Micro stutters and judder on Shield TV / Fire Stick

[kaledi 41]

Before I submit logs etc, I wanted to check whether there is a recent issue that is known with emaby play back on Shield TV and Fire Sticks.

Playback on Shield TV of all files has been perfect since I've used emby over the last 4 or 5 years.  On the Fire TV stick, some HEVC files exhibit micros stutters, randomly and usually if a HDR10+ or DV 4K.  Recently, this seems to have become worse and also on Shield TV, though on the latter it is less micro stutters and more a periodic judder, or frame skip, like the video is being played back at the wrong frame rate, but it is being played at the correct frame rate.  

This is using the Android version of the app on both devices, which now seems to be recomended.

These files play perfectly on tablets, and via other playback apps.

 

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Are you displaying subtitles when this occurs?

[kaledi 41]

Hi - no, I am not.  I should have added that no transcoding is occuring, these are all direct play files.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

2 hours ago, kaledi said:

Hi - no, I am not.  I should have added that no transcoding is occuring, these are all direct play files.

I recently have seen problems with playback of a very few shows/movies on both my Shield and Fire Stick. I was advised to use the standard (regular) app instead of the Android for TV app. It does have a better player and I can verify that videos that had little glitches and jerks were smooth with the newer app. 

However I have gone back to the Android for TV app on my Shield as i simply do not like the newer app. Also, when I see any issues, I can just simply press the down arrow and then scroll over to the "star" icon and select it and the select "Playback correction" from the dropdown and that clears up the problem 99% of the time.

If you are one that can tolerate the new app then use it as it does have a better player or you can use playback correction with the old app for the few videos that misbehave.

Good luck.  

[kaledi 41]

thanks - I'll check out a comparison between the two apps.

[Luke 42077]

Please let us know how things go. Thanks.

[reas11 2]

Had the same issue of Microstutter/Judder for months on the new android app using both Shield and Google TV Streamer. No stutter on the old Android TV App, so seems isolated to the new app only. Few people complaining of the same on Reddit also

Can confirm only an issue for 4K HDR/DV content. 1080p content has no stutter

[Luke 42077]

23 minutes ago, reas11 said:

Had the same issue of Microstutter/Judder for months on the new android app using both Shield and Google TV Streamer. No stutter on the old Android TV App, so seems isolated to the new app only. Few people complaining of the same on Reddit also

Can confirm only an issue for 4K HDR/DV content. 1080p content has no stutter

Hi, we'll do some comparisons and try to reproduce. Thanks.

[kaledi 41]

How are you getting on with thr comparisons. The new android app on shield tv consistently produces micro stutters / single frame skips a very 10 to 15 seconds. The original shield tv app also does the same but milder. I'm viewing dv or hdr files in particular. 

[yocker 1247]

Not to dismiss other peoples problems but no problems here with the Shield and/or the new Android app.
I have uninstalled everything i don't use with ADB though, might have had an effect but i don't know.

[NeverReadyEddie 2]

I have noticed a micro stutter in the Emby Android app on my Nvidia Shield TV. I have a feeling this is the same one I was trying to escape on the Plex app you can see documented extensively in the thread below. 

https://forums.plex.tv/t/recent-update-causes-stutters-and-audio-sync-issues/851641/

In the end it was theorised to be something embedded in the ExoPlayer version that was rolled into Plex after version 9.28. In Emby I can see the exact same issue; a micro stutter that appears only after a little while, maybe 20 minutes of watching and its really almost imperceptible. Like the video skipping a frame but no audio glitch to go with it. It happens in all kinds of formats and in Plex where the recent version had the nerd stats show the number of dropped frames, it would not even show as one. You could see frame skips but the stats showed zero dropped frames. Maybe a screen matching bug but the TV absolutely changes to 24p on playback. I've checked it.

The interesting part is the old Emby Android TV app does not suffer from this micro stutter so perhaps its the dreaded ExoPlayer version update in the Android app that is the cause.

If it is an ExoPlayer + the Nvidia Shield issue, there is nothing Emby can do about it just like Plex could not without rolling back ExoPlayer versions and never updating it again which is not practical.

[reas11 2]

Be interesting to see the emby teams take on it. I am surprised that reports aren't more widespread as it's an issue that happens every time I try the new app for me. For now I've gone back to the old emby android TV app which works flawlessly 

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

I have been forced, kicking and screaming, to switch to the regular Android app. It has improved although there are some glitches but the Android TV app has become unstable enough so the playback on about half my media will suddenly glitch and exit all the way out to my Shield's home menu. 

I have given up on getting Emby to fix the Android TV app and that is forcing me to the newer app.
There are some advantages and a lot of what I detested about the new app has been improved to the point where it seems I can use it comfortably. 

I suggest that everybody that can switch to the new Android app as its player has many many fewer problems and I have not seen any video/audio glitches in the last day or so. That is a HUGE improvement for me.
I still have the old app installed on my Shield but I now doubt I will feel I have to use it much.

Thanks, Emby, for having a correctly working ver available but I do wish the "new" player was available on the old app. But I guess it is not unreasonable to create a whole new app instead of fixing one that has been fixed so many time before.

BTW: There is one annoying glitch in the interface that I will open a new thread about if it continues. 
I am using the enhanced home screen and i have next up legacy as the first row on my home screen.
The problem is that if I play an item form "next up" that is at position 6 or beyond and I let it play all the way to the end when it exits back to next up and the list correctly reorders itself the highlighted item does NOT have its description at the top of the screen until I move either left or right and back but the display is normal otherwise. After I move off the highlighted show and back the display still remains normal and the description returns and displays normally. It is like the screen forgets to full update after a return from normal playback. 

My other "suggestion" is that Emby focus their development to one Android app. That way resources are not as spread out and it is possible that problems like the issues displayed in this thread might get fixed rather that effectively being ignored. I do understand that Emby wants to keep everyone happy but maintaining multiple Android apps is not the way to do it.

[Luke 42077]

On 8/4/2025 at 8:57 AM, reas11 said:

Be interesting to see the emby teams take on it. I am surprised that reports aren't more widespread as it's an issue that happens every time I try the new app for me. For now I've gone back to the old emby android TV app which works flawlessly 

There was a big exoplayer update the other day. It's a little too new at this point to jump in right away but after it's had a couple maintenance updates we'll take a look at it. Hopefully that will help with this.

[kaledi 41]

Hi - what is the latest on this issue and what is the current recommendation?

The standard android app has micro stutters on both the Shield TV and Fire TV stick.  The Android TV app is better on both, but it is not perfect and I am seeing microstutters when in the past it did not.  Not as frequent as standard Android App, but there nonetheless

[Luke 42077]

9 hours ago, kaledi said:

Hi - what is the latest on this issue and what is the current recommendation?

The standard android app has micro stutters on both the Shield TV and Fire TV stick.  The Android TV app is better on both, but it is not perfect and I am seeing microstutters when in the past it did not.  Not as frequent as standard Android App, but there nonetheless

HI, please see my last posting. Thanks.

[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.

[kaledi 41]

Certainly will - when will this be posted to the Google Play Store and Amazon Store?

[Luke 42077]

Hi, very soon, thanks.

[kaledi 41]

Tested on a couple of Shield TVs and Fire TV sticks.  I'd say this is a very good improvement.  The only files it does struggle with (but still much better than before) are HDR10+ videos.