Unable to play media since 1 day on android TV

[jaytonic 1]

Hi,

I've an emby server running on docker, based on the `lscr.io/linuxserver/emby:latest` image. It has been setup for the last 2 years and is working perfectly fine since then.
Since this evening, after no special update or anything, when I try to play an episode on the android TV app(V2.1.23g), i hear the sound, see the subtitle, but the screen stay black. If I forward, I get a few sacadding images, and then no images at all.

If I try to play it in my browser or in my phone, I've no worries at all. I even try to play it on my phone and then chromecast it to the android TV, problem is back again.

The weird part: I tried to watch an TV Show episode that I watched yesterday without any worries, and I've the same issue.
I tried to reboot everything( my docker stack, the network switches & router, the Android TV). The android TV is connected to 1GB ethernet port, so it should be fine on this side.

I've `watchtower` installed on my docker server, which should try to install latest version of my docker images every day, so I tought there might have been a new version, but apparently, the latest update was 5 days ago and I definitely watched many show since.
 

time="2025-07-25T04:30:22Z" level=info msg="Found new lscr.io/linuxserver/emby:latest image (cd096a7668d4)"

I tried to open a few of the logs files, but honestly, I've no idea about what to look for.
I tried to convert the media to TV quality, and then I'm able to watch the video. But like I said, yesterday I was able to watch this episode, on the same device without any additonal conversion.

 

Does anybody had the same issue or could advise what I could do to troubleshot the issue?

embyserver-63889500601.txt hardware_detection-63889500615.txt embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-fa152810-aabd-4f91-abbc-3acc15e98e38_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-d888a231-02d7-4143-9ab8-b3eb8c1a7384_1.txt

[Luke 42077]

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.

 

[jaytonic 1]

7 minutes ago, Luke 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.

 

I'm not sure to totally understand? On my android TV, I'm using your standard app? I tried with chromecast approach just to test if the behavior was different. But I usually use the emby android TV app. 

I went to the app detail in the store, it also seems to be up to date. 

What am I missing? 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, yes we have two apps available on android tv so I'm asking you to try this one:

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

Thanks.

[jaytonic 1]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, yes we have two apps available on android tv so I'm asking you to try this one:

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

Thanks.

OK I didn't know. So I installed the other one. 

I managed to play the media on the "emby for android", but it's stuttering as hell,like 5fps.

On the emby for android TV, I get the sound but no image as initially explained.

[Luke 42077]

OK we are looking into that. Thanks.

[jaytonic 1]

On 7/31/2025 at 5:58 PM, Luke said:

OK we are looking into that. Thanks.

Hi @Luke
Did you found anything that could explain the issue or a quick workaround?

[Luke 42077]

@jaytonichave you tried our official docker container rather than the linuxserver.io one?

[jaytonic 1]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

@jaytonichave you tried our official docker container rather than the linuxserver.io one?

I need to be able to specify the uid and gid due to using a nfs mount. No I didn't try, do you think it could be the issue? It's weird that it was working for years and suddenly, the linuxserver integration would not work? 

[Luke 42077]

2 hours ago, jaytonic said:

I need to be able to specify the uid and gid due to using a nfs mount. No I didn't try, do you think it could be the issue? It's weird that it was working for years and suddenly, the linuxserver integration would not work? 

Right now we have a problem without an obvious cause, so I would say that it's worth trying, yes.

[jaytonic 1]

On 8/22/2025 at 9:08 PM, Luke said:

Right now we have a problem without an obvious cause, so I would say that it's worth trying, yes.

Hi,

I took some time to switch to the base distribution and doing some NFS remapping in order for emby to be able to access as admin my media.

I've 100% the same behavior than previously. sounds and subtitle but no image.

[Luke 42077]

How does playing in the Emby web app compare?

[jaytonic 1]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

How does playing in the Emby web app compare?

Same as before too, plays without any issue(I also tried with the 2 android tv apps, same behavior than before)

[jaytonic 1]

By the way, I made another test, I did convert to "TV Quality" and then tried to watch this version, I got no issue. But I don't get why transcode for the same media on the same device should become required.

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, jaytonic said:

By the way, I made another test, I did convert to "TV Quality" and then tried to watch this version, I got no issue. But I don't get why transcode for the same media on the same device should become required.

@jaytonicdid you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding? It will tell you.

[jaytonic 1]

On 9/4/2025 at 9:48 AM, Luke said:

@jaytonicdid you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding? It will tell you.

But I manually transcoded and choose the transcoded version(and then it works), so I'm not sure it's really the relevant part, no?

[Luke 42077]

Right I meant to try doing that when it is transcoding the original.

[jaytonic 1]

On 9/12/2025 at 4:37 AM, Luke said:

Right I meant to try doing that when it is transcoding the original.

Yeah, but like I said, I don't think it tries to transcode anything when playing the original, I don't see anything about transcoding on both server or client.

[Luke 42077]

On 9/14/2025 at 12:47 PM, jaytonic said:

Yeah, but like I said, I don't think it tries to transcode anything when playing the original, I don't see anything about transcoding on both server or client.

@jaytonicHi, you said you don't understand why transcoding is happening in a certain situation:

Quote

But I don't get why transcode for the same media on the same device should become required.

So in this situation, when it happens, you can use the stats feature to learn why. Does that help?

[jaytonic 1]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

@jaytonicHi, you said you don't understand why transcoding is happening in a certain situation:

So in this situation, when it happens, you can use the stats feature to learn why. Does that help?

No, sorry, I probably expressed myself badly. I meant that I don't understand why transcoding (manually) would be required to play the same content on the same device it used to work before. 

There has never been an automatic transcoding for this TV show. It's really weird because so far, I seem to have an issue only with one TV show(but 20 episodes).