Hardware transcode broken after updating to 4.8.x

[ctaranto 16]

Updated my Manjaro installation this afternoon.  Before the update (running Emby 4.7.14), hardware transcoding was flawless.  After the update (Emby 4.8.1.0), media that needs transcoding shows a solid color screen.  A movie I tested shows a solid gray.  A tv show shows a solid pink.  No rhyme or reason for the color choice, but it's consistent.  Audio of the media is audible.  Switching hardware transcoding off and using CPU works fine, indicating to me that ffmpeg is working as expected.

Thanks!

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2024 by ctaranto

[Lessaj 467]

It doesn't look like your ffmpeg got updated, it should be 5.1. I'd suggest removing the package, ensure /opt/emby-server is clear, and reinstall it.

EDIT: Doesn't Manjaro use arch repos? It's already 4.8.3 there.

Edited March 8, 2024 by Lessaj

[ctaranto 16]

Thanks, Lessaj.  I did see an ffmpeg-emby in /usr/bin that has a timestamp of Feb 11.  But it also has a version of 5.0.0-emby_2022_05_07-spc

Did 5.1 ship with Emby Server 4.8.1 or 4.8.3?

I am hesitant to remove the emby-server package and losing a bunch of custom settings...

 

[ctaranto 16]

30 minutes ago, Lessaj said:

It doesn't look like your ffmpeg got updated, it should be 5.1. I'd suggest removing the package, ensure /opt/emby-server is clear, and reinstall it.

EDIT: Doesn't Manjaro use arch repos? It's alreayd 4.8.3 there

Manjaro eventually gets them.  4.8.3 is currently in the unstable branch of Manjaro.

The Arch repos show 4.8.3 depends on emby-ffmpeg.  That is currently at 2022_05_07-2 in the Arch repos.  Won't that also provide the same 5.0.0 ffmpeg I have?  Maybe the Arch repos need to update the emby-ffmpeg package?

Edited March 8, 2024 by ctaranto

[Lessaj 467]

Sorry I'm not familiar with running it on Manjaro since I run it on CentOS but it's likely similar. I'm not sure about it being in /usr/bin though, I only see emby-server there. It's in /opt/emby-server/bin/ on my system, emby-ffmpeg is a script that sets up the variables need to call ffmpeg in this same directory. AFAIK it should be shipped with 4.8.1.0. I have a transcode log from Feb 18 that show the versions.

head -200 ffmpeg-transcode-7e49d100-5b89-4529-be4f-4f3f0477e8ad_1.txt | egrep "Emby Server version|ffmpeg version"
Emby Server version: 4.8.1.0
00:34:09.330 ffmpeg version 5.1-emby_2023_06_25 Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developers and softworkz for Emby LLC

I don't think removing the package would remove the parts related to your configuration but it's likely /var/lib/emby, so you could back that folder up just in case.

[Lessaj 467]

Okay I looked at the pkg and I see it does rely on emby-ffmpeg so it's packaged separately. I see it was updated a month ago but I don't know what the exact version is, it just says 2022_05_07-2 on the package page...

Edited March 8, 2024 by Lessaj

[ctaranto 16]

Thanks for the additional info, Lessaj.  It appears there's something odd with the Arch/Manjaro repos.  I'll pursue this and try to manually update the ffmpeg package and hope for the best.  You've pointed me in the right direction!

Update:  I downloaded the emby-ffmpeg package from the Arch repos.  It's still at 5.0.0.

@softworkzIs there a way for Arch/Manjaro users to get Emby's set of 5.1 files (ffmpeg/ffdetect/ffprobe)?

About 18 months ago, I went through this same issue.  And funny I posted that this eventually would be updated..  and here we are.

I

Edited March 8, 2024 by ctaranto

[ctaranto 16]

Solved.

Thanks to Lessaj providing the specific version of emby-ffmpeg on centos, I figured out the file name to download for Arch/Manjaro:

wget https://mediabrowser.github.io/embytools/emby-ffmpeg-bin-2023_06_25-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U emby-ffmpeg-bin-2023_06_25-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
 

This provided the emby ffmpeg 5.1 and transcoding works again.

 

 

[alucryd 315]

@ctarantoPlease don't flag the emby-ffmpeg package in the arch repositories, it's built from source (which we don't have yet for the latest release), the one you linked is a prebuilt and will never be included in the official repositories.

[ctaranto 16]

3 minutes ago, alucryd said:

@ctarantoPlease don't flag the emby-ffmpeg package in the arch repositories, it's built from source (which we don't have yet for the latest release), the one you linked is a prebuilt and will never be included in the official repositories.

Thanks for the info - noticed it was just unflagged.  Apologies for the confusion.  It's a bit frustrating that emby updates break because of an emby specific ffmpeg package that's been "available" for 9 months but can't be added to the Arch repo.

 

[hlidskialf 5]

Any word on this yet? I'm in the same boat. 

[ctaranto 16]

4 minutes ago, hlidskialf said:

Any word on this yet? I'm in the same boat. 

The solution above should work on Arch based distributions. 

[hlidskialf 5]

I was hoping to have it as part of the package, but if it's not going to be updated anytime soon I can try the solution. Thanks.

[hlidskialf 5]

Sadly this didn't work for me. I note that the download from the AUR uses ffmpeg-2023_06_25-x64.tar.xz, so I'm wondering if it's the same files as the fix or not.

[ctaranto 16]

You need to use the emby built ffmpeg as linked above. It should install it in /opt.  Anything provided by arch in the repos won't work. 

What version of emby ffmpeg is in /opt?

 

[Happy2Play 9780]

52 minutes ago, hlidskialf said:

Sadly this didn't work for me. I note that the download from the AUR uses ffmpeg-2023_06_25-x64.tar.xz, so I'm wondering if it's the same files as the fix or not.

Server/ffmpeg logs are needs as anything not running ffmpeg version 5.1-emby_2023_06_25 or very close as I don't know if all platforms are exact will could have issues.

[hlidskialf 5]

From the log, it says I'm running v5.1.

ffmpeg version 5.1-emby_2023_06_25 Copyright (c) 2000-2022 the FFmpeg developers and softworkz for Emby LLC

So, very odd. I've been running Arch with transcoding working perfectly until this issue. I wonder if the build is not updating the files to the correct location. I'll have to look into it tomorrow when I have some time. I appreciate the help.

[Luke 42077]

@hlidskialfdoe this help?

 

[hlidskialf 5]

Currently on holidays (30th wedding anniversary!) I'll check back into it when I get home. 

[Luke 42077]

5 hours ago, hlidskialf said:

Currently on holidays (30th wedding anniversary!) I'll check back into it when I get home. 

Hi, that would be great, thanks.

[hlidskialf 5]

Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. Transcoding is still not being optioned, however I do have the current version of ffmpeg (linked above) installed. 

Any ideas?

hardware_detection-63846802402.txt embyserver.txt

[Lessaj 467]

Do you have libva installed? Post the output of vainfo.

[hlidskialf 5]

Alright, I've installed libva-utils. Here's the output of vainfo:

$ vainfo
Trying display: wayland
Trying display: x11
libva error: vaGetDriverNames() failed with unknown libva error
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

I'm not exactly batting 500 here.

[Lessaj 467]

Do you have libva installed? Not libva-utils (which is also good to have).

Edited March 25, 2024 by Lessaj

[hlidskialf 5]

I do. Looks like I'm going to have to do a bit of debugging here. (Nothing is ever easy, is it? lol)