Stuttering issues

[godvadr 0]

Hey there, i just switched over from Plex to Emby. The reason i switched was becuase i had some weird issues with plex stuttering every vew seconds.

with emby i do have the exact same issue. 
emby is running on a beelink mini pc with s Intel N100 and 16Gigs of RAM. The PC is connected to a Switch, and if i run a Speedtest on the PC, i‘ll get nearly 1GB of troughput. At the Apple TV, which is connected via WiFi, i‘ll get about 300Mbps Download and 150Mbps Upload.

But as soon as i start to Watch something, ill get stutters every few seconds. Its like: running 1-2sec -> buffering 1sec -> running 1-2sec. It does not matter if i watch in directplay or not. 
 

sometimes i can watch for 20mins without any issue and then it will begin to stutter. Also it does not matter what i watch, some low bitrate animes or some 4K Movies.

 

what could be the issue?

[Abobader 3464]

Hello godvadr,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[brothom 177]

1 hour ago, godvadr said:

Hey there, i just switched over from Plex to Emby. The reason i switched was becuase i had some weird issues with plex stuttering every vew seconds.

with emby i do have the exact same issue. 
emby is running on a beelink mini pc with s Intel N100 and 16Gigs of RAM. The PC is connected to a Switch, and if i run a Speedtest on the PC, i‘ll get nearly 1GB of troughput. At the Apple TV, which is connected via WiFi, i‘ll get about 300Mbps Download and 150Mbps Upload.

But as soon as i start to Watch something, ill get stutters every few seconds. Its like: running 1-2sec -> buffering 1sec -> running 1-2sec. It does not matter if i watch in directplay or not. 
 

sometimes i can watch for 20mins without any issue and then it will begin to stutter. Also it does not matter what i watch, some low bitrate animes or some 4K Movies.

 

what could be the issue?

It sounds to me like your Switch probably can't play the video directly, causing Emby (and also Plex) to start "transcoding" it into a format the Switch supports.

You can check this by playing the item on your Switch and then checking the Emby Server Dashboard to see if it's trying to transcode the file. For example:

Transcoding
Might lag your server if it's not powerful enough at the time

Direct play
Almost only uses bandwidth

 

Is the file you're trying to play also "transcoding"?

Edited August 22, 2025 by brothom

[godvadr 0]

2 minutes ago, brothom said:

It sounds to me like your Switch probably can't play the video directly, causing Emby (and also Plex) to start "transcoding" it into a format the Switch supports.

You can check this by playing the item on your Switch and then checking the Emby Server Dashboard to see if it's trying to transcode the file. For example:

Transcoding
Might lag your server if it's not powerful enough at the time

Direct play
Almost only uses bandwidth

 

Is the file you're trying to play also "transcoding"?

Hi there, thanks for the answer.

i‘ll think there is a missunderstanding i am talking about a network switch, not the console switch. 

it says direct play on all 3, so there should be no transcoding

[brothom 177]

1 minute ago, godvadr said:

Hi there, thanks for the answer.

i‘ll think there is a missunderstanding i am talking about a network switch, not the console switch. 

it says direct play on all 3, so there should be no transcoding

Ah no worries! That doesn't change the situation fortunately.

If Direct Play is enabled and the device is still stuttering there still might be multiple reasons. 
Can you provide info about the item and the device you're trying to play? For example "4K HEVC Profile 10 on a Chrome Browser of HP laptop etc".

[godvadr 0]

8 minutes ago, brothom said:

Ah no worries! That doesn't change the situation fortunately.

If Direct Play is enabled and the device is still stuttering there still might be multiple reasons. 
Can you provide info about the item and the device you're trying to play? For example "4K HEVC Profile 10 on a Chrome Browser of HP laptop etc".

Sure, ill do my best

So right now i just started a movie in:

 

Stream

MKV (9 mbps)

Direct play

Video

1080p H264

Direct play

Audio

German AC3 5.1 (Standard)

Direct play

 

Watching on iOS App but excatly same happens on Apple TV App.

 

Another example:

Stream

MKV (16 mbps)

Direct play

Video

4K HDR 10 HEVC

Direct play

Audio

German AC3 2.1 (Standard)

Direct play

 

 

 

 

[brothom 177]

@godvadrhm, considering you're also using the app and apple tv the stutter must come from buffering. Does it also display a "buffer icon" when it's stuttering? If that's the case and both plex and emby have this issue, there must be something going on, on your network.

Can you please also provide the logs of the Emby Server during the stutter. You can find those in %appdata%\Emby-Server\programdata\logs on Windows. For other systems please 

 

[Luke 42077]

@godvadr?

