Can't play standard H264/AAC stereo videos since update

[elenev 0]

Hi everyone,

 

Started having this problem over the weekend when the update came out. Some videos that previously played fine as long as bitstreaming was disabled now fail to load, crashing the whole app and forcing me to do a "force stop" in Fire TV settings.

 

The video is a standard MP4 container with H264 video and AAC stereo channel audio. See more details here:

 

I'm trying to play it on a TV with only TV speakers, so there shouldn't be any downmixing going on. I'm 90% sure that, prior to the update, the video direct-streamed from the server. Looking at logs, it now looks like it's first trying to direct-play the video using a Samba/Windows-type network path, then tries http streaming, and that's when it fails.

 

The video plays fine on all other devices, though it's quite laggy on Chromecast.

 

My Fire TV app settings have Downmixing on and both bitstreaming off. Excerpt from the server Log is attached. I trimmed it so it starts with the first line written after I requested playback on the Fire stick and stops with the lines written before the TV screen went gray. No ffmpeg log was created.

 

Any ideas what's wrong? Thanks in advance.

And as a future idea -- any way to allow roll back of updates that break stuff, at least for the first few weeks while the unexpected bugs are identified and fixed. It's kind of a bummer to be watching a show every night and then one night not be able to watch it because an automatic update came through and broke something...

log.txt

[ebr 14905]

Can you please sign up for the beta and see if that happens to fix it?  Please be sure and follow the instructions for opting into marketing from Amazon.  Thanks.

 

Android Open Beta Testing

[elenev 0]

Just installed the Beta and tried again. Same problem. New log attached. Looks much like the old one.

log (1).txt

[x0lliex 0]

I had the same problem with the Android TV app on a Mi Box.  mp4 h264 AAC videos will not play, sound will play but no video.  Installed the beta and selected the option to use an external player to play video (Archos in my case), then the videos work.  Would prefer to use the native player, but at least for now it works.

[ebr 14905]

The beta and release are the same right now.

 

Was a transcode log created?

 

Can you follow the instructions here to send a log from the app?

[elenev 0]

A transcode log was not created, and transcoding-temp remained empty throughout.

Just sent a log from within the release app. Attempted playback at 3:25PM EDT. My emby username is "Vadim." Don't really want to post my internal network and filesystem paths on a public forum but I haven't attempted to play anything else today, so it should be obvious what I attempted to play from the logs.

EDT: No harm in posting the show title, I suppose -- It's "Foyle's War."

Edited October 24, 2016 by elenev

[ebr 14905]

I did not receive the log.  Did you get a message that said it was sent successfully?

 

What is the version number of the app (in the settings page)?

[elenev 0]

Yes, the message was "Report sent to developer. Thank you." I just re-sent it, maybe it'll go through this time. Are there any Fire stick-wide settings that need to be changed to make sure these logs go through?

The version number is 1.2.66a Registered.

 

[ebr 14905]

The current release is 1.2.69.  Force an update.

[elenev 0]

There was a discrepancy between the version you see in emby's settings (1.2.66a) and the version you see in "More Info" slide in the Fire Stick interface (1.2.69a). Furthermore, the version in "Managed Installed Applications" in the Fire stick interface corresponded with emby's settings. Really weird. I reinstalled the app and now all versions are consistent at 1.2.69a.

But that still didn't fix the problem. Just reproduced it again, and submitted the log. Timestamp should be 10:41am EDT.

Edited October 25, 2016 by elenev

[ebr 14905]

I got your log this time but there was no playback in the session you sent.

 

I notice you are running on one of the brand new Fire Sticks.  That may be a contributing factor...

[elenev 0]

Hmm. Do the logs clear out every time the app is restarted? Part of the problem is, once I hit "Play," not only does the video not get played; the whole app freezes. Eventually, the black screen with the spinning circle gets replaced by a grey screen. At that point, the only thing I can do is hit Home. Then, I can't re-open the emby app until I go to Settings -> Applications --> Manage Installed Apps --> emby --> Force Quit. If this ends up clearing out the logs, then there's no way I can send them to you unless there's some way I can poke around the Fire Stick's filesystem. Or, if you have a new fire stick to test, I can create an account for you in my emby so you can try playing/steaming directly from my server. If that doesn't sufficiently reproduce the problem (i.e. because remote connections can't take advantage of LAN Samba paths), I can try disabling those paths and force direct stream instead of direct play (though shouldn't that be the fall back if direct play fails anyway?).

As for the fire stick, yes, I do have the new one. I doubt that's the problem though. I first started having this problem on an old 1st Gen Fire stick. Of course, it's possible that the combination of the previous emby version (66) + 1st gen fire stick led to the exact same problem as the new emby version (69) + new fire stick, but that seems unlikely.

 

[ebr 14905]

Can you reproduce the problem with the older Fire Stick and the new version of the app/server?

[asnguy01 0]

I have the same issue on the FireTV 2nd gen. I can send the log later today.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elenev 0]

Just tried new app (69a) on old fire stick (1st gen). Same issue. Sent the log. Relevant timestamp is 6:47pm EDT.

[asnguy01 0]

Got a 2nd gen FireTV here and got the same problem. Some videos play for 1min, then stop. Some plays for 1-2 sec, then freezes. I had to disable all transcoding for user in order to force direct play for MP4. Otherwise the server will automatically transcode to MKV/x264/aac for the FireTV (which is think is a separate issue that needs to be fixed).

 

Just uploaded the log at 11:47pm CST 10/25/16. 

[Luke 37029]

Got a 2nd gen FireTV here and got the same problem. Some videos play for 1min, then stop. Some plays for 1-2 sec, then freezes. I had to disable all transcoding for user in order to force direct play for MP4. Otherwise the server will automatically transcode to MKV/x264/aac for the FireTV (which is think is a separate issue that needs to be fixed).

 

Just uploaded the log at 11:47pm CST 10/25/16. 

 

Does this occur with vaapi disabled?

[asnguy01 0]

Does this occur with vaapi disabled?

Yes I disable transcoding completely and Dashboard says "Direct Play".

[Luke 37029]

I mean does the failure occur using regular transcoding.

[asnguy01 0]

I mean does the failure occur using regular transcoding.

 

The error is occurring with Direct Play for me. Transcoding works because it's producing an MKV/x264/aac file. Not sure if it's the same situation for other users.

[ebr 14905]

Can you provide me with a sample video?

[asnguy01 0]

Can you provide me with a sample video?

Can post a sample video when I get from work later today. Thanks.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ebr 14905]

Thanks for the sample.  That item will not direct play on my Nexus Player either.

 

Do all of the items that exhibit this problem have only 1 ref frame?

[elenev 0]

I'm afraid you've exhausted my AV knowledge. What does 1 ref frame mean? Where can I check this?

 

The video I sent you plays in desktop and iOS emby apps, and it used to play fine on the Fire stick before the recent update. It never needed transcoding, and I'm pretty sure it direct-played, though maybe it direct-streamed. So if there's anything "non-standard" about this video, it seems like past version of emby for Fire Stick was robust enough to handle it, while the new version isn't. Or am I mistaken?

[CBers 6766]

I'm afraid you've exhausted my AV knowledge. What does 1 ref frame mean? Where can I check this?

 

 

Check the media info for the item in the Emby server dashboard.