File playback issues on emby fireTV and web browser

[markpeo 11]

Hi,

I'm having issues playing HEVC/AC3 encoded files on my firestick 4k and chrome/brave web apps. Files play perfectly on my Nvidia shield, firestick 4k max and edge browser. The Emby dashboard shows (snippet below) as the file playing (direct play) but the Emby app just has the blue spinning circle and never plays. I can briefly hear the start of the audio when I press the back button to get back to the season screen.

Emby server is official emby repository docker on unraid. 

Logs attached.

Thanks

embyserver (1).txt

[markpeo 11]

Sorry, I should have noted that I re-encoded the audio to AAC (ffmpeg) because some of the other episodes in this series were already AAC and they work ok on devices mentioned above. Even after converting to AAC, the files that were originally AC3 do the same as described above.

 

[Luke 42079]

HI, can you supply the contents of the browser debug console when trying to play in Chrome?

[markpeo 11]

HI Luke - log attached.

I tried it on my chromebook and it plays correctly, although it was being transcoded by emby server, not direct play.

 

embyserver (3).txt

[Luke 42079]

So in the browser it’s only a problem in brave?

[markpeo 11]

Brave and chrome on PC won't play. Edge on PC transcodes and plays, so does chrome on Chromebook.

These are things I just noticed while testing, the firestick is the issue I'm more concerned about.

[Luke 42079]

What happens if you just drag the mkv into a chrome browser tab?

[markpeo 11]

it saves the file to the download folder 

[Luke 42079]

Is that Chrome on Windows?

[markpeo 11]

Yes, chrome on windows 10. 

[Luke 42079]

OK, can you please supply the contents of the browser debug console when playing in Chrome? Thanks.

[markpeo 11]

Sorry, I misread when you first asked for that. Here they are;

The log stops when the player has the blue spinning circle.

 

appRouter - processing path: /web#!/item, isBack: undefined
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter - user is authenticated
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter - proceeding to /web#!/item
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: item/item.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: modules/emby-elements/sync/emby-downloadbutton.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: modules/emby-elements/emby-select/emby-select.js?v=4.7.13.0
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter.sendRouteToViewManager - processing path: isBack: undefined
viewmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 viewManager.onBeforeChange - processing path: isBack: undefined
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getImageWidth: card backdropCard backdropCard card-hoverable focusable889normal
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 width: 255
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getImageWidth: card backdropCard backdropCard detailImageContainerCard card-hoverable detailImageContainer detailImageContainer-main detailImageContainer-main-extrabottommargin detailImageContainer-hidemobile detailImageContainer-backdrop imageWidthTest889normal
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 width: 239
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getImageWidth: card squareCard squareCard card-hoverable focusable889normal
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 width: 145
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getImageWidth: card portraitCard card-horiz portraitCard-horiz card-hoverable focusable889normal
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 width: 143
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getImageWidth: card backdropCard card-horiz backdropCard-horiz card-hoverable focusable889normal
cardbuilder.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 width: 252
injected.js:17 [Violation] 'setTimeout' handler took 54ms
injected.js:17 [Violation] 'setTimeout' handler took 64ms
injected.js:17 [Violation] 'setTimeout' handler took 62ms
registrationservices.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 validateFeature: playback
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: modules/common/filesystem.js?v=4.7.13.0
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter - processing path: /web#!/videoosd/videoosd.html, isBack: undefined
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter - user is authenticated
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter - proceeding to /web#!/videoosd/videoosd.html
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: videoosd/videoosd_view.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: videoosd/videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: videoosd/playqueue.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: videoosd/tvplayqueue.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: videoosd/lyrics.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: modules/emby-elements/emby-slider/emby-slider.js?v=4.7.13.0
alameda.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getJsUrlWithExtension: modules/emby-elements/emby-input/emby-input.js?v=4.7.13.0
approuter.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 appRouter.sendRouteToViewManager - processing path: isBack: undefined
viewmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 viewManager.onBeforeChange - processing path: isBack: undefined
videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 updateTransparency: isLocalVideo:true, mediaType:Video
plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 playing url: http://192.168.1.20:8096/emby/videos/604265/stream.mkv?DeviceId=069d0a68-6b18-4908-880a-364f112dd65d&MediaSourceId=fa0c789d292476632ddc6f824a88d251&Static=true&PlaySessionId=970d0d95621b4f4cb4716334e162f8c3&api_key=e20672c408e24b20832eb727913f2439
plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 The keyword 'slider-vertical' specified to an 'appearance' property is not standardized. It will be removed in the future.
(anonymous) @ plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
(anonymous) @ plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
HtmlVideoPlayer.self.play @ plugin.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
playAfterBitrateDetect @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
playInternal @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
playWithIntrosInternal @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
playWithIntros @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
(anonymous) @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
Promise.then (async)
PlaybackManager.self.play @ playbackmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
play @ commandprocessor.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
executeCommand @ commandprocessor.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
executeAction @ shortcuts.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
onClick @ shortcuts.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
onClick @ emby-itemscontainer.js?v=4.7.13.0:1
videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 error locking orientation: NotSupportedError: screen.orientation.lock() is not available on this device.
registrationservices.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 validateFeature: dvr
connectionmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getRegistrationInfo returning cached info
videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 nowplaying event: playbackstart
videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 updateTransparency: isLocalVideo:true, mediaType:Video
registrationservices.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 validateFeature: dvr
connectionmanager.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 getRegistrationInfo returning cached info
videoosd.js?v=4.7.13.0:1 error locking orientation: NotSupportedError: screen.orientation.lock() is not available on this device.

