Freezing direct-playback?

[danergo 37]

I have a problem with my Emby Server running on a Debian Linux on NanoPI R5C:

Whenever I'm trying to playback files from it (no matter if playback from web browser on Windows, or Emby app on android), after a few seconds it freezes for a while, then continues.

I'm attaching the log. Files I'm trying to playback are HEVC, 4K30FPS, and I'm playing back on local network.

CPU usage during playback is around 10%, and network activity is also constant around 40MBps.

 

I think players needs more aggressive buffering. I'm attaching my log file when a freeze was happened (playback started, then freeze, then continued). This keeps happening around every 10-20seconds, very frustrating.

It would be appreciated if we could figure out some solution for this problem.

embyserver-63817809987.txt

[Luke 42078]

Hi, looks to me like the data just isn’t getting there quickly enough, no?

[danergo 37]

Can be the reason, but the bitrate of these videos are way below the LAN speed (even below WiFi limits).

 

So I think players just don't buffer long enough and can't handle spikes (which are higher than WiFi limits for a millisecond).

 

Can I do something, what do you think? (Transcode is not an option, as of now at least)

I managed to get hw decode and encode with ffmpeg: both are fluid when used alone but combined (transcode) it doesn't reach more than 0.7x speed (but at least CPU is idle).

 

I'm quite open to any ideas to test

[Luke 42078]

How about playing directly on the server machine? How does that compare?

[danergo 37]

Unfortunately the server is headless, and doesn't even have GUI so I can't test it onboard.

[Luke 42078]

Can you try lower bitrate content?

[danergo 37]

@Luke: I think the problem is the connection in between this board and the router: until now it was hooked up with a pretty damn small USB Wifi adaptor (2GHz), and now I replaced this with cable (1Gbe): and it plays smooth ever since then.

I ordered another Wifi adaptor (5Ghz) now, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Thank you!

[Luke 42078]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[danergo 37]

Hi @Luke: 5GHz adapter works like charm, all footage can be perfectly played back without needing for transcode.

 

There is only one issue I have noticed, but it's related to FireTV, and I'll report it in that topic soon.

 

Thank you!

[Luke 42078]

Thanks for the feedback.