Emby not transcoding 4k until it errors out on 1080p TV - CCGTV

[marx 0]

I'm not sure if this is an issue regarding the app or the server, but since it's specific to my CCGTV I figured I'd asked here.  I have one set up on a 1080p set and it tries to direct play 4k HEVC and won't start transcoding until it errors out which can take up to or so minutes of stuttering to get to that point.  If I use  the Roku built into the TV or a 1080p Fire TV Stick it transcodes immediately but at this point performance on the TV itself is so slow it's a really painful experience navigating around Emby so I don't want to use that and I HATE Fire TV so don't want to go back to that.  Is there a way to either set the resolution correctly as far as the server is concerned or force that client to transcode 4k automatically?  I see there is a bitrate limit that might take care of most of this issue, but I'm also not sure the proper bitrate to select to make sure it gets all 4K but leaves 1080p alone.    Anyone have any advice?

Edited November 22, 2021 by marx

[ebr 16184]

Can you please play that item for a few seconds and then follow the instructions to send a log from the app?

 

[marx 0]

Here's a log of the playback.  As far as I can tell from my very basic understanding of all this is that it seems to be getting reported that the CCGTV  is 4K (even though it's only hooked up  and set to display at 1080p) so it direct plays and the CCGTV tries to transcode it, eventually fails when you try to navigate at all and switches to transcoding from 4K HEVC -> 4K H265 which the CCGTV then transcodes down to 1080p which doesn't seem to give it too many issues (the stats after starting the transcode says that the transcode is still streaming in 4K). 

 

 log.txt

[GrimReaper 4740]

That's server log. As per:

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Can you please play that item for a few seconds and then follow the instructions to send a log from the app?

 

do provide in-app log (click/follow underlined text or read below). 

Quote

Emby for Android TV/Fire TV and Emby for Roku Logs

 

These apps have the option to send an app log to us electronically.  You enter the settings page and turn on the "Debug Options".  Now there will be a new option on the user menu at the top of your app home page labelled "Send Log".  

 

  NOTE

If you are using Android TV/Fire TV and your problem is with playback, please send the log directly from the playback OSD.
There will be an option on the "cog" menu.

 

Reproduce your problem and then use this button to send the log.  Then add the following information to your report in the forum:

 

• Exactly what you were doing and what happened.  Include the name of whatever you played if it is a playback problem
• The time you sent the log (in Eastern Time please - UTC -5)
• The name of the Emby user on the local server that was logged in at the time

 

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  The device is able to consume 4K and scale it down to your display, so the resolution alone should not be causing a transcode.  I suspect the problem is actually the bitrate but the app log will help determine that.

What is the bitrate of this item?

[marx 0]

45 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  The device is able to consume 4K and scale it down to your display, so the resolution alone should not be causing a transcode.  I suspect the problem is actually the bitrate but the app log will help determine that.

What is the bitrate of this item?

So it does seem to be something to do with downscaling HEVC on the CCGTV and transcoding being triggered by bitrate as I tried some more movies and some of them started transcoding immediately due to bitrate, though  most didn't.  The auto selection sets it to 80Mbit/s.  I've played around with it a bit and it seems I can catch MOST of the correct content setting the max bitrate to 21Mbit/s.    Is there a way to force 1080p on the client instead of using bitrate and making the client downscale 4k content locally?  Though I'm guessing it's a bit of an edge case using a 4K capable device on a 1080p TV to play 4K content.

[marx 0]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

That's server log. As per:

do provide in-app log (click/follow underlined text or read below). 

 

Ok so I tried to do this, I enabled debugging set the bitrate back to auto and now it just sends me back to the Emby home screen after a few seconds of trying to play instead of trying to keep going and eventually fail down to transcoding.  Everything is unresponsive with debugging off until it fails back as is so I'm guessing it's the CPU can't keep up.  I'm pretty sure it's not a bug per se just a unintended consequence of how I have it set up.

[GrimReaper 4740]

4 minutes ago, marx said:

Ok so I tried to do this, I enabled debugging set the bitrate back to auto and now it just sends me back to the Emby home screen after a few seconds of trying to play instead of trying to keep going and eventually fail down to transcoding.  Everything is unresponsive with debugging off until it fails back as is so I'm guessing it's the CPU can't keep up.  I'm pretty sure it's not a bug per se just a unintended consequence of how I have it set up.

Good, now send the log from the app (click your username top-right on the Homescreen, you'll have Send Logs selection in the dropdown, IIRC last one) and provide details as stipulated above: approx. time and user logged on at the time. 

[marx 0]

3 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Good, now send the log from the app (click your username top-right on the Homescreen, you'll have Send Logs selection in the dropdown, IIRC last one) and provide details as stipulated above: approx. time and user logged on at the time. 

Thanks, I sent the log.  User is Marx and was sent approx 6:22

[ebr 16184]

15 hours ago, marx said:

Thanks, I sent the log.  User is Marx and was sent approx 6:22

Hi.  What is the bitrate of that item that you played?

If you disable the subtitles before playback, does it improve?

[marx 0]

37 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  What is the bitrate of that item that you played?

If you disable the subtitles before playback, does it improve?

That file had a bitrate of 69,614 kbps.  Didn't realize the subtitles were set to on but with and without it's the same behavior.  I've tried a 4k file with a 15Mbit/s rate that's less than some of my 1080p content too and it does the same thing.  They all direct play fine on my other CCGTV on a 4k TV so it's related to the conversion and downscaling with HEVC.   I just put a 1070 in my server for transcode since I just replaced my desktop so this is my first time messing with this part of Emby.  I'm really just trying to get it to start transcode for all 4K content immediately on the server since it's a 1080p set and I have the hardware now to handle it now.  The bit rate limit does work for the most part at getting around the issue.  The other 1080p sets it serves don't have 4k capable streamers attached so it starts transcode immediately because HEVC isn't supported.

Edited November 23, 2021 by marx

[ebr 16184]

9 minutes ago, marx said:

They all direct play fine on my other CCGTV on a 4k TV so it's related to the conversion and downscaling with HEVC.

Not necessarily.  It could also just be throughput related in that the other TV may have a better network signal or something.

[marx 0]

3 minutes ago, ebr said:

Not necessarily.  It could also just be throughput related in that the other TV may have a better network signal or something.

Ah, yes that would make sense particularly for an old cheap 1080p TV.  It does however have no issue playing h264 content with higher bitrates than one of the HEVC files I tried, including the transcoded h264 4k streams from the server which is why I was thinking it wasn't strictly bitrate but related to format.   Either way I can live with using the bitrate limit even if it's not a perfect catch all, as unnecessarily transcoding 1080p on occasion shouldn't really have any considerable performance impact when it happens, was just hoping that there was a way to force the issue based on client/format.