nVidia Shield won't play movies

[RottingMeat 2]

Last week Marshmallow was released for the nVidia SATV and after installing and testing Emby everything worked very well.  Last night my wife and I were able to watch shows and we had no problem.  Today my wife went to watch a movie and it wouldn't play.  We get to the login screen, go in and find a movie, select the movie, choose play, and then it comes up with a gray screen.  This happens for anything I select.  Where can I look for logs to help troubleshoot?  I have tried connecting with Emby on my LG G4 and it played fine.  I tried using the web client from a Windows 10 box and it played fine.  I have tried factory resetting the Shield, reinstalled Emby, and it still does the same thing.  It actually hangs the Shield so I have to go the Home screen and sometimes kill the app.  I can run the HD Homerun app and Sling TV from it just fine.  Any idea on where to start would help.  Thanks to anyone that can offer assistance.

[ThermoDust 12]

I just started to have this problem. This morning i was playing a video no problem. Got home tried playing another episode and I got a grey screen.

 

I tried removing emby and reinstalling. Nothing so far. I even updated emby to latest version.

[jds828 24]

I just tried on mine and they seem to work ok.

 

I tried x264, x265 and m4v and they all played. I updated to the latest Android earlier in the week and the Shield is on WiFi AC

 

Only thing still not working on mine is the live TV.

 

I power the Shield off, not use the sleep option... worth a try? I also added an external HDD and moved the apps to that as I bought the 16GB one. I doubt that would cause problems but you never know.

[RottingMeat 2]

There were quite a few updates yesterday to the server app.  I just tried again and it's not working still.  I had done a full factory reset (the one that takes two hours and wipes everything).  Here's the version I am running:

Server: 3.0.5889.0

vShield App: 1.1.50g

I have found how I can send the logs in the Android app to developers and submitted a couple times after killing the app twice and trying different things.  I have tried playing a movie, playing a tv show, tried Live TV (have a HomeRun), nothing would play when I tried the last step that would result in media being played.  For example, I can go through all the menus to select a movie, tv show, or channel in the guide, but as soon as the device has to commit to actually playing the media is when I get a gray screen. I have tried powering the Shield fully off...as I was letting it sleep, and have even gone so far as to remove the power cable.  when I went to the My Apps in Google Play it looked like there were a significant amount of "system-level" apps to update from the factory reset.  I let those finish, did a couple power cycles, and tried again.  No dice.  Getting very frustrated at this point so I will take a break.  Crazy thing is it was JUST working a day and a half ago, works on ALL of the other devices, and this just so happens to be the one the wife and kids use...the main TV.  On a whim I tried the Roku 3 that's connected to a 720p TV and wireless N two stories from the server and everything is working fine on it.  All signs point to the client or the Shield itself.

Edited February 27, 2016 by RottingMeat

[ebr 15501]

Are you guys on the beta program?

 

If so, there appears to be a problem with the Shield and some framework updates that are in the new beta of the app.  Install the stable release from the store.

[RottingMeat 2]

ebr, I will take a look at how to do that.  I am in the beta program.  If you could...in case I can't figure out how to do it...could you please send a quick update on how to pick stable versus beta?

[ebr 15501]

If nothing else, you should be able to uninstall and then install from the normal play store.  Make sure you are getting 1.1.46.

 

As a last resort, you could opt-out of the beta test.

 

Hopefully, I can get this corrected sometime tonight.  I accidentally moved up too far in API level and, it appears, it is impossible to go back - even if it was only a beta version.

[RottingMeat 2]

I tried to uninstall/reinstall just not doing 1.1.50g, but the Play store wouldn't allow me to do that.  I was forced to opt-out of the beta test...sadly but probably for the best since the wife and kids watch on the SATV more than any other device.  This allowed me to uninstall 1.1.50g again, go to the Play Store and install 1.146g as you mentioned.  On a side note...the app was flagged for an update after installing.  I chose to do the update and it brought it to .50g again.  I uninstalled once more, installed again, verified the version was .46g, and tested.  After holding my breath forever, as my wife was watching my every step like she was a vulture watching an animal dying in the desert, it played.  Thank you ebr for the transparency to help get this resolved!

[crystalgipsy 4]

I'm having the same issue with grey screen when playing anything on latest beta and marshmallow update to shield. 

[Airz5 0]

I had the same issue on the Shield TV running Android 6 using Emby 1.1.50g I unsubscribed from the emby beta, uninstalled emby and then reinstalled. All working okay again now on version 1.1.46 I think it is

[Heuer 76]

Same here!

[TheWorkz 7]

I too started getting the grey screen last night and am part of the beta program. 

 

Interested if I should opt out at this point or wait for a new release?

[CBers 6971]

Hopefully, I can get this corrected sometime tonight. I accidentally moved up too far in API level and, it appears, it is impossible to go back - even if it was only a beta version.

Happening here as well, but I'll wait for you to push the next beta.

 

Thanks Eric.

[Heuer 76]

Happened on both .49 and .50 if that helps. No problem with .46

[ebr 15501]

Don't know how you could have ever gotten to .49 but it shouldn't have had this problem.  Only .50.

 

You guys are only getting the crash when you try to play something (or try to search)?  Not before that?

[crystalgipsy 4]

Correct only goes grey and crashes app when you play anything.

[ebr 15501]

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/31774-live-tv-cancelling-future-recording-bug/?p=306439

[CBers 6971]

I have the latest version (1.1.51) on my Nexus Player, where it works fine, and my Shield, where it still grey-screens.

[ebr 15501]

Okay, thanks.  So that confirms that this is somehow a problem specific to the Shield.

 

Luke - did you make any Shield-specific changes in the ApiClient?

 

I have a Shield on order that will be here tomorrow. If we can't identify something before then, hopefully, I can find it when I have the actual hardware.

[Heuer 76]

You will love it - great device for that makes a dedicated HTPC pretty much redundant unless you are looking to tweak PQ with the likes of madVR. Maybe you can see if you can get it to play .ts files without it grey screening?

Edited February 28, 2016 by Heuer

[Redshirt 1487]

ebr, what player is the grey happening on? 

[CBers 6971]

ebr, what player is the grey happening on?

I've tried with VLC enabled and disabled.

[ebr 15501]

I've got another beta going up (.52) that will still crash, but it will send me a log so that we don't have to wait until I get my Shield tomorrow to figure out what is going on here.

 

Thanks.

[Heuer 76]

Done!

[ebr 15501]

Well, thanks to advanced help from CBers, we have determined that this is a problem in the version of the VLC library we're using.  I'm not sure why it is only a problem on the Shield though.

 

Fixing it, unfortunately, is not going to be easy I'm afraid as newer versions of the VLC library, while they don't have this problem, perform much worse than the one we are using.

 

For now, if you are on a Shield, stay on the stable release.  Thanks.