Some TV Shows Not Playing (Round 2)

[Max Overdrive 9]

I had previously posted about some TV shows not playing, and thanks to some help from folks around here, got everything working correctly (https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/77747-some-tv-show-files-not-playing-on-windows-emby-theater-on-htpc/).

 

However, I'm having the same problem again and the solutions presented previously don't seem to be working. There are some files that play just fine and others that simply cause Emby Theater to hang.

 

The server is on a Windows 10 HTPC machine and I'm trying to play the files that won't play in Emby Theater (desktop version) on the same machine. All files play fine outside of Emby in other players.

 

The files play fine on another PC in the bedroom, so it appears to be isolated to playing on the HTPC machine. They also play fine in Emby in Chrome on the HTPC machine.

 

Previously, the issue was that I hadn't entered the network path in the file location(s) when setting up the library. However, trying various combinations this time hasn't proved effective (I've tried just the network path, i.e. \\HTPC\U TV Shows, just the IP and path, i.e. 10.88.111.11\U TV Shows, and combinations of the regular path and network path in the optional network location section. All to no avail. If I leave it long enough, it times out with a "Playback Error" "no streams available" message.

 

I didn't see anything that jumped out in the log, but of course I'm no expert. Log is attached, and any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

P.S. In the log, the file that won't play is called "Death has a Shadow".

embyserver.txt

[Luke 37151]

Hi, I don't see anything obvious here. Is it possible that machine is just stalling trying to reach the network path to the media?

[Max Overdrive 9]

I don't think so. Emby just hangs, and I've tried just letting it sit (it usually sits for about 10-15 minutes before it throws the "Playback Error"). And playback is snappy when playing from Chrome on the same machine.

 

The only other oddity I notice is that other files seem to be transcoding whether I have the path set as local (U:\U TV Shows) or network (\\HTPC\U TV Shows), or both (U:\U TV Shows as path and then \\HTPC\U TV Shows in network path).

[Luke 37151]

 

 

And playback is snappy when playing from Chrome on the same machine.

 

In this case the server machine is accessing the file and streaming it to the browser. I bet I am right about this.

 

@ can you show him how to get an  mpv log? Thanks.

[Guest asrequested]

Follow this.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50975-how-to-enable-mpv-logging-for-theater/

[Guest asrequested]

But remember, if playback doesn't begin, there won't be a log.

[Luke 37151]

@@Max Overdrive, were you able to do this?

[Max Overdrive 9]

I've attached the mpv log for a file that won't play. Let me know if I should specify a different logging level.

Theater mpv log.txt

[Max Overdrive 9]

So looking at the mpv log gave me a hint when I saw that the audio device was not being initialized properly. So I went back to look at the Dolby Atmos spatial sound setting in Windows 10, and disabled it and then enabled it again (Windows also told me that sound enhancements were causing issues). As soon as I disabled it and enabled it again, these files played. Seems like something wonky with Dolby Atmos spatial sound. I think we can mark this as solved.

 

Thanks @ and @@Luke for helping me out with this.

[Guest asrequested]

Oh I leave that thing permanently disabled. If I want Atmos, I bitstream and let my receiver do the work. I don't want Windows anywhere near it. 

[Luke 37151]

Thanks for the feedback.