Flac File Audio Crackle

[planedrop 4]

Hi Everyone,

 

Noticed something odd recently and decided to do some testing about it. I was listening to music on my Android phone (8.1 Oreo Blackberry Key2 to be specific) in the Emby app and was periodically noticing a slight crackle in the audio especially when a track would first start and usually at the end as well (for a few seconds on both). So I decided to first obviously reboot my phone, thought it helped at first but it showed back up again. So my next step was to test another Android phone, my GS8+ and the same issue is occuring even over Bluetooth (which confirmed it was not the headphones or the DAC in my phone). So from here I proceeded to test the web version on two different PCs and the issue seems to be entirely gone.

 

Any idea what could be causing this? All the files are .flac format and streaming to the Key2 is direct play whereas the GS8+ was transcoding to 320kbps. Seems to me like an app issue. I searched around a bit and didn't find anyone else mentioning this, maybe bad luck? Doesn't seem to happen with Plex though or the raw audio files (will do more testing regarding Plex here soon but I hate booting that up since Emby is so much better IMO lol). If there is anything you want me to try for testing purposes I am willing to give it a shot as this isn't a "production" media server just yet.

[Luke 37251]

Hi, did you try configuring the music quality setting in the app? You could try lowering it. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[planedrop 4]

Hi, did you try configuring the music quality setting in the app? You could try lowering it. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

Hey sorry it took me so long to get back to this. Anyway I'll give this a shot and let you know. Definitely would prefer to not do that considering I want the flag files at full quality but I'll at least try it for diagnosis. Also going to try a few other devices to see if I notice it.

 

P.S. it's awesome how often I see you replying to topics on here. Thanks for that.

[planedrop 4]

Alright just tested lowering the quality with no luck. Dropped to 320kbps. So both the original files being direct played and transcode files are doing it.

 

Also, not sure that it matters but wanted to note all this testing has been done on my LAN which the server is on. Server is connected via gigabit ethernet and wifi is perfectly capable of delivering 300+ mbps to a single device. So I don't think it's bandwidth related.

 

I'll get back about testing other devices.

 

Oh and I reinstalled Emby just to be sure it wasn't a bad app install and I rebooted the server again just for good measure.

[planedrop 4]

Alright, I wanted to update this. I have now tested this on 2 different PCs with the web interface, a few different pairs of headphones, and a few different phones. Here are the results:

 

On both phones (both of which are Android running the latest version of the app) I get crackle when playing back .flac files direct play OR transcoding to 320Kbps. It happens periodically in the song, but most notably at the beginning of a new song for the first few seconds.

 

On the web interface for both my PCs (both running W10) I get absolutely perfect playback, regardless of which am I am using for my headphones.

 

Any idea what could cause this? I'm assuming the audio is just using TCP/IP right? So it should just buffer and be a perfect match for the file type. Let me know if you want me to try anything.

[Luke 37251]

We're looking into this, thanks.

[planedrop 4]

We're looking into this, thanks.

Thanks! Let me know if there is anything else I can provide to help.