Streaming sometimes closes/reopens constantly

[bfir3 114]

One of my users had the same episode stop 4 different times yesterday. She said it kept happening every 10 minutes or so. Any ideas what's going on here? What could make Emby think that the episode is fully watched or complete?

[bfir3 114]

I've been trying to watch an episode with a fairly high bitrate (local direct stream) over the past two days and it has stopped playback and skipped to the next episode at least 5 times. I haven't been able to make it to the end of the episode in two days. I'm paying for Emby Premiere, but I can't sit through an entire episode without the server skipping to the next episode before the current one is complete.

 

Has this issue been resolved yet? Please let me know, this is very disappointing.

[Luke 37094]

Can you try dropping the in-app bitrate to force it to transcode and see if the issue persists? thanks.

[ownerer 0]

Well it has been a while, but unfortunately I have this or a similar issue again

This time the behavior is slightly different still: I try to play episode 1, it immediately stops and skips to ep 2 somewhere at a seemingly random timestamp where it just gets stuck.

I've attached the corresponding log file AND this time I managed to make a video showing what happens!

I've uploaded it here because apparently mp4 files can't be attached.

 

Can you please have a look at this @@Luke?

Thanks!

 

(server is at version 3.2.26.0 btw and I was trying to play on Chrome)

 

Update: I have the EXACT same issue when trying to play the first episode of another season of another show!

 

Update 2: episodes play normally in Kodi (Chrome = direct stream, Kodi = direct play)

server-63637215391.txt

Edited August 1, 2017 by ownerer

[Luke 37094]

@ownerer Can you try dropping the in-app bitrate to force it to transcode and see if the issue persists? thanks.

[bfir3 114]

I have never noticed the issue during transcoding. I will let the file transcode and play through to see if there are any issues that way. I will report back with the hour.

 

edit: Started the episode from the beginning with transcoding. Already past the furthest part I was able to get to with direct stream (which I only got to after a number of incorrect stop and skip episode). Seems OK while transcoding.

Edited August 1, 2017 by bfir3

[ownerer 0]

@ownerer Can you try dropping the in-app bitrate to force it to transcode and see if the issue persists? thanks.

@@Luke Dropped it all the way to 480p @420kbps, same thing 

[bfir3 114]

@Luke: Played the entire episode with transcoding. No issues straight through to the end with transcoding set to 4mbps. This is the same file that stopped at least 4 times on me while direct streaming locally using the same Chrome browser. Does this information help narrow down the issue?

 

edit: Just started playing the file directly. After 4 minutes it stopped and skipped to the next episode.

Edited August 1, 2017 by bfir3

[ownerer 0]

@@Luke, this issue is still happening today.

I don't mean to nag, but if you can at all dedicate a bit of your time on this today, I think that'd be great.

I'm saying this because I don't know when it'll (stop) happen(ing) again, so we're in a good situation to try and figure out some more about what's causing it!

Just let me know if there's anything at all you want me to try to try and narrow down the issue!

[bfir3 114]

I notice this affecting a lot of people on my server. I wonder what was introduced that is causing this to happen. Please let us know if you need more information, this is a very important issue to resolve.

[ownerer 0]

@@Luke, just pinging you again seeing as it's still happening for now.
Again, we're presented with an opportunity here, let's figure this out!

[ownerer 0]

@@Luke, the only other user I have is experiencing this issue as well (streaming with transcoding in this case)
You can find information in the attached logs from timestamps around 9:46 - 9:50 AM and 3:48 - 3:51 PM.

 

Again, I am open and willing to help debug this problem so please acknowledge!

ffmpeg-transcode-4c416e6a-215c-4916-9d29-4b9337516764.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-5d9cb592-b836-41ce-8d9a-6ac8dc760065.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-8ffb6584-9992-448d-814a-985c6b7212b8.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-4529f6f0-4ab6-49b1-8fce-f98f2713dbec.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-afb95476-107a-4523-b0e7-cb03ce84fa27.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-b943885c-0a85-493b-b177-c97f1be866d0.txt

server-63637574400.txt

[ownerer 0]

I've forked the repo to my GitHub account and just cloned to my dev machine, let me know if there's anything you want me to run in debug...

[bfir3 114]

Issue persists. Any progress or ideas?

[ownerer 0]

Issue persists. Any progress or ideas?

Still waiting on feedback from @@Luke ...

[ownerer 0]

@@Luke could you PLEASE respond man?

Like I mentioned before: I forked the repo, cloned it to my dev machine, I'm now running it in debug and I'm getting the EXACT, and I mean THE EXACT same behavior I described in my previous post https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/48347-streaming-sometimes-closesreopens-constantly/page-2&do=findComment&comment=472503.

This is just to be clear: my dev machine is NOT the same machine my actual server runs on and since I'm running this from Visual Studio this means all settings are default!

