psybertech 33 Posted October 14, 2019 Share Posted October 14, 2019 OK, FireTV app version: 1.7.53a Server: Ubuntu 4.3.0.11 beta I have a bunch of 4K videos files (all single audio stream EAC3) 4K HEVC encoded coming in around 40-60GB in size. When I play them on the FireTV, they will suffer from some stuttering micro-pausing making them un-watchable. I am watching them direct-play (no transcoding). App bit rate set to 110Mbps I think (or whatever the max is). My network can handle this. If I use VLC as the external player with any of the same files, the files play fine. I just don't want to use the external player since you loose the ability to stop and resume playback at the stopped point. Also, on the same FireTV, same files, if I use Plex, the files all play perfect. I notice that if I reboot my FireTV, Emby will seem to be working better for a little while longer (say, no stuttering for a few minutes where as it would pop up in under a minute). But there is no time or pattern here. It just seems rebooting delays the inevitable. I have even tried re-encoding some of my 4K using different, un-supported audio formats to force a transcode just for the audio. No difference. I can set the bit-rate down to 60, 40, 30 Mbps and still no difference. They always seem to stutter about the same. Its like the player just doesn't like the 4K HEVC. I even tried setting the buffer to large when transcoding, to no change. I tried disabling the frame rate matching. No change. It was on for all my tests and I turned off for a couple to see. But no change. At first I thought it was the FireTV since the reboot before playing seemed to make things a little better longer, but after trying to use EMby to open VLC and then Plex and having no issues, it isn't the FireTV or my network. So... is there anything I can test or a good way to get a good clean set of logs for testing further? i.e. reboot server and reboot FireTV and make sure X is set and to enable or disable debugging extras in the server or player? The 4K is less than 1% of my stuff, but I just started with 4K and want my main Emby player to work with the files. Also a far side note... same files play fine on my AppleTV 4K Emby client, but I have a ton of image quality issues. No stuttering though. So I'd use the Apple TV and Emby client if I could get the image quality resolved, but I don't want to look at that quite yet. I prefer my FireTV by a mile. Anyway....... Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Sorry for no logs right now. There are too many and too messy, so I'd rather post up when I have a clearer path and cleaner logs to share. ------------------- extra media info ------------------- media info from a sample file (most files are close to this but this one has two audio streams normally they all just have one EAC3 which direct plays but this I used to test transcoding also has AC3 and TrueHD stream which forces direct streaming for the transcoding test): General Complete name : \\192.168.0.7\usbshare1\_4k\Star Trek (2009) [4K-2160p]\Star Trek (2009) [2160p-ATEME-7.1-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos-MLPFBA].mkv Format : Matroska Format version : Version 4 File size : 52.0 GiB Duration : 2 h 6 min Overall bit rate mode : Variable Overall bit rate : 58.7 Mb/s Movie name : Star Trek (2009) [4K-2160p]/Star Trek (2009) [2160p-ATEME-7.1-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos-MLPFBA].mkv Encoded date : UTC 2019-10-14 16:46:06 Writing application : mkvmerge v38.0.0 ('The Silent Type') 64-bit Writing library : libebml v1.3.9 + libmatroska v1.5.2 Cover : Yes Attachments : cover_land.jpg / small_cover.jpg / small_cover_land.jpg / cover.jpg Video ID : 1 Format : HEVC Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC Duration : 2 h 6 min Bit rate : 53.0 Mb/s Width : 3 840 pixels Height : 2 160 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2) Bit depth : 10 bits Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.267 Stream size : 47.0 GiB (90%) Title : Star Trek (2009) [4K-2160p]/Star Trek (2009) [2160p-ATEME-7.1-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos-MLPFBA].mkv Writing library : ATEME Titan KFE 3.7.3 (4.7.3.1003) Default : Yes Forced : No Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.2020 Transfer characteristics : PQ Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant Mastering display color primaries : Display P3 Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2 Audio #1 ID : 2 Format : MLP FBA 16-ch Format/Info : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation Commercial name : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos Codec ID : A_TRUEHD Duration : 2 h 6 min Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 4 995 kb/s Maximum bit rate : 8 337 kb/s Channel(s) : 8 channels Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF) Compression mode : Lossless Stream size : 4.42 GiB (9%) Title : Star Trek (2009) [4K-2160p]/Star Trek (2009) [2160p-ATEME-7.1-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos-MLPFBA].mkv Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No Number of dynamic objects : 11 Bed channel count : 1 channel Bed channel configuration : LFE Audio #2 ID : 3 Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Commercial name : Dolby Digital Codec ID : A_AC3 Duration : 2 h 6 min Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 640 kb/s Channel(s) : 6 channels Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF) Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 581 MiB (1%) Title : Star Trek (2009) [4K-2160p]/Star Trek (2009) [2160p-ATEME-7.1-Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos-MLPFBA].mkv Language : English Service kind : Complete Main Default : No Forced : No Text ID : 4 Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Duration : 1 h 57 min Bit rate : 38.5 kb/s Count of elements : 2634 