3.0.5572.0 - Chromecast playback issue

[cskyrme 0]

Just tried again with the following scenario:

 

Server: Version 3.0.5582.4 (running on Windows 8.1 64 bit)

Android  Client: 2.2.22 (running on Nexus 9 on 5.0.1 - Nexus 6 running 5.1)

Chromecast (reports on Webclient dashboard as 2.0.000)

 

Restarted Server, android client, and unplugged and re-plugged Chromecast

 

Using Android client, selected TV show

Chromecast Bitrate set to 5.0 Mb.s (reduced from 10 to see if that was an issue per earlier post in thread)

 

Show started fine, then within about 2s the audio stopped.  About 15 seconds in the playback paused for a while then resumed.  After about 45 seconds the playback stopped and did not resume.  After 1 minute, I stopped playback on the client, shutdown the server, and attached the 2 log files from the C:\Users\admin\AppData\Roaming\MediaBrowser-Server\logs directory.

 

I tried again with the Nexus 6, and got the same behavior within a few minutes (second set of logs attached).  It stalled for a while first, then a few minutes it stopped and I gave up after a minute or two waiting.

 

I then tried DLNA streaming to my Panasonic Viera TV.  Same show, initiated from my Nexus 9.  No issues after 15 minutes or more so I stopped the test. (also in second set of log files)   Playback on the tablet directly works without issues as well.

 

I have been using the same setup for ages without issues until this started happening about a week ago.   Several changes around the same time so hard to identify which is the cause (Windows update on the server, server update from Emby, androld client updates, etc)

 

Let me know what additional information I can provide. 

 

Many thanks for looking into it.

 

Chris

 

server-63564971644.txt

transcode-55d8223d-e57c-4f2a-814b-64781aeb9e65.txt

server-63564972212.txt

transcode-02f04ddb-9d77-4841-a079-acec9b44bf5f.txt

[Strabal 0]

I'm not a pro on this app but starting from this Version 3.0.5582.4, i can't read too my  videos it's stops after some seconds and sometimes some minutes 

 

can we have a fix as soon as possible plz, i use it with chromecast but now i can'T use it

 

thanx for looking into it

Edited April 18, 2015 by Strabal

[Luke 37113]

ok guys, i've posted a fix to the server dev branch. It resolves the issue of the stream being abruptly terminated. Please try it out. If we can get it validated then i'll push it to stable asap. thanks.

[cskyrme 0]

Had just tested with android 2.25 and same issue at exact same spots on the test video clip. So should be easy to test a fix. Will switch over to Dev updates on server and will report back shortly.

 

Thanks!

[cskyrme 0]

Updated the Server to: Version 3.0.5587.22062

Emby Android to 2.2.25

restarted Chromecast, Emby Android and Server

 

Played same video file to Chromecast using Nexus 9 tablet and got the exact same behaviour:  audio skips at 2s, video freezes at 30s for about 15s then stops again around 55s... after 90s I stopped the test.

Repeated the exact same video file playing directly on tablet and it worked fine.

 

Log files attached for both failing Chromecast attempt and successful tablet play.

server-63565048233.txt

transcode-e629b8bf-8d22-40a7-8f8a-023ef66f0f50.txt

transcode-b4f11070-5d68-4a61-85dd-6289fb2835fd.txt

Edited April 19, 2015 by cskyrme

[Luke 37113]

Updated the Server to: Version 3.0.5587.22062

Emby Android to 2.2.25

restarted Chromecast, Emby Android and Server

 

Played same video file to Chromecast using Nexus 9 tablet and got the exact same behaviour:  audio skips at 2s, video freezes at 30s for about 15s then stops again around 55s... after 90s I stopped the test.

Repeated the exact same video file playing directly on tablet and it worked fine.

 

Log files attached for both failing Chromecast attempt and successfully tablet play.

 

Ok this is something unrelated and not what i was looking at. I think your issue is isolated and different from what is being discussed in this thread. For kicks, can you go to playback -> transcoding and disable the throttling feature? i don't expect it to make a difference, but just curious.

