Freezing, frame skipping, unsmooth playback and long buffering.

[King_Cronecker 5]

Using the emby app on my LG B8 I have run into a host of issues watching a particular movie. The film takes ages to loads up with the blue wheel on the screen for a good 40/50 seconds more than it normally would. There's frame skips in which the audio isn't affected but the video leaps back and forth for a few seconds every 5/10 minutes. It outright just stops. Without any sign it's buffering, but it could be. I downgraded the audio from 7.1 to 5.1 which helped. However, all the issues I have mentioned occur when I'm using the 5.1 audio. It doesn't seem to run smoothly either. Although this could me being hyperaware of problems and could just be what 24fps looks like anyway. 

I have just bought an additional TV for another room. So I've never had two sets using the emby server before which I'm not sure would make any difference as I am not watching them at the same time. Although it did occur to me that it being on standby could have an impact, however unlikely. I just thought I would mention it.

I have included the logs. I'm still a bit new to emby so let me know if there's anything I've missed. It's usually stellar. It's suffering the same issues on my Chromecast with Google TV too. I don't use that though. It was just a test. 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-directstream-6a1061f3-e5b3-4dc0-add0-e2057acba9ab_1.txt ffmpeg-directstream-18e358b7-c79b-480e-9c85-07cda510a424_1.txt ffmpeg-directstream-64564cbe-606b-4cea-818e-9e09665eb020_1.txt

[Lessaj 467]

It looks like it's using ffmpeg to repackage the video and audio stream that you've selected because of a direct play error, but I'm not really sure what the reason for the direct play error would be since I have a C8 and both B8 and C8 should support the same formats, I tried to playback a Dovi 7.6 profile video with True HD, DTS, and AC-3 but none gave me a direct play error to create a directstream log. However if I remember right from past observations when it does this each chunk is 10 seconds long, and I can see in your embyserver log that sometimes the request for a TS chunk takes over 10 seconds. I also think the reason it took so long to start was because it tried to direct play it first (and hence eventually got an error), I see a request for original.mkv that was 60 seconds right before it reports a playback start and then subsequently kicks off an ffmpeg since it didn't actually play.

Is this device connected via ethernet or wifi?

[King_Cronecker 5]

Hi there. It's connected via wifi. I do have a CX too that has very similar issues. Thanks for the insight. I'd love to get to the bottom of this. 

[Lessaj 467]

I found the same video and I'm able to reproduce the behaviour. Let me play around with this a little if I can at least figure out the direct play error with AC3 audio tracks. When I play the TrueHD track it needs to convert the audio to AC3 and this starts really fast because it already knows it needs to convert it but it does have buffering issues. The chunks look like they're 5 seconds long and can be up to almost 70 MB each. I'm also convinced the wifi in these TVs is trash, and the ethernet is only marginally better. I could see I was getting about 65 Mbps and the bitrate of this file is slightly higher than that - I have a very solid wifi AP and it's on the other side of the wall from the TV so signal strength is very strong. Also even though this is a hybrid file it's only playing HDR with the LG app. It plays Dolby Vision when I use my Shield but that plays everything and for reference I saw this device pull as much as 500 Mbps on playback and it's right next to the TV. Can't recommend one enough tbh.

[King_Cronecker 5]

I've just bought two Nvidia Shield Pros to solve the issue. Feels weird spending so much on hardware that's so old. Everyone says they're still the best though. If there's another solution that's less costly, please let me know. Thanks so much for your efforts. It's really appreciated. 

[Lessaj 467]

I've heard decent things about the Firesticks too but I only have 1 TV so I just need my shield really. I wanted something I knew wouldn't be laggy. It's had its moments from time to time but overall it's smooth, make sure you change the power profile to max performance and fan mode to cool.

• I tried to convert the video to DV8.1 just to see if that played a role, it doesn't and I didn't think it would since it's direct play (and it's still only HDR) but I was curious.
• I tried to remux in a random AC3 track from another movie to see if it was the track itself, and when I did that I stripped all the other audio tracks except the original AC3 and one english subtitle and that started to play right away with both audio tracks. It still buffers due to the previously mentioned speed of the wifi, but that's an improvement.
• I tried stripping all sub languages except the 3 english tracks, I know that the LG app cannot playback PGS subs anyway (but the shield can!) so that forces a transcode if it was selected but I had it set to Off, and it still sat there for a while, so another test with only 1 SRT sub muxed in and still does it, and one with no subs muxed in - so it's not the subs.
• Another test where I removed just the TrueHD track all subs except 1 english SRT (we've ruled them out anyway right? and the LG app cannot playback TrueHD anyway), so 1 video track 4 AC3 tracks 1 SRT sub track, still no dice.
• And then I had one more thought. What if the title of the commentary tracks is too long? Or it doesn't like the commas? So I stripped all the titles of the file I just made with only AC3 audio. Still no dice.
• But I noticed it picked one of the commentary audio as default, which I thought was strange since I didn't set it as the default track. I created a version with the TrueHD audio, the AC3 audio, no commentary tracks, and 1 eng SRT sub. It picked the AC3 by default as expected, and started playing right away - with buffering of course.

