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Replaying HEVC in Emby Theater


schogobong
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schogobong

Hi,

 

I have my Emby Server (4.3.0.30) set up on a QNAP TS431P and am accessing it via the Emby WebApp (Chrome). I have noticed that some of my H265 content is acting up and lagging. As far as I can tell this has to do with Chrome not supporting the codec. Playing the file via Edge seems to work better but there is still considerable lag.

 

Playing the file on my AppleTV (through Emby) as well as using VLC to play directly from the server (with Windows) both works without any issues or lag. I am assuming that's when the local hardware kicks in as compared to my NAS and/or Chrome restrictions. Is that assumption correct?

 

So I am thinking about getting a Premiere subscription in order to get the Emby desktop applications, assuming that this will my laptop do the "heavy" lifting. Can I expect that this would resolve my issues of having laggy HEVC playback?

 

Please let me know if you need any other information - looking forward to your feedback!

 

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Guest asrequested

The lag you're referring to is probably the server transcoding. Yes, using a player that will decode HEVC will stop that happening. Theater for Windows desktop will play everything, natively.

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schogobong

Thanks for the feedback Doofus. Just got Premiere and downloaded Emby Theater for Windows.

 

Playback now actually works without any lag, so that is great :) However, I notice that replay takes around 30 seconds to start after clicking on Play. During that time I'm just getting that colorful loading illustration (the circle).

 

Is that expected behavior?

 

Edit:

The same can be observed when using the Emby Theater App from the Microsoft Store (I used the one from the Emby website before).

 

Edit 2:

Just tried the Android App - works like a charm - reasonably immediate start, no lag. So the issue seems to be with Emby Theater for Windows (both versions).

Edited by schogobong
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Guest asrequested

What are you trying to play when this happens? Is it happening with everything you play?

Edited by Doofus
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schogobong

Allright, so I played around a bit.

 

This seems to happen whenever I  playback an HEVC file (either beginning to play the file or skipping to a non-buffered part). All other files seem to work just fine. I tested this on two HEVC encoded files, both around one hour, one is 200MB, the other is 350MB, both are mkv).

 

I have also noticed that, when playing said files in Emby Theater on Windows, CPU usage on my QNAP goes straight up to around around 98% and stays there even if the video is paused. Interestingly enough: While the video in the Windows app is paused I can play the video straight from my NAS with VLC (home wifi) and also play the same video through my phones mobile network - both without buffering or anything and without having any further impact on the CPU of my NAS. All at the same time.

 

As soon as I go back to the menu in Emby Theater, CPU usage drops again.

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schogobong

I just tried another mkv file. CPU doesn't peak, but it seams that Emby Theater still isn't happy with the filetype. It takes considerably longer to open than other filetypes (e.g. mp4) and it also takes a while to resume playing after skipping to a different part of the film. But this is nowhere near as bad as it is with the to HEVC mkv files.

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Guest asrequested

That sounds like an access issue. There should be no server involvement. You should be able to hit play, shut down the server and it keeps playing (unless you press pause). Make sure that emby has direct access to the media.

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schogobong

How can I do that?

 

Also, there don't seem to be any issues when playing back through the Android app. Could this still be an access issue that only affects Emby Theater on Windows?

 

Thanks for your support Doofus!

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Guest asrequested

Yes, if one device has better access than another, then it will work better. How do you have your network configured?

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schogobong

I have two Google Wifi devices. The NAS has a wired connection to one of them, all other devices are connected via WiFi - so Emby on my Android phone as well as on my Windows laptop are both accessing the server via WiFi

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Guest asrequested

It's not showing me what I was looking for. Its going directly to the server stream. You'll need to post the transcode log from the server.

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Guest asrequested

If there's no transcode log, then my assumption was wrong. The 'lag' is something else. When you play one of these videos, pull up the stats for nerds, take a screenshot and post it. 

Edited by Doofus
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schogobong

Here you go:

 

5e1037c946042_StatsForNerds.jpg

 

I also went back to the Emby app from the Microsoft Store again just to see what's different. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the file to play at all, so I tried a different one (non-HEVC). Here are the corresponding stats:

5e1039006421a_StatsForNerds_MicrosoftSto

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Guest asrequested

Ah, now the mpv log makes sense. It's playing via a network IP rather than a directory. A stream not a file.

 

http://IPAddress:8096/emby/videos/66709/stream.mkv?DeviceId=DeviceId&MediaSourceId=29bf84181d82fccb93c1a87f519012b6&Static=true&PlaySessionId=2ca29ce8fc524f9396ced99b218ee570&api_key=518235b1cbf947439ea28a9ff24a0aa4

[ 0.047][d][ffmpeg] tcp: Starting connection attempt to IPAddress port 8096

[ 0.061][d][ffmpeg] tcp: Successfully connected to IPAddress port 8096

 

How do you have your library location set up in Emby? Where are the files located, and how are you sharing them?

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Guest asrequested

The shared network folder path should be what you see in Windows explorer. Navigate to the folder in Windows explorer and copy what's in the address bar.

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schogobong

Ha - like magic! So that makes the experience a whole lot better :) Can't believe I was using the wrong settings all this time... thanks :)

 

But when connecting remotely, the issue is still there (long loading with Emby Theater from the Emby site; no playback (or at least not withing around 40 seconds) whith Emby Theater from the Windows Store). At the same time, I am not having any issues at all when using the Android app.

 

Any idea what that is about?

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Guest asrequested

When remote, that is likely due to transcoding. Is there a transcode log? Having a NAS transcode is hard work. They aren't designed for that kind of load.

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