Local Buffering on 1G LAN

[mario1230 4]

I feel at a loss. For some reason I get rather inconsistent playback on a local wired connection. My Emby server is on windows and my client is a shield pro 2019 going through a unifi dream machine. Some days seem to better than others as far as playback. Small bitrate files seem to play fine. I was watching a film last evening and it buffered once or twice for a few seconds but then when it made it towards the credits of the movie it became much worse playing back 3-5 seconds and then buffering for 10-30 seconds at a time. I began testing a few other demo files and experienced similar playback issues. Some files no bigger than a 150MB and still would be slow to respond and buffer after only a few seconds. My system should be more than capable to direct play everything and when it is it still buffers. Not sure what gives.

 

I've tried wifi/wireless, tried a plex install with similar playback issues, different physical pcs to act as the server, etc. I've tested my connection to the shield and am getting 1gig as advertised. In my attempt at reading the logs it looks like there are several instances of long miliseconds periods that I think suggest are waiting on content to be pushed/pulled? It's difficult for me to decipher. If anyone has any advice or troubleshooting tips, it would be appreciated. My guess is either a networking issue or shield issue. I'm attaching the server log in case it is helpful.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2024 by GrimReaper
Log removed

[Abobader 3464]

Hello mario1230,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Neminem 1519]

What happens if you play without subtitles turned on.

2024-08-07 00:00:03.704 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 200 to host2. Time: 12022ms. GET http://[redacted]:8096/emby/videos/103747/hls1/subs/1606.vtt?PlaySessionId=b073840c727e409ea53026308be5bdb6&VttTimestampMap=900000&CurrentSubtitleStreamIndex=3
 

Edited August 7, 2024 by GrimReaper

[mario1230 4]

Same result.  The demo files I started playing didn't use them and the playback experience was honestly worse.

[visproduction 315]

1 hour ago, mario1230 said:

Same result.  The demo files I started playing didn't use them and the playback experience was honestly worse.

Mario,  were subtitles in the media and you didn't use them or were there no subtitles in the media at all?  These are two different situations.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Probably need to see the previous server log and ffmpeg log if present for that playback example.

But may need a specific example as there are multiple playback sessions in the log.

Note you need to check your log before posting as you did not post a Emby anonymized log.  @jaycedkcan you edit the ip in your post.

Edited August 7, 2024 by Happy2Play

[Neminem 1519]

@Happy2PlaySorry can't edit that any more.

@GrimReapercan you edit that ?

[Lessaj 467]

It is an anonymized log, but strange to see 216 as the subnet. What is your home network address? Since this log doesn't include the startup it doesn't mention when it starts to listen on the ports what address it's using.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Yes I see hosts are anonymized but not server so an environment issue that @Lukemay need to look at.

[Luke 42078]

12 hours ago, mario1230 said:

I feel at a loss. For some reason I get rather inconsistent playback on a local wired connection. My Emby server is on windows and my client is a shield pro 2019 going through a unifi dream machine. Some days seem to better than others as far as playback. Small bitrate files seem to play fine. I was watching a film last evening and it buffered once or twice for a few seconds but then when it made it towards the credits of the movie it became much worse playing back 3-5 seconds and then buffering for 10-30 seconds at a time. I began testing a few other demo files and experienced similar playback issues. Some files no bigger than a 150MB and still would be slow to respond and buffer after only a few seconds. My system should be more than capable to direct play everything and when it is it still buffers. Not sure what gives.

 

I've tried wifi/wireless, tried a plex install with similar playback issues, different physical pcs to act as the server, etc. I've tested my connection to the shield and am getting 1gig as advertised. In my attempt at reading the logs it looks like there are several instances of long miliseconds periods that I think suggest are waiting on content to be pushed/pulled? It's difficult for me to decipher. If anyone has any advice or troubleshooting tips, it would be appreciated. My guess is either a networking issue or shield issue. I'm attaching the server log in case it is helpful.

 

embyserver (3).txt 259.97 kB · 6 downloads

HI, please attach the corresponding ffmpeg log file as well. Thanks.

[mario1230 4]

Thanks for the follow up. I'm attaching the 4 remux files from last night. I'm also attaching an updated server log from this evening. I restarted emby, played one file "colored oils" (2 minute file; 4k dovi hdr10 and atmos truehd; ~1.5gb file at ~85mbps bitrate) where it loaded nearly instantly but then began buffering about 30 seconds into it. It said it was direct stream so no remux log.

A few other responses:

The movie I watched did have subs in and I did use them though playback was largely fine for the firs 90% of the film. On the demo files I started playing they do not have subs in them at all.

It is a local 216 subnet. 

