"Auto" for Android Mobile over Mobile data or external Wi-Fi issues

[Luke 37065]

It does work exactly the same way as videos. However if you leave the app setting at Auto, then the app will do it's own bandwidth measurement, and it will use the lower of the measured value and the server value.

[Richard Branches 231]

It does work exactly the same way as videos. However if you leave the app setting at Auto, then the app will do it's own bandwidth measurement, and it will use the lower of the measured value and the server value.

 

I see, I've always seen that 315Kbps every time I tested this, I haven't seen it change, I don't know, I'll probably stick with a fixed setting of 256Kbps or with the 320Kbps setting when you fix the issue already discovered with the album art...

[Richard Branches 231]

Today I'm testing the Android mobile app under version 3.0.00 and it looks like the "Auto" setting is working better now, MP3s are not getting transcoded and FLAC files are getting transcoded properly, I'm going to keep testing it, anyway, thank you to Emby developers for improving the app.

 

The features pending to implement which I already requested are:

 

1) Single folder support for music files in the server.

 

2) Internal equalizers.

 

3) Address the issue of fixed bitrates (320Kbps for example) getting transcoded because of the album art.

 

4) Add a next and back buttons to the notification lockscreen.

[Luke 37065]

Thanks for the feedback. Can you create feature request topics for #1, 2 and 4? Thanks.

[Richard Branches 231]

Thanks for the feedback. Can you create feature request topics for #1, 2 and 4? Thanks.

 

​I was doing more testing but unfortunately it's still buggy, at least on my end, on the first test I added only 15 songs, FLAC songs were transcoded and MP3s were played directly, however, when I added my full music library (2.348 files between FLAC and MP3), FLAC songs were sometimes played directly and sometimes were transcoded and MP3s songs were sometimes played directly and sometimes were transcoded, for some reason the server and the app are not working well with huge music libraries or they are not taking into account the 0,5 upload limitation with huge music libraries; also the app is still too heavy to play music with my low end phone, it crashed several times, the app needs more polish for phones with 1GB or less of RAM.

 

Topic No. 1 was created last month:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/59998-emby-server-add-support-for-one-single-folder-structure-for-music/

 

Topic No. 2 was created on february:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/55871-feature-request-bring-support-for-internal-equalizers/

 

Topic No. 4 was created on february:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/56844-android-mobile-please-add-next-and-previous-buttons-to-lockscreen-notification/

Edited July 18, 2018 by delacosta78

[Luke 37065]

Sorry in my testing, which is pretty much daily, i've never seen an mp3 transcode. we'll have to look at an example. I do see flac sometimes transcode, but that only depends on the bitrate of the file vs the bitrate i've chosen in app settings.

[Richard Branches 231]

Sorry in my testing, which is pretty much daily, i've never seen an mp3 transcode. we'll have to look at an example. I do see flac sometimes transcode, but that only depends on the bitrate of the file vs the bitrate i've chosen in app settings.

 

This is something we've discussed before in this very post, if I set an upload limit of 0,5 (500Kbps) and the smallest FLAC file I have is 579Kbps then all the FLAC files I have should be transcoded obligatorily because of this limitation and MP3s shouldn't be transcoded because they are always below the 500Kbps limitation, If I want to reduce the bitrate to the minimum to save mobile data, then I must manually select the quality in settings.

 

What I see here is the auto setting is ignoring completely the 0,5 limitation, otherwise the FLAC files would always get transcoded everytime I start playing music.

Edited July 19, 2018 by delacosta78

[Luke 37065]

I don't see any mp3's getting transcoded in this situation.

 

I just tested this and it worked perfectly fine. To test, i set the server upload limit to 0.5, then i went to my smartphone, played a high bitrate flac file and it was transcoded.

 

No problem found.

 

My only guess is that you have some kind of proxy or vpn setup that is fooling the server into thinking all connections are internal on your home network. 

[Richard Branches 231]

My only guess is that you have some kind of proxy or vpn setup that is fooling the server into thinking all connections are internal on your home network. 

