PiERiT 2 Posted September 16, 2018 Share Posted September 16, 2018 I have an HD Home Run connected to the same network as a computer running Emby Server and am trying to stream live TV remotely to an Nvidia Shield TV. It works in general but will randomly freeze repeatedly for 10-15 minutes, then it'll be fine for an hour, then it will start freezing again. I've tried adjusting just about every setting I can find, max bitrate, direct stream, alternate media player, none of it seems to make a difference. I have 300Mb down at the client and 100Mb up at the server and RAM and CPU are consistently below 75% on the server. One thing I do see on the dashboard is that it's transcoding instead of direct playing, with an explanation of Media Bitrate Exceeds Limit. What does that mean? I don't think I have a limit set anywhere. Thanks in advance. Really hope I can get this to work reliably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 16, 2018 Author Share Posted September 16, 2018 I don't see an edit option on mobile but also wanted to say I'd be happy to post logs if someone can point me towards the ones involved here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37179 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) Hi, Contrary to that article my logs appear to be in %appdata%\Emby-Server\programdata\logs. I hope that's still correct. They are attached. The freezing happened yesterday from 1200~1215 and 200~220. I think there was some freezing in between those time frames too but I don't remember when. 1130~1200 was perfectly fine with 0 hiccups, as was 220~330. Edited September 18, 2018 by PiERiT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37179 Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Hi, there's a whole folder of log files here. Which one is the server and ffmpeg log from the time of the problem? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 I'm sorry, that was the wrong zip file. I don't know how that happened. Here is the correct zip file. There are still multiple logs but only the ones from the time ranges mentioned in my last post. logs.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37179 Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Can you try lowering the in-app quality setting? The bitrate might just be too high. It looks like you currently have it set around 6.5 mbps. Try setting to 1 mbps, then work your way up from there. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 (edited) Hi, I had it set to Auto and had tried 5Mbps and even that would freeze. I can and will try lower this Sunday (I really only use it on Sundays) but can I ask what is necessitating it be set so low? Is it a hardware issue on the PC running the server? If it were direct playing rather than transcoding, would that alleviate it? Direct Play seems to work sometimes, but not always, and I am not sure why. Whenever it doesn't work it always says "Reason: Media bitrate exceeds limit." Edited September 18, 2018 by PiERiT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37179 Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 You said this is remote live tv, you need to be aware of the connection speed of the remote connection. That goes for both the download speed of the device you're using as well as the upload speed of the connection you're running the server on. For a remote connection on a mobile device, typical bitrates are usually 1-2 mbps. What you're doing is trying to play at a bitrate that's too high and then coming and reporting that playback is freezing. It's exactly what would happen if you tried to play netflix at a quality that was too high for your connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 23, 2018 Author Share Posted September 23, 2018 Hi, It may in fact have been something with my network at the time, or an isolated problem, as it did not happen today while watching the same channel with the same settings. So I think I am good, but can I ask, what does that message in my last post mean -- "media bitrate exceeds limit"? I would prefer to direct play or direct stream and my client should support it I think, but everything I watch is transcoded with that message as the reason. What limit is it referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14948 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 As Luke mentioned above, if you are watching on a remote connection, then there are a lot of areas that can be bottlenecks. Regardless of whether or not the actual device or app can handle a certain bitrate, the network between that app and the server needs to be able to pass that much data in that amount of time. Many TV streams are 15Mb/s or so but many remote connections can only handle 1-2Mb/s. Thus, exceeding the available bandwidth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 23, 2018 Author Share Posted September 23, 2018 (edited) What determines that though? Is there a setting somewhere or does Emby run a speed test to determine available bandwidth? I have 300Mb download at the client and 100Mb upload at the server. I am going to review bandwidth usage later today and confirm it has what it needs, but it should be able to handle direct streaming I would think. Thank you both for the help. Edit: I just changed Server>Playback>Streaming>Internet streaming bitrate limit to 50Mbps and things are now Direct Playing for the first time. Picture quality is great and no freezing (so far). Maybe that setting overrides whatever Emby was previously determining? Edited September 23, 2018 by PiERiT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14948 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 Edit: I just changed Server>Playback>Streaming>Internet streaming bitrate limit to 50Mbps And what was it set to before...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 23, 2018 Author Share Posted September 23, 2018 It was blank before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14948 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 Hmmm... Can you try blanking it out again and see if the behavior changes back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiERiT 2 Posted September 23, 2018 Author Share Posted September 23, 2018 (edited) Just blanked it out and hit Save, Direct Play still works. I have not adjusted or even seen that setting before today. Weird. Would you suggest I leave it blank or put it back at 50? I assume when it's blank it relies on some hidden speed test it performs in the background? I know when I first had this problem, it was while the server was downloading Windows Updates. I don't know if it was direct streaming or transcoding, but it was very choppy and unwatchable. I stopped the updates and thought for sure that would fix it, but it persisted, which is when I posted here. So I could see an issue where if it ran some speed test during those updates and kept that setting perpetually, it would pose a problem until overriding it? But I don't know if that is how it works, of course. Anyways it played fine yesterday for 4hrs straight, but it was transcoding. I am going to use it again this afternoon and will see how things fair with Direct Play now that it's working. Edited September 23, 2018 by PiERiT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14948 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 I think your changing that setting was completely coincidental. The issues you were having were related to available bandwidth (which would be greatly impacted by something like Windows downloading updates). Leave it blanked out. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now