50fps 1080p UK HD material does not play on Shield

[ptr727 1]

Hi, one reason I installed Emby alongside Plex was in hopes of Emby playing 50fps 1080p material, e.g. UK Top Gear Season 30.

But, play, long time spinner, black screen, down arrow, timer is counting, looks like it is playing, but no video and no sound.

Here is the similar report on Plex: https://forums.plex.tv/t/unable-to-playback-50fps-content-on-android-tv/659756/21

Other than 1000s and 1000s of `HttpClient: POST https://api.opensubtitles.org/xml-rpc` entries, I don't see anything in the server log.

The same media plays instantly in the web browser, but fails to play on the Shield.

Server log: attached

Client log:
Submitted: ~4:49pm PST
Shield 2019 Pro name: Game Room
User: Pieter
Server name: Emby-Direct

embyserver.50fps.debug.log

Edited April 15, 2021 by ptr727
Logs

[Luke 37008]

Hi, as a test, can you try sideloading our standard android app and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

[Q-Droid 634]

There must be more to this issue because I play 1080p 50fps content very often. MotoGP and F1 that I watch on the Shield stream without any problems and as far as I can remember they are direct playing.

 

[ptr727 1]

5 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

There must be more to this issue because I play 1080p 50fps content very often. MotoGP and F1 that I watch on the Shield stream without any problems and as far as I can remember they are direct playing.

 

Agree.

Never used to have issues with 50fps material, first noticed the issue with Top Gear Season 30, could be related to a Shield update, could be an underlying tool update e.g. ffmpeg.

[ptr727 1]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Hi, as a test, can you try sideloading our standard android app and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

I'll figure out how and report back.

In the mean time, feel free to PM me for a reproducing media file.

Edited April 16, 2021 by ptr727

[ptr727 1]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, as a test, can you try sideloading our standard android app and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

Do I use the 64bit build on an nvidia shield 2019 pro?

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/tree/master/android

 

Is the vanilla android build equivalent to the TV build, I could not find daily/beta releases for TV, only old builds?

https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Releases/tree/master/androidtv

[ebr 14903]

Hi.  Unfortunately, I cannot see any playback in your log.  Nothing you did wrong, just the Android system being difficult.

The beta version changes a lot with playback so trying it would be a good place to start.

 

[ptr727 1]

Ok, I joined the Beta, will give it another try the weekend.

[Carlo 4330]

Just curious but in the ATV app what do you have set for "Enable Refresh Rate Switching" in Playback Settings?

 

[ptr727 1]

I enable refresh rate switching, in the Shield, not ATV.

I've not tried without it on Emby, but on Plex I tried with refresh rate switching on/off, resolution switching on/off, no difference. Will try it out tonight when I test the Beta.

I also have the same experience on three systems, two are LG TV's, and one is a Samsung TV, two are old Shield models, one is a new Shield Pro 2019 model, two go through a Marantz AVR, one goes direct to TV.

[Carlo 4330]

Lots of combinations to test with that setup.

Have you check to see if you have other 50fps content?  Other 50fps content might work perfectly which could indicate it has something to do with the encoding of this one series.
Something to think about and test perhaps!

[ptr727 1]

I switched to the Beta server build and the Beta client, and it plays the content just fine

Unless the Beta's cause me issues, I'll just stick with the Beta builds.

Thanks for the help.

[Luke 37008]

Thanks for the feedback.