Emby Theatre Quality Really Poor on Windows versus TV?

[Mossway 3]

Hi All - I'm having issues with the Playback quality on Emby Theatre (Premier Subscription) on PC. The Playback on the Chromecast on TV is excellent however.

Context

Emby Server installed on Synology NAS.

Emby Client 1 cast from phone App to Google Chromecast on Television 44" - Quality of video is really good

Emby Client 2, Emby Theatre App on mini PC windows machine on a 27" touchscreen, 1920x1080 resolution - Quality of video is pretty poor very grainy

Have played all films on TV and the quality is very good and sharp. No issues at all.

Playing them through the Emby Theatre App on Windows Machine the Quality is dreadful. I wasn't sure if there was anything I can try.

When I play the videos on the Windows Machine, at the bottom it says Aspect Ratio Auto, Quality Auto-Direct

The videos I'm playing on average 3-4000 kbits per second but the same videos on the Chromecast so would have thought would be the same quality??

Searched the forums high and low and made sure all of my settings are set correctly:

H.264 encoding pre-set: Medium

H.264 encoding CRF: 23

Video Playback Home network quality: Auto

I have tried setting this to Max but the video quality on Mini-PC is exactly the same as Auto

No idea what you would need from the log but in other posts I've read you need a log. So I have attached what I think you need to see.

 

Problem

I did expect to see the same sharpness and quality which is on the TV (through the Chromecast), on the Windows PC. Admittedly the PC isn't the greatest but isn't terrible neither.

Celeron 1.8Ghz, 64 bit, 8gb RAM, no dedicated graphics card

Despite the Mini-PC, I've tried it on my Desktop which is an i7 with 16gb RAM and same issue so don't think it's a hardware thing

Network wise, not sure how to test but the Chromecast has no issue and the quality on the TV is very good and it's the same home network.

The mini-PC is WIRED in.

 

Any ideas please to see why the quality isn't great?

 

Thank you again

Log.txt

[Ronstang 205]

This is not an Emby problem but one inherent to the PC being displayed on the TV in my experience.  The desktop displayed on my TV has always looked nice but the minute I play a recorded TV show or even live TV the picture is sup par to my cable box.  It has always seemed a little washed out and dark.  I even tried more expensive video cards and played with the video settings and could never get the picture anywhere near the quality of that of my cable box.  If you do some research there are some settings based on how the video card handles color that  you can manipulate to make it better (I don't remember exactly as I gave up years ago) but in my experience this is only a partial improvement.  

This was such a problem for me I never used my PC as a way to watch TV or recorded movies for years.  Yes, occasionally when I was working on something in the den I would have a TV window open in the corner but I really didn't care about the quality because I was busy doing other things....but using my PC as the entertainment system I originally built it to be was something I simply would no do as the quality was just not there.

For me this all changed with Emby.  Once I got the server working and my library built and organized I started using my Xbox 360 as a media extender and the picture quality was just like my cable box.   The Xbox had limitations so I switched over to Firestick 4Ks and bought the app and now not only is Emby easier to use the picture quality is superb compared to the PC displayed on the TV and much easier to use.....plus I can use it on all my TVs now.

I'm sorry I didn't help you solve your problem.....I've always had the same problem so I gave up on the PC and moved on.

[rbjtech 4313]

There are a lot of variables at play here.

Have you plugged the Mini-PC into your TV via HDMI ?  How is that in comparison to the touch screen ?

There are two 'colour spaces' that should be selectable - Auto should do it for you - but ensure that if you are using a 'Monitor' then you should select the 'PC' colour space, if using a TV, then select 'TV'.  This will basically improve and deepen the blacks - it should not really effect the overall quality.

On the Windows PC, ensure you have the 'Native' resolution set - this basically means that Windows itself is not doing any scaling. 

Ensure the video is not being transcoded when playing - look in the 'stats for nerds' on the Emby Client - It should say Direct Play or Direct Stream - either are fine.

I would also look at the PC Graphics drivers to ensure they are not playing with the video feed and trying to 'enhance' it and making a very poor job of it. 

 

 

[Mossway 3]

Thank you Ronstang I appreciate that. Sounds like you have really researched the issue and didn't really find any sort of answer on this. I guess I'll have to live with it unless the follow on answer by rbjtech leads me somewhere

Hi RBJTech - I tried plugging in the mini pc into the TV and for whatever reasons the mini pc had some serious malfunction. So I stopped some sort of power message came up and showed a weird blue screen. It scared me so I unplugged it. Maybe it couldn't handle the size of TV I really don't know maybe it was nothing and a reboot would have worked. But I didn't get the chance to try this one fully. I have plugged back into touchscreen and all works ok.

Colour spaces? Where do I go to check this please is this a windows thing it an emby thing?

Native resolution? Where do I check this? All I know is that windows display settings is set to the recommended 1920x1080. Is there something else somewhere you mean I should check?

All of my videos say Direct Play I have checked this.

Thanks for your message and response I appreciate it

[Ronstang 205]

When it comes to color it depends how your computer is connected to the TV.  There is RGB Full and RGB Limited.  TVs use RGB Limited and the graphics card likely switches to this if it identifies it is connected to a TV.  Switching to RGB Full makes the desktop colors not seem so washed out if your TV supports it.  I also remember playing with actual color settings and it is recommended to use YCbCr 4:4:4 from what I've read but I seriously suggest you do some research on your own based on your specific equipment.

The problem you describe with lack of sharpness on the computer is the same thing I experience on my computer monitor when viewing movies and is likely related to pixel density.  When I am editing and testing videos on this machine I ignore the quality because it is much lower on the computer monitor than the TV, especially a 4K TV.  I see jagged edges on people and other moving objects viewed on the computer monitor but they are not present on the TV....and I have a good video card.

This issue seems to be hit or miss and to be honest if I didn't have a cable box and a 6 tuner cable card and could switch back and forth watching the same show the difference may not have been so obvious.  If someone had never had anything but a computer hooked up to their TV they may not realize some of the issues.  

The best suggestion I can make is do some research, play with your video card settings based on what you find out and after that you may want to try and calibrate your TV to the computer with it's new settings.  This way you may have a perfect picture or not but you should be closer to what you want.  Like I said....I gave up, I have all Sony TVs which arguably have some of the best picture quality and color on the market and I was never happy until I switched over to the Firestick as my input device.....and these days the new gen are always on sale....I just bought three more 4K ones for about $25 a piece.

I'm sorry I can't be of further help but it's been years since I messed with this as I gave up out of frustration and just used my cable box.  All my recorded content just sat on my computer for years until I found Emby and started using my Xbox then migrating to the Firestick which doesn't require transcoding on most content.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Ronstang

[Mossway 3]

Thank you Ronstang you've been really helpful

[sooty234 266]

There's a whole lot of granularity to color space and what to use. Assuming you're running above 30Hz, you can't use chroma subsampling at 4.4.4. HDMI 2.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth. And as the vast majority of media is only 4:2:0 running at anything higher is redundant. If you need the fine detail for text and some games, the difference between RGB and 4:2:2 is almost unnoticeable. I run my desktop at 4k in HDR at 4:2:2, and it's just fine. All my text is clear. 

This will help you understand.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/chroma-subsampling