Let me know if any other info/logs would be helpful. Thanks!

ffmpeg-remux-c3b81c15-6c01-49d8-99a5-c3c6141d92dd_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-c15d1025-9e28-418f-9452-52fdc5b7b41c_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-7bce2a68-7347-4e85-9314-3c0dd2d91b7a_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-6b639d7d-4bc1-48bb-8d21-48e573a4ba91_1.txt embyserver (4).txt

[Lessaj 467]

Okay thanks for clarifying the subnet, can't say I've seen that used for a private network before.   So the shield is only a wireless client or wired as well? You mentioned wireless but also 1gig so I wanted clarity on how the device is connected to your network and what hops are involved. What about the server side? Wired?

From the remux logs you attached the remux speed is good except in the one for "dolby audiosphere lossless" the speed seems too low. Unfortunately your server log doesn't correspond to the remux logs so I can't see the durations on the requests for the TS segments to see if network needs to be the focus or something else.

Edited August 8, 2024 by Lessaj

[rbjtech 5284]

216 is not an RFC1918 local address - it is a Public WAN address.

If this is LAN only, then it will 'work' - but it's not ideal.    Any reason for this ? - there is plenty of RFC1918 address space that should be used for this purpose.

Subnet is also a /26 - again, fine but strange for a home lan. (64 IP's)

Have you tried forcing 216.13.1.24 as your emby local IP address and also adding 216.13.1.24/26 into 'LAN networks' to force it into thinkings its a 'local' IP ?   (in Dashboard>Server>Network) ?

I think you'll likely have contininous issues with routing (not just in emby) - so unless there is a good reason to not use an RFC1918 address for your LAN (or subnets thereof) - then personally, I would change this.

What is the switch setup with the UDM ?   Are you just using the UDM directly as a switch (I believe it has a 4 port switch built in), or are any other switches cascaded ?

Edited August 8, 2024 by rbjtech

[mario1230 4]

@Lessaj - I have tested the shield wireless/wired. It is currently wired. Everything in the chain is hardwired modem->router->switch--->Emby Server and --->NAS (emby libraries) and --->shield.

@rbjtech - The 216 subnet was setup years ago for 1 sentimental reason and 1 practical reason. My father died on Feb-16 so it was my clever way (or so I thought) of keeping him around. Two - as you identified, I wanted to limit the number of potential IPs available. I haven't experienced any issues with any other service or network issues so I was skeptical this could be part of the problem but I am open to changing it.

When you say forcing the IP, I assume you mean static? It's all DHCP right now. After the UDM pro it goes into a separate uni switch which all my devices are then connected to.

[Lessaj 467]

Okay wired is definitely better. How did you confirm the client is getting 1gig? The port speed is not necessarily indicative of the achievable performance, there could be quality issues with the cabling for example so even if they auto neg to 1gig on the port doesn't mean you can actually get 1gig. I'm not sure if using a non-RFC1918 could cause issues like this but I would definitely recommend changing the address space as a place to start. You could still use 216 in it, maybe 192.168.216.0/26 as that's within the range. I would also definitely recommend a static IP for your server - being always online and refreshing the DHCP lease it should keep the address but it's best to have it statically assigned/configured.

[rbjtech 5284]

16 hours ago, mario1230 said:

@rbjtech - The 216 subnet was setup years ago for 1 sentimental reason and 1 practical reason. My father died on Feb-16 so it was my clever way (or so I thought) of keeping him around. Two - as you identified, I wanted to limit the number of potential IPs available. I haven't experienced any issues with any other service or network issues so I was skeptical this could be part of the problem but I am open to changing it.

Nice -  - i wouldn't change it unless it causing big issues - and as @Lessajhas said - there may be other options to include those sentimental numbers while keeping within RFC1918

16 hours ago, mario1230 said:

When you say forcing the IP, I assume you mean static? It's all DHCP right now. After the UDM pro it goes into a separate uni switch which all my devices are then connected to.

No I'm referring the Emby config - dashboard>server>networking

I'm unsure if emby always considers it's own LAN as local, but you can try forcing it.

In my example below (my own VLAN's), 192.168.30.0/24 is the 'local' LAN (vlan 30), but I also want 192.168.20.0/24(vlan 20) and vlan 40 to be considered 'local' as they are - but they are routed via my f/w.

If you have multiple interfaces on the emby server - it's also useful to force binding to just the primary one - in my case on vlan 30.

Worth a try to keep the 216 - as any network change this big is going to be very disruptive.

re - "After the UDM pro it goes into a separate uni switch which all my devices are then connected to"

Do you have multiple subnets/vlans/trunks etc - or is this just a small /26 flat lan all on the default vlan ?

Edited August 9, 2024 by rbjtech

[Happy2Play 9780]

4 hours ago, rbjtech said:

I'm unsure if emby always considers it's own LAN as local

According to the Detecting local network addresses it is.

But no sure why there are direct play responses like this.

