Erratic Skip Functionality

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Emby Server:    4.4.0.11 Beta

Hardware:         WD DL2100 NAS

TV:                    LG OLED55C6P

webOS 3           version:  05.30.60

Emby Theater   Version: 1.0.20

 

I'm not sure when this began happening, but when viewing recorded TV episodes the skip forward and backwards function is all over the place.  I have skip forward set to 30 second increments and skip back set to 10 seconds.  If I attempt to skip forwards sometimes it may skip 30 seconds or it may only skip 20 and other times it may skip ahead way further or even skip back instead of forward.  The skip back function doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to it either, and sometimes it will go back 10 or 20 seconds and other times only skips back 1 or 2 seconds or even to some point far further back.  If I try to drag the slider forward or back it doesn't matter what time point I set it to, it resumes at a earlier or later time, and its guess work to even try to figure it out.

 

This issue seems to be worse on longer recordings and become worse the further it is into the recording or the longer an episode is watched.  It does not appear to happen on movies or TV shows that I have uploaded, but only on recordings made by Emby.

 

The issue does not happen when viewing in a web browser or in the Android App, but only in the LG TV App.

 

I don't know that its needed, but I have attached the Emby log, a screenshot of episode info for an affected recording, and uploaded the entire recording to Google Drive, if anyone has an LG TV and would like to download the recording and attempt to duplicate the issue.

 

I have also made and attached a link to a short recording showing the issue with fast forward and rewind. Toward the end of the clip the skip forward actually skips back a couple of seconds instead of forward.  

 

 

 

embyserver-63716284716.txt

 

download link to skip functionality recording:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nZdtJljpCLjEgUWNhSlgiocARyBOm3u9/view?usp=sharing

 

download link to recorded episode:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/15atWy5lajmdgtpLX1yLwca11yvguaT8J/view?usp=sharing

Edited February 3, 2020 by mark-in-dallas

[Luke 37057]

@@SamES

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Just to note, I tried rolling back to the 4.3.1.0 release version and that seemed to mostly fix the slider issue, and the skip functions seem to be improved early on in the recording, but after about half way through they go wonky again, and the skip forward starts skipping back a couple of seconds instead of forward, while the skip back goes back to close to or even more than 1 minute.

[SamES 890]

Since you've gone back to 4.3.1.0, I would try making some new recordings and see if this occurs again.  The server version won't affect playback as it is DirectPlaying, but it might affect the recording.

 

I tried this both on an LG and a Samsung TV.  I saw a few odd things but nothing particularly significant, and not as bad as you describe.  For example 35 instead of 30 seconds, or 8 instead of 10 seconds.  I also noticed a few times where the time seemed to progress very quickly, almost like it was playing at 1.5x speed, but the playback appeared to be normal.

 

@@softworkz may be able comment.  It could be a problem with the recording stream.

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Okay, I recorded a couple more TV shows this morning and going back to 4.3.1.0 did not fix the problem. I have attached a zip file with a new and better recording than the last to show the issues, and you can see that the skip forward function is not even close.  At the beginning of the recording the skip forward goes to a 30 second forward increment then flips back to about a 15 seconds forward before resuming playback, and later on in the recording the skip forward actually starts skipping back instead of forward.  The skip back function is a lot better than the skip forward but still isn't quite right, and if I drag the slider forward to a point in time it rolls back a couple of minutes earlier than where I set in before playback resumes.

 

20200205_162240.zip

Edited February 6, 2020 by mark-in-dallas

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Well, I can say with little doubt that the issues with skip functionality are 100% caused within the LG Emby app.  I have attached a Google Drive link to another Emby recording that plays fine and the skip features work perfectly on a windows computer in any web browser, on an android phone, and in the Plex App for LG TV but is completely unusable in the LG Emby app. 

 

The skip forward function at the very beginning of the recording only skips forward about 13 seconds, then within a just a minute into the recording it only skips forward 3 to 5 seconds. and by around 30 minutes in the skip forward doesn't skip even 1 second forward, and the skip back seems to have a mind of its own, and may skip back 10 seconds, 2 second or several minutes.  Trying to use the slider for skipping forward is an exercise in futility and moving it forward to say the 30:00 minute mark will probably decide that you really meant 25 minutes, or maybe 19 minutes.  Moving the slider back in time is a little better, but not much.

 

I have also noticed that the issue is worse on longer recordings than shorter ones.  On most 30 minute recordings the skip functions are at least somewhat usable, on 1 hour recordings its kind of hot or miss, and for 2 hour or longer recordings they are completely unusable. 

 

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Emby app on the off chance that the previous install had somehow become corrupted, but that did not help.