Stream size : 32.2 MiB (0%) Title : English-PGS Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No And here a completely different file which shows the single EAC3 audio for direct plays (this is a best example of all my normal 4K files). General Unique ID : 192454976865930632966710911672241331180 (0x90C97AF43C674573F3E3A6AC42F79BEC) Complete name : \\192.168.0.7\usbshare1\_4k\Iron Man 2 (2010) [4K-2160p]\Iron Man 2 (2010) [2160p-HEVC-5.1-Dolby Digital Plus-EAC3].mkv Format : Matroska Format version : Version 4 File size : 46.4 GiB Duration : 2 h 4 min Overall bit rate : 53.3 Mb/s Movie name : Iron Man 2 (2010) [4K-2160p]/Iron Man 2 (2010) [2160p-HEVC-5.1-Dolby Digital Plus-EAC3].mkv Encoded date : UTC 2019-10-14 16:46:04 Writing application : Lavf57.83.100 Writing library : Lavf57.83.100 ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1 Video ID : 1 Format : HEVC Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC Duration : 2 h 4 min Bit rate : 51.8 Mb/s Width : 3 840 pixels Height : 2 160 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2) Bit depth : 10 bits Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.260 Stream size : 45.0 GiB (97%) Title : Iron Man 2 (2010) [4K-2160p]/Iron Man 2 (2010) [2160p-HEVC-5.1-Dolby Digital Plus-EAC3].mkv Language : English Default : No Forced : No Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.2020 Transfer characteristics : PQ Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant Mastering display color primaries : Display P3 Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2 Maximum Content Light Level : 558 cd/m2 Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 510 cd/m2 Statistics Tags Issue : mkvmerge v35.0.0 ('All The Love In The World') 64-bit 2019-08-09 19:30:05 / Lavf57.83.100 2019-10-14 16:46:04 FromStats_BitRate : 52824957 FromStats_Duration : 02:04:34.638000000 FromStats_FrameCount : 179212 FromStats_StreamSize : 49355903184 Audio ID : 2 Format : E-AC-3 Format/Info : Enhanced AC-3 Commercial name : Dolby Digital Plus Codec ID : A_EAC3 Duration : 2 h 4 min Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 448 kb/s Channel(s) : 6 channels Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF) Bit depth : 24 bits Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 399 MiB (1%) Title : Iron Man 2 (2010) [4K-2160p]/Iron Man 2 (2010) [2160p-HEVC-5.1-Dolby Digital Plus-EAC3].mkv Writing library : Lavc57.107.100 eac3 Language : English Service kind : Complete Main Default : Yes Forced : No Statistics Tags Issue : mkvmerge v35.0.0 ('All The Love In The World') 64-bit 2019-08-09 19:30:05 / Lavf57.83.100 2019-10-14 16:46:04 FromStats_BitRate : 4265725 FromStats_Duration : 02:04:34.656000000 FromStats_FrameCount : 8969561 FromStats_StreamSize : 3985592994 All of these audio formats don't make a noticeable difference in the stuttering. They all do to some degree or another. OK.. done now.... Thanks J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14910 Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Do you have any that aren't DD+? Also, did you try going all the way to 20Mb or below? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psybertech 33 Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 Do you have any that aren't DD+? Also, did you try going all the way to 20Mb or below? I have the one file I re-eoncoded to AC3 and TrueHD (first file's details I linked - Star Trek (2009)). I re-encoded that one after running into the issues with the others thinking that the audio might be a possible problem plus to also see if forcing a transcoding of the audio would do anything. But so far, the same results with AC3, EAC3 and TrueHD. That's all I tested in Emby. As far as going down to 20Mbps or lower. No I have not. 2 reasons I never tried... 1) the files play fine with other players and 2) I want the best quality to be shown. That said.... I just tried at 20, 15 and then 10Mbps and still the same. But I think that the transcoding is the issue here. Well, at least hardware. My hardware running VAAPI struggles at 24-26 FPS and it will basically run for a little bit, never getting more than 5 seconds of buffering and then when the buffer hits 4 seconds (watching via the dashboard on my Chrome browser on my desktop), it will pause and build again for a little bit and the same over and over. If I go to software transcoding, I start around 38FPS and sit there and bounce around a bit, but still I get the stuttering and micro-pausing at close to the first minute marker and then randomly from there. No matter what bitrate, the initial stuttering starts close to the same time in the movie even when I have more than 30 seconds of buffer left. OK, I had a few minutes and no one was watching so I just tested the following and attached all the server logs in a zip file (main log, hw detection, directstream, remux, transcode) from this session with me just playing the following files for a few minutes and even sent 2 logs from the FireTV app. FireTV Rebooted Emby Server rebooted PLAYED: The Matrix (EAC3) Direct Stream stutter - 1.00 pause switched to direct play and then transcoding (audio not supported?) - 2:00 manually stopped playback Star Trek (TrueHD) Direct Stream stutter 1.42 pause 2.45 long pause 3.00 (never unpaused - hit back button and it crashed to FTV dash!? - weird) Star Trek (AC3) Direct Play stutter 1.26 stutter 1.40 medium pause 2.26 - switched to direct stream medium pause 2.31 still direct stream medium pause 2.40 still direct stream manually stopped playback ~3.10 Thanks in advance for anything you can think of or do, ebr! J 4k issues logs.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14910 Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Honestly, I think you are just taxing these devices beyond their capabilities. The Fire Stick 4k is only published to be able to handle 35Mb/s in HEVC and you are trying to play nearly 60Mb content. Then, once you bump down and transcode, you are hitting limitations on the server end to transcode it (with your particular hardware setup). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psybertech 33 Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 (edited) Honestly, I think you are just taxing these devices beyond their capabilities. The Fire Stick 4k is only published to be able to handle 35Mb/s in HEVC and you are trying to play nearly 60Mb content. Then, once you bump down and transcode, you are hitting limitations on the server end to transcode it (with your particular hardware setup). @@ebr Understood. I am only at 50 4K movies and they range natively between 30 and 60+ Mbps. I know it's pushing it. That said, I just looked at the spec again (and man, the page is redesigned heavily) but I know I've seen that spec was removed recently before and maybe that was just because of web design changes. But it is there now. But the Fire TV Cube doesn't list a Mbps limit. Do you think that would be worth looking into or just another omission on the specs? I'm not familiar with the specifics on the CPU and GPU differences, but on paper, maybe the Cube beats the 4K stick? It would make sense it has an edge just due to being slightly newer.... Anyway.... I only started this thread since the same videos play fine on the same hardware using other players. So I hope you can see why I had to ask. So... close this up. I have other options to use when watching 4K stuff on the FTV. I'll probably pick up the Cube to test and try. Wish the Stick worked as it rocks otherwise. Thanks, ebr J Edited October 17, 2019 by psybertech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcol 165 Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 (edited) I know this is an old post, but I have stuttering all the time with the fire cube (2nd Gen) just watching h.264 1080p movies. Not real bad, but noticeable. Funny, never see any stuttering when watching Hulu, Netflix, or Prime. I assume it's an Emby player thing. Edited November 27, 2020 by dcol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asiya1883 0 Posted November 29, 2020 Share Posted November 29, 2020 Having exact same experience. Every app streams perfect on FireTV, including Plex, but Emby just can’t handle 4K and sometimes other videos in lower resolution just display black screen It works perfect on my iPhone and iPad but it’s just unreal when it comes to FireTV, which is actually the main device I’d like to consume my media Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psybertech 33 Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share Posted November 29, 2020 a year plus later and I still experience this from time to time on the Fire Tv (Cube and Stick)... less so far on the new Chromecast + Android/google TV puck and ADT3 dev thingy.... and pretty much never on Apple TV 4K (which I hate to use)... but anyway... still happens... allot... my fallback is Plex on AppleTV if all else fails (which always just works!!!), but recently it seems that Emby on Apple TV is pretty solid (new player integration?)... colors used to be off for HDR in Emby on AppleTV, but seem OK now, but I really don't have much experience in testing........ anyway.................. cheers j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RanmaCanada 342 Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 I would highly recommend the experimental/beta EXO-player based Emby that Luke has been sharing on the forums. Installed it on both my FireCube and my S905x2 android box, and no issues at all. Works great for anime (except for hi10P but that's obvious as no hardware decode exists for it) and 4k content (both remuxes and Tigole/scene/personal encodes). My go to torture test is Mary and the Witch's Flower, which peaks at 95mb/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke 37045 Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 You can try that out here: Although technically it is not yet amazon compatible so I'm surprised to hear the positive results with the firecube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcol 165 Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 So this version is for FireTV as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RanmaCanada 342 Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 On 01/12/2020 at 10:38, dcol said: So this version is for FireTV as well? It worked on my firecube, but my experience may not be universal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psybertech 33 Posted December 7, 2020 Author Share Posted December 7, 2020 Works on my FireTVCube too, but the interface is different. Some things I like and some I prefer the FireTV version for. Would be nice to have a combo of both in one. i.e. I can't get back to a show's series page in the Android version, but there is a nice link in FIreTV's. In Android's version , you can do server level stuff, FireTV's you cannot. When exiting the Android version you get a menu of things options. FireTV Live TV allows for seeing the guide when hitting the menu button. This rocks. But in the android version you just see the now playing details. I cannot open the guide to "surf". I like the new Android player controls and I take it that is due to the new EXO player. But there is no option for playback correction like on the FireTV version where you could force transcoding to fix audio-sync issues (which I use from time to time). But, overall, it works fine on the FireTVCube. Been using it exclusively for everything except for live TV at this time. I just prefer the Live TV experience on the FireTV app much, much more. I need to play more 4K stuff to see if it is better which is why I started using the android version, but I haven't had a chance yet. cheers j 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