Constant freezing when playing 4K

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

I have just setup on a Windows emby server, migrating from using a qnap server. I never had a single issue playing a 4K movie on the qnap. Now the movie will pause every 10 secs. Seems to be a bandwidth issue. Everything is connected via gigabit ethernet. I can transfer a file from the qnap to the pc with emby running at 112mb sec. 

My media location is e.g.

\\192.168.0.160\Multimedia\Movies

Shared network folder

\\QNAP-TS653a\Multimedia\Movies

 

Any suggestions why it would be working?

Thanks

 

embyserver.log.docx

[Ronstang 201]

I had a similar issue and it turned out to be because of transcoding.  What format is you video/audio.  I had my video in mp4 but with Dolby Digital audio it had to be transcoded and because of other programs running in the background on my server the audio transcoding was causing the whole video to pause every few seconds or so.  

Can you play a file and look on the dashboard and see if it is transcoding either the video, audio, or both?

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

No transcoding. Just direct play to an Nvidia shield. I could understand if that was happening. I have tried moving the pc onto the same switch as the qnap but no luck.

[Ronstang 201]

Sorry your having trouble and I wish I could help but I know nothing about an nVidea Shield, it bothered me for over a week before I resolved the issue.  Wait for Cayars, when he comes into this thread he'll solve the issue for you.

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

Just done a test using Kodi on Nvidia shield. Not using emby add-on. Just standard setup. 

4k plays without an issue. So bandwidth doesn't seem to be the problem..

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

No worries. I hope it can be resolved. I can always revert to my qnap server. Just wanted the extra encoding grunt the pc has.

[Carlo 4330]

33 minutes ago, CHA0SENG7NE said:

No worries. I hope it can be resolved. I can always revert to my qnap server. Just wanted the extra encoding grunt the pc has.

Do you still have the qnap server running?  If so try adding this 4K movie to it and see if you have the same issue.

Humor me and try another test on your windows server.

create a TestLib folder off drive C (or other drive in the PC) and copy the 4K file here.  Setup a "TestLib" with type Movie pointed to your new location c:\TestLib.

Don't try and point this to you old location as we want this in a new lib with ONLY this file in the libray.  Scan the library.

Does it play now on the Shield ok or still stuttering?

Give us a screen shot of Stats for Nerds running on the Shield while this 4K file is playing please.

Thanks

[Luke 37008]

I don't see any playback activity in this log file. Can you please recreate the problem again, and then after that please attach the latest log file? Thanks.

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

11 hours ago, cayars said:

Do you still have the qnap server running?  If so try adding this 4K movie to it and see if you have the same issue.

Humor me and try another test on your windows server.

create a TestLib folder off drive C (or other drive in the PC) and copy the 4K file here.  Setup a "TestLib" with type Movie pointed to your new location c:\TestLib.

Don't try and point this to you old location as we want this in a new lib with ONLY this file in the libray.  Scan the library.

Does it play now on the Shield ok or still stuttering?

Give us a screen shot of Stats for Nerds running on the Shield while this 4K file is playing please.

Thanks

Morning

First off i turned the qnap server back on. this is running on 4.4.3.0 played the 4k movie. Worked perfectly. No glitches or stuttering on both shields. Direct stream to the shields. Server shutdown after test.

I setup the new libtest library on the pc. copied the movie across. scanned library. movie played perfectly.

I have just tried rescanning library and metadata on the normal library and tried again with no luck.

I have setup kodi standard library location to \\192.168.0.160\Multimedia\4K Movies

this also played without issue.

I have attached the logs

Thanks

 

 

 

hardware_detection-63736626599.txt embyserver.txt

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

I have just upgraded the qnap server to the latest and now it is stuttering. 4.4.3.0 played fine.

[Carlo 4330]

The windows test with the new lib I believe showed this could be IO related.  That lib cut out the movie fetch from the NAS.  With the NAS->Server->client you got stuttering but with NAS->client of windows Emby->client got no stuttering.

The upgrade to 4.5 from 4.4.3 throws a monkey wrench into this.  When testing this on 4.5 was any background task running or CPU higher to start with? I noticed higher CPU for a bit after doing the install which could have been from index changes made or similar.

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

Hi

I installed the update and left it for 30 mins before testing. The CPU load was very low when playing the movie.

It really isn't making any sense. I could try and install 4.4.3.0 on the windows pc and see if it works? Worth a shot.