 

Here is the Google Drive link to the the recording: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1j0pRFzSEIkhezDLbYlwEiKGKoTgpCq3h 

Edited February 9, 2020 by mark-in-dallas

[SamES 890]

Well, I can say with little doubt that the issues with skip functionality are 100% caused within the LG Emby app.  I have attached a Google Drive link to another Emby recording that plays fine and the skip features work perfectly on a windows computer in any web browser, on an android phone, and in the Plex App for LG TV but is completely unusable in the LG Emby app. 

 

The skip forward function at the very beginning of the recording only skips forward about 13 seconds, then within a just a minute into the recording it only skips forward 3 to 5 seconds. and by around 30 minutes in the skip forward doesn't skip even 1 second forward, and the skip back seems to have a mind of its own, and may skip back 10 seconds, 2 second or several minutes.  Trying to use the slider for skipping forward is an exercise in futility and moving it forward to say the 30:00 minute mark will probably decide that you really meant 25 minutes, or maybe 19 minutes.  Moving the slider back in time is a little better, but not much.

 

I have also noticed that the issue is worse on longer recordings than shorter ones.  On most 30 minute recordings the skip functions are at least somewhat usable, on 1 hour recordings its kind of hot or miss, and for 2 hour or longer recordings they are completely unusable. 

 

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Emby app on the off chance that the previous install had somehow become corrupted, but that did not help.

 

Here is the Google Drive link to the the recording: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1j0pRFzSEIkhezDLbYlwEiKGKoTgpCq3h 

 

Can you please check for each of your cases (Web Browser, Android phone, Plex, LG App) whether it is DirectPlaying, DirectStreaming or transcoding?  Thanks

[mark-in-dallas 86]

@@SamES Sure,  I don't know how to check with Plex, but on a Windows Computer playing the recording in Chrome or Firefox it shows as DirectStream.  And in the LG Emby App and Android App it shows as DirectPlay.

 

I also cleared all log files before making the latest attempts and turned on debugging, but it only created ffmpeg log files when playing in the Web Browsers, and it dod not create a server log.  I have attached one of the ffmpeg log files created.  

 

ffmpeg-directstream-7495b90e-57f4-47a0-b309-a44dcf3bd760_1.txt

[mark-in-dallas 86]

It appears that my issue is going to be ignored.  It has not gone away and if anything has gotten worse.  I had 2 recorded shows last night that the skip functionality was so bad it was completely unusable and I ended up watching the shows in Plex, which worked flawlessly.  On one of those shows I attempted to skip forward at about the 8 or 9 minute mark and it kicked me back to about the 3 minute mark.  I could use the slider drag function and try to guess where to drag it to, but it was a complete guessing game and after dragging the slider would restart at a much earlier point.  This happened several times before I closed out of Emby and watched it in Plex, which doesn't have the 30 second skip but does have fast forward which worked fine.  On the second show the skip forward didn't skip at all and out of pure frustration I watched that and the rest of the shows that night in Plex.

 

I want to love Emby, and did for a long time, until this issue.  The other little glitches in the LG app are just that, irritating but not deal breakers.  I really don't want to go back to Plex, and I guess I could just use Emby for recording shows and Plex for watching them, but I would much prefer to be able to just use Emby for everything, 

[Luke 37057]

Try lowering the quality in the lg app so that it does a full transcode. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Okay that did not help.  I recorded a fresh 3 hour long movie this morning, then tried lowering the quality to force transcoding.  The original quality was 720P at 5.3 Mbps and I set the quality to 720 - 5Mbps.  That made the video completely unviewable, it would pause for a number of seconds  after every couple of seconds of viewing, and the skip functions were completely unusable.

 

Attempting to watch the video without transcoding, the skip function skips forward 58 seconds instead of 30, and the skip back does not skip back at all, although dragging the slider forward or back did work pretty well for this video.

 

I have the Emby server installed on a WD DL2100 with 5 Gigabytes of RAM:  the 1 GB onboard and a 4 GB card.

 

 

[SamES 890]

I don't think you have mentioned, but what type of device are you recording from?  Are you doing any conversion after recording?

[mark-in-dallas 86]

I don't think you have mentioned, but what type of device are you recording from?  Are you doing any conversion after recording?

 

I'm using an M3U file, with no converting or altering of the file at all.  The M3U link is listed as the Source in Emby Live TV, and I do not have any plugins installed that could be affecting anything.

 

If you or any of the Emby developers have an LG TV I am happy to create an account for you or give you access to my account to see if the issue persists on a different TV, however that the videos work fine in Plex I don't think its an issue with the TV.

