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The need to transcode breaks this app


dowen01

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dowen01

What can I say here... well its great the menus are clean and simple, in line with the fire TV sticks own so users are at home straight away

Its fast and responsive and looks good on the screen

But it is limited to 3GPP (.3gp) and MPEG-4 (.mp4) (video anyway)
(source - https://developer.am...specifications)

Any other video needs to be transcoded and when you want to watch 1080p video with 7.1 sound not even my server can do it just maxs out the CPU
My server is a Fujitsu Primergy MX130 S2 2 CPU x 2.99 Ghz 32GB of RAM

If you have android TV or the fire TV (not stick) then you can install VLC and Emby can use it to play other media with out the need to transcode, I am told this works wonderfully (not yet seen it first hand)

But at the moment no VLC for fire TV stick so no real use for this app :( its such a shame as the app is great and I was about to buy a Fire TV stick for all my rooms and replace my old Windows 7 Media Centre hosts

If any one knows of a way around this I would grateful for the information and would update this straight away

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dowen01

Small update;

I have managed to Side Load VLC onto my stick however Emby either does not see it or has decided that it cant be there and it not using it :(

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Vidman

What version of the android TV emby app are you on? The newer versions use vlc s core player so anything the vlc app will direct play so will the emby app (so long as it is not forced to transcode because of bitrate settings)

Edited by Vidman
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You don't need to side-load anything.  VLC is built into the app and it will be used when possible.

 

However, in the case of the stick, the CPU is just not powerful enough to handle VLC's decoding engine on higher quality content so it isn't even attempted to be used for anything over SD.

 

On any other Android TV device, it will be and performance will be much better.

 

Transcoding should work fine, however, provided there is enough server horsepower to keep up.

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Deathsquirrel

If you want HD content and bitstreamed HD audio the fire tv stick is not the right device for you.  This is not an Emby issue.

 

Look at an nvidia shield, they just added HD audio support in this week's firmware update.  They're the only ones to offer it on Android TV that I know of.

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dowen01

Ok.........

 

so why when using the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B

 

700Mhz

512 MB of RAM

 

Can I do this with no issues

 

But not on the Fire TV stick

 

Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 up to 1 GHz

1GB (512MB system, 512MB video )

 

 

What am I missing here?

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dowen01

Also how would I check that my bitrate settings are not forcing the transcoding ? I have not edit anything settings for it (that I know of) but I would like to rule it out (as Vidman pointed out)

Edited by dowen01
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Deathsquirrel

Ok.........

 

so why when using the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B

 

700Mhz

512 MB of RAM

 

Can I do this with no issues

 

But not on the Fire TV stick

 

Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 up to 1 GHz

1GB (512MB system, 512MB video )

 

 

What am I missing here?

 

Did you turn your RPi over to Amazon to load it full of their software sometime in the past? :)

 

The software installed matters quite a bit.  These are not comparable devices and on the Android TV platform the device you're working with is one of the least capable out there.

 

I have the bigger fire TV & like it for what it is, but it won't do 5.1 audio except when streaming from Amazon, as an example.  Amazon did that to the system, it isn't a hardware limit.

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Also how would I check that my bitrate settings are not forcing the transcoding ? I have not edit anything settings for it (that I know of) but I would like to rule it out (as Vidman pointed out)

 

It is not your bitrate settings.  As I mentioned above, we won't even attempt to use VLC on the stick for anything over SD because we already know it won't provide a good playback experience.  So, then you are left with the internal player and only the exact formats that supports (as you linked above).  Everything else will have to transcode.

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dowen01

Ok if we accept this is amazon being stuck up for a moment

 

This is a software is based on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) so I can and will root and make it do what I like

 

Could I get my hands on a .apk with the option to turn this on and off SD restriction in Emby just would like it as a setting in options

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Sorry, it isn't an option and rooting your device isn't going to have an effect on this particular issue.

 

The device CPU/memory combination simply is not powerful enough for VLC to work well on it with hi-res content.

 

I think, for you, the best approach would be to look into installing Kodi on it and using our integration add-on for that.

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das7002

Sorry, it isn't an option and rooting your device isn't going to have an effect on this particular issue.

 

The device CPU/memory combination simply is not powerful enough for VLC to work well on it with hi-res content.

 

I think, for you, the best approach would be to look into installing Kodi on it and using our integration add-on for that.

 

 

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree and I made an account just for this reason. I wanted to use Emby with an HDHomeRun and FireTV sticks as cable box replacements and Emby would not cooperate unless I threw an i7 at the problem, which considering that machine is my daily computer that wasn't happening.

 

I did, however, sideload XBMC/Kodi and installed the HDHomeRun addon, and guess what?! 1080p content from my cable company in MPEG2 works flawlessly on the FireTV stick, and wirelessly (proving SiliconDust wrong with their "SD Only over WiFi" claim)! I'm just breaking all the rules here.

 

So I would appreciate an option *somewhere* for allowing direct playback of MPEG2 as the FireTV stick can obviously do it, just Amazon doesn't really want you trying.

 

I'm sure other formats will obviously cause problems, but forcing MPEG2 to transcode instead of either doing a direct play from the HDHomeRun or a passthrough the Emby server is, well, silly in my opinion.

 

Please, I'd love for that option to be available. If I knew anything at all about Android development I'd probably try to create this myself.

