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Playback on Shield keeps ending


mikeg2112

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mikeg2112

I just set up a new Nvidia Shield TV and installed Emby Server 4.0.2.0 last night. I paid for and enabled Emby Premiere. I have an HD Homerun Quatro tuner, and I set the DVR to record a show to test it out. When playing it back on the Shield through the Emby app, it looks and sounds great, but will only play for a few minutes and then abruptly takes me back to the previous screen, like I had pressed Stop. If I resume playing, I can get another minute or two further into the program and then I get kicked back to the previous screen again. When trying to watch it back from a web browser on my Windows 10 laptop, it will play for maybe 10 seconds or so and then completely freeze. I have not installed/setup Kodi, Plex or any other media management servers/apps on this Shield yet.

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mikeg2112

I made a mistake in my original post regarding the browser client on my laptop. It will freeze after a few seconds of Live TV. Watching back the DVR recording, I get a tiny stutter ever 3 seconds or so, but I can watch continuously unlike the Emby client on the Shield. I just wanted to clarify that.

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mikeg2112

Hi.  You installed the server on the Shield?

Yes. I just got the Shield and was looking into OTA DVR options. Per the Emby blog post from Feb 1, 2019, it said Emby Server was now available for Shield, so that is what I installed. I have attached a 500GB USB 3.0 SSD formatted as "internal storage" for the Shield.

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mikeg2112

Hi, if you play with the web app, how does that compare?

If I play back in Chrome on a Win10 laptop, I get a really short stutter every 3 seconds but I can watch as long as I want. If I play back with Emby client on the Shield itself, it will play perfectly for a few min then quit back to the previous screen.

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It sounds like the Shield is not handling being both the server and the client very well.  This item is direct streaming (as indicated by logs above)?

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mikeg2112

It sounds like the Shield is not handling being both the server and the client very well.  This item is direct streaming (as indicated by logs above)?

I just got home from work, so I am going to check that now. I should also add that I tried remote viewing today from my Android cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S8) with Emby client and the playback is just fine. It was direct streaming according to the stats overlay. Works both in and out of my home network. I did have some trouble playing back on the guest network at my office, but I expected that as it's throttled to a 10Mbps connection that's shared with many other people. On faster WiFi, I had no problems.

 

To recap: The Win10 Chrome browser playback is on my home network, and the stats overlay says that it's transcoding. It pauses momentarily every 3 seconds or so.  

5c901fce6a94b_StatsWin10Chrome.jpg

 

Android phone playback in or out of my home network plays back fine in direct streaming mode.

 

I played back the same recording just now to get a screenshot of the Stats for Nerds overlay on the Shield, and it is now not kicking me out after a few minutes. I was observing that behavior every single time before I created this post and again when going back to test. As of right now, it is playing back smoothly and hasn't kicked me out. I've left it running while typing up this reply. Nothing in my configuration has changed that I'm aware of. I took a picture of the stats overlay anyway. It says that it is transcoding.

Shield client playback:

5c90269ad80e2_StatsShield.jpg

 

Shouldn't the Shield client direct stream? I'm new to much of this, so I'm not sure why it says unsupported container for transcode reason.

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Hi.  That doesn't say it is transcoding.  It says it is remuxing.  It is just converting the audio and changing the container.  The video is playing direct (as indicated in your screenshot).

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Can you try lowering the in-app quality setting? Thanks.

 

He says it is playing fine now but, since server and app are on the same machine, forcing transcoding is likely to make it worse.

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mikeg2112

Hi.  That doesn't say it is transcoding.  It says it is remuxing.  It is just converting the audio and changing the container.  The video is playing direct (as indicated in your screenshot).

Ah, okay. What threw me off is that on my Android phone, the Emby client says Play method: DirectPlay, but on the Shield client, it says Play method: Remux and has that Transcode reason under the audio stats, so that's why I thought it was transcoding. Again, I'm new to all of this, so I'm sorry for the confusion.

 

Android (Galaxy S8) client:

5c9144b67ccf4_StatsPhone.jpg

 

All of my screenshots in this thread are from the same recording, just in different clients. Why would Emby have to convert the audio when playing back on the Shield (Android TV) but not have to remux while playing on an Android phone? I would almost think it should be the other way around, since the Shield outputs multichannel audio but a phone would typically only be stereo.

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Since all the phone requires is stereo, the app can mix it down.  If you set the TV app to mix down to stereo then it can do that too - but you lose 5.1.

 

However, I'd have to see the ffmpeg log from that TV playback session to know exactly what was happening.

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mikeg2112

That makes sense. I won't be home again until next week but when I get back I'll do some more testing and send you an ffmpeg log.

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