Videos (from iPhone) playing upside down

[Teredactle 37]

I'm having an issue playing back iPhone videos on Android TV. The issue happens only on MIBox3s that i have, but my Shield tube does NOT have this problem.

Can someone suggest what it could be? Seems the Shield may be using another player when running Emby that can read the iPhone video metadata but not Emby on MiBox??

Is there a way to switch the backend player Emby uses to see if this fixes the issue? If so how?

Thank you

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[Teredactle 37]

I have followed these directions: 

Emby for Android TV/Fire TV and Emby for Roku Logs

Exactly what you were doing and what happened.  Include the name of whatever you played if it is a playback problem

>Playing back the following file 2023.04.09.12.37.07-IMG_4522 iPhone13.MOV
>The video thumbnail is showing correctly (landscape)
>The video playback however, is playing back the video upside down (landscape)

The time you sent the log (in Eastern Time please - UTC -5)

>13:24 EST

The name of the Emby user on the local server that was logged in at the time

>FamFam

 

Hope this is helpful!

[ebr 16169]

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.

 

[Teredactle 37]

On 4/19/2023 at 4:23 PM, ebr 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.

 

No difference, the video still plays upside down. Also videos that are shot in portrait keep the portrait mode when playing back 9 by 16, but the video is sideways in portait mode, all squished...

Same thing, just on MiBox3 devices, NvidiaShield tube its fine.Both official AndroidTV.

Btw, not a fan of some of the options/layout in the version i sideloaded, but other option that are missing on the AndroidTV version i like.

I also tried external players option, same thing though...

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, Teredactle said:

No difference, the video still plays upside down. Also videos that are shot in portrait keep the portrait mode when playing back 9 by 16, but the video is sideways in portait mode, all squished...

Same thing, just on MiBox3 devices, NvidiaShield tube its fine.Both official AndroidTV.

Btw, not a fan of some of the options/layout in the version i sideloaded, but other option that are missing on the AndroidTV version i like.

I also tried external players option, same thing though...

 

Can you please attach the emby server log from when you tried to play? Thanks.

 

[Teredactle 37]

Sorry, time got me and I didn't have a chance to reply to this, I'm going to do it now - if I attached the server log on here, is there any private information that will be seen by other users? Is there a way to clear the emby logs before I do this?

Edited February 19, 2024 by Teredactle

[Luke 42077]

12 hours ago, Teredactle said:

Sorry, time got me and I didn't have a chance to reply to this, I'm going to do it now - if I attached the server log on here, is there any private information that will be seen by other users? Is there a way to clear the emby logs before I do this?

HI, if you download the log file from the server web interface it will be anonymized. Thanks.

[Teredactle 37]

Here you go, tried 2 videos (that play normal w Kodi, on same (Mi)box), can search for these strings. They play sideways on Emby on the MiBox. However, they play normal on the Shield.

2024.02.08.09.49.00-72909
2024.02.10.11.39.00-IGM_5178

embyserver.txt

[Teredactle 37]

Here you go, tried 2 videos (that play normal w Kodi, on same (Mi)box), can search for these strings. They play sideways on Emby on the MiBox. However, they play normal on the Shield.

2024.02.08.09.49.00-72909
2024.02.10.11.39.00-IGM_5178

 

Hope this helps @Luke

[Luke 42077]

On 2/20/2024 at 5:06 PM, Teredactle said:

Here you go, tried 2 videos (that play normal w Kodi, on same (Mi)box), can search for these strings. They play sideways on Emby on the MiBox. However, they play normal on the Shield.

2024.02.08.09.49.00-72909
2024.02.10.11.39.00-IGM_5178

embyserver.txt 9.33 MB · 0 downloads

Are you able to update Emby Server to at least 4.7.14?

[Teredactle 37]

I mean I'd prefer not to, often upgrades break some functionality, however as I have several MiBoxes through the house, I would consider it if it fixes the issue. Will it fix it?

I'm running the portable version which I prefer, is there a way to save the current state before upgrading, if it doesn't fix the problem I'd like to roll it back easily.

Does it change database layout or anything that it will no longer be able to be rolled back?

TY

[Luke 42077]

I can't promise it will resolve it because it sounds like an issue in the player anyway. Or rather, it sounds more like an issue with the MiBox hardware video decoder. That would explain why you see the problem with some external players.