So it didn't like the commentary tracks I guess but not sure why. I didn't feel like trying another test with the 5.1 AC3 and one of the 2.0 AC3 commentary tracks but I'm kind of willing to guess it doesn't like that a 5.1 and 2.0 are in the same file or once there's a certain number of tracks it's a problem. Meanwhile the Shield didn't care and played what you told it to.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Lessaj

[King_Cronecker 5]

Wow. That's some incredible sleuthing. I'm very impressed with your dedication. I have to confess, although I really like the LG app and having one device and remote that does everything, I've known for a long time it's far from perfect. There's been an inevitability that I would eventually have to stump up the cash for a dedicated streaming device. I was hoping by the the time it happened Nvidia would have released the Nvidia Shield 2 with the new Switch 2 internals. You have to take the plunge now and again I guess. I hope the 2019 Shield Pro is what everyone says it is for the money it costs. Thank you so much again. 

[Lessaj 467]

If you enable HDMI CRC you can still use your LG remote to control the shield.  Maybe a couple buttons might still need the shield remote for but for navigation at least you can definitely still use the LG remote, just not the mouse part only buttons. I too wanted a single device but after learning the pitfalls of the LG app I had to get a Shield. And it's not Emby's fault, it's just what LG exposes from WebOS that they are able to utilize.

Edited January 17, 2025 by Lessaj

[King_Cronecker 5]

On 17/01/2025 at 03:57, Lessaj said:

If you enable HDMI CRC you can still use your LG remote to control the shield.  Maybe a couple buttons might still need the shield remote for but for navigation at least you can definitely still use the LG remote, just not the mouse part only buttons. I too wanted a single device but after learning the pitfalls of the LG app I had to get a Shield. And it's not Emby's fault, it's just what LG exposes from WebOS that they are able to utilize.

I hope you're still able to get notifications about this topic. I have purchased an Nvidia Shield Pro and set it up. I'm am still experiencing the same issues. All my 4K Dolby Vision content has the audio and and visual stutters. As if I'm using the same device as before. 

[Lessaj 467]

17 hours ago, King_Cronecker said:

I hope you're still able to get notifications about this topic. I have purchased an Nvidia Shield Pro and set it up. I'm am still experiencing the same issues. All my 4K Dolby Vision content has the audio and and visual stutters. As if I'm using the same device as before. 

I'm surprised to hear that. I can do some testing with the same file later tonight but I've played back higher bitrate/larger file size remuxes just fine so I don't expect to run into any problems when I try. Can you provide any fresh logs from when you tried to play and had issues?

[King_Cronecker 5]

I think it may be something to do with my internet. I have tried 5 device now with the same problem present on all. The issue appears when I connect the Shield Pro to the router directly with an ethernet cable too. I'm going to do some more basic testing of my equipment and then I'll come back here with an update. Thanks for your attention an help. 

[Lessaj 467]

If your emby server is in your local network your internet connection should have nothing to do with it. If it's on a remote site that's a different story.

I've tested the file again on the LG app vs the Emby for Android app on my shield - both wifi. This is what the network traffic looks like by comparison between these devices when attempting playback, and again no issue on the shield buffering or playback but the LG app took quite some time to start (as observed).

LG:

Shield:

After letting it play for some time on the shield it kept itself around the 100 Mbit range as show above and then ranged between roughly the bitrate of the media and roughly 2x the rate, but essentially it's requesting data from the server as it needs it and remains buffered without issue.

[King_Cronecker 5]

That's really interesting. I new to this whole thing so I could be doing something really green. Could you tell me how I should be configuring my setup regarding a local network, please. I just have a PC with a couple of TVs connected to it. Could I be entering the wrong server information? Do I use the in home or remote IP when entering the info into the emby app on my LG TVs? Sorry for the noobiness. 

[Luke 42078]

Quote

Do I use the in home or remote IP when entering the info into the emby app on my LG TVs?

Hi, is your LG TV inside your home network, or connecting remotely?

[King_Cronecker 5]

It's within my home network. All use the same internet router. 

[Lessaj 467]

You should be using the in-home IP to connect to the server within your local network.

[King_Cronecker 5]

Thanks a lot. I probably already am. It's best to be sure. 

 

[Luke 42078]

On 1/20/2025 at 5:45 PM, King_Cronecker said:

Thanks a lot. I probably already am. It's best to be sure. 

 

Hi, did you verify this?

[King_Cronecker 5]

Yes I did. I was using the correct information. The issue seemed to just go away being replaced with another problem. I'm in the process of trying to fix it now. It'll probably require another thread, so if I don't fix it I'll come back for help.