[godvadr 0]

@brothom @Luke Sorry i was some days not available

Here are the logs, if those are the wrong one just say it

Btw:
If i am outside my home network, i had no issues with stutterings so far. They seem to be just internal. 

embyserver.zip

[brothom 177]

30 minutes ago, godvadr said:

Btw:
If i am outside my home network, i had no issues with stutterings so far. They seem to be just internal. 

Strange.

So via 4/5G you can watching some (with your phone I guess?) without any issues?

If you watch the same thing again via Wi-Fi and using your phone again, there's a stutter?

If you check the Emby Server settings, does it connect to the same IP address or hostname with and without Wi-Fi?

[godvadr 0]

24 minutes ago, brothom said:

So via 4/5G you can watching some (with your phone I guess?) without any issues?

I just tested that, i do have less stutters, there are some too but not that frequently. Its like 1 stutter ever 5min.
 

 

24 minutes ago, brothom said:

If you watch the same thing again via Wi-Fi and using your phone again, there's a stutter?

As soon as i start watching via Wi-Fi there are more stutters - yes.

 

 

25 minutes ago, brothom said:

If you check the Emby Server settings, does it connect to the same IP address or hostname with and without Wi-Fi?

To be honest, i don't really understand the question. But yes - when i am in the Wi-Fi i can see my Phones Wi-Fi IP,  and if connected via 5G i can see this IP. Same for Server - when connected to Wi-Fi i can see internal IP Address and when 5G i can see my WAN IP.

[brothom 177]

3 hours ago, godvadr said:

To be honest, i don't really understand the question. But yes - when i am in the Wi-Fi i can see my Phones Wi-Fi IP,  and if connected via 5G i can see this IP. Same for Server - when connected to Wi-Fi i can see internal IP Address and when 5G i can see my WAN IP.

Okay so the conclusion here is that the speed of your intranet (local network) seems slower across multiple devices compared to devices connecting via Internet. 

When you connect to Wi-Fi, is that access point directly onto your router or modem or do you have a separate Wi-Fi network that's connected to your modem/router? It sounds like something in your network is either capped at a maximum speed or does not play along nicely with other devices. 

[godvadr 0]

1 minute ago, brothom said:

Okay so the conclusion here is that the speed of your intranet (local network) seems slower across multiple devices compared to devices connecting via Internet. 

When you connect to Wi-Fi, is that access point directly onto your router or modem or do you have a separate Wi-Fi network that's connected to your modem/router? It sounds like something in your network is either capped at a maximum speed or does not play along nicely with other devices. 

The Router handles everything, so there is no separate Wi-Fi Network in Place. 
I've tried to connect my Apple TV via LAN, it works better than Wi-Fi, but there still are some stutters around. 
At the PC, which is connected to the same Network Switch as the Emby Server is, there are minimal to no Stutters, after i watched for about 1h.

On the Router side, i did almost everything i could. I enabled QoS and prioritized all data coming from Emby, IGMP Snooping to Standard, which was Block Mode before.
Static Route to the Emby etc. 

I can give a better brief overview about my network: 
AX7501-B1 Router Connected to Fiber 10G with XGS Pon which is located in the in-wall multimedia distribution box.
From the 10G Port of the Router is a in-wall network Cable to my 1 GB Office Network Switch.
At this Switch is: Emby Server, Gaming PC, Work Laptop 
 

[brothom 177]

4 minutes ago, godvadr said:

The Router handles everything, so there is no separate Wi-Fi Network in Place. 
I've tried to connect my Apple TV via LAN, it works better than Wi-Fi, but there still are some stutters around. 
At the PC, which is connected to the same Network Switch as the Emby Server is, there are minimal to no Stutters, after i watched for about 1h.

On the Router side, i did almost everything i could. I enabled QoS and prioritized all data coming from Emby, IGMP Snooping to Standard, which was Block Mode before.
Static Route to the Emby etc. 

I can give a better brief overview about my network: 
AX7501-B1 Router Connected to Fiber 10G with XGS Pon which is located in the in-wall multimedia distribution box.
From the 10G Port of the Router is a in-wall network Cable to my 1 GB Office Network Switch.
At this Switch is: Emby Server, Gaming PC, Work Laptop 
 

Is there a way to run a speedtest on both your Apple TV and Desktop? It still sounds like something is acting up in your network. Another "trick" would be to reset your network devices. Try restarting your modem without having the switch connected to it and then power off / restart the switch separately. Sounds dumb, but sometimes switches become a little too sentient hehe.