Emby Theater blocky image quality when in full screen

[Sithrak 0]

I am making the transition from Emby for WMC to Emby Theater.  Current setup is a Win 7 Pro system (Win 10 will be soon) running Emby Server 4.3.1.0 and Theater 3.0.10 directly connected to a TV @1080P through a receiver and a hardwire connection on the network to a QNAP NAS doing basic file storage and sharing.

 

When I play media at anything under 1080 (720 or lower) with any player otherthan Theater (WMC, WMP, VLC) the result is a crisp (for the resolution) image even at 65 inches.  When I run Emby Theater and have the exact same content playing in fullscreen, the image is... blocky and pixelated.  See attached examples (I had to snag the WMC while not fullscreen but you can see the difference in detail in the images attached).  The edge of the dude on the left's nose makes him look like a Klingon with all the ridges!

 

I have verified that the Emby Theater is using Directplay not transcoding in the dashboard and have ranged the quality from Auto to 1080p 60 M and even 4K for local networks with no change.  I had Shark codec packs installed when using Emby for WMC for MKV playback in Win 7, but have since uninstalled them thinking they may have caused issues.  I have completely removed and reinstalled a default Emby Theater setup (other than pointing it to the server) since codec removal and still experience blocky playback for everything 720P or lower.

 

I have also tried playback on my gaming PC (hardwired network and verified Directplay) via Theater 4.3.1.0 @1440P and the image looks stunning with no jaggies or pixellation.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

embyserver.txt

[Guest asrequested]

There's no difference between your screenshots. Both have smooth edges. What are your video settings in Theater?

[Sithrak 0]

The video settings for Theater on my HTPC (1080) and my gaming rig (1440) are straight fresh install for both.

 

PLAYBACK

Home Network quality

   Auto

Internet Quality

   Auto

 

VIDEO

HW Accel

   Auto

Output Range

   Auto

Deinterlacing

   Auto

Audio delay

   0

Audio delay (23-35 fps)

   0

Change refresh rate

   Off

Preferred Refresh rates

   Blank

Video display syncing

   Auto

OpenGL HQ profile

   Off

Interpolation

   Off

 

I definitely do not agree with you that there is no difference between screenshots.  Hopefully these snips I took directly from the uploads help demonstrate what I am try to explain better for image quality differences.  I would anticipate 720P upscaled to a 1080P display would be more (or at least exactly the same), not less sharp than 720P upscaled to 1440P.  I even tried hooking a computer monitor up to the HTPC to see if the TV hardware made any difference and still got blocky, pixelated playback.

 

Thanks,

[Guest asrequested]

What GPU are you using? Try enabling the Opengl HQ profile

Edited February 8, 2020 by Doofus

[Sithrak 0]

My HTPC is an I3-6100 that uses the onboard Intel Graphics 530.

 

Turning on OpenGL HQ worked perfectly.  The source material no longer looks blocky and there is still little to no load on the CPU.

 

As an aside, I did NOT have to enable this on my Gaming rig (GTX 1070) to make playback be like the source material in Theater.  Just FYI.

 

Thanks for the help!