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Live TV buffering/slow (Raspberry PI)


se732525

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se732525

I have just installed Emby server on a Raspberry Pi 3.  I am using DietPi os and have connected to an older HDHomeRun HDHR3-US.  I am experiencing very slow performance and lots of buffering when I access live tv using the chrome browser on a windows PC connected to Emby.   All my devices are on the same home network.  All connections are ethernet (no WIFI).  When I connect to the HDHomerun directly from the PC using SiliconDust software it streams channels fine without any buffering.  

What could I have done wrong or do I need to do to the Embry installation to improve performance.  I have purchased MPEG2 and VC1 codecs and placed them in the config.txt file but when I do the vcgencmd it says they are not enabled.

 

Thank you for the help.

 

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I'm not sure our ffmpeg builds will be able to utilize those hardware decoders that you purchased. In the meantime you will want to play from apps that won't need to transcode, such as Emby Theater or Android. It's something we'll have to look at for a future update, thanks.

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se732525

Do I need them to fix the slow performance or is there something else I should be looking at in my installation?  Right now live TV is just not fast enough to work.

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Guest asrequested

If you use Theater desktop, mpv has Hardware Acceleration support for RPi. If you want to run it on your RPi.

--hwdec=<api>
Specify the hardware video decoding API that should be used if possible. Whether hardware decoding is actually done depends on the video codec. If hardware decoding is not possible, mpv will fall back on software decoding.

<api> can be one of the following:

no:	always use software decoding (default)
auto:	enable best hw decoder (see below)
yes:	exactly the same as auto
auto-copy:	enable best hw decoder with copy-back (see below)

rpi:	requires --vo=opengl (Raspberry Pi only - default if available)
rpi-copy:	copies video back to system RAM (Raspberry Pi only)

Edited by Doofus
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se732525

I am sorry but I am new to Emby but I don't know how to do this. When you say use Theater desktop...how do I do that?  I have been accessing LiveTv in a chrome browser on a PC and also in the ROKU app.  Does this make a difference?

 

The code you have pasted in above, where does this go?  Again please accept my ignorance.  Thank you

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Guest asrequested

I am sorry but I am new to Emby but I don't know how to do this. When you say use Theater desktop...how do I do that?  I have been accessing LiveTv in a chrome browser on a PC and also in the ROKU app.  Does this make a difference?

 

The code you have pasted in above, where does this go?  Again please accept my ignorance.  Thank you

 

You can download various apps from the Emby site

 

https://emby.media/download.html

 

And the Theater app will be on there

 

https://emby.media/emby-theater.html

 

Theater has decoders and filters built into it, that will allow you to direct play/decode without having to transcode. If you intend to watch on a Windows 10 PC, I would highly recommend using Theater. It's presently undergoing some development, but it works very well. It's my player of choice, as I have a home theater. You can read about some of it's developments, here. If you choose to use it, I'd be happy to answer questions you may have.

 

Watching in a browser, most times will require the server to transcode. You should try to avoid that. What I have pasted above, was just showing you that Theater supports RPi. You won't need to add anything, anywhere. Theater is configurable in it's UI. 

Edited by Doofus
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se732525

Thank you for your comments.  I have done two things which shed some light on this.

 

First off I ditched the DietPi installation that I had followed by this:  https://www.htpcbeginner.com/setup-emby-server-with-raspberry-pi-3/.  After some reading I found this which discusses what is apparently the approved installation method: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43166-arm-devices-official-instructions/?hl=%2Barmv7+%2Binstallation.

 

After doing the "official" installation (which I struggled getting ffmpeg installed based on the website link but eventually got it done using another link), I noticed much better performance on my PC though a standard chrome browser.  I then installed Theater on my PC (finally figuring out that it was not part of emby-server but a separate installation).  I did notice better performance but am still clueless as to what to do with the "code" shown in the post above by Doofus. 

 

Now my Pi installation has these issues:

1.  If I set up a recording of LiveTV event (30 minutes), the server will start recording it but then just hang.  After rebooting the server the recording is there but it appears to have an invalid format, bottom line, no live-tv recording ability.

2.  If I try watching LiveTV through my ROKU using the Emby channel the performance is poor (I don't know how to get Theater in ROKU) and more importantly the server will just lock up after about 5 minutes.