The players that play it normally probably already know about it and have some kind of workaround in place such as forcing software decoding.

[Teredactle 37]

Ok, I'll give it a go, what is the bet way to upgrade but make sure I can roll back if i need to?

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, Teredactle said:

Ok, I'll give it a go, what is the bet way to upgrade but make sure I can roll back if i need to?

If you're that concerned about wanting to be able to roll back, then I would just not updating yet because I don't think the server build will have an impact. I believe it is a client-side problem anyway.

Since you were able to sideload the standard app, it does have a new logging feature. Can you get a log from the android app?

[Teredactle 37]

You're right, I updated to 4.8.1 (didn't find a way to go to the version you specified) and it made no difference. 

(However, I noticed a couple of things, once which I liked, one which I didn't - 1) I liked going through the web, the video/file name is now shown in full, where was before this wasn't the case, and 2) I didn't like the fact that for whatever reason the login doesn't default to the PIN like in current version, maybe this is a setting somewhere but what I saw was only a setting to prompt for PIN once you put in the password)

In any case, I rolled it back since it didn't make any difference.

Tried to side load the app on the particular system I'm trying from here (https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html) but it told me that I need to upgrade the server and can't log in via this app (but the google play app works ok to log in although there are some messages "incompatible something" that fly by and I can't see them...)

 

[Luke 42077]

@Teredactle

Quote

1) I liked going through the web, the video/file name is now shown in full,

You are in complete control over this. Have you explored the display options for your emby user? You can hide the media info from the bottom of detail screens.

Quote

2) I didn't like the fact that for whatever reason the login doesn't default to the PIN like in current version, maybe this is a setting somewhere but what I saw was only a setting to prompt for PIN once you put in the password)

It does, but the pin has a slightly different function now and needs to be setup again for each user.

 

[Teredactle 37]

Thanks Luke, my bad.

On #1 I thought this was different in that via the web interface it shows the complete title of the video clip (even if super long) under the thumbnail, but this isn't so on the app, and I didn't notice I was using the web version after upgrading.

#2 yes saw that function is different after reading about it a bit more; lots of change on 4.8.1 will give it a go when ready; at least I can easily snapshot back to my version.

Cheers

[Luke 42077]

@Teredactlehave you tried the new profile pin feature?

[Luke 42077]

@Teredactle?

[Teredactle 37]

On 4/15/2024 at 5:30 PM, Luke said:

@Teredactle?

Sorry, I thought I responded. I rolled back the version of Emby server as the only problem I have is this one with the videos - seems to point to the player (HW) despite Kodi being able to play them back just fine. The new version didn't change anything and frankly I'm a big proponent of "if it ain't broke don't fix it". I prefer the way the PIN feature works on the older version actually to the new version. I also don't have the time to look through all the new features (there are many) of the new version, to see if there is any in particular that would make me upgrade.

Short of it not working any longer (locally and remote users) or having some hiccups, I'll stay on the older version as it's been working pretty great, and it's solid solid! :)

[Luke 42077]

What server version are you on now?

[Teredactle 37]

I'm  using 4.6.7.0

[Teredactle 37]

Reviving this post -

@Lukeis there a way to change the default media player that emby uses, when on Android TV? I'd like to install VLC on my MiBox(es) and make emby client use that instead of the default MiBox player (whichever that is). 

Any way to do this? I recall seeing an option to use a different/external player but for other platforms; although I haven't looked at the latest Android TV release if this is now supported.

Even a workaround would be ideal, as the iPhone videos shot in portrait mode, do play in portrait mode but the actual video is on its side... 

I'm now on 4.8.10 latest emby server version.

Thanks

[Teredactle 37]

Ok, so I did a bit more digging - on a video from iPhone without any type of re-encoding, it's in MP4 format.

If I take a look at this file under ExifTool(GUI) I see the following:

 

and under Emby I see this: 

 

There is a -90 rotation flag there. Where does emby get this, I haven't been able to find this in any of the headers for the this file.

In a browser this plays correctly (portrait mode)
On the shield this plays correctly (portrait mode)

On the MiBox(es) this plays:
-in portrait mode, but the video is squished to fit into the 1280x720 format, so the rotation flag seems ignored
-in landscape mode (but no squishing) if I use VLC player (external)