Playback problem with EAC3 5.1 Audio on Fire TV App.

[ClemFandango 18]

I'm sort of halfway to figuring this out - I think

I'm on a Synology NAS for Emby Server with the latest DSM and the Fire TV app is up to date as well.

Initially I thought this was more to do with 4K content as I kept trying to play my 4K rip of Beverly Hills Cop 2 and I was having this problem but I've slowly narrowed it down to what seems to be an audio encoding issue.

I've got a number of movies (and tv shows) with EAC3 5.1 audio as the default track and whenever I try playing them on my TV, there's a noticeable judder in the playback.  It doesn't matter if this is 4K content or 1080p content, it seems to happen with this particular audio track.

I initially tried lowering the playback bitrate in the app from "Auto" to "80 kbp/s" and that didn't make any difference.   I started to realise it was potentially an audio issue when I set the audio playback to default to "downmix to stereo" and the playback was as smooth as silk.

Now here's the thing ..

I used the (extremely handy) filter in Emby to only show content with this audio track and went through each one with 'stats for nerds' enabled.

I actually subsequently found that some of the movies with this audio track played perfectly fine and this is when I realised that those films only had an audio bitrate of 256 kbps or less.   Anything higher than that caused the problem.  As you can see in the two attached images, the 'BHC' one is for Beverly Hills Cop 2 and that's at 960kbps and that judders.   The Hunt is at 256kbps and that plays just fine - both are 4K.  I have a 1080p film that has the audio bitrate of 640kbps and that also judders.

Now I DO have Audio transcoding set to on in the user profile but this doesn't seem to help.

This is the extent of what I've figured out so hopefully if that makes any sense you might have some ideas

 

[ClemFandango 18]

Just to follow up with some further information, I tried a version of Beverly Hills Cop with a DTS audio track  which had a bitrate of 3918kbps and while the opening title crawl seemed smooth, about 5 minutes in the playback was again noticeably juddery.

I then tried a copy with an AAC audio track with "only" 380kbps and that one is buttery smooth.  Opening crawl fine and the same scenes that were juddery on the DTS (and EAC3) audio tracks played absolutely perfectly.

So maybe the issue is the high bitrate ?.  Although this is way beyond my pay grade to be fair ..

#edit

Also just got home and decided to try the Emby for Android TV version of the app and, at the moment, that appears to be playing everything without an issue - no stuttering or anything so it'll do as a temporary solution I guess.

Edited July 27, 2025 by ClemFandango

[ebr 16169]

Exactly what Fire device?  Is it an old one?

3 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

Also just got home and decided to try the Emby for Android TV version of the app

Your screenshots are from the Android TV app.  Can you please confirm which one is having the problem?

[ClemFandango 18]

21 minutes ago, ebr said:

Exactly what Fire device?  Is it an old one?

Your screenshots are from the Android TV app.  Can you please confirm which one is having the problem?

I do apologise. 

It's a Panasonic Z95A OLED Fire TV which was released in 2024 so pretty new.  My Synology NAS is the DS224+ as well so capable of transcoding if need be.

I can promise you the two screenshots I took this morning were from the Fire TV version of the app as that's the only one I had downloaded until I got back home and specifically tried the Android TV version.

Edited July 27, 2025 by ClemFandango

[ebr 16169]

21 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

and specifically tried the Android TV version.

So you sideloaded the Google version of "Emby for Android TV" onto the device?

Sorry, I'm still confused.  Can you please state the version number of the app with the issue and the one without?

Thanks.

[ClemFandango 18]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

So you sideloaded the Google version of "Emby for Android TV" onto the device?

Sorry, I'm still confused.  Can you please state the version number of the app with the issue and the one without?

Thanks.

No, I just downloaded the Android version available in the Fire TV App Store.    No Sideloading ever took place although I recognise that referring to it as the "TV Version" was probably the wrong thing to say so I can only apologise.

If I select my profile option, it gives me "Emby for Android 3.4.74"

Edited July 28, 2025 by ClemFandango

[ebr 16169]

3 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

it gives me "Emby for Android 3.4.74"

That is the one that is currently working for you, correct?  So you are all set with it?

[ClemFandango 18]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

That is the one that is currently working for you, correct?  So you are all set with it?

Yes, this version of Emby is currently working for me.

The Fire TV version, which I'd prefer to use, is the one with the playback problems.  Still.

Edited July 28, 2025 by ClemFandango

[Luke 42077]

5 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

Yes, this version of Emby is currently working for me.

The Fire TV version, which I'd prefer to use, is the one with the playback problems.  Still.

HI, why do you prefer that one?

[ClemFandango 18]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

HI, why do you prefer that one?

While there's a lot to like about the Android version, the Fire TV version, at least to me, appears to work slightly faster.

If I'm watching a recorded show and I want to skip through the adverts, the Fire TV version will let me tap the forward button a couple of times to jump forward 30 seconds each time whereas the Android version needs me to go to the playback bar and hold down forward to advance the playback which isn't always obvious it's actually doing something.

