Home videos and Photos - please help

[naeyaert 8]

Hi Emby I'm a long time user of EMBY and I wanted to know if there is a better way to show photos and home videos as I have a massive amount of content of my kids.

I have a media library setup with "Home Videos and Photos" media type and the video part just doesn't work very well.  Before I looked at another option I wanted to ask if I was doing something wrong and if I could get this working more smoothly?

The photos part works as you'd expect but when it comes to movies, it sucks.

I shoot all my movies on my iPhone and then upload them to my library so we can view them there and also Chromecast them.

All the videos are really jerky, they don't play easily and I get a thumbnail with the video image and a "1080" stamp but they don't play well.

I often find myself leaving EMBY to use VLC or something similar.

I'm running on Windows 10 fully updated but I'm wondering if I'm missing something like CODEC's or similar?

To my mind this should be really smooth and easy but I might have this setup incorrectly.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Edited May 9, 2021 by naeyaert

[sooty234 266]

Is it with every video, or only the iPhone videos? Can you share one of trouble videos? What do the stats for nerds tell you?

[MBSki 1025]

Are you using a browser on the same machine as your server to view the videos? IMO the Android TV app is the only app that can somewhat handle this at the moment. And I had to switch to an nVidia Shield Pro to keep it from crashing. Using a the app on a Sony Bravia TV and trying to play back a video on a slide show always made it crash. I've had issues playing back any videos in a browser on the same machine as the server, so that could be the problem that you're experiencing. 

My request for Emby is that they allow auto play of videos in a home slide show. They don't want to do it though. To me the slide show experience is terrible, especially the dumb thumbnail in the Emby Theater app. It's horrible. So for slide shows I use Plex. Plex plays a smooth slide show and auto plays the video so you don't have to constantly pick up the remote and click play every single time a new video pops up. 

It's unfortunate that Emby won't spend any time making this better, but it appears we're stuck with status quo for awhile. 

[naeyaert 8]

20 minutes ago, sooty234 said:

Is it with every video, or only the iPhone videos? Can you share one of trouble videos? What do the stats for nerds tell you?

 

As these are family videos I'm a little hesitant to upload them.

I just logged on via Emby Connect and you'll note the interface where it shows pictures an videos.

I'm curious to understand if this looks "normal" - by that I mean when I click on a video should it not start automatically?  If I'm playing photos in a presentation like mode, the videos do not automatically play which is a pain.  Should they?

Also note the video details on the other image - .MOV file format. with 1080p HEVC.  These videos stop and start (stutter) every 2 - 3 seconds and it's a pain.  I just loaded these videos directly from my iPhone.

 

Any help greatly appreciated.

Rob 

Edited May 10, 2021 by naeyaert

[sooty234 266]

If you can, just make a random video with your phone, upload it, make sure the error is reproduced, and share that video. What is the video/folder structure? What happens if you try to play the video on its own, as opposed to being in a 'presentation'? And as this is the Theater forum, lets only focus on that app.

[naeyaert 8]

1 hour ago, sooty234 said:

If you can, just make a random video with your phone, upload it, make sure the error is reproduced, and share that video. What is the video/folder structure? What happens if you try to play the video on its own, as opposed to being in a 'presentation'? And as this is the Theater forum, lets only focus on that app.

OK so just as a quick test, I shot a new video of my office and put it in my library and it appears to play smoothly.

The details on the video are below.

So what is this telling me?  Is there a format issue (problem) with my older videos that were shot on my iphone in 2019?

I'm no expert on video formats.

Thanks Rob

 

[sooty234 266]

They are different codecs. The one of your office is h264 and the older family videos are HEVC (h265). It could be that the older videos are from when apple barely supported HEVC and they weren't multiplexed very well in the MOV container (they should probably be mp4 containers). This will lead to poor demuxing/splitting and poor playback. To prove or disprove my theory, try remuxing one of the videos to mkv. It's very quick and easy. Download and install mkvtoolnix, then add the video and hit 'start multiplexing'. Then try playing it in Theater. If it still doesn't play correctly, then while playing it in Theater pull up the stats for nerds and post a screen shot of them.