[cskyrme 0]

Disabled throttling, restarted server, and no change to the behaviour for Chromecast play.  Update logs attached.

 

Going offline for a while, but happy to test further scenarios to help resolve.

 

Thanks!

 

Chris

transcode-46a56654-5642-4f07-b859-d2bf98d134b4.txt

server-63565049015.txt

[Luke 37113]

Disabled throttling, restarted server, and no change to the behaviour for Chromecast play.  Update logs attached.

 

Going offline for a while, but happy to test further scenarios to help resolve.

 

Thanks!

 

Chris

 

Everything in your logs look fine to me so i don't have anything else to try at the moment. You can try turning off dlna debug logging, you can also try further reducing the bitrates. to me it looks like something environmental but i see no problems from the server transcoding standpoint.

[cskyrme 0]

Thanks for looking into this Luke.

 

I tried turning of DLNA debug as suggested,and no change.

 

I then started stepping down the bitrate setting for Chromecast in the android app settings, and there was no change - always has issues at the exact same spots in the video - until i dropped to 2.6 Mb/s at which point it passed the spots it always has issues without incident.

 

I must admit I'm stumped as I've had the Chromecast since it was released and haven't adjusted the bitrate from my the default. If its something environmental, what sort of factors might contribute to it? I assume its not an issue with my Android device because I had the same behavior from two different android devices. My Wireless? Nothing has changed there that I'm aware of. On the windows server? Other than installing the routine MS recommended uodates nothing has changed there. On my Chromecast device? I don't know how to change anything there.

 

Any suggestions for what I should be on the look out for would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[JeremyFr79 228]

Ok, if I can add some info here that might help with this issue, I to am running the latest beta release 5882.4.  This weekend i traveled out of town and took one of my chromecast's with me, it worked flawlessly all weekend running over the internet external to my network.  Once I returned home, I have been having the exact same issues mentioned here all night.  Whatever the problem is it only seems to show at least in my case on my internal network.  I've done extensive testing of the network, lots of reboots & powercycles and everything is operating as it should WiFi is strong and on channel that is clear of interference so I can definitely tell you that the issue is not environmental in my case.  I will try the dev release soon and let you know what happens.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Ok, so on the latest dev release 5588, still having the same issue, oddly enough it seems to only affect movies and stuff, Live TV plays fine without issues.

Edited April 21, 2015 by JeremyFr79

[Luke 37113]

Ok, so on the latest dev release 5588, still having the same issue, oddly enough it seems to only affect movies and stuff, Live TV plays fine without issues.

 

Sorry, I'm kind of getting lost in there with all those different playback sessions. Can you restart the server, reproduce the issue with a movie and then post a log with that? thanks.

[JeremyFr79 228]

yeah I'll have to do it later, the issues were while trying to stream "the night shift" if that helps you sort through the log a bit easier, it will play for anywhere from a 30 seconds to a few minutes and then just freeze, yet on the android client the play time still moves forward.  If you let it sit long enough 1-2 minutes or more it will start playing again, and play for say 30 seconds and then freeze again.  I have tried different playback settings in server and currently have it set to high, and allow throttling.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Ok, here's the latest logs after a restart and 2 freezes.

[cskyrme 0]

JeremyFr79 - what you are describing sounds very similar to what I am experiencing. If you drop be bitate down for Chromecast within the android client, does it make a difference? Once I dropped the bitrate to 2.6 Mb/s I no longer see hr issue.

[JeremyFr79 228]

JeremyFr79 - what you are describing sounds very similar to what I am experiencing. If you drop be bitate down for Chromecast within the android client, does it make a difference? Once I dropped the bitrate to 2.6 Mb/s I no longer see hr issue.

It hasn't effected it that I've noticed in any way, and as far as server hardware/network go, I should be able to run any bitrate I choose without issue as long as it's supported.

