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Question about my Roku performance


Phuein

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Phuein

So, this is not a technical post. I know that's annoying, but I've been having this odd experience for a while, so I'm wondering if I'm not alone in this...

 

My Roku sometimes becomes very slow. I noticed that going into the emby app and out again sometimes resolves this. But not any other app. Almost as if there's some kind of [memory?] leak. Today, not for the first time, the wife and I were watching a show and by the middle of the episode it bugged out and kept on doing the Loading thing (bar.) I restarted emby on my PC, but that didn't help. I restarted the Roku, disconnecting it from power for a soft reset, and that did solve it.

 

Now, I know, it might just be the Roku stick. Maybe. It is a more recent one, though. (It's a Roku Streaming Stick HD. Not worst, not best.)

 

The way we use emby is to watch something, an episode of some show, off the PC (streaming.) At some point we'll pause the video and go back to the main Roku screen (press the Home button.) Until the next use. In between, either use Netflix or Youtube.

 

Does any part of this sound odd? Does anybody else have this issue?

 

I don't expect a clear solution, as much as I anticipate information that might help.

 

Cheers.

Edited by Phuein
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Hi there, can you give some steps to reproduce? Is this just when navigating, or does it also require playback in order to see it happen?

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Phuein

The slowness happens during navigation, too. As if Roku is being slowed entirely by something. In this case, alleging it's emby still active in the background. (If that's even possible?)

 

It doesn't happen reliably, so I can't provide steps. The best I can provide is what I said above. Watch shows, pause and press Home to leave, play Netflix/Youtube in between. Rinse, repeat.

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The slowness happens during navigation, too. As if Roku is being slowed entirely by something. In this case, alleging it's emby still active in the background. (If that's even possible?)

 

It doesn't happen reliably, so I can't provide steps. The best I can provide is what I said above. Watch shows, pause and press Home to leave, play Netflix/Youtube in between. Rinse, repeat.

 

Which firmware do you have on your device? 

 

Off-hand I would say.. You have 9.x firmware on your device?

 

@@ebr The rsg_1.1 vs rsg_1.2 is what causes this. Is there any way you can bump this back to 1.2?

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@@ebr The rsg_1.1 vs rsg_1.2 is what causes this. Is there any way you can bump this back to 1.2?

 

We cannot possibly be sure about that....

 

It isn't possible for Emby to be running in the background.  The "Loading" bar during playback would indicate a network or server slowdown rather than a processing one, though.

 

Also, you said:

 

Watch shows, pause and press Home to leave, play Netflix/Youtube in between. Rinse, repeat.

 

You are actually pausing the video and then hitting the "home" button with it paused on the screen?

 

If that's the case, I would try backing out of the video instead of pausing it.  When you do exactly what you said there, you are leaving your server in a state where it may be continuing to do work for the video you were watching even though you are no longer watching it.  This very well may be the issue as your server gets more and more busy in this fashion.

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You are actually pausing the video and then hitting the "home" button with it paused on the screen?

 

If that's the case, I would try backing out of the video instead of pausing it.  When you do exactly what you said there, you are leaving your server in a state where it may be continuing to do work for the video you were watching even though you are no longer watching it.  This very well may be the issue as your server gets more and more busy in this fashion.

 

Dude.. I missed that part.. nice. You are exactly right.

 

@@Phuein

If you pause the app it is a signal to the server that you are not finished. Then when you exit the app with the home button after pause the server is left waiting. It may keep the ffmpeg on idle and keep some resources tied to wait for the event that you have come back. Now that you have left the app you can never come back to that session. Then you come back in the app and it is slower because Emby now has dual sessions for that Roku app. It has the ghost session you paused which still consumes resources until Emby server realizes that the app may never come back and just kills everything it has on hold for it. During that interim before Emby does this it might appear the app is now clumsy/slow and just dragging it's feet. It also might cause throughput issues since multiple ffmpeg instances might be running. This would cause the delay and problems. Especially if you did this frequently. You are in effect punish your server doing this. It is the server being brought to its knees that causes the app to run sluggish. You need to be kinder to your Emby server and not treat it this way. Emby won't misbehave if you are kind to it. When you reboot your Roku this gives Emby server the time to recognize you left and clean up the mess created. So that by the time you come back to try things again the issue is no longer present.