[naeyaert 8]

16 hours ago, sooty234 said:

They are different codecs. The one of your office is h264 and the older family videos are HEVC (h265). It could be that the older videos are from when apple barely supported HEVC and they weren't multiplexed very well in the MOV container (they should probably be mp4 containers). This will lead to poor demuxing/splitting and poor playback. To prove or disprove my theory, try remuxing one of the videos to mkv. It's very quick and easy. Download and install mkvtoolnix, then add the video and hit 'start multiplexing'. Then try playing it in Theater. If it still doesn't play correctly, then while playing it in Theater pull up the stats for nerds and post a screen shot of them.

 

OK - I will try your suggestion and come back on the results.

My other question is about the user interface.  When I go into any of my family folders (say "5th Birthday") it has a mixture of photos and videos.

When I press "play" to play a presentation on the media, the photos display fine but all I get on the videos is a thumbnail (like the below chair).

Can someone tell me why this is and how I can get the videos to play in the "presentation" mode for my family photos and videos please?

It's driving me nuts!!!

Cheers Rob

[Luke 37199]

Mixing photos and videos in the same playback session is currently not fully supported. What you're seeing is what you currently get, but it can be improved in future updates. thanks.

[naeyaert 8]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

Mixing photos and videos in the same playback session is currently not fully supported. What you're seeing is what you currently get, but it can be improved in future updates. thanks.

Hi Luke thanks so much for chiming in on this as it's a HUGE part of my emby library (have around 10,000 photos and videos of the family over the years).

So could you please give me some advice on how to get the best experience?

I'm being told that my older videos my not be coded well given the comments from stooty234 and it would be a major pain (assuming) to 'convert' all my videos to a format that would play well.  I'm assuming this but need your advice please.

Is there a better way to deal with this?  I'm not technical but would adding a CODEC or similar to my Win10 setup solve my jerky family video playback?  This is almost unusable on the EMBY server itself let along streaming it via the mobile to a Chromecast in another room.

I'm really looking for a better experience for my massive photo/video collection of home videos.

Do I have this setup optimally and do I just need to wait for an update to play videos smoothly in presentation mode?

Cheers in advance - Rob 

[sooty234 266]

2 hours ago, naeyaert said:

I'm being told that my older videos my not be coded well given the comments from stooty234 and it would be a major pain (assuming) to 'convert' all my videos to a format that would play well.  I'm assuming this but need your advice please.

Is there a better way to deal with this?  I'm not technical but would adding a CODEC or similar to my Win10 setup solve my jerky family video playback?  This is almost unusable on the EMBY server itself let along streaming it via the mobile to a Chromecast in another room.

Do I have this setup optimally and do I just need to wait for an update to play videos smoothly in presentation mode?

Cheers in advance - Rob 

If you could recreate and/or share a file that has this issue, I can provide a lot more information and possibly a solution. From the information you've provided, it's likely not the codec but the container (.MOV and not HEVC).

[naeyaert 8]

20 hours ago, sooty234 said:

If you could recreate and/or share a file that has this issue, I can provide a lot more information and possibly a solution. From the information you've provided, it's likely not the codec but the container (.MOV and not HEVC).

OK I'll do that but for my understanding what is the best container for EMBY???  I'm in the process of downloading all my videos from my cloud storage with a view of mass converting them to make them play best in Emby.  What's the best solution for that please and what should I convert them to to ensure smooth playback and streaming please?

 

[Carlo 4331]

MP4 will have the best all around support (ie browsers) but MKV has less limitations.

If you can convert/remux to mp4 that is likely your best bet.

[sooty234 266]

3 hours ago, naeyaert said:

OK I'll do that but for my understanding what is the best container for EMBY???  I'm in the process of downloading all my videos from my cloud storage with a view of mass converting them to make them play best in Emby.  What's the best solution for that please and what should I convert them to to ensure smooth playback and streaming please?

 

Before you fully commit to this, verify remuxing does actually correct the issue. Test with one file, first. And unless you're familiar with running a command line for something like ffmpeg, remuxing to mp4 can be a pain (apple sucks!). Using a tool like mkvtoolnix is more user friendly. And if you remux to mkv and a player doesn't support it, the server will very easily and quickly remux to a supported container. Most players support mkv these days, browsers are one exception, and apple is another (because apple are douchebags and want to only use their own mp4 creation).