playback will result in a black screen with audio until device restart

[katbyte 27]

Every so often playback with the emby app will result in a black screen with audio coming through. this will happen randomly on videos that previously played fine or ones that never played before. Once it happens no video will play properly all resulting in the black screen.

closing and reopening the app does not fix this. picking a different video does not change it.

other devices (web, ios, andriod tv) play fine

the only thing that fixes it is restarting the apple tv

Edited September 14, 2024 by katbyte

[Luke 40113]

@katbyte

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[katbyte 27]

luckily it just happened again. restarted the server. tried again. tried 2nd show.

logs attachedembyserver.txt

[DarkStar1977 93]

On 9/18/2024 at 12:15 AM, katbyte said:

luckily it just happened again. restarted the server. tried again. tried 2nd show.

logs attachedembyserver.txt

@Luke

This is been happening since 1.8.8 (2) version and before TVOS 18 upgrade.

I've reported this to you here:

In fact, in my case does not need a device restart, just kill the emby app in apple tv and open it again.

Edited September 30, 2024 by DarkStar1977

[Jcheinaman 18]

Just adding my issue as well. Apple TV with a random black screen.

[StrageEnemy 1]

This happens to me as well, once I’ve played several tv episodes, the screen goes black and only audio comes through, the temporary solution is to close and reopen the app.

[Luke 40113]

Hi, we are looking into this. Thanks.

[RichardGrimmer 1]

Just to add - I've just experienced the same issue (Apple TV also). Perhaps significant (perhaps not) - prior to the problem, playback seemed to be slightly stuttery - movements weren't smooth - that was fixed by exiting and restarting the video - next episode after the restart exhibited the problem, as others different videos had same issue as did live TV (Homerun HD)  - restart of Apple TV fixed it. 

Again, perhaps significant - I'd been playing a combination of videos and live TV on the app (without problem) from about 0700 - 1500 - perhaps a resource freeing issue?

[Luke 40113]

On 2/7/2025 at 10:10 AM, RichardGrimmer said:

Just to add - I've just experienced the same issue (Apple TV also). Perhaps significant (perhaps not) - prior to the problem, playback seemed to be slightly stuttery - movements weren't smooth - that was fixed by exiting and restarting the video - next episode after the restart exhibited the problem, as others different videos had same issue as did live TV (Homerun HD)  - restart of Apple TV fixed it. 

Again, perhaps significant - I'd been playing a combination of videos and live TV on the app (without problem) from about 0700 - 1500 - perhaps a resource freeing issue?

Ok that is helpful, thanks. We are looking into it.

[RichardGrimmer 1]

Interestingly I had another possible manifestation of the issue last night - same as before, I'd been using all day with a combination of live TV and videos....got to c1800 and the picture on the programme I was watching stopped updating - so it looked as though it had frozen, but the audio continued.....came out and back in and I got the black screen with sound.

Again, possible linked (but I doubt it) - I'd used my mobile (IOS) as a remote to select the TV channel and had been for a couple of hours (It's really cool having a TV guide on my phone and using that to "tune" the TV!!). Something else I do which may be significant is that when I'm watching videos I tend to put a series on for a couple of hours and just let it roll over to the next episode rather than picking each episode - I don' normally click "next episode" , then I'll switch to live TV for a bit then back to episodes....

On 14/02/2025 at 18:45, Luke said:

Ok that is helpful, thanks. We are looking into it.

I seem to be getting the issue pretty much daily at the moment - is there anything you guys (the dev team) would like to help diagnose - logs / document more specifically what I was doing prior to the issue etc - I'm a dev myself, so I could potentially do some digging on my side or supply some additional info if needed.

I have noticed that the navigation on TVOS seems to use a stack of some kind - in one of my own work projects (Xamarin & C#) I had significant issues with this sort of navigation (old views still being held in memory consuming resources ) and needed to implement navigation stack clearing (popping to root etc) - could this be a similar issue?

[Luke 40113]

On 2/17/2025 at 2:57 PM, RichardGrimmer said:

Interestingly I had another possible manifestation of the issue last night - same as before, I'd been using all day with a combination of live TV and videos....got to c1800 and the picture on the programme I was watching stopped updating - so it looked as though it had frozen, but the audio continued.....came out and back in and I got the black screen with sound.

Again, possible linked (but I doubt it) - I'd used my mobile (IOS) as a remote to select the TV channel and had been for a couple of hours (It's really cool having a TV guide on my phone and using that to "tune" the TV!!). Something else I do which may be significant is that when I'm watching videos I tend to put a series on for a couple of hours and just let it roll over to the next episode rather than picking each episode - I don' normally click "next episode" , then I'll switch to live TV for a bit then back to episodes....

I seem to be getting the issue pretty much daily at the moment - is there anything you guys (the dev team) would like to help diagnose - logs / document more specifically what I was doing prior to the issue etc - I'm a dev myself, so I could potentially do some digging on my side or supply some additional info if needed.

I have noticed that the navigation on TVOS seems to use a stack of some kind - in one of my own work projects (Xamarin & C#) I had significant issues with this sort of navigation (old views still being held in memory consuming resources ) and needed to implement navigation stack clearing (popping to root etc) - could this be a similar issue?

How much Xamarin do you do?

[RichardGrimmer 1]

@Luke - sorry for the delay in replying - Xamarin is / was my bread and butter for a while!

Mainly on mobile apps, but several different projects (edit: Pro developer >25 years, C / C++ (MFC / ATL) => .Net Framework => >NETCORE, MS specialist)

Edited March 5 by RichardGrimmer

[Luke 40113]

Do you do much with Maui?

[RichardGrimmer 1]

Nothing professionally (not had a suitable project for it recently) but it's in my toolbox!