[Luke 42079]

Regarding browser playback, can you try the new 4.7.14 release and let us know how that compares? Thanks !

[markpeo 11]

Hi Luke, tried playing but same result unfortunately. 

[Luke 42079]

Can you provide a sample video for testing? Thanks.

[markpeo 11]

HI Luke,

Sample attached. Thanks.

doc.martin.s09e02.1080p.HDRip.H265-d3g-001.mkv

[Luke 42079]

HI, thanks for the sample. I can reproduce in Chrome but am not sure if there's much we can do about it.. This looks like a problem in the browser video player to me. let me explain.

This is a file that normally Chrome should direct play, and so we're doing that, but it's just getting stuck trying to load it. Normally when the browser video player has trouble with a file it will signal an error, and then we'll catch that error and automatically switch to transcoding in order to ensure successful playback.

But in this case Chrome isn't raising any error, it's just hanging. That makes it difficult to recover from. I haven't tested on the Fire TV yet, but I would imagine it's just having trouble with the file just like Chrome is. Where did this file come from? If you encoded it yourself then the most practical answer would be to do that some other way that's going to produce a file that can be more universally played.

[Luke 42079]

Actually, spending more time with it, the browser does actually raise an error at a much earlier point in time before we even start listening for them.

So yay - this should in theory allow us to automatically switch to transcoding. But if you want to avoid that transcoding altogether then you'll probably need to re-encode this file. The browser video player just can't handle it.

[markpeo 11]

Ok great. I am ok with transcoding, just as long as it plays. Do you think any fix would get pushed out to the Firestick app?

[Luke 42079]

39 minutes ago, markpeo said:

Ok great. I am ok with transcoding, just as long as it plays. Do you think any fix would get pushed out to the Firestick app?

I haven't looked at that yet, but I suspect it's the same situation, e.g. video player not handling the file but also not recovering from it either.

While you wait,  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.

 

[markpeo 11]

yep, will do.

For the firestick 4k, which apk version is best to use?

[Luke 42079]

@markpeo please try the armv7 build, thanks!

[markpeo 11]

thanks luke. Tried the arm7 build, still issues with those files. 

Will probably upgrade the firesticks to the max versions to avoid any similar issues in the future.

 

[Luke 42079]

On 9/10/2023 at 6:48 PM, markpeo said:

thanks luke. Tried the arm7 build, still issues with those files. 

Will probably upgrade the firesticks to the max versions to avoid any similar issues in the future.

 

@markpeowhat version number did you try? Can you try downloading and sideloading the latest again?

[markpeo 11]

@Lukethe version was 3.3.29. Updated today to version 3.3.32. Still same issue.

Edited September 18, 2023 by markpeo