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pünktchen

There's one point i agree with @@das7002 and that is live tv. Live tv is always transcoded no matter if it is SD or HD! But why? For SD even the Sticks cpu is powerfull enough.

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It depends on what tv provider you use. For the core provider, if you have an HDHR h264 model, then it will direct play and you can verify this in the mobile android app.

 

For the plugin-based tv providers, the issue is mainly that they are not providing enough media info for clients to determine that they can direct play it. Most of them provide empty media info and that causes the client app to rely on the server to convert it to a compatible format.

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I did, however, sideload XBMC/Kodi and installed the HDHomeRun addon, and guess what?! 1080p content from my cable company in MPEG2 works flawlessly on the FireTV stick, and wirelessly (proving SiliconDust wrong with their "SD Only over WiFi" claim)! I'm just breaking all the rules here.

 

And that's why I said that the best option for you may be to use Kodi with our add-on for Emby.

 

I'm sorry, but there is no option I can add to our app to allow it to use the Kodi playback engine.

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dowen01

Ok so don't get me wrong here, I love that we can load Emby on to loads of different devices

 

But issues like these to make me long for us to focus on one platform and make it the best that it can be

 

Format support for anything we can throw at it (within reason of course) great menus that are simple and clean works well with a remote IR/Phone etc

 

I would even be up for it being a whole operating system so it is JUST a Emby playback device to avoid 3rd party software issues

 

Mabey something that would run on the new Raspberry Pi 2 so that it is small and easy to fix into anyone living room setup, giving us the control to load it with as little or as much as we want (wireless, IR remote, Bluetooth, LED screen for now playing)

 

or

 

A full computer IF this would be better to stop the spec being a issue, loads of small pc are coming out at the moment making this a cheaper option everyday to get a small pc and put it behind that really flat TV with loads of room behind it

 

I just am starting to feel that we have loads of good Emby TV apps and no Great ones

 

The best devices that I run Emby on (TV apps) is still Emby for Windows Media Centre, running on windows 7 (as the licencing to do it on windows 8 is a PAIN ahhh MS why you do this?!?)

 

But Windows Media Centre is dead Microsoft killed it ages ago now and we will have to move forward without it (  :'( somehow   )

 

So what do we think? am I the only one who feels this way? or does anyone else thing we should choose a Emby flagship device/platform/setup?

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we are relying on supported formats from the operating system and that is the biggest difference with Kodi.

 

The android mobile app however enjoys broad format support thanks to Vlc, it's just that Vlc doesn't seem to perform quite as well with the fire tv devices. but with the newer fire devices, that could very well change.

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CBers

it's just that Vlc doesn't seem to perform quite as well with the fire tv devices.

I use VLC for all content, including 1080 content, on both my Nexus Player and Fire TV without any issues, other than DD pass-through on the NP, which seems to be a shortcoming with the current implementation of VLC.

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Vidman

 

 

Ok so don't get me wrong here, I love that we can load Emby on to loads of different devices

 

But issues like these to make me long for us to focus on one platform and make it the best that it can be

 

Format support for anything we can throw at it (within reason of course) great menus that are simple and clean works well with a remote IR/Phone etc

 

I would even be up for it being a whole operating system so it is JUST a Emby playback device to avoid 3rd party software issues

 

Mabey something that would run on the new Raspberry Pi 2 so that it is small and easy to fix into anyone living room setup, giving us the control to load it with as little or as much as we want (wireless, IR remote, Bluetooth, LED screen for now playing)

 

or

 

A full computer IF this would be better to stop the spec being a issue, loads of small pc are coming out at the moment making this a cheaper option everyday to get a small pc and put it behind that really flat TV with loads of room behind it

 

I just am starting to feel that we have loads of good Emby TV apps and no Great ones

 

The best devices that I run Emby on (TV apps) is still Emby for Windows Media Centre, running on windows 7 (as the licencing to do it on windows 8 is a PAIN ahhh MS why you do this?!?)

 

But Windows Media Centre is dead Microsoft killed it ages ago now and we will have to move forward without it ( :'( somehow )

 

So what do we think? am I the only one who feels this way? or does anyone else thing we should choose a Emby flagship device/platform/setup?

Well it seems to me the whole idea of emby is to have access to your media from any device, what I am not happy about is the trend I am seeing of dumbing down/disabling of features to cater to the lowest denominator rather than taking advantage of each devices features.... Tho I can see why it's done it doesn't mean I have to like it:)

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we are relying on supported formats from the operating system and that is the biggest difference with Kodi.

 

The android mobile app however enjoys broad format support thanks to Vlc, it's just that Vlc doesn't seem to perform quite as well with the fire tv devices. but with the newer fire devices, that could very well change.

 

The only device we really have major issues with is the FTV Stick.  It is just too under-powered for VLC's decoding engine.

 

The real Fire TV, Nexus Player, Shield, etc. all perform pretty well with the limitations and work arounds we've built into the app.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Nebular Nerd

As mentioned in my thread that was linked to it's a given that the VLC decode engine is not up to the job on the TV Stick, MXPlayer's external libraries that enable it to happily decode HD content in pretty much any format you want (aside from high bit rate Blu content) are derived from ffmpeg and compiled to match the main Android cpu families.

 

http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/mx-player/mx-player-custom-codec-dts-support-t2156254

 

Could something similar be an idea for Emby, download the main app then pull down the required library to match?

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