Jump to content

New Playback Issues After Upgrading Server to 4.0.1.0


Rohanaj

Recommended Posts

Rohanaj

Hey guys,

 

The upgrade from server 3.6.X.X (I forget exactly which 3.6 version I was on when i upgraded) to 4.0.0.2 went just fine, and the a day or two later I went from that up to 4.0.1.0.  However, I've run into a few problems with playback since that upgrade.

 

From what I can tell, all issues seem to revolve around a file being transcoded while playing.  I don't know whether the local network vs. external network playback is part of the issue or not, but both times the issues have popped up were when streaming to external locations.

 

#1 - In a 2+-hour movie, there were 3 or 4 times where the playback would simply freeze.  No crashing of the app, just frozen video that required getting out of it and restarting to get it playing again.

 

#2 - Subtitles (which are stored in a separate SRT file in the movie directory) were displaying when initially starting the video, but stopped showing and would not be found again after the video freezing, even when getting the video to continue after restarting.

 

#3 - Video jumping back - this has happened a couple times, and I will have logs from the second time.  In the latest movie this happened with, it jumped back to a point approximately 30 minutes prior to where the video was playing at the time (e.g., at 1 hour and 30 minutes into the movie, it all-of-a-sudden jumps backwards to the 1-hour playback mark and continues from there).  I logged in on the Admin account to try and catch a glimpse of the playback data as this was happening (but unfortunately didn't think to get a screenshot of it at the time), and saw that the "Transcode Buffer" was listing a negative value.  Normally, the Transcode Buffer seems to be somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes, but in this case it was showing something like -1:37:00.

 

I grabbed what I could for the full log as well as whatever transcoding logs were tied to that movie's playback and will be PMing them to you later this evening, @@Luke.

 

-Roh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have see the issue #1 as well (video frozen, audio is streaming), but it seems only on Android TV client post-236603-0-08196200-1549078172_thumb.jpeg.

Roku and iOS seem fine.

 

@@Luke FYI

Edited by chudak
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

I have see the issue #1 as well (video frozen, audio is streaming), but it seems only on Android TV client attachicon.gif9089E3CD-5368-4372-A27F-75479D13E15F.jpeg.

Roku and iOS seem fine.

 

@@Luke FYI

 

The issues here are all related to the Android TV client as well, I too haven't seen the issue with Roku or my iOS versions.

 

It just happened again this morning on a different video - the app running was (XBR-55X850C) AndroidTv 1.6.79g.  I've turned off transcode throttling to try and replay the same video it was happening in from the start and see if it that has any effect - just shooting in the dark here.  I do have another log from this morning's errors if that is helpful, @@Luke.  The initial logs from my first post were sent to you the other day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

Just to follow up on this, turning off the transcode throttling did not solve the issue.  The Android TV app actually completely crashed when playback was attempting after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

Hi @@Luke,

 

The issue seemed to be related only to the Android TV app initially, but have now noticed it happening on the Roku app on a Roku 3 as well.  I'll try and run something on the Roku app again tonight or tomorrow to see if it replicates the problem yet again, and get you logs from that as well, since I don't have logs from the Roku problem late last night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

I have seen it on Android TV only and not on all videos. 

 

I can also confirm that it is not on all videos.  In fact, I haven't seen it happen on anything less than movie-length (22-minute and 42- to 45-minute TV episodes haven't had issues, only feature-length), and I have also not seen it happen on my local network, only from external locations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have seen it on Android TV only and not on all videos. 

 

I can also confirm that it is not on all videos.  In fact, I haven't seen it happen on anything less than movie-length (22-minute and 42- to 45-minute TV episodes haven't had issues, only feature-length), and I have also not seen it happen on my local network, only from external locations.

 

Hi.  What is the "it" we're talking about here?

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

@@ebr, the "it" is a combination of random pauses in a video along with skips backwards to a previous point, either through video, audio, or both.  For example, watching a movie and at about the 1-hour and 2-minute mark in the movie, it skips back to the 19-minute mark and plays the audio from that point with no video.  In another case, it got about 40 minutes in to a movie and jumped back to the 22-minute mark with both video and audio, and also screwed up the subtitles.

 

I sent @@Luke log files from one of the occurrences of this happening from the day I opened the thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@@ebr, the "it" is a combination of random pauses in a video along with skips backwards to a previous point, either through video, audio, or both.  For example, watching a movie and at about the 1-hour and 2-minute mark in the movie, it skips back to the 19-minute mark and plays the audio from that point with no video.  In another case, it got about 40 minutes in to a movie and jumped back to the 22-minute mark with both video and audio, and also screwed up the subtitles.

