In-Progress Emby Server - Gapless Playback

[vdatanet 1574]

It's weird, I have several DLNA servers and several renderers, with all of them I get gapless playback except when I use Emby as DLNA server. 

 

[Luke 39408]

9 minutes ago, vdatanet said:

It's weird, I have several DLNA servers and several renderers, with all of them I get gapless playback except when I use Emby as DLNA server. 

 

This is strictly related to the Emby Play To feature to cast from an Emby app to another device.

[braunsch 9]

On 4/13/2023 at 11:36 PM, vdatanet said:

Still not gapless. Do I need to configure any settings?

Thank you! I was away for the weekend - and only now got to try it. 

Indeed, the long gaps between tracks are now gone, great!

Unfortunately however, while it is gapless playback, it’s not seamless: The transition from one track to the next is indicated by a clearly audible “plop” (not sure how to describe it better), which makes it much better than before, but still not suitable for playing back live recordings. In particular, those where there is audible live audience noise, but no frenetic applause (e.g. between sets in classical recordings). 

I am not sure what others are doing - but two programs come to mind: Apple Music/iTunes, listened to directly or via AirPlay, and JRiver Media Center. Both master gapless playback to the point that it’s not just gapless, but seamless, with the transition completely inaudible, just like when playing a CD. 

Am I doing something wrong, is there a setting I have to change to make the transition inaudible? 

[Luke 39408]

2 hours ago, braunsch said:

Thank you! I was away for the weekend - and only now got to try it. 

Indeed, the long gaps between tracks are now gone, great!

Unfortunately however, while it is gapless playback, it’s not seamless: The transition from one track to the next is indicated by a clearly audible “plop” (not sure how to describe it better), which makes it much better than before, but still not suitable for playing back live recordings. In particular, those where there is audible live audience noise, but no frenetic applause (e.g. between sets in classical recordings). 

I am not sure what others are doing - but two programs come to mind: Apple Music/iTunes, listened to directly or via AirPlay, and JRiver Media Center. Both master gapless playback to the point that it’s not just gapless, but seamless, with the transition completely inaudible, just like when playing a CD. 

Am I doing something wrong, is there a setting I have to change to make the transition inaudible? 

Those two comparisons are different because neither itunes nor jriver (as far as I know) act as dlna servers. In this case, Emby Server is just providing the content. How seamless the transition is from one track to the next is really a question for the renderer software that you're using.

[braunsch 9]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Those two comparisons are different because neither itunes nor jriver (as far as I know) act as dlna servers. In this case, Emby Server is just providing the content. How seamless the transition is from one track to the next is really a question for the renderer software that you're using.

Hmmm. Admitted, the setup I am comparing this with is different, because it is not an “all-in-one” solution like Emby. As renderers, I have the following options:

• A DLNA-capable Denon “Home 150” speaker
• My Marantz AV receiver (which does DLNA, but only for two channels)
• JRiver Media Center - which I only use as renderer (and which then is connected via HDMI to the receiver, mostly used for multichannel music).

All three show up in my Emby on iPad as DLNA targets.

When not using Emby, my music is stored on MinimServer.

For the Denon/Marantz devices, I can use Denon’s HEOS software to pick my music (which works, but has a terrible user interface), and it plays with seamless transitions. Of course, it plays only to Denon (or Marantz) devices, but it is DLNA.

More often, I am using OpenHome controller software (like Linn or Lumin) - which requires me to run BubbleUPnP Server to make “regular” renderers OpenHome-compatible. Using Linn or Lumin, my music plays with seamless transitions on whichever renderer I choose (Denon/Marantz/Jriver). When using Emby - even with the new gapless feature, I have my “plop” between tracks, on all three renderers.  I have the same problem with other “plain” DLNA players like mConnect, even if I switch on their “gapless” feature).

This means: All my DLNA renderers are capable of playing the music seamlessly, but, it does not work with all software that can send it… 

 

[clessy 12]

On 8/12/2022 at 7:34 PM, Luke said:

Hi, our standard android app already supports it. For our Windows app it's something we can look into for a future update to it. Thanks.

Hi Luke,

are there any plans to integrate gapless playback into Emby for Android TV? That's actually the only weak point I see at the moment.

I use an SONY Android TV  "A8".

Thanks very much.

