Emby playback buffering/stalling

[coreymichael 1]

I have a constant flow and fast load times if I watch something from the server locally. If I select a dropbox drive that's mounted with winfsp then it starts randomly buffering every 10-20 seconds for about 1-2 seconds.  I can play the files on the dropbox drive completely fine when using it directly through windows explorer so I don't believe it's a mount issue with rclone.  I can also play the files in any other media players with no issues.  The only time I have an issue is with Emby.  I'm wondering if it's anything to do with the communication between Emby and winfsp.  Everything is updated to most recent.  I'm on a 2GB fiber internet line and everything is connected with brand new cat8 cables on a 10GB enterprise router.  I really have no clue why the hiccup is happening.  Everything runs nice and smooth with multiple devices and multiple media players, but when I load up Emby it's buffering only with that dropbox mount in windows 10 enterprise.   All of the equipment is on power conditioners and UPS power units, so the power is clean.

In this particular instance, it was running really bad so I recycled a new log file and enabled debugging. It was playing back really bad from about 10:00 to 10:11, and then started getting a little better after that. I've included the new log file in this post. In this playback, the line of data is internet (2g fiber) > Firewall > HP Procurve networking > data server > rclone/mount/dropbox > emby server > amazon firetv > emby player.

Hope this information helps. As of the time it took to write this report, the media player has only buffered once.  Now it's frozen, and now it's running again after about a minute. It's so random.

Thanks!

embyserver.txt

[Luke 42080]

Hi, what I would probably suggest is lowering the in app quality setting to have the server transcode down to a lower bitrate. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

[RanmaCanada 496]

You should really have your media hosted in your own house on your own hardware.  Anything that is not being hosted by you, is really not the responsibility of the Emby devs as there are far too many things that can go wrong which are out of your control.  I know it's not what you want to hear, but thems the truth.

[coreymichael 1]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, what I would probably suggest is lowering the in app quality setting to have the server transcode down to a lower bitrate. Please see if that helps. Thanks.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work. It buffers randomly still. It plays more solid on a 50GB movie than it does with a 170MB series episode. That's why I'm stumped. It's not the bandwidth coming from the cloud.

[coreymichael 1]

1 hour ago, RanmaCanada said:

You should really have your media hosted in your own house on your own hardware.  Anything that is not being hosted by you, is really not the responsibility of the Emby devs as there are far too many things that can go wrong which are out of your control.  I know it's not what you want to hear, but thems the truth.

Out of my control, such as?

[RanmaCanada 496]

2 hours ago, coreymichael said:

Out of my control, such as?

You don't own the hardware that the media is stored on, hence you do not control it.

[coreymichael 1]

2 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

You don't own the hardware that the media is stored on, hence you do not control it.

All of my media is local. I do control my cloud storage. Thanks for trying. Next.

[pwhodges 2012]

6 hours ago, coreymichael said:

All of my media is local. I do control my cloud storage. Thanks for trying. Next.

Quote

 In this playback, the line of data is internet (2g fiber) > Firewall > HP Procurve networking > data server > rclone/mount/dropbox > emby server > amazon firetv > emby player.

So you count data coming from the internet as local?  Sure, it's a fast link, but that's not what "local" means in my book.

Paul

[visproduction 315]

CM,  Cloud storage is usually offsite handled by a host or 3rd party service which means access is through the host servers and then the Internet, which can have all sorts of packet transfer limits and traffic issues.  I suppose you could set up your own cloud storage and house it locally, accessable through your server to a workstation or RAID array.  Normally, that is referred to as a local storage and not labled as a cloud storage. Do you have something like that?  You mentioned it was local.  Do you have a local copy of all the cloud files?  is that what you mean by local?

Hosts set limits to upload and download speeds.  Upload especially, is artificially limited.  Anything coming from your local storage going out to any remote user has a speed limit from your host.  Normally, that is not an issue.  It's usually fast enough, but if someone else is also using your Wifi with a phone, then that bandwidth is handling multiple packet traffic.  Your router also has to sort out any conflicts with Wifi issues or packet interference, depending how you have that setup. 

If your storage in the cloud is the way most people have it and it's offsite, then when you request a download,  packet requests are uploaded to the host,  then passed to the cloud service.  There is a check to see if the file locally is the same datestamp and the cloud host reponds with either a UDP or TCP packet download stream or possibly lets you use the local copy..  Those rules vary, per cloud service.  Many cloud hosts are on the lookout for video streaming from their files and even ban such files.  If they see continous UDP packets running for any time longer than maybe 2 minutes, they could have a service running to stop transfers or delay them to mess up video streaming and discourage users from doing that.  It's up to the host.  That is why we were asking what's up, exactly with your cloud storage.

Hope that helps.

Edited April 26, 2022 by visproduction

[RanmaCanada 496]

21 hours ago, coreymichael said:

All of my media is local. I do control my cloud storage. Thanks for trying. Next.

You literally said your only problem is with stuff on drop box, WHICH YOU DO NOT CONTROL.

It's obvious you're right and everyone here is wrong and we're all morons for not understanding your problem.

Bye.

[coreymichael 1]

Seriously? I have all of my media local and a copy in the cloud. I know what cloud is. I do control my cloud data as well as local. SMH.

