Upgrade to 4.4.3 introduces stuttering

[thefirstofthe300 292]

I just upgraded my Nexus 7 to 4.4.3 last night and it seemed to introduce a problem with video streaming.  After approximately 15 minutes of playing SD video, the video stream begins to stutter while the audio continues to play just fine.

 

I also use Plex on my Android (mostly for the sync feature, a must-have for me as my upload speed is awful) and I noticed that it has a similar issue where it will stutter after about 8 minutes of playback.

 

I can provide logs if you think you will need them.

 

PS  How is the player rewrite going?  I am wondering when the next update will be.  

[Redshirt 1487]

Had to wait for my device update

 

I'm seeing it too. Looks like 4.4.3 breaks HLS. If you go into the client settings and turn off HLS support then playback should work as expected. The unfortunate thing about HLS being broken is that it lowers device compatibility some. Some HTC devices for example, just don't like to play a progressive H264 stream.

[thefirstofthe300 292]

OK. I will try it out when I get the chance. That would also explain why plex has trouble streaming.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[thefirstofthe300 292]

Finally got around to testing the client with HLS turned off and it streamed perfectly.  I guess that means it is a Google problem.

[CBers 6959]

I forgot to post, but I tested a few videos on my Nexus 5 running 4.4.3, including a transcoded 1080p video, with HLS on and didn't have any problems.

[thefirstofthe300 292]

@@CBers

 

How long where you watching the videos for?  It took 15 minutes for the stuttering to show up but it always did.  No matter what the video quality.

[Redshirt 1487]

For my testing it happened in first few minutes. I hope Google pushes an update quickly.

[CBers 6959]

15 minutes? No, wasn't watching them that long.

 

I'll have a play later.

[thefirstofthe300 292]

Ditto.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[A8ree 0]

Having the same issue....Where do I find this setting? Is it on the server or Nexus7?

[Redshirt 1487]

It's in the settings for the Android client. The Cog on the homescreen.

[Karen 0]

I've experienced the video stuttering as well (using the latest Mediabrowser server, a Nexus 5 running 4.4.4, and the latest available Android client).  I've gone into the stock Android profile on the server and did an "X" on the HLS support (it's a stock profile so it automatically created a new one also called Android).  The confusing thing is that when I then went back and played my movie on the N5, it still shows up as HLS (or at least that's what the details on the screen said).  Sadly, the stutter comes back after 8 to 9 minutes.  I realize that this is probably an Android (ie googlie) issue, but is there any else that I can do?  My Sony Tablet Z running 4.4.2 works wonderfully.

 

Oh...I also played with Chromecast this weekend and wow does that work great with Mediabrowser or what? 

[Luke 38842]

Currently the android dlna profile is only used for the upcoming mobile sync feature. I can understand why you'd go to that area though so I think that's an area we need to work on.

 

You can disable HLS within the app itself.

[Karen 0]

Currently the android dlna profile is only used for the upcoming mobile sync feature. I can understand why you'd go to that area though so I think that's an area we need to work on.

 

You can disable HLS within the app itself.

 

Oh dear.  I guess I completely missed it. That would explain why it came back as HLS. Sure enough, I located the "HLS Support" slider in the settings menu of the Android App and viola, it works, no more stuttering.

[thefirstofthe300 292]

I am happy to say that Android L fixed this issue for me.

[Karen 0]

I'm having the stutter issue happening again with Kitkat 4.4.4 and Emby server 3.0.5597.1. I'm using the latest android client 2.2.36 with HLS support turned off and the stutter is now happening quite severly.  Not sure why, the video playback says "transcode: hls, ts, h264, aac.   This issue was solved sometime back and I think the video said something like "vorbix"?   Any ideas on making this work again?  Its depressing to go back and see the same issue re-occur again after things were working so well.

 

Thanks!

[thefirstofthe300 292]

The problem is actually not in the Emby app. Android 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 broke the HLS streaming implementation for anything that wasn't Google related. Google didn't get their $#!+ together until Lollipop and Lollipop finally introduced a fix for this problem.

 

You should be able to disable HLS streaming under the settings menu and the issue should go away. The other solution is to either upgrade to Android Lollipop or rollback to 4.4.2 or earlier.

 

EDIT: Wow. Didn't realize all of this had already been iterated. *sheepish face* If disabling HLS doesn't work, you will need to post logs for the app and server.

Edited May 6, 2015 by DaBungalow

[Karen 0]

Yes indeed.  I was sad to leave my beloved Kitty Kat behind and did the upgrade to Lollipop. It did solve the stuttering issue (Yeh!). Now I only have to deal with all the other issues that Lollipop created. Sigh!

[Luke 38842]

Please report on how it goes with the new app:

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/blog/1-emby-blog/