Chris

[ebr 15554]

4 minutes ago, clessy said:

Hi Luke,

are there any plans to integrate gapless playback into Emby for Android TV? That's actually the only weak point I see at the moment.

I use an SONY Android TV  "A8".

Thanks very much.

Chris

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device?  That should support it.

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

[clessy 12]

17 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device?  That should support it.

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the tip, I've already tried that. However, I had to install this in a workaround because Google Play Store reported that the normal Android app is not compatible with my TV set. This information was correct. There was e.g. Overlays of multiple menu pages. The detailed search didn't work properly either.

Hence my question as to whether there are plans to integrate gapless playback in the Emby for Android TV.

Thanks.

[Luke 39408]

Hi, we are working on getting the app into the store for TV devices. Thanks.

[clessy 12]

Thanks.

[heula 192]

I have been testing with this gapless audio with the link to Emby for Android but it does not work for me.

I have tested it on my Android phone and on my Nvidia Shield TV 2019. When I play from both devices there are still (long) gaps between the songs.

Tried to play from my phone to my soundbar and also no gapless audio. 

 

At this point I'm on version 3.3.18

I am used to thye app Poweramp where I play my music from a sd card inside my phone through BT.

With that app there is gapless audio and crossfade and a lot a other useful features. I am looking into playing music with Emby because newer phones dn't havea sd card slot anymore.

With Emby I would play my music directly from my Synology NAS.

So I hope in the future Emby can do a lot of the things Poweramp already can.

[letterman 40]

It seems to be a significant issue with preloading songs in Emby. Emby appears to load only the current file into the cache, and it waits until that file has finished playing before loading the next one into the cache. For smooth transitions and blending between songs, this behavior needs to be fundamentally changed. I hope that the developers address this problem soon. This becomes especially frustrating when dealing with audiobooks and short songs. Additionally, if there's an unstable internet connection, using Emby for listening becomes nearly impossible.

[Luke 39408]

6 hours ago, letterman said:

It seems to be a significant issue with preloading songs in Emby. Emby appears to load only the current file into the cache, and it waits until that file has finished playing before loading the next one into the cache. For smooth transitions and blending between songs, this behavior needs to be fundamentally changed. I hope that the developers address this problem soon. This becomes especially frustrating when dealing with audiobooks and short songs. Additionally, if there's an unstable internet connection, using Emby for listening becomes nearly impossible.

Hi, it really depends on the app and device, and which players support preloading and which ones do not. The ones that do support gapless already preload the next track.

[letterman 40]

Thanks for the info, Luke. I use the iPhone app most times and do not notice preloading the next song. Just the current one. 

[brezlord 7]

On 7/24/2023 at 3:41 AM, Luke said:

Hi, it really depends on the app and device, and which players support preloading and which ones do not. The ones that do support gapless already preload the next track.

I have recently moved from Plex to Emby. The biggest thing that Plex does that Emby does not is gapless audio play back of music. I listen to a lot of electronic music and they are usually continuous mixes broken in to tracks on a CD. Plex does handle gapless audio by pre-downloading the next track before the current track has finished.

They have a sperate app called Plex amp which you can specify the number of tracks to predownload. A feature like this would be great in the emby client apps.

At this stage I will continue to use Plex for music. For my use case Emby is less than Ideal. I like almost everything else about Emby.

Is gapless playback every going to happen in Emby apps? Is it even on the radar of the devs?

Images of plex settings attached for and idea of whats needed.

[MistD 31]

Sooner or later i hope they will aknowledge the importance of a dedicated music app

 

[letterman 40]

@brezlordThis is exactly what I meant and what I am waiting for since years, unfortuantly. I hope @Lukeyou will integrate this feature

[djerniehoule 23]

Just following this post, would love gapless playback to be fixed. The small gap is great, but as some have mentioned with live recordings the transaction is not smooth. Please let's get this work the way it should!

[EHRETic 4]

A little bounce up for this... I think Emby deserve the gapless music!

(and a dedicated music app, but this is another level)

[GingerPenguin 2]

Just wanting to show my support for this. Got a lot of live albums I like to play that have bumps in between when using Emby on Android TV (Nvidia Shield). I've been using Navidrome for a while because it seems to be the only player that will do gapless with tracks in Dolby Atmos too. Would love to be able to have it all in one place.

[SimonD24 0]

+1 for gapless - not holding out much hope since this thread looks like it's been going since 2018...