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Pixelation and Glitching in Recorded TV using Emby DVR


EmbyKiwi
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EmbyKiwi

I'm running two SSDs in my server, one for OS and transcoding and the other for the recordings and I have still had this issue so possibly not worth trying your small SSD for the recording. 

 

My media libraries are on a separate NAS with RAID5 HDDs  that side all works perfectly.

 

From my experience a while ago the Plex DVR has far worse problems than Emby. If you get bored one day, have a read of their forum topic https://forums.plex.tv/t/start-watching-recording-in-progress-from-beginning-failing/278653. From what I can tell they have had a fairly fatal issue for over 18 months now and no real progress. My trials with it were certainly not good... thus I've ended up using Emby. :-)

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dougward

I skimmed through the Plex thread, sounds like people are pretty disgusted there.  New features are added but no fixes for the DVR in well over a year and a half.  I also don't like what they did with the EPG, doesn't affect the U.S. but is the writing on the wall??  Channels DVR was mentioned a few times, but I'm not looking for another monthly payment and a separate solution. It's nice to have one solution, 'one throat to choke' as one of my staff put it.  I skipped to the end to see how it's turning out, and there was a post mentioning a beta which is now the current version on their site.  At least one person says it seems to have fixed the problem, so I may give it a try.  I also may try the SSD for the DVR in Emby. I retired last month, can't go anywhere (and shouldn't) so I have some time.  Thanks.

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reneboulard

I have investigated the playback while recording on Emby. It only occurs on windows. I installed a SSD a few month ago thinking it would solve the problem but did not. A SSD on the system is a nice new feature but not a solution.

 

I found that the linux version of Emby does not have this problem, I installed Emby server on a rasperrypi 4b with a USB drive and I could play a TV show while it was recording without any problem. So it is not a Hardware problem.

 

From that experience, I installed dockers for windows and emby in the dockers container, now I can watch a tv show while it is recording without problem and have all my media library at the same place. You need windows 10 pro to have dockers on windows.

 

Hope this help

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dranderson402

Do you use the inbuilt graphics for any required transcoding or do you have a graphics card in your Unraid server?

I'm using the built-in Intel graphics for transcoding.

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dranderson402

I didn't intend to sound disgusted, I think we have left the house twice in the last two weeks.  Anyway, I mentioned in my first post the specs of my server which is a Dell 9010, i7 and 16GB of RAM, SSD for the OS and transcode, and mechanical drives for the libraries, so it's not a new machine, but no slouch either. The mechanical drives are not the originals. There is no discrete video card.  I think I have an SSD (though on the small side) I can try for the DVR to see if that helps.  I'd rather not switch to Plex, just trying things out.  Thanks.

You could run NextPVR on windows as the DVR. There is a plugin for Emby or just simply have the recordings save to the same folder as the emby dvr.

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EmbyKiwi

I have investigated the playback while recording on Emby. It only occurs on windows. I installed a SSD a few month ago thinking it would solve the problem but did not. A SSD on the system is a nice new feature but not a solution.

 

I found that the linux version of Emby does not have this problem, I installed Emby server on a rasperrypi 4b with a USB drive and I could play a TV show while it was recording without any problem. So it is not a Hardware problem.

 

From that experience, I installed dockers for windows and emby in the dockers container, now I can watch a tv show while it is recording without problem and have all my media library at the same place. You need windows 10 pro to have dockers on windows.

 

Hope this help

 

@@reneboulard That could be very helpful!! :-)

 

It could also explain why some people are having no issues and others  consistent problems.  I've been asking about peoples hardware but not the OS. Doh!

 

Looks like an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro may be in my future and some learning about dockers.

 

Thanks again!

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EmbyKiwi

@@reneboulard One question that springs to mind re moving the Emby server to a docker is whether the server will still have access to the graphics card for transcoding? Many virtualisation tools I've used in the past didn't give access to graphics cards etc

 

If I went down this path would I be fixing my TV playback but losing my hardware transcoding?