[coreymichael 1]

On 4/26/2022 at 3:41 AM, pwhodges said:

So you count data coming from the internet as local?  Sure, it's a fast link, but that's not what "local" means in my book.

Paul

If you were smart enough to read the whole conversation instead of bits and pieces, then you wouldn't look so stupid with this response.

[coreymichael 1]

On 4/26/2022 at 6:43 PM, RanmaCanada said:

You literally said your only problem is with stuff on drop box, WHICH YOU DO NOT CONTROL.

It's obvious you're right and everyone here is wrong and we're all morons for not understanding your problem.

Bye.

Wow, you sure are a smart cookie! SMH

[pwhodges 2012]

13 minutes ago, coreymichael said:

Seriously? I have all of my media local and a copy in the cloud. I know what cloud is. I do control my cloud data as well as local. SMH.

If your problem is with playing media that is local, why did you confuse things by bringing up cloud storage at all and including an internet link in your playback chain?

Paul

Edited April 29, 2022 by pwhodges

[coreymichael 1]

2 hours ago, pwhodges said:

If your problem is with playing media that is local, why did you confuse things by bringing up cloud storage at all and including an internet link in your playback chain?

Paul

If you would have read my first post in it's entirety before commenting then maybe there wouldn't be any confusion.  I was very clear.

[RanmaCanada 496]

On 25/04/2022 at 01:29, coreymichael said:

I have a constant flow and fast load times if I watch something from the server locally. If I select a dropbox drive that's mounted with winfsp then it starts randomly buffering every 10-20 seconds for about 1-2 seconds.  I can play the files on the dropbox drive completely fine when using it directly through windows explorer so I don't believe it's a mount issue with rclone.  I can also play the files in any other media players with no issues.  The only time I have an issue is with Emby.  I'm wondering if it's anything to do with the communication between Emby and winfsp.  Everything is updated to most recent.  I'm on a 2GB fiber internet line and everything is connected with brand new cat8 cables on a 10GB enterprise router.  I really have no clue why the hiccup is happening.  Everything runs nice and smooth with multiple devices and multiple media players, but when I load up Emby it's buffering only with that dropbox mount in windows 10 enterprise.   All of the equipment is on power conditioners and UPS power units, so the power is clean.

In this particular instance, it was running really bad so I recycled a new log file and enabled debugging. It was playing back really bad from about 10:00 to 10:11, and then started getting a little better after that. I've included the new log file in this post. In this playback, the line of data is internet (2g fiber) > Firewall > HP Procurve networking > data server > rclone/mount/dropbox > emby server > amazon firetv > emby player.

Hope this information helps. As of the time it took to write this report, the media player has only buffered once.  Now it's frozen, and now it's running again after about a minute. It's so random.

Thanks!

embyserver.txt 258.44 kB · 2 downloads

What part of DROPBOX and winfsp makes it local?

Everything runs nice and smooth with multiple devices and multiple media players, but when I load up Emby it's buffering only with that dropbox mount in windows 10 enterprise. 

 

Again, it is NOT LOCAL.  You do not control it.  This is not a problem for the Emby Devs.

[pwhodges 2012]

2 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

What part of DROPBOX and winfsp makes it local?

That at least is clear enough: Dropbox is a way of synchronising local content with cloud content, so the playing can be from the local copy (local being on his separate server, of course, hence the network mounting arrangements).

The confusion was from the OP mentioning his router and his fibre Internet line at all - they are not relevant, and just clouded (!) the real issue.

Paul

Edited April 29, 2022 by pwhodges

[coreymichael 1]

10 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

What part of DROPBOX and winfsp makes it local?

Everything runs nice and smooth with multiple devices and multiple media players, but when I load up Emby it's buffering only with that dropbox mount in windows 10 enterprise. 

 

Again, it is NOT LOCAL.  You do not control it.  This is not a problem for the Emby Devs.

Dropbox and winfsp are ways of mounting the cloud drive encrypted with rclone which I fully control. Therefore, it streams the video from dropbox as if it were a local drive.

On the other hand I have everything stored LOCALLY as well. When it's played from my LOCAL server, it streams fine. When it's STREAMED from dropbox is where the problem is.  My beef is that emby is the ONLY media software that causes buffering from the STREAMING. No other software INCLUDING PLEX has this issue. My issue is with EMBY.

I think I have the right to ask the developers a question when I PAY FOR THE SERVICE.  Don't act like they have no responsibility at all to respond to a question I have about their PAID SERVICE.

Is this clear enough for you???

[coreymichael 1]

8 hours ago, pwhodges said:

That at least is clear enough: Dropbox is a way of synchronising local content with cloud content, so the playing can be from the local copy (local being on his separate server, of course, hence the network mounting arrangements).

The confusion was from the OP mentioning his router and his fibre Internet line at all - they are not relevant, and just clouded (!) the real issue.

Paul

The whole message was clear. The line of data flow is extremely relevant. I'm sure if I was clouding information, Luke wouldn't understand it but he did on the first response. That's all that matters since he's with emby and you both are not.

[AnSniper 19]

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Edited August 2, 2022 by AnSniper