[Luke 37057]

Okay that did not help.  I recorded a fresh 3 hour long movie this morning, then tried lowering the quality to force transcoding.  The original quality was 720P at 5.3 Mbps and I set the quality to 720 - 5Mbps.  That made the video completely unviewable, it would pause for a number of seconds  after every couple of seconds of viewing, and the skip functions were completely unusable.

 

Attempting to watch the video without transcoding, the skip function skips forward 58 seconds instead of 30, and the skip back does not skip back at all, although dragging the slider forward or back did work pretty well for this video.

 

I have the Emby server installed on a WD DL2100 with 5 Gigabytes of RAM:  the 1 GB onboard and a 4 GB card.

 

Well that could be for a different reason, that the server machine is just not fast enough to transcode it.

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Well that could be for a different reason, that the server machine is just not fast enough to transcode it.

 

I kind of figured that to be the case, as the DL2100 doesn't have a lot of horsepower to it.  I'm thinking about just picking up an Android box or building a dedicated HTPC running Emby Server, but that still wouldn't necessarily solve the issue, and I really don't want to have to transcode every recording just to make the skip functions work.    That the issue is only with Emby recordings in the LG Emby app, and does not happen in Emby Theater or with recordings that are imported into Emby, or when played in Plex, does lead me to believe it is an issue with the LG Emby Client.

Edited March 5, 2020 by mark-in-dallas

[Luke 37057]

Is that other app direct playing them?

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Is that other app direct playing them?

 

I don't know how to tell whether a video is being transcoded for play in that other app, but I would assume that its direct playing, because LG is able of direct playing it and I would assume that it would also suffer the same pauses and/or buffering that it does in Emby if it were trying to transcode because of the less than stellar performance of my NAS.

Edited March 5, 2020 by mark-in-dallas

[Luke 37057]

Yea it's just that the problem with that theory is that all LG apps use the same video player built by LG, so that leads me to believe they are doing some kind of conversion or alteration on their server.

[SamES 890]

I'm using an M3U file, with no converting or altering of the file at all.  The M3U link is listed as the Source in Emby Live TV, and I do not have any plugins installed that could be affecting anything.

 

If you or any of the Emby developers have an LG TV I am happy to create an account for you or give you access to my account to see if the issue persists on a different TV, however that the videos work fine in Plex I don't think its an issue with the TV.

 

I'm happy to try, send me a link in a PM, but as Luke has suggested, all the playback is using the built in player so there may not be much we can do about this

[mark-in-dallas 86]

I realize that both use the built in player, but the skip functions are different in each, one has the timed skip while the other only has fast forward and reverse.  I had not thought to try the built in LG player before, because I had tried it with a few movies in which the skip function was not available at all, but I did just try it with the latest recording to experience issues in Emby, and the skip function did work,  and had the same problem.

 

I do realize that since the issue does persist in the built in LG Player, there isn't going to be anything you can do about it, and I'm just venturing a guess, but could the problem be in how the recordings are indexed, with LG and Emby using indexed points for skipping, but Plex doesn't, since it doesn't have the timed skip functionality and only has old school fast forward and rewind capabilities?

 

Then again, since the recordings are being made by Emby, could it be an issue in how Emby is indexing them, or possible the hardware being used to make those recordings?

[Luke 37057]

There is no index for skipping. It's all based on an offset. In other words, you press skip forward, and we tell the player to go forward 10 seconds, or however you've configured it.

[mark-in-dallas 86]

Okay, so kind of as a last ditch effort I factory did a reset on my TV to see if that might make a difference.  The fast forward and rewind in the LG player are working fine, but it doesn't have the skip offsets as Emby does, so I don't think there is any way for me to know if its an issue with the LG player or not.  The issue does persist when playing the recording in the LG Emby app though.

 

I think I'll now try installing Emby server on one of my Windows machines and recording some stuff to see if it might be an issue with the WD NAS.

[Luke 37057]

That would be an interesting test. Thanks.

[mark-in-dallas 86]

That would be an interesting test. Thanks.

 

I will try it this evening, but in thinking more about it I really don't think that is going to be the fix, because the recordings made on the WD NAS do play fine in the Emby Theater for Windows on 2 different machines, as well as on my Andorid Phone, but I guess it's possible that my NAS and LG Client App just don't play nice together for whatever reason, and I'm happy to try to troubleshoot any possible cause.  I'll let you guys know when I know something.

[SamES 890]

Try this.  On the server, select one of the 'bad' recordings.  From the '...' menu, select Convert

 

Use these settings.  It should be a fairly quick container swap from ts to mkv and should preserve the original h264 and acc tracks (ie: no transcode).

 

Try playing that and see if it improves.  I recall seeing on rare occasions timing issues in ts containers with recording from HDHomeRun, but swapping containers improved it.