 

Regardless... your investigation may help the devs focus in on where the problem is if it is on the Windows server only so Thanks again. :-)

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dranderson402

@@reneboulard One question that springs to mind re moving the Emby server to a docker is whether the server will still have access to the graphics card for transcoding? Many virtualisation tools I've used in the past didn't give access to graphics cards etc

 

If I went down this path would I be fixing my TV playback but losing my hardware transcoding?

 

Regardless... your investigation may help the devs focus in on where the problem is if it is on the Windows server only so Thanks again. :-)

Docker should allow you to pass your GPU through to the emby container.

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EmbyKiwi

Out of interest.... I started looking into setting up a docker installation and then realised that if I wanted to test an installation NOT running on a Windows 10 OS then it was probably easier to just re-install it on my Synology NAS . I did this and didn't bother connecting to any media. I just set up the connection to the  HD Homerun and linked in a guide. I then found a 1 hour program that was starting soon and set it to record with my usual 3 minute buffer before hand. About 45 minutes into the show, I jumped onto my TV and  fast forwarded to about 48 minutes, watching sections as I went and it was all playing fine until I got to the 48 minute mark and, sure enough, lots of glitching and pixelation. This suggests that it is not ONLY Windows server that has the issue .... and maybe it is only the Linux/Docker install that doesn't?

Anyway, I'll carry on with the Docker install and see how that goes.

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maegibbons

 

 

Out of interest @@maegibbons ... what spec is your Emby server and what client do you use for playback?

 

Cheers

Mine is an i7-8750H Laptop with 16Gb and GTX1060 GPU so pretty beefy.

 

It sounds like a performance issue under windows which is why I do not see it much.

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

Sent from my SM-N976B using Tapatalk

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aja07

As mentioned before, I also experience this annoying issue and my setup is a relatively new W10 Server (Intel I5 8500 / 16Gb memory with 500gb SSD for C:, all recordings go to a 4 TByte WD Red).  Am using ATV clients (New Shield and mibox) .

 

I now try to avoid watching in-progress recordings as much as possible.

 

PS Australian TV via HDHomerun Quads 100% signal

Edited by aja07
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EmbyKiwi

@@aja07 Sounds as though your setup is pretty similar to mine. I'm using the same method as you to avoid the problem too! :-)

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dougward

I too have been avoiding playing a show as it is recording, defeats the purpose a little for me, but it works.  I went ahead and did the SSD for the DVR but the occasion has not arisen to play while recording yet.  Following up on the Plex thread @@EmbyKiwi mentioned a few posts back, looks like there are still issues, I tried it once and it worked, but hardly an exhaustive test, I don't like the interface as well, and there were some other unexplained occurrences like crashing and returning to the Amazon Fire TV Home screen (my client) for no apparent reason. So is the consensus that the Emby docker build works correctly under Windows? Thanks.

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reneboulard

Docker on windows does not allow hardware GPU acceleration.

For a home setup with a decent system you should not need hardware acceleration.

I have a 6 years old system with an i5 and can easely transcode an mpeg2 1080i signal to mp4 wihtout problem in emby on docker.

 

Been watching TV while recording on that setup for the last few days without any problem.

 

I have two version of emby working on the same server (Windows and Docker), one for recording movies and another for recording TV Show and newscast.

Both have access to the same media library.

 

Once this problem is solved I will return to a windows setup only.

 

Hope this help

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Docker on windows does not allow hardware GPU acceleration.

 

I wonder if that is related.

 

Did you try just turning off hardware acceleration on your Windows install?

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reneboulard

I just checked and hardware acceleration was turned on in the windows install.

 

I turned it off and will try to see if it make a difference.

 

More later!

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reneboulard

I wonder if that is related.

 

Did you try just turning off hardware acceleration on your Windows install?