 

@@ebr

Also the rsg_1.2 will be of most use to the newest streaming stick version as they are first to taste the waters of new Roku firmware updates. Those models are Roku guinea pigs. After them comes the Ultra/Premier/etc

Edited by speechles
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Phuein

The thing that doesn't make sense about your explanation is that restarting the emby server on my PC doesn't help, but restarting my Roku does help.

 

I'll take your advice to mind, doing a Back before Home, so it leaves the video.

 

To clarify, this isn't a networking issue. If that was the case, I would be experiencing a similar issue with any other app and on my PC. This is an emby on Roku issue only.

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Gilgamesh_48

FWIW: I have zero problems like those mentioned on my Roku Ultra that I use in my bedroom. It is connected wired, if that makes a difference.

 

I have, in the past, had problems with different Rokus, including sticks and Roku 3s, when the Roku was being used wirelessly. Many problems that seem to be app related have been traced to Rokus being used wirelessly. I suspect that it is possible that many apps do not recover well from dropped packets when the packets are numerous or dropped at the wrong time.

 

Of course I cannot confirm this but it is amazing how many "bugs" that seem to be app related go away when the Roku  gets attached wired.

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The thing that doesn't make sense about your explanation is that restarting the emby server on my PC doesn't help, but restarting my Roku does help.

 

I'll take your advice to mind, doing a Back before Home, so it leaves the video.

 

To clarify, this isn't a networking issue. If that was the case, I would be experiencing a similar issue with any other app and on my PC. This is an emby on Roku issue only.

 

If you have empirical video proof of this then by all means we will definitely be interested. There may be something going on we could investigate if we had this happen to more users or to ourselves. This is where the video would remove all doubt.

 

This might be related to the rsg_1.2 optimization flag. We would need to investigate. What model number of Roku streaming stick do you have? We might have to purchase one of these ourselves to discover the issue. We are not beyond going this route to solve your problem.

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Phuein

I started op by saying this not a technical post, on my side, due to the unreliability of this issue.  :P  So no proofs here. And if I'm alone in this, then it's more likely my Roku device being stupid.

 

But I'm impressed you'd go as far as testing it yourself! It's a model "3800RW - Roku Streaming Stick" bought at Walmart for like $30 I think.

 

I'll put a mental note to post here posthumously, after I try leaving videos in the suggested way above for a while, seeing if anything changes.

 

 

 

FWIW: I have zero problems like those mentioned on my Roku Ultra that I use in my bedroom. It is connected wired, if that makes a difference.

 

I have, in the past, had problems with different Rokus, including sticks and Roku 3s, when the Roku was being used wirelessly. Many problems that seem to be app related have been traced to Rokus being used wirelessly. I suspect that it is possible that many apps do not recover well from dropped packets when the packets are numerous or dropped at the wrong time.

 

Of course I cannot confirm this but it is amazing how many "bugs" that seem to be app related go away when the Roku  gets attached wired.

 

 

And a Roku being used wirelessly? What do you mean? The stick is plugged to the TV by HDMI and streams videos from the PC by wifi. I thought that's the whole point of it.

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Please try what I suggested and let us know if it makes a difference.  If it doesn't, then we can investigate from there.

 

Thanks.

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Gilgamesh_48

I started op by saying this not a technical post, on my side, due to the unreliability of this issue.  :P  So no proofs here. And if I'm alone in this, then it's more likely my Roku device being stupid.

 

But I'm impressed you'd go as far as testing it yourself! It's a model "3800RW - Roku Streaming Stick" bought at Walmart for like $30 I think.

 

I'll put a mental note to post here posthumously, after I try leaving videos in the suggested way above for a while, seeing if anything changes.

 

 

 

 

 

And a Roku being used wirelessly? What do you mean? The stick is plugged to the TV by HDMI and streams videos from the PC by wifi. I thought that's the whole point of it.

 

Yep, Roku Sticks are unreliable in many cases. I do not recommend them. I have two and they have both been relegated ti the spare parts drawer and replaced with wired Rokus. (Ultras)

 

I think there is something wrong with the way the Roku sticks are designed because the Rokus were unreliable but I have a Fire 4K Stick and a regular Fire Stick and they are both rock solid in locations where the Roku sticks had problems.

