Playing 4K movies

[Alex1005 0]

I've recently started using Emby as my media server, I prefer the interface and layout but have found one issue. In my library I have added some movies which are 4K MKV at 60fps. With most of the devices locally connected to the server I've found the movies fail to buffer while playing. If I pause the video for a few seconds to a minute I can play a tiny amount before it freezes again. The only device that plays movies smoothly is my Samsung Galaxy S21 phone. Every other device including Tablets, firestick and other PCs, nomatter if I use the browser, theater or app for the device they all have the same issue.

As in other forums here have suggested, I have tried changing some of the streaming settings but nothing seems to work. Previously I used Kodi which can play the movies without any issues, I would like to use Emby and eventually ditch Kodi, because I prefer the layout and features available in Emby.

Is there anything I can do to get the movies to play smoothly or would I have to convert them to a lower bitrate?

Edited August 31, 2024 by Alex1005

[Abobader 3464]

Hello Alex1005,

** 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

[yocker 1249]

5 hours ago, Alex1005 said:

I've recently started using Emby as my media server, I prefer the interface and layout but have found one issue. In my library I have added some movies which are 4K MKV at 60fps. With most of the devices locally connected to the server I've found the movies fail to buffer while playing. If I pause the video for a few seconds to a minute I can play a tiny amount before it freezes again. The only device that plays movies smoothly is my Samsung Galaxy S21 phone. Every other device including Tablets, firestick and other PCs, nomatter if I use the browser, theater or app for the device they all have the same issue.

As in other forums here have suggested, I have tried changing some of the streaming settings but nothing seems to work. Previously I used Kodi which can play the movies without any issues, I would like to use Emby and eventually ditch Kodi, because I prefer the layout and features available in Emby.

Is there anything I can do to get the movies to play smoothly or would I have to convert them to a lower bitrate?

Are other high bitrate movies (like dolby vision remux) also having problems?

At any rate, you might want to post some logs as they will help the mods here troubleshoot.

[Alex1005 0]

These are a couple of screenshots of some of the movies in the library. Each video varies but most have different audio streams and subtitles embedded into the mkv too.

Edited August 31, 2024 by Alex1005
post formatting

[visproduction 315]

Alex,

80 and 103 mbps for media are very high bitrates.  1080P can look very good if encoded slowly to 2.4 mbps.  4K at 60fps perhaps around 8 mbps if it is a slow encode, maybe 16 mbps for a fast realtime encode.  Your playback bitrate is 10 to 15 times larger.  What size TV or monitor do you send the media to where you can see 4K 60fps? Why do you have media that large?  Does any mobile or tablet do 4K 60fps?  How is it possible to see 4K on tablets or mobile?  Do you pause and zoom in a lot?  I would think playback for such hardware would work much better with lower res media.

I would suspect any log will show that you may have reached the limit of your hardware and perhaps even a Wifi limit if you are too far or on 2.4 GHz.  If mobile or tablets are pulling through 5G, that is actually an extra layer of encapsulation that layers ontop of direct Ethernet or Wifi.  These can all have connectivity issues.

Go ahead and look at all the logs.  I think your answer is to reduce the bitrate of the original media by perhaps a factor of 1/10th or even 1/15th of your current bitrate.

[yocker 1249]

4 hours ago, Alex1005 said:

These are a couple of screenshots of some of the movies in the library. Each video varies but most have different audio streams and subtitles embedded into the mkv too.

Do other high bitrate with normal framerate like fx. 24fps also stutter?
Try and copy one of the files to a one of the PCs that also have problems and see if it can play it locally.

Again, get the log files from your server and send them here so the mods can look through them and see whats really going on.

[Alex1005 0]

Thanks for the help visproduction,

I did manage to resolve this issue with your solution of reducing the bitrate. I also reduced the videos to HD at 30fps, this reduced the bitrate to around 17mbps and they play with no issues. I mainly had them at 4K because I wanted a better quality video for playback on TV and other devices. Now I know what I was doing wrong I shouldn't have any problems.

[michalkaluza 8]

Hi,

The best solution for high bit rate movies is to play them over the LAN. Even a simple player like Xiaomi Mibox works fine. LAN should be 1GB/s. 

[Luke 42079]

On 8/31/2024 at 1:59 AM, Alex1005 said:

I've recently started using Emby as my media server, I prefer the interface and layout but have found one issue. In my library I have added some movies which are 4K MKV at 60fps. With most of the devices locally connected to the server I've found the movies fail to buffer while playing. If I pause the video for a few seconds to a minute I can play a tiny amount before it freezes again. The only device that plays movies smoothly is my Samsung Galaxy S21 phone. Every other device including Tablets, firestick and other PCs, nomatter if I use the browser, theater or app for the device they all have the same issue.

As in other forums here have suggested, I have tried changing some of the streaming settings but nothing seems to work. Previously I used Kodi which can play the movies without any issues, I would like to use Emby and eventually ditch Kodi, because I prefer the layout and features available in Emby.

Is there anything I can do to get the movies to play smoothly or would I have to convert them to a lower bitrate?

@Alex1005

 

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