 

My main motivation was to be able to get live TV on the ROKU and currently emby-server on the Raspberry PI is failing miserably.  I get the feeling that maybe the PI and/or ROKU just are not quite ready for prime time.  I will try setting up another emby-server on Windows and see how that goes, hopefully better than the PI.  This will hopefully show me that the ROKU side is OK and the PI is the issue.

 

If there is some testing you'd like me to do to help fix my PI installation, I'd be happy to do it and send any log/information you want to look at.  I just need details on how/what you want from me.  

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My main motivation was to be able to get live TV on the ROKU and currently emby-server on the Raspberry PI is failing miserably.  I get the feeling that maybe the PI and/or ROKU just are not quite ready for prime time.  I will try setting up another emby-server on Windows and see how that goes, hopefully better than the PI.  This will hopefully show me that the ROKU side is OK and the PI is the issue.

 

It isn't that those components are not "ready for prime time" it is that you are trying to run a race track in a go-kart :).

 

The specific issue with that combination I'm sure is the fact that the Roku will not directly support MPEG-2 which is what your Live TV probably is.  So, your server has to transcode - which is a very processor-intensive thing to do and may be too much for a $35 machine.

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se732525

I'll accept the fact that the PI is not the fastest thing in the world.  What troubles me more is how emby-server hangs when I try to record live TV.  This has nothing to do with ROKU.

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Guest asrequested

My suggestion would be to install the server on your PC. I think you'll have fewer issues. You could use the RPi as your player.

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I'll accept the fact that the PI is not the fastest thing in the world.  What troubles me more is how emby-server hangs when I try to record live TV.  This has nothing to do with ROKU.

 

@@se732525 We can take a look at that. Best thing to do is please attach the information requested in how to report a problem. thanks !

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se732525

Just an update...This morning I installed EmbyServer on a windows machine.  The total time of installation was less than 15 minutes and guess what...LiveTV now runs on ROKU flawlessly!!! Wow what a change from the countless hours I spent try to hack around in Linux on the Raspberry PI just to get something that is slow and crashes frequently.

 

There is no question that the Raspbian Emby Server project is light years behind the Windows Project.  That "official installation" process in the link above flat out SUCKS!  There are several "disjointed" things shown in that link some of which leave you clueless as to what to do, ffmpeg being one of them.  I have no doubt that the reason my Raspberry PI installation is crashing is the result of me not doing some simple little step in my hours spent installing Emby Server.

 

I would really love to get the PI server working because I'm not convinced that the Broadcom BCM2837 64bit ARMv8 quad core does not have enough horsepower to handle the problem as Chief Bottle Washer above suggests.  My feeling on this one is that the developers still have a lot to do to get the 4 cores working for them.  I will keep my eye on this forum for future threads involving the PI and LiveTV and if I see something that looks like improvements have been made I'll probably give it a try again...I'm a glutton for punishment I guess.

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Guest asrequested

I think the part you may not be understanding is that when watching Live TV in a browser, the browser won't support the codec/file type that is being broadcast, and won't be able to play it. To be able to view it, the server will need to change/transcode it to a format that it supports. This requires a lot of processing that the RPi is unlikely to be able to handle. This will cause a lot of buffering.  Your PC has more resources to be able to handle it. When we suggested using Theater, it was because it supports the codec/file type, so the server will just send the stream directly, without any processing. As for the recording, you should post your logs for Luke to check.

Edited by Doofus
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I think the part you may not be understanding is that watching Live TV in a browser, the browser won't support the codec/file type that is being broadcast, and won't be able to play it. To be able to view it, the server will need to change/transcode it to a format that it supports. This requires a lot of processing that the RPi is unlikely to be able to handle.

 

Exactly. This is the correct answer. What's happening here is you are essentially punishing us for offering Emby Server on RPI. You're installing it and then complaining that the RPI is not powerful enough to do certain things. Transcoding Live TV is not going to be an easy task for it. I would suggest considering these kinds of things when deciding on what device to run the server with.

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se732525

I don't think I'm punishing anyone. If you are convinced that you can't program the quad core armv8 to handle the task of transcoding live TV for Roku then why do you allow/promote it. People like me who don't know it is a malfunctioning feature spend hours setting it up only to find out it was a waste of time tend to get frustrated.

 

It is interesting that you don't mention the

other issue that it crashes all the time. That's not me expecting a Cadillac when I purchased a Chevy.

 

Now to say something nice...the windows version works great and I tip my hat to the effory that went into that.

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