Remote 4k playback freeze for 5 sec

[Anders 1]

Hi 

Was watching a 4K movie remote last night, it was transcoded to 1080p 8 Mbps.

The movie stopped for 5 seconds around 1 a clock AM.

But as far as I can tell everything looks good in the logs, what could have caused this issue?

Thanks

embyserver-63813603122.txt ffmpeg-transcode-742d369a-fe36-4647-b71e-00f522644a76_1.txt hardware_detection-63813603042 (1).txt

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Anders,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[rbjtech 5284]

Looking at the logs - the transcoding speed drops off from the initial 6.5x playback speed to below 1x speed at (you guessed it..) around 1AM

You'll notice that as you have throttling on (good), the early segments are transcoded very quickly (at 6x speed - they are 120second segments) but as it goes on, the length of the transcode duration gets longer and longer (the 120second segment is constant) - until it can no longer keep up. (ie below 1x)

I don't know why this would be - it should be constant from the start to the end.

Maybe try new Nvidia drivers ?

 

[Anders 1]

Yes I see it, and it keeps dropping until the movie ends, the strange thing is it only freezed for those 5 sec, the rest of the movie played with no issues.

I am running with Nvidia lastest 528.49 Studio Driver, should I install the Game Ready Driver instead?

[rbjtech 5284]

That driver should be ok.

Worth checking another transcode session to see if it does the same thing.

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  Is there any task on your server machine that might be happening at 1am?  Like a virus scan or something like that?

[pwhodges 2012]

Running low on memory??

Paul

[Anders 1]

I tried to play the movie again and it has the same issue, it starts with speed above 6x, but then drops, it never gets as low as the first run but it is below 1x for the last two hours of the movie, but I don't think this is the issue. 

I the second play, the buffer ThrottleBuffer never gets below 110s, but in the first run at 00:57, the buffer suddenly drops from 126s to 5sec, I think this is when the movie freezed, the buffer then keeps dropping but never hits 0,

00:57:15.247 elapsed=01:31:06.33 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.08 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    
>> ThrottleBySegmentRequest: RequestPosition: 01:32:24 - TranscodingPosition: 01:34:30 - ThrottleBuffer: 126s (Treshold: 120s)
00:57:15.798 elapsed=01:31:06.87 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.08 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    
00:57:16.342 elapsed=01:31:07.43 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.08 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    
00:57:16.885 elapsed=01:31:07.97 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.08 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    
00:57:17.436 elapsed=01:31:08.52 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.11 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    
>> ThrottleBySegmentRequest: RequestPosition: 00:11:30 - TranscodingPosition: 01:34:30 - ThrottleBuffer: 4.980s (Treshold: 120s)
00:57:17.981 elapsed=01:31:09.07 frame=136057 fps= 25 q=20.0 size=N/A time=01:34:30.11 bitrate=N/A dup=30 drop=0 throttle=100 speed=1.04x    

 

What can get the buffer to drop like this?

I have 32GB of memory, I have never seen it use over 10GB, so don't think this is the issue.

 

embyserver (1).txt ffmpeg-transcode-2a5828d1-3d29-4ede-89fc-2389b28f9963_1 (1).txt

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Anders

[ebr 16184]

Have you tried turning off the throttling?

[Anders 1]

No, I can try, but I would prefer to fix the issue with throttling, to not stress the system more than needed.

[Luke 42079]

OK, let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[Happy2Play 9780]

If you disable Throttling do you get the same results?

I guess you could try the Diagnostics plugin-Advance Transcoding menu and change Throttling from SegmentRequest to StreanBuffer and play possibly adjust buffer from something besides 120s if changing method does not work.

[Anders 1]

My dad tried to watch Top gun again, this time without throttling, and it still has issues in the end of the movie. He then tried to watch another movie, this didn't have issues. When I watch the movie in-house there isn't any issues, so there shouldn't be errors in the movie.

When I look in the log it complets the transcoding after 19 minuts and when looking in the general log it is getting Response 200 every time during the playback.

 

 

embyserver-63813830399.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-2905b5fd-b16a-4657-8a53-a25e5675fd77_1.txt

[Luke 42079]

Hi, can you  have  him lower the in-app quality setting and see how that compares? It's possible that it's just a high bitrate for the connection. Thanks.

[Anders 1]

I don't think that is the issue, I have configured the server to max output 8mbps, before I set the max bitrate we tested it and he was able to watch with 60 mpbs, we didn't see a full movie, but at least 20 min without dropout. But I will ask him if he can try to lower the bitrate the next time it happens. 

[Luke 42079]

@Anders how did this go?

[Anders 1]

I asked him, to try to lower the bitrate when it happens again, but it doesn't happen very often, so still waiting. 

The strange thing is that it seems to happen all the time in ending of top gun, but not if you fast forward to the ending, he has watched it 3 times now, so he doesn't feel like watching it again

I wil get back when I have more information. 

Thanks 

[Luke 42079]

That would be great, thanks.

[visproduction 315]

Anders, 
your uploaded file:

ffmpeg-transcode-2a5828d1-3d29-4ede-89fc-2389b28f9963_1 (1).txt 4.01 MB

Media: VideoBitrate=7616000 & AudioBitrate=384000

There are about:
36 lines where speed=3...
200 lines where speed=2...
1080 lines where speed=1...

and

13354 lines where speed < 1  (you will fall behind)
12,542 lines where Throttle=1...
2339 lines where Throttle=off

For this media and your settings, your encoder appears not to be able to keep up. A different media will result in different playback and, I don't think you mentioned this, but playing the file on another player is not a test that is useful for this issue.

I think the answer is to get faster hardware or lower your encoding quality requirements.

Hope that helps.

[Anders 1]

I don't think this is a hardware issue, it can transcode a 4K movie ripped from a bluray in 24 min if throttle is turned off, and is still experiencing issues even when it has transcode the whole movie.

It seems like this is a issue with the television, he is experiencing most issues with web-dl sources, he tested this in this holiday home and here there is no issues this is when watching the same movie, both are Samsung TVs, not sure what model though.

[dethknite 45]

Not trying to mask a potential issue, but it sounds like the mp4/mkv file for the movie could have corruption in it. Perhaps trying to re-rip it or creating a new version will fix the issue. If this is the case, I would expect playback of the movie on a computer in Media Player or MPC would exhibit issues as well at the same point in the movie. The fact that it happens at the same point in the movie usually is a great indication of some corruption issue in the media file.

Edited April 5, 2023 by dethknite

[Anders 1]

There is no issue when I watch the original movies without transcoding. 

[Anders 1]

Also why is it there issues on one tv and not another. 

[Luke 42079]

On 4/5/2023 at 4:29 PM, Anders said:

Also why is it there issues on one tv and not another. 

@Anders

Your Samsung TV doesn't support PGS subtitles. In order to play those subtitles, your server has to transcode them on the fly, however, this is a very intensive process, and your server machine may not be able to do it quickly enough.

Does this answer your questions? You could try turning off the subtitles prior to playback, or acquiring external text subtitles, which our subtitle download features can help you with.

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks !

[Anders 1]

Could explain it, we are currently trying another solution, we might try this after.

Thanks to everyone for the effort.