Unable to fast forward or rewind live tv

[701h 12]

When playing live TV, Android client on my Galaxy s21 does not fast forward or rewind. Even if I pause it for a while, it cannot skip forward or back. It's like the buttons just don't work. There is no transcoding, just live streaming from my windows 10 server on local wifi. Playback via the Web browser on the same device functions normally. Play back of other media like movies works properly via the Android app too, the issue seems to only affect live TV.

Edited August 15, 2021 by 701h

[MBSki 1114]

Are you able to skip forward on recorded tv? I have issues with recorded tv that are saved as ts files. Might be the same thing with live tv. The Android TV client allows you to disable direct play for ts files, which gets skip forward working again. 

@Luke Is live tv a ts file? Either way we need an option to disable direct play for ts because skipping forward on ts files and live tv doesn't work.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes we are looking into improving this. Thanks for reporting.

[701h 12]

Thanks Luke. I'm unable to confirm if this affects recorded TV, as all my recordings are converted to mp4 files immediately. If you need me to check let me know, but otherwise I'm too lazy. Lol.

Edited August 15, 2021 by 701h

[bob174 7]

I'm still seeing that the android client doesn't allow for rewind on live TV.  This thread was posted 18 months ago wherein you said you were working on it.  Is it so difficult to fix?

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are working on improving it. Thanks.

[sn1kketysnake 0]

Any ETA on getting Android app fixed?

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, sn1kketysnake said:

Any ETA on getting Android app fixed?

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[Eric_HTPC 1]

Its now at the three year mark since this has been reported. Any updates on this?

[tobycth3 1]

@Luke Curious about this as well as I'm migrating from Channels DVR to Emby and found I cannot RW/FF live TV, only recordings after they have finished. Feels like a very basic feature to have, so I hope this can be addressed.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are working on improving this. Thanks.

[tobycth3 1]

25 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, we are working on improving this. Thanks.

Is there any ETA or timeline? It looks like this was reported as an issue in 2021...

[an72945 1]

Quote

This is a pretty basic fix, as the Emby android TV app works fine, but there are a whole lot of other functionality that doesn't have.  Is Emby development dead?

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, if you go into the app's playback settings and you force a conversion on mpegts, then this will give you the behavior that you want. This will change the way the server packages the live stream and will make it more seekable. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[bruor 43]

I've noticed that the newer android app is listed as Emby beta in the tv app store,  I have tried to use it and noticed the same issue.   If I manually force the quality setting to something lower I am able to seek, will a similar option be made available in the newer app for TV users? 

[bruor 43]

I was looking for it in the wrong place, forcing remux of mpeg-ts fixed the issue! 

[Tigga5 39]

On 5/27/2025 at 11:57 PM, Luke said:

Hi, if you go into the app's playback settings and you force a conversion on mpegts, then this will give you the behavior that you want. This will change the way the server packages the live stream and will make it more seekable. Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

It's hard to believe that such a fundamental live TV feature depends on a workaround most users would never stumble across or associate together. It’d make a big difference if this behavior were just built in or exposed as a clear “Enable Time Shifting” setting somewhere in playback options rather than this obscure work-around.

Logically it seems like the existing "Prefer direct streaming of Live TV" setting should already do this if it's disabled. I've disabled that, but the dashboard still shows Direct Play, so it’s unclear what that setting actually does, if anything.

 

I also tested forcing conversion on mpegts as suggested. It technically works, but it’s unstable and playback freezes easily if you fast forward too much, and the whole experience just seems janky compared to the old app. None of this is an issue with the Emby for Android TV app, Plex, or Channels DVR, so it does seem specific to the Universal app’s handling of live streams.

Edited October 31, 2025 by Tigga5

[Luke 42077]

23 minutes ago, Tigga5 said:

It's hard to believe that such a fundamental live TV feature depends on a workaround most users would never stumble across or associate together. It’d make a big difference if this behavior were just built in or exposed as a clear “Enable Time Shifting” setting somewhere in playback options rather than this obscure work-around.

Logically it seems like the existing "Prefer direct streaming of Live TV" setting should already do this if it's disabled. I've disabled that, but the dashboard still shows Direct Play, so it’s unclear what that setting actually does, if anything.

 

I also tested forcing conversion on mpegts as suggested. It technically works, but it’s unstable and playback freezes easily if you fast forward too much, and the whole experience just seems janky compared to the old app. None of this is an issue with the Emby for Android TV app, Plex, or Channels DVR, so it does seem specific to the Universal app’s handling of live streams.

The latest version of the app has a dedicated direct stream live TV setting that you can use instead so that you don’t have to force conversion on all mpegts.

[Tigga5 39]

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

The latest version of the app has a dedicated direct stream live TV setting that you can use instead so that you don’t have to force conversion on all mpegts.

Is there a different setting besides the one I originally mentioned?

 

Quote

Logically it seems like the existing "Prefer direct streaming of Live TV" setting should already do this if it's disabled. I've disabled that, but the dashboard still shows Direct Play, so it’s unclear what that setting actually does, if anything.

 

[Luke 42077]

Just now, Tigga5 said:

Is there a different setting besides the one I originally mentioned?

 

 

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[Tigga5 39]

5 minutes ago, Luke said:

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

I'll take that as a "no". You might want to test that setting then since it doesn't work.

Edited October 31, 2025 by Tigga5

[Luke 42077]

Just now, Tigga5 said:

I'll take that as a "no". You might want to do test that setting then since it doesn't work.

Hi, it seems to be working just fine in my testing. Can we please look at an example? Thanks.

[Tigga5 39]

Here you go. "Prefer direct streaming of Live TV" and forcing conversion of MPEGTS are both disabled. This is the only log that it wrote anything to while testing. I let a channel play for a few minutes, then paused and attempted to fast-forward/rewind. Neither one did anything, so I un-paused.

emby_log.txt

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, Tigga5 said:

Here you go. "Prefer direct streaming of Live TV" and forcing conversion of MPEGTS are both disabled. This is the only log that it wrote anything to while testing. I let a channel play for a few minutes, then paused and attempted to fast-forward/rewind. Neither one did anything, so I un-paused.

emby_log.txt 18.27 kB · 0 downloads

Hi there, please attach the complete emby server log file. Thanks.

[Tigga5 39]

The log I attached contains the headers plus all logs from the moment I began testing. What else specifically do you need to see from the log file?

Edited October 31, 2025 by Tigga5