And if I'm on the home screen, pressing "back" asks me if I want to exit the app, which I can do.   Pressing "back" on the home screen of the android version opens up a menu showing my libraries first before giving me the opportunity to exit.

[Luke 42077]

17 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

While there's a lot to like about the Android version, the Fire TV version, at least to me, appears to work slightly faster.

If I'm watching a recorded show and I want to skip through the adverts, the Fire TV version will let me tap the forward button a couple of times to jump forward 30 seconds each time whereas the Android version needs me to go to the playback bar and hold down forward to advance the playback which isn't always obvious it's actually doing something.

And if I'm on the home screen, pressing "back" asks me if I want to exit the app, which I can do.   Pressing "back" on the home screen of the android version opens up a menu showing my libraries first before giving me the opportunity to exit.

By the way you can also press back on that back menu to exit, so it’s the same  number of clicks.

[ClemFandango 18]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

By the way you can also press back on that back menu to exit, so it’s the same  number of clicks.

Ok, thanks.

Are we eventually going to address the issue i've raised ?

[Luke 42077]

On 7/30/2025 at 2:45 AM, ClemFandango said:

Ok, thanks.

Are we eventually going to address the issue i've raised ?

HI, we'll take a look at it. Thanks.

[ebr 16169]

On 7/30/2025 at 2:45 AM, ClemFandango said:

Are we eventually going to address the issue i've raised ?

Hi.  Exactly which issue?  We have no plans to update the player in the TV-only app.

[ClemFandango 18]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Exactly which issue?  We have no plans to update the player in the TV-only app.

Well since you clearly haven't read the opening posts, or you've just forgotten, I've identified an issue where a video file with a high audio bitrate causes juddery playback in the Fire TV app.

Not the "Emby for Android" app - the Fire TV app.

Edited August 2, 2025 by ClemFandango

[ebr 16169]

6 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

Well since you clearly haven't read the opening posts, or you've just forgotten, I've identified an issue where a video file with a high audio bitrate causes juddery playback in the Fire TV app.

Not the "Emby for Android" app - the Fire TV app.

I did read them but you also brought up other issues in addition to that one (regarding the standard "Emby" app).

Your original issue is not likely to get addressed because it involves updating the player in the TV-only app (named "Emby for Fire TV").  We are not planning to do that as we are moving to the app just called "Emby".

[ClemFandango 18]

7 hours ago, ebr said:

I did read them but you also brought up other issues in addition to that one (regarding the standard "Emby" app).

Your original issue is not likely to get addressed because it involves updating the player in the TV-only app (named "Emby for Fire TV").  We are not planning to do that as we are moving to the app just called "Emby".

I didn't bring up any other issues.

Luke asked me why I preferred the Fire TV app and I told him.  

But, to clarify, you're discontinuing the Fire TV app and going forward with one app called "Emby" which I'm assuming is the one currently on the App Store as "Emby for Android" or is it the "Emby for Android TV" one ?

[ebr 16169]

7 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

the one currently on the App Store as "Emby for Android"

That is the name on a Google device.

On an Amazon (Fire TV) device, it is named just "Emby".

[ClemFandango 18]

34 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is the name on a Google device.

On an Amazon (Fire TV) device, it is named just "Emby".

Yes, clearly that's correct ..

 

Edited August 3, 2025 by ClemFandango

[ebr 16169]

7 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

Yes, clearly that's correct .

We're talking about the name of the standard app which, on a Fire device, is just "Emby".

[ClemFandango 18]

4 hours ago, ebr said:

We're talking about the name of the standard app which, on a Fire device, is just "Emby".

Right, so, once again, are you discontinuing the Fire TV app in favour of the other “Emby” app that is also in the Fire TV App Store ?

[seanbuff 1315]

4 hours ago, ClemFandango said:

are you discontinuing the Fire TV app in favour of the other “Emby” app that is also in the Fire TV App Store ?

Yes, that is the plan.

[ClemFandango 18]

4 hours ago, seanbuff said:

Yes, that is the plan.

A straight to the point answer.  At last.

I hope you can at least look at the skipping functionality and align it more with the Fire TV version.  If you're watching a Live TV recording and need to skip through the adverts, 30 seconds at a time is far easier, and quicker, than the current 10 seconds per press option.

Thankyou..

Edited August 4, 2025 by ClemFandango

[Luke 42077]

On 8/4/2025 at 3:30 AM, ClemFandango said:

A straight to the point answer.  At last.

I hope you can at least look at the skipping functionality and align it more with the Fire TV version.  If you're watching a Live TV recording and need to skip through the adverts, 30 seconds at a time is far easier, and quicker, than the current 10 seconds per press option.

Thankyou..

Have you configured your skip forward and back times in the app's playback settings?

[ClemFandango 18]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Have you configured your skip forward and back times in the app's playback settings?

I have now, yes.