Question about my bandwidth

[Pseudomax 2]

Hi

 

I have used Emby for a while and I have never managed to set my server up to work properly for transcoding. I had always assumed that I just had inferior hardware, but I recently updated my HTPC to a fairly reasonable machine (AMD Ryzen 5 3400G Processor with Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics & 16GB DDR4 RAM 500GB SSD) but I still have the problem. I therefore have now a dedicated router for a Wireguard VPN with a stable 10MB/s connection when roaming, but I still get some movies that buffer incessantly (once every 2min for 30sec).

 

I have:

Emby Server 4.4.1.0

Hardware Acceleration is enabled

Transcoding thread count: 3

H.264 encoding preset: Auto

H.264 encoding CRF: 23

Internet streaming bitrate limit (Mbps): 6MB/s

 

Is there anything I am missing?

 

Thanks

[Luke 39664]

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks.

[Pseudomax 2]

Hi

 

Apologies for the delay ... but here are the logs attached. Note that they are taken during playback of a movie that is causing the problem ...

 

Thanks

embylogs.zip

[Pseudomax 2]

... while I am here I thought I would also ask about whether my transcoding temp folder could be kept on my NAS? Basically I would prefer not using my SSD given the shorter life but when I tried previously I had buffering which at the time I assumed was due to hardware ... but should I typically expect on a wired LAN with a NAS on RAID5 to be able to cope with what is needed?

 

Thanks

[Pseudomax 2]

Hi, any ideas? Thanks in advance ...

[Luke 39664]

If you're seeing significant buffering this is usually a sign that the bitrate is too high. Please try lowering the in-app quality setting and see if that helps. Thanks.

[Pseudomax 2]

Hi @@Luke, I am watching on an LG TV and that option does not seem to be available ... Thanks

[Luke 39664]

Where are you looking for it?

[Pseudomax 2]

When playing the movie (in the settings at the bottom right). I also tried to see a settings from the home page but I couldn't find any ...

[ebr 15580]

Hi.  I believe the setting you are looking for is labeled "Quality"

[Luke 39664]

When playing the movie (in the settings at the bottom right). I also tried to see a settings from the home page but I couldn't find any ...

 

Try clicking your user icon in the top right -> playback settings. Now are you able to locate it?

[Pseudomax 2]

Hi

 

Thanks, and yes, I did adjust that to 1080p - 5MB/s but it continues to buffer? I have a stable connection greater than 10MB/s ... is there something else to try?

 

Thanks ...

[ebr 15580]

Yes, try dropping it down to 2 or 1 and then work your way back up until you find the sweet spot.

[Pseudomax 2]

Yes, try dropping it down to 2 or 1 and then work your way back up until you find the sweet spot.

 

Thanks ebr ... although I would have thought that it was my actual bandwidth that was the bottleneck ... but are you suggesting that it is something else in the system?

[Luke 39664]

It really depends. It could also be ISP throttling happening on either side of the connection.

[Pseudomax 2]

It really depends. It could also be ISP throttling happening on either side of the connection.

 

it shouldn't be throttling as the ISP on both sides give me upwards of 50MB/s down and 20MB/s up ... and I have a Wireshark VPN installed giving a direct connection ... (that gives me at least 10MB/s connection to the client ...

[maegibbons 1284]

it shouldn't be throttling as the ISP on both sides give me upwards of 50MB/s down and 20MB/s up ... and I have a Wireshark VPN installed giving a direct connection ... (that gives me at least 10MB/s connection to the client ...

How did you test this? With iperf?

 

Never assume anything with WAN links.

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

A 'like' is always appreciated!

Edited April 14, 2020 by maegibbons

[Luke 39664]

it shouldn't be throttling as the ISP on both sides give me upwards of 50MB/s down and 20MB/s up ... and I have a Wireshark VPN installed giving a direct connection ... (that gives me at least 10MB/s connection to the client ...

 

"shouldn't be" isn't the same thing as whether it actually is or isn't...

[Pseudomax 2]

So the connections are both my own paid for ISP connections. speedtest.net is how I tested these connections (on many occasions) and I use both connections for multiple other video streaming services that certainly give a decent quality stream (BBC iPlayer manages on a higher than normal setting).

 

So although I am sure you have many technical reasons why this could all be incorrect ... I am a reasonably proficient lay user (I managed to get a wireguard VPN up and running between both sites) ... so I would expect that there is some way it can explained to me where to go looking if this doesn't work ... rather than less helpful comments about how I didn't test correctly or why my ISP might be the problem...?

 

I will try @@ebr 's suggestion of going backwards until I get success ... but I did provide my logs and there has been no comment on these?

[Luke 39664]

I will try @@ebr 's suggestion of going backwards until I get success ... but I did provide my logs and there has been no comment on these?

Because there's nothing obvious yet unfortunately. The ISP throttling could be port based or service based which would explain why SpeedTest reports a high value.

 

Try using the web app to download one of your videos in the web browser. How fast does that go?

[maegibbons 1284]

Seriously, over your vpn run iperf end to end and check the result.

 

It will give you a defacto result between any two sites that we can trust and then work with.

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

A 'like' is always appreciated!

[Pseudomax 2]

Seriously, over your vpn run iperf end to end and check the result.

 

It will give you a defacto result between any two sites that we can trust and then work with.

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

A 'like' is always appreciated!

 

Hi Mark

 

Perhaps you over-estimate my skills! I am happy to do so, but currently I have two routers (DD-WRT) running a wireguard vpn ... where do I install iperf? Can I do so on the routers themselves?

 

Thanks

[Pseudomax 2]

Because there's nothing obvious yet unfortunately. The ISP throttling could be port based or service based which would explain why SpeedTest reports a high value.

 

Try using the web app to download one of your videos in the web browser. How fast does that go?

 

Hi Luke

 

Yes, you have demonstrated your point with the downloads ... I can achieve only a 1200kb/s download speed (using a chrome browser).

 

So I guess my next question is then around why Emby (set to 'auto') doesn't accommodate that? And how much of that is my ISP or is there something else in my setup that could be the cause?

 

Thanks

[maegibbons 1284]

Hi Mark

 

Perhaps you over-estimate my skills! I am happy to do so, but currently I have two routers (DD-WRT) running a wireguard vpn ... where do I install iperf? Can I do so on the routers themselves?

 

Thanks

You need to do some googling, but iperf binaries are DEFINATELY available for dd-wrt.

 

Just google "dd-wrt iperf"

 

Krs

 

Mark

 

A 'like' is always appreciated!

[ebr 15580]

What kind of connection do you have on the server end?

 

The most likely culprit here is the upload speed from your server.  That is something that a consumer ISP would likely limit and also not care that much about things like latency.  They would sacrifice that bandwidth in favor of download - and could be doing that more aggressively in the current environment to maintain expected service levels for customers...