Random stutters/freezes with horrible crackling audio after 10 - 30 minutes of playback

[GingerPenguin 2]

I've been experiencing the same issue. I thought it was just me. It seems pretty random. I thought it was something to do with Dolby Atmos specifically but I've since had it on content playing DTS:X and plain Dolby Digital+. I also thought it might be something to do with bitrate as mostly I noticed it when watching films but it's happened on files that run 10-15Mbps with audio at 256kb/s as well so I'm assuming that's not the issue.

It only seems to affect Emby so, as I thought it was limited to Atmos tracks, I'd just been switching back to Jellyfin to watch films with an Atmos soundtrack but that idea fell apart when I tried to watch Get Out which has a DTS:X track which Jellyfin can't do (any DTS-HD tracks fall back to the lossy DTS 5.1 core which is why I switched the Emby in the first place).

Stopping and restarting the stream does fix it though often only temporarily. I managed to get a video of it happening which should hopefully explain the issue a bit better. After I stopped the video, it did it again but I've also had times where it will then play the whole film properly without issue.

[Luke 42077]

@GingerPenguin

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[PedroDelCargo 1]

Hi,

Same problem for me using latest Android app on my NVidia Shield TV 2019.

Yesterday, I had to pause/play 3 or 4 times during a 1 hour episode. Very annoying...

Edited November 13, 2025 by PedroDelCargo

[GingerPenguin 2]

@LukeI have attached today's log from the server dashboard that covers this issue happening ~2min into playback of an episode. The relevant lines to this session are 1340-1391. The issue occurred at around 20:37. The relevant section ends with me stopping the video to resume with Jellyfin hence why there isn't any further playback afterwards until later in the evening.

embyserver 2025-11-13.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi, please attach the ffmpeg log as well. thanks.

[GingerPenguin 2]

@LukeThere was no ffmpeg log generated at that time. I have attached one from earlier that day from a remote session where a remux was required. I had the issue reappear this morning as well and there have been no ffmpeg logs since the ones attached here from 2 days ago. I have attached this morning's server log as well. It is the only playback item in the log. I also let the crackling sound go on for a lot longer this time just in case it made a difference in the log 

ffmpeg-remux-8adf10bc-1f20-4c49-9e89-95f0ebde6b45_1.txt ffmpeg-remux-f3f1658d-f580-47b5-bbd5-6cd2305f0f00_1.txt embyserver 2025-11-15.txt

[GingerPenguin 2]

Just enabled debug logging and waited for another instance of the issue in case that was useful. I have attached that updated log. That one occurred at about 9:47.

embyserver 2025-11-15_debug.txt

[PedroDelCargo 1]

Hi,

For those having the same problem, I found a solution on my NVidia Shield TV :

In advanced audio settings of the Shield TV, I disabled all HD audio formats (left only DTS and Dolby Digital). Now all HD audio formats are converted to PCM and since I never had this issue again... so far...

Edited December 3, 2025 by PedroDelCargo