Playback of some movies is not starting on TV - endless blue circle

[Ataios 2]

Hi there,

I've been trying to play a movie on Samsung TV Emby app and it is stuck in the preparation of the playback (the blue circle is shown on screen and no progress at all),

Same movie on other devices is playing (android / Firefox on linux), also other movies are playing on the Samsung TV

Been trying to dig the logs for the issue but couldn't find any clue..

Technical info:

1. Versions:

Samsung model number:

QE65S90CATXSQ

Samsung firmware version:

1430

Samsung Emby client version:

1.8.0

Emby server version:

4.8.8.0

2. Server log is attached, no other logs were presence.

3. Media info:

 

Really appreciate your help here

Atai

embyserver.txt

[SamES 1003]

Is the problem just with this one file?

[Ataios 2]

Haven't tested all my library yet 

I've seen it in another one, but most of the files are working

 

I'll try some more files later on to find if there is something common

[visproduction 275]

Ataios,

I wonder if the filename starting with ( and with Hebrew characters might throw off playback.  It shouldn't but try changing the name of the file to the "[English name of the film] (2011) - 1080P.mp4" --- something like "Family Reunion (2011) - 1080P.mp4" and see if that changes playback on your TV.  (Picking the English name may help Emby's database lookup find the right match for the program for images and description.)

The typical reason something will not playback is that there is some metadata file issue that needs fixing.  Third party players like VLC can often easily play back such files, so testing with another player does not prove anything.  You can remux the media file with ffmpeg command line if you have that software separately, or a third party editor like AVIDemux. Even command line with MP4box probably would fix the file, as well.  On a average slow computer, remuxing should take maybe 60 seconds for a 2 GB file.  If you know how to do it, it's pretty fast.

I think this problem pops up all the time, because people think the file is fine when it plays in some other software.  Well, that is not really a proper test.
 

Hope that helps.

Edited September 7, 2024 by visproduction

[Ataios 2]

4 hours ago, visproduction said:

Ataios,

I wonder if the filename starting with ( and with Hebrew characters might throw off playback.  It shouldn't but try changing the name of the file to the "[English name of the film] (2011) - 1080P.mp4" --- something like "Family Reunion (2011) - 1080P.mp4" and see if that changes playback on your TV.  (Picking the English name may help Emby's database lookup find the right match for the program for images and description.)

The typical reason something will not playback is that there is some metadata file issue that needs fixing.  Third party players like VLC can often easily play back such files, so testing with another player does not prove anything.  You can remux the media file with ffmpeg command line if you have that software separately, or a third party editor like AVIDemux. Even command line with MP4box probably would fix the file, as well.  On a average slow computer, remuxing should take maybe 60 seconds for a 2 GB file.  If you know how to do it, it's pretty fast.

I think this problem pops up all the time, because people think the file is fine when it plays in some other software.  Well, that is not really a proper test.
 

Hope that helps.

visproduction thanks for the advice, just tried to rename the file to English, still same result..

BTW my mistake in the original post, by saying playing on another devices i meant through Emby not directly the file itself, not sure if it matters or not..

 

Found 2 more files not playing, and a bunch that do play , these are the metadata of the problematic ones:

 

 

[Ataios 2]

Playing the movie from web browser (running on the TV) working smoothly without any problems.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the Samsung Emby application, just can't find out what because no errors are found in the log...

Edited September 7, 2024 by Ataios

[SamES 1003]

Sometimes the Samsung internal player that we use stalls during loading or gets stuck and never completes the load.  We don't have a good way to detect this and recover when it occurs. That sounds like what's happening.

Fortunately it's rare, but you may have more than one case, which is unfortunate.  I suspect that it may be due to the way the file has been encoded, and it might not be 100% compatible with the player.  You could try and put the file on a usb drive, then connect it to the TV and try playing using the TV's internal media player.  This is not a perfect test as it might still play, but if it doesn't then it confirms what I am suspecting.

As another test, try installing MkvToolnix, then open the mkv file in it, select all the streams and then let it run which will create a new mkv file with a copy of the original streams.  It will be quick as effectively it is just writing a new mkv header and container.  That might be enough to resolve it as it could just be an issue with the format of the original mkv header/container. 

BTW, this tool will only work for mkv, not mp4 files.  The fact that you are seeing this on both file types leads me to one more possibility that it could also be a network issue.  Is the server and TV on the same local network?  Are you using/forcing https or using a reverse proxy?  If not configured correctly these can also cause a problem.  It feels like this might be the more likely scenario considering my previous comments about you seeing it on two different file formats.  

I'm assuming that you rescanned the library after changing this:

4 hours ago, Ataios said:

just tried to rename the file to English, still same result..