Playback Issue Notification

[Stroudy 21]

Hello,

As server owner, I'd like to be notified when a user has playback issues (i.e, the stream is buffering or the content/codec isn't compatible with their device).
This way I can dive into looking at why the stream is not flawless and be able to resolve it and provide a better user experience.

Thank you.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes it's a good idea. Thanks for the feedback.

[TeamB 2438]

8 hours ago, Stroudy said:

Hello,

As server owner, I'd like to be notified when a user has playback issues (i.e, the stream is buffering or the content/codec isn't compatible with their device).
This way I can dive into looking at why the stream is not flawless and be able to resolve it and provide a better user experience.

Thank you.

not exactly what you are looking for but i just added transcode reason to the data logged in the playback reporting plugin. the reason can give you a good understanding about the reason the playback session was transcoded for the client.

the reason data is currently only available in the query tab of the plugin page, i am still thinking of the best way to surface this new data in a report and graph.

[anonymouscat888 0]

I know this is a but dated, but I'm wondering if anyone has a way to get these notifications?

I don't think Emby has a built in notification agent specifically for this, but has anyone come up with a workaround?  I also want to get a notification if a client experiences errors when they happen. I find my clients just find something else to watch rather than alerting me to any problems. 

[Luke 42077]

33 minutes ago, anonymouscat888 said:

I know this is a but dated, but I'm wondering if anyone has a way to get these notifications?

I don't think Emby has a built in notification agent specifically for this, but has anyone come up with a workaround?  I also want to get a notification if a client experiences errors when they happen. I find my clients just find something else to watch rather than alerting me to any problems. 

Hi there, have you explored the server notification options?

[brothom 177]

+1. Sometimes some of my users have problems playing a media item but other don't. Turns out that EAC3 on Windows/Chrome is a bit of a pain and is only supported when someone has (accidentally, most of the time,) installed some package or dll that supports this type.

The user gets no notification and is just "thrown" out of the selected media item, and when another version is available that get automatically selected. I.e:

1. User selects "Signs [1080p]"
2. Audio is EAC so not supported (or some other playback error), but there is another version avialable "Signs [2160p]"
3. Emby automatically switches to the other version "Signs [2160p]" without any notification, the users only sees a black screen until this happens
   This other version might be a different language, in 4K causes their device to stutter, is the UNRATED version etc etc

It would be nice if the user and/or admin got some sort of notification or log of this happened. Especially the user who seems to be playing a different version suddenly.

[ebr 16169]

2 hours ago, brothom said:

This other version might be a different language, in 4K causes their device to stutter, is the UNRATED version etc etc

Hi.  Our versioning implmentation is designed as different qualities of the same content as opposed to different editions.  The system is designed to play the most compatible version for the device in use and this should all be transparent to the user.

See discussions here: 

 

[brothom 177]

On 18/09/2025 at 15:30, ebr said:

Hi.  Our versioning implmentation is designed as different qualities of the same content as opposed to different editions.  The system is designed to play the most compatible version for the device in use and this should all be transparent to the user.

That may be so, and is also besides the point I'm trying to make. It doesn't explain why the user is switched versions automatically without being notified of that happening.

Perhaps a prompt or message saying "an error occurred playing (1080p) but a different version is available (4K) would you like to play that".
Making that decision fór the user isn't all that user friendly in my opinion.

[ebr 16169]

19 hours ago, brothom said:

That may be so, and is also besides the point I'm trying to make. It doesn't explain why the user is switched versions automatically without being notified of that happening.

Perhaps a prompt or message saying "an error occurred playing (1080p) but a different version is available (4K) would you like to play that".
Making that decision fór the user isn't all that user friendly in my opinion.

Again, since the versions are supposed to be just different qualities of the same thing, the user should not care which one is used.  It is analogous to YouTube automatically reducing the bitrate of the stream when bandwidth drops - and then raising it back up when it can.  This is all transparent to the user and should not require their intervention.

[brothom 177]

19 hours ago, ebr said:

Again, since the versions are supposed to be just different qualities of the same thing, the user should not care which one is used.  It is analogous to YouTube automatically reducing the bitrate of the stream when bandwidth drops - and then raising it back up when it can.  This is all transparent to the user and should not require their intervention.

Then the docs must be wrong because they're using both qualities and versions in the naming convention: https://emby.media/support/articles/Movie-Naming.html#multi-version-movies. But again, that is besides the point I'm making.

Just switching to a different quality without notifying the user isn't transparent at all. In my example the user is "redirected" to a 4K version when their system doesn't even support that. The selected version for them is literally broken (playback error) but they (and the admin, me) don't get any notification of that which would be very nice to have.

[GrimReaper 4739]

4 hours ago, brothom said:

Then the docs must be wrong because they're using both qualities and versions in the naming convention: https://emby.media/support/articles/Movie-Naming.html#multi-version-movies.

As a sidenote: versions (cuts) are just a beneficial side-effect/bonus for originally designed feature for multiple qualites of the same item (and carry certain restrictions) which is stated in the "Note" box right under naming convention examples. 

Quote

Note

The above example includes a 3D version, which is discussed in the 3D Video naming guide. Also, this feature is primarily designed for multiple qualities of the same item. It can be used for different "cuts" but there may be some limitations in doing that.

 

[brothom 177]

58 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

As a sidenote: versions (cuts) are just a beneficial side-effect/bonus for originally designed feature for multiple qualites of the same item (and carry certain restrictions) which is stated in the "Note" box right under naming convention examples. 

Thanks for extending that.

Regardless, I still think that automatically switching a version chosen by the user, without notifying them of that happening is confusing.
I've had a couple of cases on my server of users getting confused by this. It would be nice to get a notification somewhere that something went wrong during playback without having to delve into the logs.