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Slow channel changing


sbm7815

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sbm7815

Hi, I recently purchased a lifetime Emby Premiere license to try Live TV with both of my HDHomeRun Prime tuners. I saw that Emby advertised fast channel changing with a decent guide and the possibility of viewing TV remotely, so I thought this would be a good solution for my needs.

 

I'm running Emby on a Xeon E5-2698V4 with 16GB of RAM,  because I wanted fast transcoding times. My client is an Nvidia Shield TV, but I also tested channel changing on the server itself and both are slow. In the beginning it was taking 45 seconds or more to change a channel on my local 1GB network, which was disappointing. I turned on Intel Quicksync and this dropped the channel changing time from 45-65 seconds down to 15-18. If I enable direct play, then it drops down to 10-15 seconds. When I use other direct play clients, like HDHomeRun or Live Channels, the time is only 1-2 seconds.

 

Everything else I've tested in Emby seems great, but if I can't drop the Live TV channel changing time to 1-2 seconds similar to other Android TV clients (direct, I don't expect transcoding to be this fast), then this product will not be useful for me. I also think that other potential customers should be made aware of this problem prior to purchase. If you're advertising fast channel changing, then this is what people will expect when they purchase the product.

 

After searching on this forum, it looks like this may be the normal performance of Emby for Live TV. If anyone knows of a way to improve channel changing times, please let me know.

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maegibbons

You are right . It is slow.  Too slow.

 

Its been brought up many times and some things have improved it then it seems to slip again due to other compatibilty compromises.

 

It is time that this is really tackled now especially after the great enhancements just recently in the F/ATV client guide by @@ebr

 

I think the channels should be probed then this info stored semi permanently in the DB.  Channel stream types dont change that often and could be manually "re-tuned" if there was an issue later on.

 

Krs

 

Mark

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Guest asrequested

One thing I've noticed when you use the HDHR player, is that when changing channel, the tuner isn't turned off and on. It uses the same tuner, and switches channel, instantly. I think this is what the server needs to do. The slowness comes from the tuner initiating. If you use the HDHR player, you can actually see the process. But once initiated, it just switches channel.

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I got an iptv box and it has Dlna client and the channel change is instant just like in wmc I know it is possible since kodi can do it is only matter of priorities but there has been improvements just we need more.

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We are constantly looking at ways of improving channel changing performance and will continue to improve it in all apps. Thanks.

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BAlGaInTl

Appreciate that the devs are working on this.

 

It's still my biggest struggle coming from TVHeadend which was near instant in tuning and channel changing.

 

That being said, the gains from having everything in one application is worth the wait for me considering I don't watch a lot of live TV. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
afullmark

Hi, I recently purchased a lifetime Emby Premiere license to try Live TV with both of my HDHomeRun Prime tuners. I saw that Emby advertised fast channel changing with a decent guide and the possibility of viewing TV remotely, so I thought this would be a good solution for my needs.

 

I'm running Emby on a Xeon E5-2698V4 with 16GB of RAM, because I wanted fast transcoding times. My client is an Nvidia Shield TV, but I also tested channel changing on the server itself and both are slow. In the beginning it was taking 45 seconds or more to change a channel on my local 1GB network, which was disappointing. I turned on Intel Quicksync and this dropped the channel changing time from 45-65 seconds down to 15-18. If I enable direct play, then it drops down to 10-15 seconds. When I use other direct play clients, like HDHomeRun or Live Channels, the time is only 1-2 seconds.

 

Everything else I've tested in Emby seems great, but if I can't drop the Live TV channel changing time to 1-2 seconds similar to other Android TV clients (direct, I don't expect transcoding to be this fast), then this product will not be useful for me. I also think that other potential customers should be made aware of this problem prior to purchase. If you're advertising fast channel changing, then this is what people will expect when they purchase the product.

 

After searching on this forum, it looks like this may be the normal performance of Emby for Live TV. If anyone knows of a way to improve channel changing times, please let me know.

