How do I get 4K UHD HDR to work with Emby?

[ShoutingMan 101]

4K isn’t working at all on any of my devices: Sony LED on an AppleTV 4K, JVC Projector on an AppleTV 4K, LG TV with its webOS app. I’ve tried both MPV on and off. I’ve tried different audio tracks. 4K fails on every display with every Emby app source. 

The screen goes black and freezes, never playing. Or sometimes Emby sends an impossible video signal and AppleTV goes blank and I have to power off and power on reboot everything to get a display again..

I have no idea where to begin on how to find and fix the problem to make 4K work.

Help? Thanks!

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  This is all with an Apple TV as the device?

[Guest]

Hi,

Right now watching the Emby app for LG 4K TV, webOS 22, in perfect 4K, from the beginning of the opening game of the World Cup.

[ShoutingMan 101]

7 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  This is all with an Apple TV as the device?

• AppleTV 4k with a Sony 950H LCD
• nVidia Shield (2017) with a Projector
• LG TV with its Emby app

4K from Emby doesn't work with any streaming device on any device for me. 4K works fine with all other apps.

 

I'm guessing it's a Server problem. But I don't know how to begin figuring it out. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by ShoutingMan

[ShoutingMan 101]

7 hours ago, CarlosLima said:

Hi,

Right now watching the Emby app for LG 4K TV, webOS 22, in perfect 4K, from the beginning of the opening game of the World Cup.

 

 

How? Is there some setup in the Emby app or Emby server? Do I need a new / faster server? I've got a 2016 HTPC based on a Intel i5 Skylake CPU. It uses its integrated GPU, but I don't transcode anything. Everything is gigabit ethernet network, and I expect full bitrate streaming no transcoding to lower quality.

[arrbee99 1815]

Maybe try with Infuse on Apple TVs ?

Maybe not now I've read a bit more carefully, but you never know...

Maybe try the new Android app on the Shield (that you sideload) ?

1080p plays OK from Emby ?

Edited November 21, 2022 by arrbee99

[Happy2Play 9780]

Devs may need to see server and ffmpeg logs for specific examples.

[ShoutingMan 101]

32 minutes ago, arrbee99 said:

Maybe try with Infuse on Apple TVs ?

Maybe not now I've read a bit more carefully, but you never know...

Maybe try the new Android app on the Shield (that you sideload) ?

1080p plays OK from Emby ?

1080p is fine. 

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, ShoutingMan said:

nVidia Shield (2017) with a Projector

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

 

[ShoutingMan 101]

In my projector (which is what I really care about) I played Avengers: Infinity War on both my Shield and my AppleTV. Both played in 4K SDR. No HDR. Attached are server logs from the Shield playback. 

I need to try some more on other TVs. One problem appears to be my server can't transcode audio fast enough. Playing a Dolby TrueHD (Atmos) track on AppleTV has no video or audio at all. But selection the DD 5.1 track gave me 4K SDR with 5.1.

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-ad384138-ac44-4415-8870-7f8673a62d01_1.txt

[Happy2Play 9780]

@ShoutingMan But that ffmpeg log is for Theme-Music not the movie.

{"Protocol":"File","Id":"3a7010886867bf4dbb00b39b892c2e84","Path":"Z:\\Movies\\BluRay\\Avengers - Infinity War (2018)\\Theme-Music\\theme.mka","Type":"Default","Container":"mkv","Size":15782089,"Name":"theme","IsRemote":false,"RunTimeTicks":835836710,"SupportsTranscoding":true,"SupportsDirectStream":true,"SupportsDirectPlay":true,"IsInfiniteStream":false,"RequiresOpening":false,"RequiresClosing":false,"RequiresLooping":false,"SupportsProbing":false,"MediaStreams":[{"Codec":"dts","Language":"eng","TimeBase":"651/31250000","Title":"Surround 5.1","DisplayTitle":"English Surround 5.1","DisplayLanguage":"English","IsInterlaced":false,"ChannelLayout":"5.1","BitRate":1536000,"Channels":6,"SampleRate":48000,"IsDefault":false,"IsForced":false,"Profile":"DTS","Type":"Audio","Index":0,"IsExternal":false,"IsTextSubtitleStream":false,"SupportsExternalStream":false,"Protocol":"File","AttachmentSize":0}],"Formats":[],"Bitrate":1510542,"RequiredHttpHeaders":{},"ReadAtNativeFramerate":false}

 

[ShoutingMan 101]

23 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

@ShoutingMan But that ffmpeg log is for Theme-Music not the movie.

{"Protocol":"File","Id":"3a7010886867bf4dbb00b39b892c2e84","Path":"Z:\\Movies\\BluRay\\Avengers - Infinity War (2018)\\Theme-Music\\theme.mka","Type":"Default","Container":"mkv","Size":15782089,"Name":"theme","IsRemote":false,"RunTimeTicks":835836710,"SupportsTranscoding":true,"SupportsDirectStream":true,"SupportsDirectPlay":true,"IsInfiniteStream":false,"RequiresOpening":false,"RequiresClosing":false,"RequiresLooping":false,"SupportsProbing":false,"MediaStreams":[{"Codec":"dts","Language":"eng","TimeBase":"651/31250000","Title":"Surround 5.1","DisplayTitle":"English Surround 5.1","DisplayLanguage":"English","IsInterlaced":false,"ChannelLayout":"5.1","BitRate":1536000,"Channels":6,"SampleRate":48000,"IsDefault":false,"IsForced":false,"Profile":"DTS","Type":"Audio","Index":0,"IsExternal":false,"IsTextSubtitleStream":false,"SupportsExternalStream":false,"Protocol":"File","AttachmentSize":0}],"Formats":[],"Bitrate":1510542,"RequiredHttpHeaders":{},"ReadAtNativeFramerate":false}

 

Ugh. Sorry. That was the latest log file made after I played the movie. I’ll have to find the right log file.

