Transcode Directory not being cleaned out

[roberto188 33]

The latest windows build is not clearing out the transcode directly when the streams are stopped. They just keep the files until the drive is full. Even with a restart sometimes it doesn't clean the directory out. I have to exit Emby and then manually start Emby back up for it to clear out the directory.

[Carlo 4561]

Hi, I'm not seeing this.  I just went and viewed my transcode folder and then stopped Live TV and all temp files were removed right away.

How are you stopping your streams?  Is the video fully playing and then you stop/exit the OSD?

[MBSki 1114]

Ive had this problem too. It's super annoying because it can crash the entire PC. Really wish Emby did a better job clearing out this directory. I normally experience this issue when watching/pausing a live recording.

[Carlo 4561]

I've seen this before when someone starts Live TV but then for any reason backs out without letting it either start playing or error out.  This can leave the server is an unknown state of Live TV play.

[Sammy 790]

forfiles  "C:\Users\tbeck\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\transcoding-temp" /s /m *.ts /d -2 /c "cmd /c del @PATH

I run this in a .bat daily using Task Scheduler thanks to @cayars

Edited July 30, 2021 by Sammy

[Carlo 4561]

5 minutes ago, Sammy said:

forfiles /p "C:\Users\tbeck\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata\transcoding-temp" /s /m *.ts /d -2 /c "cmd /c del @PATH

That looks familiar.

[MBSki 1114]

That's not exactly a solution. The server can crash before that daily script kicks in. Emby needs to manage the transcode folder better. 

[Happy2Play 9780]

20 minutes ago, mbarylski said:

That's not exactly a solution. The server can crash before that daily script kicks in. Emby needs to manage the transcode folder better. 

And eventually it will, but until then full media transcodes are maintained until properly stopped or the server is restarted.  The only way a restart will not clear the stream is if the stream is still active, but technically a restart should break all active streams.

But there is nothing new here.

[MBSki 1114]

1 minute ago, Happy2Play said:

And eventually it will, but until then full media transcodes are maintained until properly stopped or the server is restarted.  The only way a restart will not clear the stream is if the stream is still active, but technically a restart should break all active streams.

But there is nothing new here.

Nothing new, but it's broken. If the stream is over, the transcode folder needs to be cleared out, but it doesn't. I'm hoping that this Live TV re-write that we've heard about will fix this issue, but I'm a little surprised we still haven't seen a new beta yet. Hope it comes soon so we can test it out.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Just now, mbarylski said:

If the stream is over, the transcode folder needs to be cleared out, but it doesn't.

But the question is why as every one of my stopped transcodes clear the folder.  So is it a server, client or user issue?  To me the majority is user issue as streams are not stopped properly.

[koopa8840 24]

I can verify this happens when I play FLAC to Roku. It converts FLAC to MP3, completely plays the track, but never clears the transcode folder. However since this doesn't happen to others, it must be a figment of my imagination. 

[MBSki 1114]

Just now, koopa8840 said:

However since this doesn't happen to others, it must be a figment of my imagination. 

Nope, it happens to me too. 

19 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But the question is why as every one of my stopped transcodes clear the folder.  So is it a server, client or user issue?  To me the majority is user issue as streams are not stopped properly.

Stopped properly!? What the heck does that have to do with it? Stopped properly or not, the software needs to handle it. Software is built to deal with the crazy stuff that users do. In this case, Emby is not properly handling the crazy stuff that users do, but also isn't handling the inadequacies if it's own software or the hardware that it runs on. I've run into this issue when skipping forward in live recorded streams. Is it my fault that I wanted to skip forward in a live recorded stream? No. It's a perfectly valid use case that the software needs to be able to handle. The fact that it crashes when I skip forward in a live stream is not my fault, it's the fault of the software.  

[Happy2Play 9780]

6 minutes ago, mbarylski said:

What the heck does that have to do with it? Stopped properly or not, the software needs to handle it.

