items. That one will also get solved. There is a way to do it so that it can never ever happen again no matter what causes it. We shall invesigate that method. It is the best way to handle this.

We can fix both of these. We were hoping that given some time Roku themselves would have done something for #2 but appears we need to do something sooner than wait for later. This should fix all these type of problems with playback hanging at the end no matter the reason.

When the going gets tough the tough gets going and then you start to code defensively. That is what we shall do. Please be patient and give us a bit of time. Thanks to everyone.

Edited Sunday at 05:41 PM by speechles

[speechles 1929]

Just wanted to mention that both the alphapicker jumping fix and the hang at end of automatic playback fix are both working wonderfully. We should be able to push something into production very soon. It may not take a week. We may have something much sooner. Stay tuned...

Edited Tuesday at 02:54 AM by speechles

[chrisrobbins1970 21]

AWESOME...