How to play 4k Video smoothly from Syno 223 to AppleTV.

[VideoMike 0]

Good Day,

I have a Synology NAS and I have a lot of 2k and 4k video that I would like to watch on our AppleTV.  I would prefer to use my own NAS and not iCloud.  

Installed client Emby app on AppleTV, and Server on the 223 (which has been retrofitted with high speed Enet ports.  Both devices communicate over copper (Cat 5).

4k video halts frequently when I try to play it.

So I upgraded to Premiere and converted the file to play on TV (that is the setting).  It now does not play at all.  Just sets there with spinning pinwheel and stops trying after a few minutes.

Specific questions are:

How do I know if conversion occurred and was successful?  

How do I know that the server is serving the converted media?

I am using Emby v 4.7.14.0

It would be nice if after converting the file, the server program said something like, "Converted DJI_1234.MOV to m3u8 (or whatever) and it is now available to stream.  It is stored here: link".

I can upgrade the server software to the latest if there is some chance that that will actually work.

Kind thanks,

Mike

[VideoMike 0]

I wanted to upload this log file but it failed to edit so I am replying to my own post.  

ffmpeg-transcode-406250e3-3796-4f44-b091-1ad49ee0018b_1.txt

[Grimmer 15]

I have no experience with any of the Apple hardware you are using; however, the other Emby clients usually have an option to display "stats for nerds" (on the Roku Emby App it is accessed during playback by pressing the up arrow and then moving to the gear icon on the right.  The "stats for nerds" overlay will indicate if it is direct playing or transcoding on the server before sending it to the client. Alternatively, you can play the video on your AppleTV and separately log into the sever with another device.  On the "Manage Server" dashboard if will show if it is transcoding in the "Now Playing" block.  Or you can go to the "User Sessions" tab for the most details about how the server is sending the stream.

When you try to play a video format (e.g. 4K) on a device that hasn't declared itself capable of displaying that same format, the server will automatically transcode it to the best available format the player claims it is capable of.  The DS223 does not appear to have hardware transcoding (the DS models with Intel CPUs usually do).  Realtime software transcoding from 4K to 1080p takes a lot more horsepower than the DS can muster.  This is most likely why the playback keeps buffering.

If your AppleTV hardware is supposed to be able to handle 4K, then I would explore any of its settings that may be preventing it from trying.  Also, check the Emby server settings to be sure there are no bandwidth restrictions, etc. that would force a transcode.  To help isolate the problem, you can forcibly prevent the server from transcoding by going to the user's profile and uncheck the box "Allow playback that requires transcoding".  This may pass through the 4K directly or you may get a playback error.  It may also account for why the "convert file" appears to not be working...  I would estimate that a 2hr long 4K movie being software transcoded on the DS223 would take at least 6 hours to complete (i.e. average 10 fps at best, probably slower).

I have no experience with the "convert file" function. I have always disabled it for all of my users.  Maybe someone that has used it can chime in on how it works and where it stores and handles the converted files, etc.  

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, can you try resetting your customization back to default:

Warning EncoderParametersH264LibX.ConstantRateFactor: Original: 23 Actual: 20

Also are you able to update to Emby Server 4.8 and let us know how that compares? Thanks !