MP4 Files PlayBack Issues

[nagetech 69]

Howdy everyone!

I'm using the Firestick 4k TV Max and in the last week or so, I've been noticing a reoccurring issue where some movies are having playback issues. Eventually I noticed the pattern and it was always .mp4 files that exhibit the issue. At identical points throughout the movie, the video freezes but the audio keeps going. Rewinding, fast forwarding, nothing fixes it. I have to lower the quality to get it to play.

Most of the mp4 files are 4Mbps files, so I have to make it go 3Mbps or 2Mbps to have the movie play 100% smooth. Never happens with mkv files.

 

Same files play fine in VLC, streaming to my iPhone and iPad. Only appears to be the Emby FireTV App.

I can submit a sample movie file, but I believe it's about 1.4GB, not sure how to go about doing that.

I am attaching my server log. The file in question is for the movie Bedazzled. Whenever you see me starting to transcode, that means right before that the video froze with the audion playing without issue.

Looking forward to any help! 

embyserver (1).txt

[ebr 16169]

12 minutes ago, nagetech said:

I'm using the Firestick 4k TV Max

Are they HDR?

[nagetech 69]

I don't believe so, is there an easy way to verify?

[ebr 16169]

Look at the media info at the bottom of the detail page in the web app.  There are known issues on that device with certain HDR types.

You can also try the standard app on the same device.

[nagetech 69]

I checked, all the video files with issues are not HDR. Only thing in common is they are all MP4.

 

Thanks for helping so far @ebr

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Can you try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Can you try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

When I received that same advice for a different problem I thought that the people suggesting it were crazy or at least having fun with me. But after I tried the regular Android app I was both surprised and amazed. Overall the regular app is a lot better and it handles some problem situations even better than VLC. (which is usually my goto player for testing) 

I am using the regular Android app on both my Shield and my Fire TV and I am very happy with both.

Thanks Emby.

[nagetech 69]

Wait, so Emby for Android is in the firestick app store?

@ebr

I never realized there were 2 apps in the app store for emby. I'll take a look at it tomorrow. What's the difference between the apps? And why two? Asking out of genuine curiosity.

 

@Gilgamesh_48What other improvements did you see? Just curious as I can't test it just yet, but want to know what I got to look forward too

 

 

Edited October 28, 2024 by nagetech

[Luke 42077]

26 minutes ago, nagetech said:

Wait, so Emby for Android is in the firestick app store?

@ebr

I never realized there were 2 apps in the app store for emby. I'll take a look at it tomorrow. What's the difference between the apps? And why two? Asking out of genuine curiosity.

 

@Gilgamesh_48What other improvements did you see? Just curious as I can't test it just yet, but want to know what I got to look forward too

 

 

Hi, we are working on unifying the two into Emby for Android.

[nagetech 69]

@LukeThanks for popping in Luke! I'll test it out tomorrow and see if it fixes the problem. 

[nagetech 69]

Just reporting back.

 

The android app is working great so far!!! It's a night and day difference between the FireTV version and this one.

 

There is one thing I can't figure out. In the fireTV app, I was able to use the microphone on the remote for the search inside the emby app. In the android version, I have to type it all out.

What am I missing? How do I use voice search for emby?

Thank you for the help so far!

@ebr

@Luke

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, nagetech said:

 

What am I missing? How do I use voice search for emby?

Thank you for the help so far!

@ebr

@Luke

Hi, we'll take a look at it. Thanks for reporting.

[Neminem 1518]

See this mega post about android vs android tv app.

 

[nagetech 69]

@Neminem

 

I appreciate you linking me to that, but there are 103 pages worth of posts in there. Not sure how I'd be able to find the information I'm looking for, short of binge reading the whole thread.

Does it explain how to use the microphone feature in the app somewhere, or is that feature non-existent?

[Neminem 1518]

Yes and No its not added yet.

See page 1 with the list of things not added.

#96 I think.

[rbjtech 5284]

On 02/11/2024 at 03:23, Neminem said:

Yes and No its not added yet.

See page 1 with the list of things not added.

#96 I think.

Yep after 4 YEARS, there is still plenty on 'the list'.   

While AndroidTV is now usable (on most hardware), AndroidTV/FireTV is still the more responsive, polished and reliable application imo, especially on lower powered hardware.

I just wish emby would finish the effort to merge them or simply give a timeline to sunset the AndroidTV app.