 

I don't have proxies or VPNs, the only setting my ADSL modem has is the open TCP port for Emby to work properly with external connections.

[Richard Branches 231]

My only guess is that you have some kind of proxy or vpn setup that is fooling the server into thinking all connections are internal on your home network. 

 

If this were the real reason of the problem, then videos wouldn't get transcoded either but played directly and I would be having an endless conversation topic about that here as well.

[Luke 37065]

We'd have to look at an example based on the latest version of the server, thanks.

[Richard Branches 231]

The one below is better IMO.

Edited July 19, 2018 by delacosta78

[Richard Branches 231]

I'm not a computer programming expert but this is a suggestion on how "auto" should work:

 

If external connection is wifi

 

Then If bitrate of music file is higher than the limitation in settings

 

Then transcode the file

 

Or else play the file directly

 

If external connection is mobile data

 

Then ALWAYS transcode the file by letting us select the quality we desire to reduce mobile data usage.

 

 

- If your algorithm takes into account the network condition to transcode the file, then it must apply to both type of connections.

 

- This should apply to videos as well.

Edited July 20, 2018 by delacosta78

[Luke 37065]

You could probably achieve the same thing just by setting the max audio bitrate to either 128k or 192k.

[Richard Branches 231]

You could probably achieve the same thing just by setting the max audio bitrate to either 128k or 192k.

 

I believe that setting is for people who want full control of what they transcode/play, the rest of us prefer automation.

[Luke 37065]

The default I believe though for external networks is either 128 or 192. I will have to check that.

[Richard Branches 231]

The default I believe though for external networks is either 128 or 192. I will have to check that.

 

Are you referring to mobile data? because with an external wifi connection that is unnecessary.

[Luke 37065]

the settings in the app are just for local / remote. the remote settings are for any kind of remote connection.

[Richard Branches 231]

I found out a workaround while "auto" gets improved, I set a fixed quality in settings at 1Mbps so now Mp3s are playing directly and since I have an upload limit of 0,5 MB, then FLACs are getting transcoded to 384Kbps, this is exactly how "Auto" should work, however, 384Kbps is a little high for my upload speed, but I suppose "Auto" should get a better bitrate depending on network condition.

[Richard Branches 231]

I found out a workaround while "auto" gets improved, I set a fixed quality in settings at 1Mbps so now Mp3s are playing directly and since I have an upload limit of 0,5 MB, then FLACs are getting transcoded to 384Kbps, this is exactly how "Auto" should work, however, 384Kbps is a little high for my upload speed, but I suppose "Auto" should get a better bitrate depending on network condition.

 

Today I tested the latest version of the app I received on september 2nd and now the app is not working with a fixed quality as explained above, a lot of FLAC songs are playing directly regardless of the 0,5 MB limitation, it was working before though, this confirms once more that "Auto" and a manual quality are ignoring the upload limitation completely, now it's less music I can listen without sutter, this is so frustrating.

[Luke 37065]

In my testing i cannot reproduce this. I set the music quality in the app and flac was transcoded. Let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[Richard Branches 231]

In my testing i cannot reproduce this. I set the music quality in the app and flac was transcoded. Let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

 

Can you please remind me how to extract the logs from the Android mobile app? those steps are not instructed in that link, thanks.

[Luke 37065]

A server log is fine as a starting point. thanks.

[Richard Branches 231]

A server log is fine as a starting point. thanks.

 

Server log attached and logs from two songs that were not transcoded, their bitrate is below 1Mbps (the current manual setting I'm using) but higher than the upload limitation I set (0,5Mbps), which means they should be transcoded.

embyserver-63671763563.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-9d1a7b5d-7406-4a95-b774-95ea31385eac.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-cf8fb2f6-0557-45d7-9d2e-5a834a44969c.txt

[Richard Branches 231]

I was looking closer at those two logs and I noticed they were getting transcoded but to the same audio format (FLAC), however the bitrate is below the upload limitation, playback wasn't smooth though, weren't they supposed to be converted to AAC instead? is this a normal behavior or is there a bug here?