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Phuein

Ohhh, you're talking about the Roku connecting with an HDMI cable instead of being a stick. By itself, it shouldn't make any difference. I could connect mine with an HDMI extension cable, too.

 

The Roku Stick has been generally good to us, but I can see how a superior model would be much more reliable. A kind of get what you pay for situation.

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Gilgamesh_48

Ohhh, you're talking about the Roku connecting with an HDMI cable instead of being a stick. By itself, it shouldn't make any difference. I could connect mine with an HDMI extension cable, too.

 

The Roku Stick has been generally good to us, but I can see how a superior model would be much more reliable. A kind of get what you pay for situation.

 

NO!! I am talking about connecting a Roku via an Ethernet cable. This is impossible for most current Rokus like the stick and every other current Roku except the Ultra, I think. I really think that many people that get sticks should not get one because wired connections are always better than wireless.

 

As far as an HDMI extension goes I believe that anything that gets the stick away from the back of the TV is a good thing. TVs are a huge source of electronic noise and, if you must use wireless devices like the Stick, you should get it as far as possible from the strongest interference sources.

 

I use an HDMI extension to get my Fire stick away from the TV and, as I said, it is pretty stable. However, even with an extension, the Roku sticks I have are simply so unstable that they are unusable. That is the reason I have replaced them with Roku Ultras and connected the Ultras to my network wired.

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Phuein

Haha alright, now it's clear. Yeah, Ethernet over WIFI will be more reliable. But these days WIFI is pretty solid, unless it's an old setup. Man I hated the old days of WIFI. Hell, I could even see how Roku not keeping their WIFI drivers in line could contribute to issues.

 

I wasn't actually thinking about emby (or streaming) when I bought that Roku, so much. Just a comfortable way to keep watching Netflix. I'll definitely be taking it into consideration in the future.

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mikeraburn

My ULTRA locked up the other evening while navigating my apps menu.

I thought my remote batteries died.

 

I rebooted the ULTRA by unplugging power. ( I was too lazy to go look for my phone)

 

It came back to life. Not a remote issue.

 

Went outside and worked in the garden. By work I mean chipping at last remaining iceberg.

 

ROKU Version 9.0

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Phuein

Oh, now that you mention lock ups, yeah my Roku lock ups like that too sometimes. Remote is fine (new batteries), and very rarely Roku just doesn't respond. Usually it happens on the main menu. No idea if this is at all related.

 

It works fine like 99.99% of the time, otherwise, so it must have been something specific.

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My ULTRA locked up the other evening while navigating my apps menu.

I thought my remote batteries died.

 

I rebooted the ULTRA by unplugging power. ( I was too lazy to go look for my phone)

 

It came back to life. Not a remote issue.

 

Went outside and worked in the garden. By work I mean chipping at last remaining iceberg.

 

ROKU Version 9.0

 

LOL... that isn't the Emby app causing that..

 

I have the same exact issue. What is cool is this happens when I try developing. So you get these random lock ups just like the remote died. It just freezes and the Roku spontaneously reboots. It also will freeze if you upload a package to the Roku while the screen saver is on. Do that and you screwed the pooch. Now you have to physically get up walk over to the Roku. Unplug its cord. Jam it back in. Walk back over and start to develop again. Annoying to say the least. Happens at least 15-30 times a day.

 

I am not the only one either. There are tons(at least 5 that I know of) of developers on Roku chide Roku engineers about this problem. I mean all-the-time. I mean in every thread somewhere it's mentioned how easily you can get the Roku to reboot when trying to develop things on it or just using it for extended periods.

 

So rest assured I would hope Roku is aware of this because it must be ringing in their ears every single day. You can also head to Roku forums and make yourself known and bring up the issue. See what others say. It is just a fact of life and part of doing business with Roku. It is annoying but not anything to throw the Roku into the toilet and pee on it about... lol

 

Anyways nice hearing from you mate. Hope Alaska is treating you right. The yearly royalty gives you a small vacation once a year for free.

Edited by speechles
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Phuein

lol that's the price we pay for a $30 do-all HDMI stick :D

 

And yeah, when mine lags / freezes, most of the time I'm forced to unplug it entirely. I'm so glad I'm not a Roku dev', hearing this.

Edited by Phuein
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Ocracoke Island

“You are actually pausing the video and then hitting the "home" button with it paused on the screen?