 

Just pointing out the obvious again: I wouldn't be surprised if this has something to do with environment so if you're not able to reproduce this, I understand.

But I can, and I'm able and willing to debug this problem, so I'd appreciate your support on this.

 

So would you please respond?

This problem is completely preventing me from using Emby in any way that does not "direct play" media!

Thank you.

Edited August 11, 2017 by ownerer

[bfir3 114]

Happened again just now. Playback went to about 16 minutes of our 23 minutes episode and stopped abruptly. The episode was marked as watched and had no resume data. I'm just going to keep posting here every single time it happens or another one of my user's experiences it. I figure we can't be ignored forever.

server-63638265600.zip

Edited August 15, 2017 by bfir3

[Luke 37094]

You're not being ignored. I am testing this constantly. Most recently I tested yesterday and left two hours of episodes playing in the web app while I was out. When I returned they were still playing just fine.

 

Can you capture the chrome console output when this happens? thanks.

[Luke 37094]

I also notice that you're running Emby Server 3.2.19, which leaves us with a bit of apples to orange comparisons here because I'm obviously testing on the latest version. So please just be aware of that. Thanks.

[bfir3 114]

Yeah, I'm aware that I can't provide as relevant of testing, and appreciate that you are looking into it. I understand that it can be hard to track down a bug that is difficult to consistently reproduce, especially since it could be something related to the server environment.

 

I will get the chrome console output next time this happens.

[bfir3 114]

Okay, just had it again. Here's the output. I've just been playing the same file that I watched earlier today. That's the entire output from reloading the itemdetail page to when it stopped playback.

chrome console output.txt

[ownerer 0]

Hey @@Luke,

 

thanks for getting back to us.

 

First off:

There's a difference between not ignoring people and making sure the perception of the people in question matches that.

ie: not responding after several posts with substantial and relevant content for 14 days doesn't help, at all...

 

Second:

You may have replied now, but you seem to have conveniently left out answering my question/proposal... (again: perception!)

You say you're testing and I thank you for that, but as a developer you must know, like @@bfir3 also acknowledges,

that for all we know you can test and try and reproduce this issue for years to come and not succeed.

Not your fault if it has something to do with a specific situation of server environment.

 

But I say again, and I would appreciate you addressing this directly this time in the spirit of not ignoring:

• This issue occurs without fail for me, like, literally 100% of the time doing anything but direct playing media.
• I am at version 3.2.27.0, so you and I ARE comparing apples and apples.

Why would you waste your time trying to reproduce an issue that may very well never occur for you,

while I'm telling you that it happens 100% of the time for me AND I'm capable and willing to help?

For all I care we connect on Skype or whatever and dedicate some time to this.

 

I've attached my Chrome console log as well, for shits and giggles.

It's the full log

• from app start
• to trying to play episode one
• to the player skipping episode one
• and trying to play episode two
• and skipping to/stopping at a seemingly random point without having played anything.

And here's the link to that video showing this behavior again.

 

 

I thank you in advance for finally providing some clarity here.

192.168.1.11-1502785585266.log

[Luke 37094]

I notice you're playing something with ssa or ass subtitles. For now can you try something a little more primitive? thanks.

[ownerer 0]

Really, THAT's the issue?

I just remuxed the same file to not have its ass stream anymore, now it works 

Excuse my lack of excitement as it's trumped by my lack of understanding as to why on earth it took SO long (2 months!!) to come to this simple conclusion...

 

Anyway, ok, this introduces a WHOLE new issue though:

Pretty much all my files have ass streams muxed in, so they are not external subtitle files.

This means that to use something a little more primitive, I'd have to remux a huge part of my library -> no way.

1. It's an enormous task.
2. Even if I did, it would retrigger my Backblaze backup for that part of my library, we're talking 30+ terabytes, no way in hell.

I'm not muxing in ass streams for new additions anymore, so the problem lies with my older files.

I'm fine with plain srt files for new additions.

 

My suggestions/questions:

• Can you hotfix the app to fall back to plain srt files/streams in case ass fails?
• Alternatively, can you make the type of used embedded subtitle streams configurable?
  This could be a simple dropdown checklist in the playback or subtitles section of the server admin dashboard.

Thanks!

Edited August 15, 2017 by ownerer

[Luke 37094]

No actually can you please get me a sample of the original video along with the subtitles if they happened to be external?

 

What is happening here is we use a third party library to render the subtitles in-app and avoid video transcoding. However, if the library fails to parse your subtitles, then we automatically switch to transcoding to burn them in. In this case I noticed in the Chrome console that the library reported an error with your subtitles, so what I need to find out is why the automatic switch did not work. One reason is that you may have disabled user permissions for transcoding, another is that there could just be an issue I need to look into.