Multi-channel issues with Sony Android TV app - please advise

[asquare3376 6]

Hi,

So here's my story - I always wanted to have my own media (movie) server and when I got a chance, google had me start off with Plex; Plex is easy to configure; Plex is this , Plex is that. Bought their monthly subscription and gave up just after 2 days; so many horrible issues especially with the multi-channel Audio. Learned my lesson - never trust search engine advise. Anyways, diverted my energy to Emby, and after a few initial hiccups, got it all running fine until now. Major hurdle for me here was even after setting the allowed bandwidth on the Android app to "Auto", Emby was limiting the bandwidth to 80mb/s and all my 4k HDR content with bitrate above 80mbps were being transcoded. Got rid of the problem by setting the allowed limit to 160mb/s but this is something that needs a little fix for "Auto" to really behave like "Auto".

Moving on to the multi-channel sound handling. I own a Sony STR-ZA5000ES receiver configured for 5.1 channel setup. The connection with Sony XR-65A80J Android TV running the client is via eARC. TV is configured to let the receiver handle all multi-channel decoding and I prefer my sound setting to be "Pure Direct" - decode as-is with no manipulation.

Problem with the app:

Scenario # 1: I start the TV, receiver gets turned on per CEC setting (Bravia Sync), input gets switched to TV then I manually change the sound to "Pure Direct". Start playing any of my movie thru Emby, see the 5 channels getting decoded in the receiver display - Life Is Good

Scenario # 2: Later during the day, I turn on the TV, receiver powers on, sets input to TV and then I change sound settings to "Pure Direct". Launch a title in Emby, only 2 channels being decoded in the receiver !!! For sanity check, I close the Emby app, launch Netflix or Amazon Prime, TV outputs 5.1, receiver decodes 5.1 thus confirming it's not the TV but the Emby app. So, I restart my TV, re-launch Emby app and life's good again. My concern is that just because Emby doesn't want to behave, I shouldn't restart my TV 10 times a day.

PS: You may not even get to know that you have this problem if your receiver is set to AFD (Auto Format Decoding). I change my setting to AFD and it works everytime but there's a night and day difference between AFD and Pure Direct and I prefer the latter

[asquare3376 6]

2022-02-15 22:52:18.777 Error PortMapper: Error creating port map
    *** Error Report ***
    Version: 4.6.7.0
    Command line: /volume1/@appstore/EmbyServer/system/EmbyServer.dll -programdata /var/packages/EmbyServer/var -ffdetect /var/packages/EmbyServer/target/bin/ffdetect -ffmpeg /var/packages/EmbyServer/target/bin/ffmpeg -ffprobe /var/packages/EmbyServer/target/bin/ffprobe -nolocalportconfig -ignore_vaapi_enabled_flag -pidfile /var/packages/EmbyServer/var/EmbyServer.pid -defaultdirectory /volume1/Public -updatepackage emby-server-synology7_{version}_x86_64.spk
    Operating system: Linux version 4.4.180+ (root@build13) (gcc version 7.5.0 (GCC) ) #42218 SMP Mon Oct 18 19:16:55 CST 2021
    Framework: .NET Core 3.1.21
    OS/Process: x64/x64
    Runtime: volume1/@appstore/EmbyServer/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
    Processor count: 4
    Data path: /var/packages/EmbyServer/var
    Application path: /volume1/@appstore/EmbyServer/system
    MediaBrowser.Model.Net.HttpException: MediaBrowser.Model.Net.HttpException: <s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" s:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
    <s:Body>
    <s:Fault>
    <faultcode>s:Client</faultcode>
    <faultstring>UPnPError</faultstring>
    <detail>
    <UPnPError xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:control-1-0">
    <errorCode>402</errorCode>
    <errorDescription>InvalidArgs</errorDescription></UPnPError>
    </detail>
    </s:Fault>
    </s:Body>
    </s:Envelope>
    
