Playback stops for remote users

[thunderclap 52]

I have several friends who have told me playback stops every so often. I've been trying to pinpoint the issue but haven't had much luck. I recently upgraded my 9700K to a 14600K hoping that would help but it didn't. Then I thought it might be an HDR issue or a direct play vs transcoding issue, but it seems like there isn't a pattern. I have fiber with a bandwidth of over 900mbit/s. One friend has fiber too and averages 500mbit/s. I'm hoping someone can assist in tracking down the problem. I've attached my EmbyServer log, hardware detect log and several trancoding logs. Thanks.

embyserver-63892355939.txt ffmpeg-transcode-1223fdef-f299-4de8-8888-0b8bcf76b53a_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-a8186765-d087-4008-83e0-b6e747212668_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-ccce304d-3e58-41b7-ac86-1748001b019a_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-f6159cee-e856-4fed-b7de-1ab93850adb7_1.txt hardware_detection-63892355944.txt

Edited September 2, 2025 by thunderclap

[Luke 42078]

Hi, if you lower the quality setting, does that help? This would be a good way to test and see if you're being hit by ISP throttling, which could be happening on either side of the connection.

[rbjtech 5284]

Without a detailed realtime network/bandwidth analysis, it's impossible to say.   Download bandwidth for the server is irrelevant, the server needs upload bandwidth.  Only the clients will be using their download bandwidth.    Network Latency will also be a large factor - if you are going long distance, then trying to 'stream' 10's of mbit's per second on devices with an application not designed to recover from variable bandwidths means any hiccup will stop the stream. 

It's worth doing some testing to see what is 'reliable' per client (find some set bitrate files on the net) - and then force the client down to maybe half that setting or restrict it it Emby's user settings.

If you want to stream 4k @ 15-30 mbit/sec (or more) then you'll need a low latency end-end connection - perfectly possible, as I do it myself, but using consumer kit, multiple ISP's etc, it's  hit and miss unfortunately.     The likes of Netfl*x etc are designed to constantly monitor and change bitrate as required, Emby is sadly not - the bitrate it starts at, is the bitrate it expects to be maintained. 

Edited September 4, 2025 by rbjtech

[thunderclap 52]

I think I tracked down the issue, though I need to have some friends test their connections. I've now configured the internet streaming bitrate limit in Network. If the problem continues I'll let you know. Thanks responding.

[Luke 42078]

What was the issue?

[rbjtech 5284]

19 hours ago, Luke said:

What was the issue?

I believe the AP has enforced a restriction on the users settings, as per my suggestion.

In my experience, the automatic bitrate mechanism is not reliable, so manually setting this would always be my recommendation.

On 04/09/2025 at 09:28, rbjtech said:

It's worth doing some testing to see what is 'reliable' per client (find some set bitrate files on the net) - and then force the client down to maybe half that setting or restrict it it Emby's user settings.

 

[thunderclap 52]

On 9/4/2025 at 2:24 PM, Luke said:

What was the issue?

Still waiting to hear back from friends but I had the Internet Streaming Bitrate Limit set to 1 by mistake. Not sure if that was causing the issue, but fingers crossed.

Now if only I could figure out why live tv and iptv keep freezing. I'll be submitting a support ticket on that soon. Figured I'd tackle one problem at a time.

[Luke 42078]

OK please keep us posted. Thanks.

[thunderclap 52]

On 9/5/2025 at 5:11 PM, Luke said:

OK please keep us posted. Thanks.

My friends have reported back and no issues this weekend, so I guess we can mark this as resolved and caused by user error on my part. Starting a new post for my live tv issue. Thanks for the responsiveness and support.