 

I sent @@Luke log files from one of the occurrences of this happening from the day I opened the thread.

 

Thanks.  I've never seen that with this app but it sounds like the old HLS segmenting issue (Luke will know what I'm talking about).

 

I'm pretty sure Chudak is experiencing something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There were a whole lot of ffmpeg logs there so not sure which one we should be looking at for whichever issue.

 

For the "jumping back" part, this sounds like a problem that can occur when stream-copying video but I couldn't find an ffmpeg log that had that condition.

 

For the freezing, stuttering, I would try disabling hardware acceleration and see if that has an impact.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

There were a whole lot of ffmpeg logs there so not sure which one we should be looking at for whichever issue.

 

For the "jumping back" part, this sounds like a problem that can occur when stream-copying video but I couldn't find an ffmpeg log that had that condition.

 

For the freezing, stuttering, I would try disabling hardware acceleration and see if that has an impact.

 

I don't believe I missed any ffmpeg logs since I just grabbed every one that had any data for the movie experiencing the issue around that time that was playing for the "ProblemUser" account.

 

I just went and disabled Hardware Acceleration - maybe that will solve both issues?

 

Forgive me for a dumb question, but what is the difference or impact on the server to having hardware acceleration disabled if transcoding happens on a large percentage of played items on my server?

 

If either the freezes or the jumping continues in the next couple days, I'll get you new logs as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

@@ebr,

 

I've just sent you a follow-up message with more logs from this evening, having to do with issues on the Android TV app.  No jumping back this time (although the playback didn't get far enough in to where I've seen the jumpback issue), there was freezing/stuttering/buffering problems at rather short intervals - freezes followed by buffering for about 5 seconds that happened every 15-20 seconds.  I do currently have hardware acceleration turned off on the server as you mentioned earlier.

 

I provided detail in the message as well, but I had the same file tested playing through the web browser interface and none of the issues arose during that playback, so it was the playback in the Android TV app specifically in this case again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rohanaj

The web app from the same remote location seems to play the same movie without problem.  I'm experimenting with lowering the bitrate setting in the Android TV app to see if that helps the issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
denzoid

I am having the same exact issue(s) with playback pausing and/or jumping back. This happens on both a ShieldTV and two different Roku devices. Has there been any "fix" yet?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

denzoid

This usually happens around the 50 minute mark, it will all the sudden jump back to the beginning or the 5-10 minute mark. Sometimes it will just pause/freeze frame and after 5-10 seconds shutdown the Emby app. My delay in replying was I was seeing some drive errors on my Unraid server and thought that might be the issue but I have since replaced the drive which had errors and I am still seeing the same behavior. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Rohanaj

Hey everyone,

 

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted on this thread, so I wanted to put in quick update. After setting the in-app settings down to a 1.5 bitrate for remote connections, it seems to have corrected the issue. To be clear, I’ve also disabled hardware acceleration during a previous step of attempting fixes, and I’ve left that disabled.

 

I haven’t attempted to bump the bitrate setting back up, so I’m not sure at the moment if that would cause the issue to reappear or not, and as far as I can tell, the quality of the remote connection playback has still been good even with the bitrate dropped to 1.5.

 

@@denzoid - what you’re describing is what was happening to me previously as well, with files jumping backwards, sometimes when I was only 20 minutes in and sometimes when it would be an hour in to playback. As I said, that problem has seemingly been alleviated with the bitrate settings dropped, which is basically forcing full transcoding rather than allowing direct play to the AndroidTV app. Obviously I don’t know for sure, but it certainly seems that the direct playing to the AndroidTV app was the biggest catalyst for the problems.

 

[EDIT: I re-read your post right after I submitted this and saw that you’re referring to both the AndroidTV app with your ShieldTV as well as a couple Roku boxes. My issues did cross into one Roku box as well at one point, along with the AndroidTV apps, so I think it’s still all relevant.]

 

I don’t know if Luke or ebr have been able to identify anything in terms of the overall cause, but since the adjustments are a pretty solid fix, I’m sure there are bigger fish to fry at the moment. @@Luke and @@ebr, if there have been changes to the AndroidTV app or anything in the past few weeks that would warrant trying the old settings again, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll just keep rolling with my current methods.

 

-Roh

Edited by Rohanaj
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well regarding hardware acceleration one thing to do is make sure to be running the latest drivers for your hardware. Thanks for the feedback.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...