Buffer size setting wanted.

[DreamSeason 5]

In recent versions, this setting is no longer available. My tv box would drop off wifi sometimes. So I'd like to have the player buffered certain contents in ram. Otherwise, emby stopped playing and went back to the show page. My parents far from my house use internet browsering my emby library in which case buffer is also a better choiçe considering it's internet not local net.

I've asked for this for a few times in other threads. I've seen devs arguing it brings more thouble than benefits. I've also suggested enabling buffer only for direct plays if there were indeed troubles as devs said. Being a dev myself, I'd like to know more details if emby devs would share their thoughts for the removal of this setting.

[Luke 42077]

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

[DreamSeason 5]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi.  Can you try sideloading our standard android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

ET doesn’t have this option either. What’s the point of sideloading it? Or do I miss the setting in ET?

[Luke 42077]

It doesn't, but it might perform better to such a degree that you might not think it's necessary anymore.

[DreamSeason 5]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

It doesn't, but it might perform better to such a degree that you might not think it's necessary anymore.

Then I guess ET has a bigger default buffer size setting, isn't it? Btw, I've come across one problem regarding sound. The video has AC3 codec which my box can not handle. ATV would still output sound(maybe I've enalbed downmix to stereo setting?) while ET keeps silent.   I've searched the related setting in ET but to no avail.

[Luke 42077]

On 10/8/2022 at 2:26 AM, DreamSeason said:

Then I guess ET has a bigger default buffer size setting, isn't it? Btw, I've come across one problem regarding sound. The video has AC3 codec which my box can not handle. ATV would still output sound(maybe I've enalbed downmix to stereo setting?) while ET keeps silent.   I've searched the related setting in ET but to no avail.

@DreamSeason Hi.  Can you try the latest version and let me know if you get audio now?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

[TexasMouse 3]

+1

My internet is sometimes spotty and I would love to be able to increase the buffer size, even if that is just a back-end config file edit. Running Debian server, viewing on LAN with iPad and ATV.

[DreamSeason 5]

On 11/4/2022 at 6:14 AM, Luke said:

@DreamSeason Hi.  Can you try the latest version and let me know if you get audio now?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

I'm afraid it's not. (Using the latest Emby Android version 3.2.82)

10 hours ago, TexasMouse said:

+1

My internet is sometimes spotty and I would love to be able to increase the buffer size, even if that is just a back-end config file edit. Running Debian server, viewing on LAN with iPad and ATV.

Emby for Android TV used to have this setting.  Maybe it's causing more playback issues so devs decided to remove this setting. But my guess is that those issues are for playback whi ch needs transcoding. At least give us the buffer size setting for direct play  

Edited November 14, 2022 by DreamSeason

[ebr 16169]

12 hours ago, DreamSeason said:

Maybe it's causing more playback issues so devs decided to remove this setting. But my guess is that those issues are for playback whi ch needs transcoding

Hi.  No it was not related to transcoding.  The problem is that these devices have fairly limited memory and video apps are not designed to "buffer in" a whole bunch of content and then play it back anymore.  Increasing the buffer size just led to other problems with running out of memory.

[DreamSeason 5]

10 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  No it was not related to transcoding.  The problem is that these devices have fairly limited memory and video apps are not designed to "buffer in" a whole bunch of content and then play it back anymore.  Increasing the buffer size just led to other problems with running out of memory.

Good to know the details behind the scene. But  I think it's not difficult to come up with a pre-defined mapping which maps the ram of user device to the max cache size limit setting. Then users can choose whatever cache size setting they wants as long as the value is below the aforementiond limit.

[ebr 16169]

12 hours ago, DreamSeason said:

I think it's not difficult to come up with a pre-defined mapping which maps the ram of user device to the max cache size limit setting. Then users can choose whatever cache size setting they wants as long as the value is below the aforementiond limit.

These devices are running multiple apps/services which are changing constantly.  When we allowed people to increase the buffer size, there were memory problems in many situations.  The buffer is set to an optimal value now instead.

[DreamSeason 5]

On 11/15/2022 at 10:31 PM, ebr said:

These devices are running multiple apps/services which are changing constantly.  When we allowed people to increase the buffer size, there were memory problems in many situations.  The buffer is set to an optimal value now instead.

Years have gone by. Any changes on this? Maybe having a advanced setting menu is better?

[ebr 16169]

10 hours ago, DreamSeason said:

Years have gone by. Any changes on this? Maybe having a advanced setting menu is better?

Nothing has changed with these devices since I made that comment a little over a year ago.

Thanks.

[DreamSeason 5]

On 1/29/2024 at 10:00 PM, ebr said:

Nothing has changed with these devices since I made that comment a little over a year ago.

Thanks.

Can you share the details how buffer size is determined? Being a dev myself, you can use technical words without worries. And let's say we have a buffer size of 10MB, when will emby start downloading new content into the buffer? One third or half of the buffer is consumed? Is it a circular array or one completely new array for the new content? Is the buffer heap memory or direct memory? What's the xms xmx setting for emby app? 

Last but not the least, why not introduce advanced setting menu and throw some tweaks there for pro users? 

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, DreamSeason said:

Can you share the details how buffer size is determined? Being a dev myself, you can use technical words without worries. And let's say we have a buffer size of 10MB, when will emby start downloading new content into the buffer? One third or half of the buffer is consumed? Is it a circular array or one completely new array for the new content? Is the buffer heap memory or direct memory? What's the xms xmx setting for emby app? 

Last but not the least, why not introduce advanced setting menu and throw some tweaks there for pro users? 

We are letting the player manage it.  In our experience, that has produced the most consistent results across devices.