[ShoutingMan 101]

I’m trying again on my LG TV with its webOS Emby app. Now I’m getting 4K HDR. I manually selected DD 5.1. But Atmos always fails; again it looks like my server can’t transcode audio for non-Atmos compatible apps and devices.

 

I’ll try again on the two AppleTV’s and the Shield and get some server logs up when I have time for more testing.

[ShoutingMan 101]

Ok I think this is the log file from the Shield for the movie:

 

ffmpeg-transcode-808d078b-95ac-4a38-b7b1-95f32faed3b7_1.txt?api_key=35ea5fc2fac44198901aa9270066d1f5.txt.txt

[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.

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

Devs know more but that log is for the same theme.

"Z:\\Movies\\BluRay\\Avengers - Infinity War (2018)\\Theme-Music\\theme.mka"

But would appear it tried to remux and would need to see ffmpeg-remux-3b3c3c75-42a6-4944-b9ab-d7853a6d524a

Quote

&TranscodeReasons=AudioCodecNotSupported

2022-11-21 21:37:06.575 Info App: ProcessRun 'StreamTranscode 3b3c3c' Execute: C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\ffmpeg.exe -loglevel +timing -y -print_graphs_file "C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\logs\ffmpeg-remux-3b3c3c75-42a6-4944-b9ab-d7853a6d524a_1graph.txt" -copyts -start_at_zero -f matroska,webm -noaccurate_seek -c:v:0 hevc -i "Z:\Movies\BluRay\Avengers - Infinity War (2018)\Avengers - Infinity War (2018) - UHD.mkv" -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -sn -c:v:0 copy -bsf:v:0 hevc_mp4toannexb -c:a:0 ac3 -ab:a:0 384000 -ar:a:0 48000 -ac:a:0 6 -metadata:s:a:0 language=eng -disposition:a:0 default -max_delay 5000000 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -f segment -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -segment_format mpegts -segment_list "C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\transcoding-temp\5B4F1F\5B4F1F.m3u8" -segment_list_type m3u8 -segment_time 00:00:03.000 -segment_start_number 0 -break_non_keyframes 1 -individual_header_trailer 0 -write_header_trailer 0 -segment_write_temp 1 "C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\transcoding-temp\5B4F1F\5B4F1F_%d.ts"

 

[ShoutingMan 101]

Ok. Next time I’ll upload all logs generated when I play the movie to be sure the right one is included. 

I’ll look into the side loading. But last time that was recommended for the Shield, I couldn’t figure it out.

Hope to get back to this tomorrow.

[ebr 16169]

In short, the item needs to direct play for HDR to be passed through.  It is looking like all of your examples are having to go through ffmpeg for one reason or another.

[ShoutingMan 101]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

In short, the item needs to direct play for HDR to be passed through.  It is looking like all of your examples are having to go through ffmpeg for one reason or another.

AppleTV 4K

Emby app, MPV active

Sony950H TV

4K SDR. no HDR. Everything is DirectPlay.

I checked with streaming services and DolbyVision and HDR10 work through HBOMax, AppleTV, MoviesAnywhere, etc. The TV shows the DV or HDR logo in the info window. There’s no HDR indicator streaming from Emby.

 

Attached is a screenshot from my Emby server view.

Attached is the server log active during playback test. There are no other logs generated on the server during this playback.

embyserver.txt.txt

Edited November 22, 2022 by ShoutingMan

[vdatanet 1617]

13 minutes ago, ShoutingMan said:

AppleTV 4K

Emby app, MPV active

Sony950H TV

4K SDR. no HDR. Everything is DirectPlay.

I checked with streaming services and DolbyVision and HDR10 work through HBOMax, AppleTV, MoviesAnywhere, etc. The TV shows the DV or HDR logo in the info window. There’s no HDR indicator streaming from Emby.

 

Attached is a screenshot from my Emby server view.

Attached is the server log active during playback test. There are no other logs generated on the server during this playback.

embyserver.txt.txt 1.19 MB · 0 downloads

It's using MPV player. Unfortunately it does not support HDR pass-through and the player does tone mapping.

[ebr 16169]

Yes, on the Apple TV, you need to be able to direct play with the native player for HDR support.

[vdatanet 1617]

Remember: enable native player and use MP4 container. Even with this, I've never gotten smooth playback. From time to time the playback gets stuck, in some movies more than others.

[ShoutingMan 101]

I replaced an HDMI cable to the projector. The Shield now registers HDR10 available and Emby now plays HDR10 in that system. (4K HDR upgrade has been complicated and confusing, and I’ve been finding unexpected upgrade hardwares needed.)

 

I think I still have some quirks with Emby on AppleTV that this thread is helping me sort out. I’ll work on that more as time allows.

[ShoutingMan 101]

On 11/22/2022 at 11:35 AM, vdatanet said:

Remember: enable native player and use MP4 container. Even with this, I've never gotten smooth playback. From time to time the playback gets stuck, in some movies more than others.

“Native Player” means don’t use MPV in Emby on AppleTV?

[ShoutingMan 101]

Emby on nVidia Shield to my Projector works great.  The projector recognizes it’s HDR10 and goes into HDR mode.

I can get HDR playback through the Emby app on my LG LED, though I have to select DD 5.1 or lesser audio to get it to play.

I can’t get HDR to work on Emby on the AppleTV 4K on the Sony 950H LED. I know it’s not a cable or electronics problem because I’d already upgraded the HDMI cable and receiver. And MoviesAnywhere app, which requires HDCP2.2, works on that system.

 

Maybe I have to turn off MPV? That’s on by default and might still be on.

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by ShoutingMan