I'm on a Shield TV (Android TV), yep, this was something I was disappointed by when I used emby for the first time last week. It was so annoying I just use hdhr or live channels app. We all want that one app to do everything; I'm trying to tear myself from pretty plex (it is so pretty).

 

Do hope that it can be made more snappy @@Luke

Edited by afullmark
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I'm on a Shield TV (Android TV), yep, this was something I was disappointed by when I used emby for the first time last week. It was so annoying I just use hdhr or live channels app. We all want that one app to do everything; I'm trying to tear myself from pretty plex (it is so pretty).

 

Do hope that it can be made more snappy @@Luke

 

Where is it prettier than Emby?

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afullmark

Where exactly?

The web app, editing of meta data and settings area. I just prefer the look that plex has. Although I didn't choose to try emby because of aesthetics it was for better dvr and live tv.

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The web app, editing of meta data and settings area. I just prefer the look that plex has. Although I didn't choose to try emby because of aesthetics it was for better dvr and live tv.

 

Is it just metadata and settings that you're talking about, or other areas of the web app? thanks.

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afullmark

Well, these are all just first impressions. The meta data edit area did take getting used too. Also along with how movie info is displayed, but I did mention my wish for 'directed by' and 'written by' etc in a separate post.

 

When you come from using plex for years and then change it is actually quite hard to list specifics, which is what would be useful to you. The whole experience is different although you wouldn't think so. It's nuanced. I'd have to really sit and think and then list things.

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Everytime you tune/change a channel emby runs ffprobe for a few sec to figure out which video and audio stream are available.

 

I could be wrong but at least for hdhomerun atsc tuner. I think this information remain static. Which means that the scan process (or a daily scan) might be able to figure out the available stream once. And then rely on that stored information next time it starts to play.

 

In my mind that would make live tv without transcoding super fast.

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I think that is how other apps and devices can tune so quickly wmc for example is super quick if it is tunning to a sub channel it is instant my tv changes channels immediately my iptv box that connects with hdhomerun over dlna channel changes instant so there is definitely room for improvement.

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Everytime you tune/change a channel emby runs ffprobe for a few sec to figure out which video and audio stream are available.

 

I could be wrong but at least for hdhomerun atsc tuner. I think this information remain static. Which means that the scan process (or a daily scan) might be able to figure out the available stream once. And then rely on that stored information next time it starts to play.

 

In my mind that would make live tv without transcoding super fast.

 

Emby Theater desktop does not probe anymore.

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afullmark

Everytime you tune/change a channel emby runs ffprobe for a few sec to figure out which video and audio stream are available.

 

I could be wrong but at least for hdhomerun atsc tuner. I think this information remain static. Which means that the scan process (or a daily scan) might be able to figure out the available stream once. And then rely on that stored information next time it starts to play.

 

In my mind that would make live tv without transcoding super fast.

Ah, uk broadcasting isn't static though; different programmes on same channel can have varying framerates and audio: 2.0 to 5.1.

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nyplayer

Everytime you tune/change a channel emby runs ffprobe for a few sec to figure out which video and audio stream are available.

 

I could be wrong but at least for hdhomerun atsc tuner. I think this information remain static. Which means that the scan process (or a daily scan) might be able to figure out the available stream once. And then rely on that stored information next time it starts to play.

 

In my mind that would make live tv without transcoding super fast.

 

+1 It has gotten to the point where I really do not want to use EMBY for live TV .... does everything have to be probed all the time ?

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+1 It has gotten to the point where I really do not want to use EMBY for live TV .... does everything have to be probed all the time ?

 

Please see my response to you in your topic. Thanks.

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  • 3 months later...

Every 12 months or so, I take out an Emby subscription in the hope that it will now fit my needs.

 

Once again, I'm disappointed. There's a lot to like, and I use Emby Server as the foundation of my whole house media system. However, LiveTV/PVR is a critical part of my setup and, though there have been great strides, the channel tuning times are so long on almost all of the clients as to make it unusable.

 

There's a ;lot to like about Emby and the Emby way but it's still not fulfilling my needs.

 

See you next year, Emby!

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