Sorry but every item I stop properly cleans up after it self.  But am currently playing flac albums on my Roku to see what happens as I haven't noticed any issues with transcoding-temp clean up on my setup playback experience.  But yes lots of you do have issue so I have no idea what everyone else is doing.

But in the end until how Emby does full transcoding, you need at a minimum of the size of the media being played in space.  But that is complicated with hours of live tv at probably 20Mbps+ coming from the stream.  So I can see some setups using over 500Gb+ for a transcode temp.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Happy2Play

[MBSki 1114]

2 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

But that is complicated with hours of live tv at probably 20Mbps+ coming from the stream.  So I can see some setups using over 500Gb+ for a transcode temp.

Yea, live tv is the biggest issue for me. 500Gb is massive! If that's the case I'll have to redirect my transcode directory to a regular hard drive which I really don't want to do as that could make it even worse.

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 minutes ago, mbarylski said:

Yea, live tv is the biggest issue for me. 500Gb is massive! If that's the case I'll have to redirect my transcode directory to a regular hard drive which I really don't want to do as that could make it even worse.

All depends on how active a server is and its use case.  As there are users that have a Terrabyte transcode location.

But yes a better clean up method is need for some users.

[Happy2Play 9780]

2 hours ago, koopa8840 said:

I can verify this happens when I play FLAC to Roku. It converts FLAC to MP3, completely plays the track, but never clears the transcode folder. However since this doesn't happen to others, it must be a figment of my imagination. 

@ebr @speechlesI reproduced this and would guess it may be related to reported playback method I reported in this topic as there server says they are Direct Playing.  Not positive if it will be a client or server issue if it need to be moved.

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/100397-why-is-flac-shown-as-direct-play-on-the-server/&do=findComment&comment=1051605

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Happy2Play
changed url to existing topic.

[Carlo 4561]

1 hour ago, mbarylski said:

That's not exactly a solution. The server can crash before that daily script kicks in. Emby needs to manage the transcode folder better. 

Nothing says a delete script can't run every 15 minutes or so to delete anything over 5 minutes old that isn't active.

[MBSki 1114]

4 minutes ago, cayars said:

Nothing says a delete script can't run every 15 minutes or so to delete anything over 5 minutes old that isn't active.

Yea, but you're talking to 2 users here. This is the type of thing that should be fixed. Who knows how many other users experience the same issue and don't know why.

[Carlo 4561]

Luke has made some fixes to handle this better in the recent past but it may not be enough to catch every issue.

The best thing you can do when entering live TV is wait.  Do not back out until either you get an error or the video starts playing.  If you wait and do that every stop will get properly recorded and transcoding will get cleaned up properly.  It may not be idea, but works.

[MBSki 1114]

2 minutes ago, cayars said:

Luke has made some fixes to handle this better in the recent past but it may not be enough to catch every issue.

The best thing you can do when entering live TV is wait.  Do not back out until either you get an error or the video starts playing.  If you wait and do that every stop will get properly recorded and transcoding will get cleaned up properly.  It may not be idea, but works.

There's nothing to wait for when it freezes during a live recording. The damage is done and the only option is to manually clean out the transcode folder.

[Carlo 4561]

I've never heard of that.  Are you trying to watch the live recording?

[MBSki 1114]

21 minutes ago, cayars said:

I've never heard of that.  Are you trying to watch the live recording?

I posted about it during the super bowl. At the time you mentioned it was a tricky issue to pin down and the update to live TV would help figure out what the problem is. I'll try and find my original post about it.

[Carlo 4561]

I thought that was the extended pause thing caused when you hit RW/FF where you need to wait for transcoding to catch up but not a freeze?

[MBSki 1114]

There's a lot of issues when skipping in a live recording, but yea, it freezes and there's no way to get back into the recording to watch. Either way though, I think we need the live TV update to better diagnose the issue.

[MBSki 1114]

@cayars I found the other post: DVR Recording in progress freezes while watching and using live seeking - Android TV / Fire TV - Emby Community. 

Really hope we get the Live TV update in beta soon.