 

If that's the case, I would try backing out of the video instead of pausing it. When you do exactly what you said there, you are leaving your server in a state where it may be continuing to do work for the video you were watching even though you are no longer watching it. This very well may be the issue as your server gets more and more busy in this fashion.”

 

I’m sure I have not thought this well out, but, would it be possible to put in a server option to ignore a pause? Maybe per user ID? I would rather have kids, guest have to back out of app then be able to hit the pause button, jump to home, then start up something else.

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“You are actually pausing the video and then hitting the "home" button with it paused on the screen?

 

If that's the case, I would try backing out of the video instead of pausing it. When you do exactly what you said there, you are leaving your server in a state where it may be continuing to do work for the video you were watching even though you are no longer watching it. This very well may be the issue as your server gets more and more busy in this fashion.”

 

I’m sure I have not thought this well out, but, would it be possible to put in a server option to ignore a pause? Maybe per user ID? I would rather have kids, guest have to back out of app then be able to hit the pause button, jump to home, then start up something else.

 

Hi, what do you mean by ignore the pause? You mean you want it to keep playing?

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Ocracoke Island

No, wanted to make sure a data stream doesn’t get orphan off by someone doing something stupid with the remote, they hit pause, then hit the home button? Maybe I misread it, reason I’m here, or was, I have been having major issues, finally got it fixed, frankly I’m just too tired to read, reread another thread on anything related. This madness also broke my security cam software, as an OS reinstalling removed an obscure old C++ runtime library, that the installation software use to side install if missing, but now assumes you were born knowing you need it, you know where to find it. I just not that bright.

 

Anyway....Kindly ignore the post.

 

FYI, maybe it will help others..

 

 

My tale of woe.

 

I have been hitting “Home” like a madman out of pauses, playback out of desperation, wife too, unplugging the Rokus, because of play back and recording issues, frozen playback, frozen everything, out of sync audio, loading problems during playback, totally distorted video with sound distorted like a broadcast over the air break up; I thought it was my antenna at one point, reinstalling the OS, 3 times, no joy.

 

Emby was totally unwatchable. I was getting huge 100 percent spikes on the OS drive.

 

Emby just seemed like it was getting worse and worse as you bounce around it, rebooting doing nothing, long hard disk drive activity.

 

This just seemed to be a problem in the last 2 weeks or so.

 

The PC is only running Emby, and two H.264 security webcams. It’s all it’s used for.

 

So.........

 

Enter the “you don’t appreciate an OS until you been abused” aka “Windows it isn’t a hobby, it’s a full time job supporting and staying on top of it”, the next best thing to treading water 24x7 times 365.

 

Man, the time I have wasted reinstalling the OS, Emby, setting up daily defrags, spreading out my paging space over multiple drives, trying to fix the problem, weird thing that Usage app built into Windows is next to useless pointing out the problem.

 

Finally, just yesterday, I have given a name to my Emby pain, “SysMain”.

 

Sysmain is awful, up to the usual Microsoft standards of a low bar, disable it if you are having 100 percent disk use, oddly jumps in disk access, 100 percent disk use at boot that runs forever, that you can not account for.

 

I have no idea why this thing, Sysmain, started acting up, I did get OS updates forced on me, Emby Server was updated, my security software got updated all in the given timeframe.

 

Any-who, things are working now, problems gone.

 

To disable this.....

“Launch the Services app. Open the Start Menu, search for services, then launch the Services app. Alternatively, open the Run prompt by pressing Windows key + R, then type services.msc and click OK.”

 

Disable “SuperFetch” renamed “SysMain” in the latest Windows 10.

 

Ah, oh, a special thanks for the renaming of “SuperFetch”, Micosoft, that kept me busy for a while.

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Interesting... I purposely disabled windows update and broke part of what makes it work. I have to enable this for it to work. The side effect I get is the sedlauncher loves to come on at random times and raise the cpu idle. The entire sedsvc and windows remediation is annoying as hell. You can easily break part of it by disable the antimalware service executeable via the group policy. Then disable windows update by turning off(disable) that service in services.msc. Now windows will still download the damn updates. But now it can never apply them until you reboot and even if you reboot it still can't apply them. You pick when you install them by turn back on the windows update service then reboot.

Edited by speechles
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