ASS Subtitles causes stuttering

[Gutsberzerk 2]

Hi,

I’ve been noticing no matter what I watch, if it has ASS subtitles, when they show up (in the background on a shop sign or something like that) it lags and stutters massively. I notice this mostly with anime. 
 

I should note basically everything I have anime wise is HEVC video format. Audio is either FLAC, AAC or Opus. Regardless, everything direct plays from my shield pro just fine. I did find a workaround to burn in the subtitles, but then I’m losing quality on the video/audio as it transcodes. 
 

So why is this happening? 

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[Gutsberzerk 2]

12 hours ago, Luke said:

 

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

 

Here we go. It happens with this show straight away as there’s some ass subtitles right away. It stutters very bad, but after that scene it goes back to being smooth again.

 

 

embyserver.txt?api_key=5330f3440f264f31b51c27607d29f76a.webarchive

[Luke 42077]

@Gutsberzerk

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.

 

[Gutsberzerk 2]

17 hours ago, Luke said:

@Gutsberzerk

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.

 

Still the same issue unfortanetly. It does seem to get through the scene a little quicker however, but yeah. Still stutters while the ass subtitiles are visible. 

[Luke 42077]

OK we'll look at improving this. Thanks.

[darkside40 107]

Any Progress regarding this topic.

I have the same problem trying to watch Animes with sophisticated ASS Subtitles like Zom 100.

[Luke 42077]

On 2/11/2024 at 2:47 PM, darkside40 said:

Any Progress regarding this topic.

I have the same problem trying to watch Animes with sophisticated ASS Subtitles like Zom 100.

Hi, what version of Emby for Android are you running?

[amateurgod 33]

Hi, I've noticed this same issue, however it only happens when using embys built in exoplayer, if I use MX player With HW+ decoder and improved SSA rendering then it works fine but the problem then is using external players means the episode doesn't get marked as watched. 

 

Would it be possible to add similar improvements that Mx player has to the exoplayer built into emby 

[Luke 42077]

21 hours ago, amateurgod said:

Hi, I've noticed this same issue, however it only happens when using embys built in exoplayer, if I use MX player With HW+ decoder and improved SSA rendering then it works fine but the problem then is using external players means the episode doesn't get marked as watched. 

 

Would it be possible to add similar improvements that Mx player has to the exoplayer built into emby 

Hi, yes it's something we can look at improving. Thanks.

[amateurgod 33]

21 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, yes it's something we can look at improving. Thanks.

Awesome thank you. 

 

Would it also be possible to add a feature to select multiple subtitles like you can in MX so you can select for example both a dialogue sub and a signs and songs sub for when they are seperate sub tracks 

[Luke 42077]

On 4/5/2024 at 3:29 PM, amateurgod said:

Would it also be possible to add a feature to select multiple subtitles like you can in MX so you can select for example both a dialogue sub and a signs and songs sub for when they are seperate sub tracks 

Hi, Yes, certainly. You can do that.

[cremonies 11]

any progress on improving heavy .ASS subtitle support? 

I searched for srt subs but none are available for signs and songs.

Shield Pro 2019. Both emby apps stutter when the screen fills with subtitles. Played same file on Plex and did not have an issue. none showed any transcoding,

I do not want to have to switch to plex just to watch anime. 

 

embyserver.txt

[RanmaCanada 494]

.ass subs require horsepower due to how broken the implementation is, something every android box lack. Even the "all powerful" crApple TV becomes a stuttering mess with massive amounts of .ass subs on the screen. It would also really help if the devs of exoplayer actually cared about fixing it. The problem is, they don't care, and fixing the issue is a "low priority"

The Emby dev team can't exactly fix this if the devs of the preferred internal player refuse to fix it. It would be better if they could fix the implementation of using external players so they track properly and make the switching to them more seamless, or switch the internal player altogether to one that is more up to date and not hampered by a dev team that snubs its nose at users.

[visproduction 315]

Seems to be a known problem with Android and ASS subs. Maybe the fix has to come from Android OS.

 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ASS+Subtitles+Android+app+error&ia=web

 

Or convert the ASS subs to stand alone .srt subtitles.  This conversion is available in bulk online.  You may need to extract the ASS files if they are embedded in the media.

 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=convert+ASS+subtitles+to+srt&ia=web

[RanmaCanada 494]

1 hour ago, visproduction said:

Seems to be a known problem with Android and ASS subs. Maybe the fix has to come from Android OS.

 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ASS+Subtitles+Android+app+error&ia=web

 

Or convert the ASS subs to stand alone .srt subtitles.  This conversion is available in bulk online.  You may need to extract the ASS files if they are embedded in the media.

 https://duckduckgo.com/?q=convert+ASS+subtitles+to+srt&ia=web

Converting .ass to .srt loses all formatting choices and is just bad IMHO. Back in they when karaoke subs were implemented by fan sub groups and they didn't just rip straight from Chrunchyroll, there was a lot of awesome things that were done by groups to differeniate themselves from others. It's an artform that is currently in a deathloop thanks to weebs who refuse to wait for their content.

[cremonies 11]

I hate plex but it can currently handle ASS subtitles. I use it for anime. I don't want to process all of my media just to watch it with basic text. I have a low powered server. 

Edited November 20, 2024 by cremonies

[Bluecub 0]

It’s 2025 and this stutter is still an issue with .ass subtitles. 

[peerless2012 0]

libass-android is a standard ass plugin for media3/exoplayer, it support both runtime render(overly) and pre render (legacy), when use legacy mode, the ass content will pre render to cues, and just render the cues at runtime, it will be better for junck, and will never block video frame.

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we'll take another look at this. Thanks.

[Luke 42077]

For video stuttering, please try Emby for Android 3.5.25 and let us know how that compares:

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

[darkside40 107]

Seems to work now in Emby for Android TV. At least it did for one of my Animes. Have to test it with Zom 100

[Luke 42077]

9 hours ago, darkside40 said:

Seems to work now in Emby for Android TV. At least it did for one of my Animes. Have to test it with Zom 100

What version number?