Jump to content

Emby Stuck at "Retrieving"...


neutronJK

Recommended Posts

neutronJK

I had this problem once before and re-encoding the media file back then seemed to cure it, but once again I am noticing it with some newly-encoded files.

 Some background:
I have Emby installed on an Ubuntu 20.04 box (an Intel NUC i3 8GB of RAM, 4TB storage).   I can stream anything from it to a web browser, but when I try to stream to a Roku TV via the Emby Roku app, I select the file and as it starts to load, I see "Retrieving" and a progress bar that advances to about 30% then stops....forever.  But neither Emby nor the Roku app crashes.   Most videos load and work on the Roku with no problem, but about 5- 10% of the videos get stuck at Retrieving predictably.  I will attach images of the TV screen.

About the TV:  It's a TCL 55 inch 4K 55P607 with Roku built-in.  The Roku firmware is at 9.3.

The video that won't stream is a 720p 30fps video file which is about 2GB in total size.  If anyone here wants to look at it, I uploaded it to:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UtiEzbYG25-HZAz1D7WuRUpcizMSaGbU/view?usp=sharing

Don't make fun of my taste in videos.  I'm a documentary nut.

What I would like to know is:
1. Am I not encoding these files correctly?
2. Could it be that Emby is trying to transcode this (when it shouldn't need to) - and can all transcoding be disabled in Emby server?
3. Is there something wrong with the Roku app?

Thanks in advance for any advice or help you can offer.

IMG_20200703_165024078.jpg

IMG_20200703_165354436.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi there, can you please attach the emby server and ffmpeg log (if there was one) from when this happened? Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there is something wrong with the encode but cannot be certain exactly what.  The Roku player is very intolerant to any deviation from spec so that is probably why you only see the issue there.

The specific error thrown by the Roku player is "No valid bitrates".

If you re-package the item as an mkv, does it play?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

neutronJK

I re-encoded the file as an MKV file and it works.   I am using Handbrake and that allows you to specify a bitrate - which I haven't previously done.  So perhaps if I specify a moderate bitrate for all future files I will avoid this problem.   Up to now, I just chose a profile that sounded right (like "HQ 720p30 Surround") and went with that.
As you mentioned, the Roku app is pretty rigid.  When this problem occurred, it only affected the Roku app.  I was able to connect to Emby from Firefox on my Linux machine and everything played perfectly.   Anyway, thank you for the guidance on this issue.

Edited by neutronJK
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...