I turned off hardware transcoding on the windows emby server. I had a movie recording so I checked it out, and exactly the same problem happen. When I reach the time in the recording that I started to watch, it pixelate about every 3 minutes thereafter.

 

Thank for the suggestion, another possible cause eliminated.

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Frostbach

Just wanted to chime in with my experiences. My server is running on Windows 10 x64 1909.

 

This definitely seemed to start happening with 4.4.0.40. I just tried to update to 4.4.1.0 and it is doing the same thing. When I reverted back to 4.3.1.0, everything seems to work fine again.

 

I've noticed this occurring with both transcoding and direct streaming, so it does not seem to be a hardware accelerator issue.

 

The one thing that I've noticed in the transcode log/directstream log that does not appear to be in logs from 4.3.1.0 is many of these:

[mpegts @ 0000029ffe630300] PES packet size mismatch

 

Every once in a while it is also coupled together with this:

[mpegts @ 0000013ff7920300] max resync size reached, could not find sync byte

[mpegts @ 0000013ff7920300] PES packet size mismatch

 

Not sure it is related, but it definitely seems weird.

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EmbyKiwi

@Frostbach 

Is reverting back to 4.3.1.0 particularly difficult or just a case of copying over the install files into the server directory and everything still works?

 

I assume I can just grab a copy of 4.3.1.0 off guthub and give it a go too?

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Frostbach

@Frostbach 

Is reverting back to 4.3.1.0 particularly difficult or just a case of copying over the install files into the server directory and everything still works?

 

I assume I can just grab a copy of 4.3.1.0 off guthub and give it a go too?

 

 

When the server updated it looked like it renamed the old system directory system.old (I think that was what it was called). So if you have that, you could rename the current system folder to something else and then rename system.old to system. Make sure to shutdown Emby first, of course.

 

Otherwise, you could get 4.3.1.0 off of GitHub and then copy the extracted system folder into the Emby directory. I would still recommend renaming the existing system folder instead of trying to just copy directly over it. 

 

It might not be a terrible idea to make a temporary copy of the programdata folder before doing this just in case because I have no idea what the newer versions might have changed. I wasn't running 4.4.0.40 very long because I noticed it was doing this the same night I upgraded. However, I haven't noticed any issues from reverting.

 

Before playing with 4.4.1.0 today, I copied my 4.3.1.0 system and programdata folders and restored them after I was done to ensure nothing went awry.

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EmbyKiwi

@@Frostbach

 

Thanks for that. I hadn't noticed the system.old from December on my server. Shows how much I pay attention! :-)

 

I've also done a complete backup of my Emby server directory and downloaded 4.3.1.0 off github as an option as well but I'll give your method a go first and see how it all behaves! :-)

 

Thanks

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EmbyKiwi

Testing 4.3.1.0 now but just realised that I started having this issue in mid 2019 so I've probably had it with this version as well. Doh!

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dougward

My system has now updated to 4.4.2.0 and I've installed the SSD for my DVR.  I had the pixelation issues last night as I was watching a show that was currently recording, maybe a little less but hard to tell.  I stopped the playback and let the show finish recording, then went back and finished watching and the pixelation issues were still there which is contrary to what I said in a previous post.  @@EmbyKiwi, did reverting back to 4.3.1.0 solve your problems?  I am pretty sure this is a somewhat recent occurrence within the last couple of months or so.  Thanks.

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SHSPVR

My system has now updated to 4.4.2.0 and I've installed the SSD for my DVR.  I had the pixelation issues last night as I was watching a show that was currently recording, maybe a little less but hard to tell.  I stopped the playback and let the show finish recording, then went back and finished watching and the pixelation issues were still there which is contrary to what I said in a previous post.  @@EmbyKiwi, did reverting back to 4.3.1.0 solve your problems?  I am pretty sure this is a somewhat recent occurrence within the last couple of months or so.  Thanks.

 

Can post where you live at city and country and what are current antenna spec a photo would be nice if no photo do have an indoor or out door and where is it placement.

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