       at Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpClientManager.CoreHttpClientManager.SendAsyncInternal(HttpRequestOptions options, String httpMethod)
       at Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpClientManager.CoreHttpClientManager.SendAsync(HttpRequestOptions options, String httpMethod)
       at Mono.Nat.Upnp.UpnpNatDevice.GetSpecificMappingAsync(Protocol protocol, Int32 publicPort, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
       at Mono.Nat.Upnp.UpnpNatDevice.CreatePortMap(Mapping mapping, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
       at Emby.PortMapper.ExternalPortForwarding.CreateRules(INatDevice device, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    Source: Emby.Server.Implementations
    TargetSite: Void MoveNext()
    
2022-02-15 22:52:18.780 Error HttpClient: <s:Envelope xmlns:s="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" s:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/">
<s:Body>
<s:Fault>
<faultcode>s:Client</faultcode>
<faultstring>UPnPError</faultstring>
<detail>
<UPnPError xmlns="urn:schemas-upnp-org:control-1-0">
<errorCode>402</errorCode>
<errorDescription>InvalidArgs</errorDescription></UPnPError>
</detail>
</s:Fault>
</s:Body>
</s:Envelope>

[rbjtech 5284]

12 hours ago, asquare3376 said:

Hi,

So here's my story - I always wanted to have my own media (movie) server and when I got a chance, google had me start off with Plex; Plex is easy to configure; Plex is this , Plex is that. Bought their monthly subscription and gave up just after 2 days; so many horrible issues especially with the multi-channel Audio. Learned my lesson - never trust search engine advise. Anyways, diverted my energy to Emby, and after a few initial hiccups, got it all running fine until now. Major hurdle for me here was even after setting the allowed bandwidth on the Android app to "Auto", Emby was limiting the bandwidth to 80mb/s and all my 4k HDR content with bitrate above 80mbps were being transcoded. Got rid of the problem by setting the allowed limit to 160mb/s but this is something that needs a little fix for "Auto" to really behave like "Auto".

Moving on to the multi-channel sound handling. I own a Sony STR-ZA5000ES receiver configured for 5.1 channel setup. The connection with Sony XR-65A80J Android TV running the client is via eARC. TV is configured to let the receiver handle all multi-channel decoding and I prefer my sound setting to be "Pure Direct" - decode as-is with no manipulation.

Problem with the app:

Scenario # 1: I start the TV, receiver gets turned on per CEC setting (Bravia Sync), input gets switched to TV then I manually change the sound to "Pure Direct". Start playing any of my movie thru Emby, see the 5 channels getting decoded in the receiver display - Life Is Good

Scenario # 2: Later during the day, I turn on the TV, receiver powers on, sets input to TV and then I change sound settings to "Pure Direct". Launch a title in Emby, only 2 channels being decoded in the receiver !!! For sanity check, I close the Emby app, launch Netflix or Amazon Prime, TV outputs 5.1, receiver decodes 5.1 thus confirming it's not the TV but the Emby app. So, I restart my TV, re-launch Emby app and life's good again. My concern is that just because Emby doesn't want to behave, I shouldn't restart my TV 10 times a day.

PS: You may not even get to know that you have this problem if your receiver is set to AFD (Auto Format Decoding). I change my setting to AFD and it works everytime but there's a night and day difference between AFD and Pure Direct and I prefer the latter

In the Sony OS (Android) - do you have the option to 'Force' close the Emby application (in the 'App section) after closing it ?

The reason I ask is when you 'close' the App, you don't really close it - it just gets removed from the quick access and parts of it stay in memory still.

If by forcing the App to close, then re-open and it works again (without restarting the TV) proves that it's a handshake type problem not recovering from it running in the background.

 

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  This is definitely a handshake issue between eArc etc. and should be less of a problem in the  beta release of the app.

 

The error in your server log is unrelated.

[asquare3376 6]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  This is definitely a handshake issue between eArc etc. and should be less of a problem in the  beta release of the app.

 

The error in your server log is unrelated.

Thanks. I will install the beta and report back