[JeremyFr79 228]

Spoke to soon, same issue casting from Chrome browser as well, played for roughly 15 minutes then BAM black screen and nothing.

Edited April 22, 2015 by JeremyFr79

[Luke 37113]

Ok, this thread is actually about two different things and the issue I intended to fix appears to be fixed based on the latest log. I resolved the issue of the server prematurely stopping the transcoding because it thinks the client has disconnected.

 

It sounds like what you're describing is a situation where performance drops which causes playback to pause for a while. To be honest, everything in the log looks fine to me. The entire time there was only one ffmpeg process, and that process converted the whole video in just 42 seconds (fast due to the video stream copy). So I think we can rule out any cpu issues.

 

So honestly I am wondering if the bitrate is just too much for your wifi network.

 

Why is this different from a few weeks ago, because our transcoding decision algorithms are much better than they used to be. we're now going utilize video stream copy much more than ever before. That means the bitrate of the output is going to be higher and much closer to the limit that you've configured. When we trasncode the output is sometimes on the conservative end. So that is what has changed. If you drop the bitrate a little it should go back to being just like what it was.

[JeremyFr79 228]

As far as WiFi goes I'm running an enterprise N access point, Total power output is roughly 4 watts after antenna gain. The 1 chrome cast is 20 feet line of sight the other 8 feet line of sight. Obviously there's no way to do a bandwidth test with them, but using a phone or laptop in the same spots reveal 75-140mbps sustained throughput on wifi.

[cskyrme 0]

I understand your logic Luke, but I'm struggling with WiFi being the culprit as well. I've got a pretty new Asus RT-68U AC1900 that is about 5 feet from the Chromecast and connected to the server with Gigabit Ethernet. My android devices report connections of 500Mbps+ with the AP, and while I believe the Chromecast is only 2.4ghz it is still connecting with good througput. Things also worked perfectly well previously when I had the Chromecast bit rate set at 10Mb/s in the emby android client.

 

I'll see if I can do some different testing to help isolate the issue.

 

Thanks for your help to date.

[Luke 37113]

the only other thing i can think of is perhaps we're stream copying this particular video when we shouldn't be, but i am not aware of any other video characteristic that we should be checking in order to make that decision. as far as I know I believe we're checking all of the ones that we need to.

[JeremyFr79 228]

I will add that when this stated I tried dropping borate and it still did it. What I find interesting is it worked fine all weekend over the Internet 3 hours away from home, but as soon as I got home again is been nothing but issues. Seems odd it only seems to be problematic on the local network. Some other info to add there are no sugar firewalls running since my entire network sues behind a hardware firewall so internally traffic is uninhibited in that respect as well.

[Bert 49]

Obviously there's no way to do a bandwidth test with them, but using a phone or laptop in the same spots reveal 75-140mbps sustained throughput on wifi. 

 

Actually you can use Speed4cast to test it.  I found out the Chromecast is not really good at picking up a wi-fi signal.  I have two not in service right now for that reason.  The one in use is literally a foot from a wireless router.  I am in know way affiliated with Speed4cast, I just thought it was a cool tool.  Apparently Chromecast 2 is supposed to come out to address this and allow AC plus whatever else they think up.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Bert

[JeremyFr79 228]

Actually you can use Speed4cast to test it.  I found out the Chromecast is not really good at picking up a wi-fi signal.  I have two not in service right now for that reason.  The one in use is literally a foot from a wireless router.  I am in know way affiliated with Speed4cast, I just thought it was a cool tool.  Apparently Chromecast 2 is supposed to come out to address this and allow AC plus whatever else they think up.

You da man!!! that app is awesome!! So did a speedtest using that speed4cast app and my results were 18.31 down and 12.99 up with latency of 21ms so all very respectable for what I need on the CC

[JeremyFr79 228]

Watching it do the test I see some dips down to the 1mbps range but I'd expect that kind of flucuation on any wifi connection to some extent but the majority of the time it's in the high teens low 20's for receive bandwidth.