Subtitles make 4k content stutter

[chrisb750 3]

Hello

I've been having this issue for a few months with the Android Emby player. When I play 4k content, with any subtitle (pgsub, ass, etc) the video content mildly stutters and doesnt play smoothly, there is no audio stutter, it almost looks like its dropping like a frame or something.

 

f I turn the subtitles off, the content plays fine. In addition because of this I've tried Kodi with the Emby plugin and Jellyfin, and both of these players play the same content fine without any stutter. I've attached a log for reference, but reading around this seems to be a somewhat common issue? Is there any ETA on this getting fixed?

 

 

 

 

embyserver-63873360000.txt

Edited January 25, 2025 by chrisb750

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  This is on an Amazon device?

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.

 

[chrisb750 3]

No it is on an Android TV device, the Homatics Box R 4K Plus, with the most updated version of the app.

 

Edit: just checked the version is 3.4.20.

Edited January 25, 2025 by chrisb750

[ebr 16169]

1 minute ago, chrisb750 said:

with the most updated version of the app.

Exactly which app and version?

Exactly where in your log is the problematic playback?  I saw playback on an Amazon device.

[chrisb750 3]

8 minutes ago, ebr said:

Exactly which app and version?

Exactly where in your log is the problematic playback?  I saw playback on an Amazon device.

Its the Emby for Android app version 3.4.20.

I ran another log just now, in the previous one somebody was watching something on another firestick device previous to when I was trying to play the 4k file. Please see the one attached I just ran it, the stuttering started immediately as I started playing the file.

embyserver.txt

[RanmaCanada 494]

Do the devices you are playing on support the subtitle formats in question? If they don't the file has to be transcoded to have the subtitles burned in, which if it's PGS subs, I believe is a single threaded process. If this is your server, check the user sessions on the dashboard when this is happening and see what the server is doing.

As for .ass subtitles, if there is a LOT of content in the screen that the subs are replacing and the font is fancy smancy, it will stutter like crazy as none of the media playback devices are powerful enough to handle such replacements and this can only be done on a PC. I see stuttering all the time in heavy sub scenes in anime and it's just something you need to learn to live with if you aren't burning in these subs.

[Luke 42077]

On 1/25/2025 at 11:41 AM, chrisb750 said:

Its the Emby for Android app version 3.4.20.

I ran another log just now, in the previous one somebody was watching something on another firestick device previous to when I was trying to play the 4k file. Please see the one attached I just ran it, the stuttering started immediately as I started playing the file.

embyserver.txt 109.76 kB · 3 downloads

Hi, we’ll take a look at this. Thanks.

[chrisb750 3]

Just as a note I figured this micro stutter problem out this weekend. The problem existed while playing subtitles on almost all files on AndroidTV with the latest Emby app. I have a Homatics 4k box, and I was using Kodi to get around it since I posted this topic. I tried extracting to .srt and it didnt do anything, I had the same issue.

I found out that disabling drop shadow on the subtitles in the Emby App on the device got rid of the problem fully.

Hopefully the team can look into fixing that.

[Luke 42077]

For video stuttering, please try Emby for Android 3.5.25 and let us know how that compares:

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.