Emby on a Nas for streaming to a Samsung TV

[StavrosHarima 0]

Hi all.

Disclaimer, I am very new to this world. I've tried to research a bit before asking but couldn't seem to find an exact solution.

I have a Nas DS418play+ for a quite a while now. I've decided to also use it as a media server to stream movies in my various outlets. Main being my SamsungTV

I ve installed emby and everything seems to fit in place. Except...

I have certain videos that despite their low bitrate they wont stream smoothly on TV. There a lot of pauses and a lot of blocky artifacts that seem to drag the image around like a bad AI effect.

I have other videos that are much higher bitrate and will play smoothly.
In both situations there is no transcoding happening. Its in direct play. This  only happens on my Samsung. The same laggy video will run smoothly on any other device. Mobile, laptop, PC etc.
So I guess its an issue of an unsupporting format that my Samsung can't handle.
Here are two screenshots for the low and high bitrate comparison.

The way I am solving this for now is to trick Emby to start transcoding. But because the media is already of a low quality and I have to go even lower than that it becomes boarderline unwatchable.
I would assume there is a way to force the transcoding on any quality I want but I cant seem to find such a setting.
What are my options?
Thank you!

[Grimmer 13]

Perhaps the frame rate is not supported by the Samsung TV?  Although both of those are very common and I would expect the TV to support them both.  Is your TV connected via WiFi or Ethernet?  If WiFi, perhaps there is intermittent interference? Does the video scramble happen in the same spot if you rewind it and play that section it again?  442kbs is very low (especially for 720p), the quality and integrity of the original media file would be my first suspicion, although you've indicated that other players handle it better.  Since direct play is "hands off" for the Emby server it is most likely an issue with the TV (or network transmission).  It may be overworking the TV's video processor to correct it for display on the panel.  When I've used external sources to my Samsung, plugging it into the computer input bypasses the TV video processor; however, this requires that the source already be in a resolution and refresh rate that is compatible with the display panel's native capabilities.  I don't know if there is a way to disable it the internal Emby app.

I haven't used the Samsung TV Emby App, but for others (such as the Roku), there should be an app setting for playback quality.  Perhaps if you change it from auto to 720p 24fps it may force Emby to transcode any that don't match. If I recall correctly, the Roku Emby app also has an option for the Roku to match the framerate of the source file.  You could look for something like that and try both off and on to see if makes a difference.

Also, on your NAS Emby Server settings, be sure to look at the "Transcoding" options.  Set it to "Advanced" and be sure to move the QuickSync hardware transcoder to the first priority for all video types (it has been a lot faster than VAAPI for me):

[Luke 39617]

Quote

I would assume there is a way to force the transcoding on any quality I want but I cant seem to find such a setting.
 

hi, some of our other apps have a playback correction feature in the video player to exactly that. We can look at adding that feature to Emby for Samsung.

I don't think you want to force transcoding on every single mkv though as usually it will handle most of them just fine.

[StavrosHarima 0]

13 hours ago, Luke said:

hi, some of our other apps have a playback correction feature in the video player to exactly that. We can look at adding that feature to Emby for Samsung.

I don't think you want to force transcoding on every single mkv though as usually it will handle most of them just fine.

Yes it's working great for the most part. 
Looking forward to that. Thank you!

[StavrosHarima 0]

18 hours ago, Grimmer said:

Perhaps the frame rate is not supported by the Samsung TV?  Although both of those are very common and I would expect the TV to support them both.  Is your TV connected via WiFi or Ethernet?  If WiFi, perhaps there is intermittent interference? Does the video scramble happen in the same spot if you rewind it and play that section it again?  442kbs is very low (especially for 720p), the quality and integrity of the original media file would be my first suspicion, although you've indicated that other players handle it better.  Since direct play is "hands off" for the Emby server it is most likely an issue with the TV (or network transmission).  It may be overworking the TV's video processor to correct it for display on the panel.  When I've used external sources to my Samsung, plugging it into the computer input bypasses the TV video processor; however, this requires that the source already be in a resolution and refresh rate that is compatible with the display panel's native capabilities.  I don't know if there is a way to disable it the internal Emby app.

I haven't used the Samsung TV Emby App, but for others (such as the Roku), there should be an app setting for playback quality.  Perhaps if you change it from auto to 720p 24fps it may force Emby to transcode any that don't match. If I recall correctly, the Roku Emby app also has an option for the Roku to match the framerate of the source file.  You could look for something like that and try both off and on to see if makes a difference.

Also, on your NAS Emby Server settings, be sure to look at the "Transcoding" options.  Set it to "Advanced" and be sure to move the QuickSync hardware transcoder to the first priority for all video types (it has been a lot faster than VAAPI for me):

Hi

Internet speed is not the issue.

I've even tried connecting my TV with a direct ethernet cable to the router. I have an 300Mb optic fiber connection. As I said other videos of a much higher bitrate playback fine.
I've looked into that setting on the Nas. I didnt know that thank you. I've made sure to prioritise the QuickSync setting but it doesnt seem to solve the issue.
At the moment the only thing that seems to work is to select a lower quality on the Emby app to force a transcode with the expense of watching on a lower quality.

[Grimmer 13]

Does your TV have the Picture Clarity setting? Try changing the parameters and see if it helps. If the stutter is short rapid steps, it is likely due to the picture clarity/smoothing corrections the TV is trying to make. Mostly occurs when the video is slow panning on my TV.

The large blockiness is likely do to excessive compression (low bit rate). My Samsung attempts to smooth out that blockiness, but with that low of a bit rate maybe the blocks are so big that they confuse the algorithm. 

 

Since it is apparently isolated to the TV, I'd start changing the picture settings to see what affects it.