Now I'm in a position that neither qnap or Windows server works properly. Is it possible to install an older version over the newer one o. The qnap. At least that worked.

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

11 hours ago, Luke said:

I don't see any playback activity in this log file. Can you please recreate the problem again, and then after that please attach the latest log file? Thanks.

Hi Luke I attached a log in this post. I downloaded it after playing the stuttering movie.

[rbjtech 4222]

Does your dashboard show the correct LAN address - ie 192.168.0.60 according to the logs ?

I would also force it using the Emby > Server > Network > 'local Ip address' (set it to 192.168.0.60) and restart emby.

This latest release has some problems with identifying the LAN and that could be contributing here.

Edited September 25, 2020 by rbjtech

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

Yes it is correct it shows:

192.168.0.60:8096

Ok I shall give it a go and report back.

Thank you

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

21 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

Does your dashboard show the correct LAN address - ie 192.168.0.60 according to the logs ?

I would also force it using the Emby > Server > Network > 'local Ip address' (set it to 192.168.0.60) and restart emby.

This latest release has some problems with identifying the LAN and that could be contributing here.

I tried but it hasn't made a difference.

[rbjtech 4222]

ok - so to clarify -

"I setup the new libtest library on the pc. copied the movie across. scanned library. movie played perfectly.

I have just tried rescanning library and metadata on the normal library and tried again with no luck."

So a brand new library on the same storage, with a copy of a 4K movie, plays just fine but if played from your existing library(on the same storage) it does not.  Is that correct ?

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by rbjtech

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

So I have started up the qnap and changed the library locations from  \\192.168.0.160\Multimedia\4K Movies

to the direct path within the qnap.

/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/Multimedia/4K Movies

 

This works and the movies stream perfectly. I obviously cannot do this on the windows server

Maybe it's my network shares causing the issue?

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

4 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

ok - so to clarify -

"I setup the new libtest library on the pc. copied the movie across. scanned library. movie played perfectly.

I have just tried rescanning library and metadata on the normal library and tried again with no luck."

So a brand new library on the same storage, with a copy of a 4K movie, plays just fine but if played from your existing library(on the same storage) it does not.  Is that correct ?

 

Not quite..

A copy of the movie saved onto the same storage SSD as the windows server (c: drive) played perfectly. The same movie stored on the network attached storage (qnap) stutters.

 

[rbjtech 4222]

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the QNAP - is this just using SMB (v2+) shares, or are you having to do any form of 'mounting' to see the shares on the Windows server ?

It may be worth asking a Mod to move this into the QNAP section for more specialist knowledge. (I appreciate this is for the QNAP emby server)

Edited September 25, 2020 by rbjtech

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

I actually dont know other than i can type in \\192.168.0.160\Multimedia\etc.... or i can use explorer network icon and open it this way too  \\QNAP-TS653a\Multimedia

I havent done any mounting, I fell it is trying to send the data in and out of the same network cable causing a bandwidth issue due to the size as all 1080p plays fine.

Ill start trying to find any info on how windows servers get library locations on a qnap for direct playing.

Is that a good idea?

 

 

[rbjtech 4222]

It seems odd - the fact, as you stated in your first post, that you can copy the file from the QNAP to the Windows machine @ 112 Mbytes per second - suggests you have no core networking issues.  A 4K 'remux' will use ~80-100 Mbit/sec - so technically you could copy 6-7 multiple 4K streams over the gigabit Ethernet and still not have a problem so I don't think it's bandwidth related.

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

Ok that's good to know. Any PC I have or laptop hits over 100 when moving a file.

How does the file transfer over the network? Does it get sent to the emby server from the qnap first  and then straight to the media player? Would that cause a bottleneck having the file transfer up and down the same cable? (I probably now look and idiot!) or does it go directly from the qnap to the media player?

[rbjtech 4222]

For direct playing, it goes direct and Emby reads the file as it needs it (there is a buffer in memory), but it does not get written to the local disk.

For any form of transcoding, (be it remuxing, or transcoding) then it writes it to the emby local storage first, then plays it from the local storage. 

For both cases, it only ever 'reads' video from the NAS (excl metadata which you may have chosen to store on the NAS)

[CHA0SENG7NE 28]

Ok so it has to pass the data through emby and then to the media player. Even if it's a direct stream? Could this be why the qnap emby server works fine as it's one location that sends the data directly to a media player. 

The windows server is another location the data has to travel to before being sent to the media player?