2024-08-07 18:56:44.899 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 206 to host1. Time: 144829ms. GET http://216.13.1.24:8096/emby/videos/17/original.mkv?DeviceId=77080f474427b642&MediaSourceId=f55649765e0b63291c6cadffc0628562&PlaySessionId=f585878616d54951bd2d75f1ecdba079&api_key=x_secret2_x

2024-08-07 18:58:10.390 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 206 to host1. Time: 90303ms. GET http://216.13.1.24:8096/emby/videos/17/original.mkv?DeviceId=77080f474427b642&MediaSourceId=f55649765e0b63291c6cadffc0628562&PlaySessionId=f585878616d54951bd2d75f1ecdba079&api_key=x_secret2_x

 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42078]

@mario1230has this helped?

[mario1230 4]

Thanks for all the feedback. I've updated my subnet to something more appropriate. After restarting all my devices playback was much better with no real buffering issues. I'll try and put some more media through it this weekend to make sure everything is holding up.

 

One issue I noticed that often times when I first launch Emby on the shield it will prompt with a "could not connect to your configured server" for a second or two and then it quickly loads (within a second or two) the home dashboard.

Tonight I had an issue where I started playing the film, the "could not connect" message popped up again and brought me back to the home page shortly after pressing play on the film. I then tried to play again and "couldn't connect" while bringing me back to the home screen again. I tried the third time and alas it played successfully without issue. I'm attaching the latest server log and the attempts took place at these times.

2024-08-09 00:05:46.935 (1st attempt)

2024-08-09 00:06:05.485 (2nd attempt)

2024-08-09 00:06:39.051 (3rd attempt success)

Also not sure if it is indicative of anything but I noticed one thing I thought was odd. The fourth line of the server log says Windows 10 but I'm definitely running Win 11.

 

Thanks for the continued support!

embyserver (5).txt

[rbjtech 5284]

1 hour ago, mario1230 said:

One issue I noticed that often times when I first launch Emby on the shield it will prompt with a "could not connect to your configured server" for a second or two and then it quickly loads (within a second or two) the home dashboard.

Tonight I had an issue where I started playing the film, the "could not connect" message popped up again and brought me back to the home page shortly after pressing play on the film. I then tried to play again and "couldn't connect" while bringing me back to the home screen again. I tried the third time and alas it played successfully without issue. I'm attaching the latest server log and the attempts took place at these times.

 

I would perhaps try removing the AndroidTV client install from shield, remove the cache as well and try reinstalling it.   It may be trying to find your previous server install.

Logs are looking much better but there are still some big response delays that are not normal .. 

Quote

2024-08-09 00:13:43.158 Info Server: http/1.1 Response 206 to host1. Time: 408306ms. GET http://172.16.216.62:8096/emby/videos/103747/original.mkv?DeviceId=77080f474427b642&MediaSourceId=059c887829cbd6d8dfbb33eaf1d9ecb5&PlaySessionId=7027fff701ec442d851eefdf0b3de846&api_key=x_secret1_x
 

for example..

This is now just a single 172.16.216.0/26 flat lan using the default vlan ?

Edited August 9, 2024 by rbjtech

[Lessaj 467]

Requests for original.mkv with long durations are normal, this is a direct play stream, the response for which is only reported after the request has completed, so in that case it would have been playing for about 408 seconds. If you were running a reverse proxy and are monitoring both the request and the access log at the same time you should see original.mkv hit the request log, and then when you stop playing you'll see it show up in the access log. Only transcoded content will have the request for each segment in the logs which you can more easily evaluate the delivery times of each chunk.

Edit: You can also try using Emby for Android rather than the Android TV version. That is the focus going forward for Android.

Edited August 9, 2024 by Lessaj

[Lessaj 467]

9 hours ago, mario1230 said:

The fourth line of the server log says Windows 10 but I'm definitely running Win 11.

That's just the windows build number, it's not necessarily reflective of Windows 11. For example:

[mario1230 4]

I went ahead and installed Emby Android and everything seems to be working well so thanks for all the help/guidance here!

A couple of nuanced questions. Is there a way to re-map the buttons on a remote? I'm using to pressing down to get the playbar as opposed to pressing up. Is there a way to change audio stream on the fly (similar to the emby android tv app)? It seems like I have to back out of the player in order to change the audio.

[Luke 42078]

1 hour ago, mario1230 said:

I went ahead and installed Emby Android and everything seems to be working well so thanks for all the help/guidance here!

A couple of nuanced questions. Is there a way to re-map the buttons on a remote? I'm using to pressing down to get the playbar as opposed to pressing up. Is there a way to change audio stream on the fly (similar to the emby android tv app)? It seems like I have to back out of the player in order to change the audio.

Have you tried clicking the audio icon above the playbar?

[mario1230 4]

Ah found it. Must have only been playing 1-track files. I noticed the icon doesn't show in that circumstance. Any way to change interaction/button mapping?