Trouble playing HEVC content using DirectPlay with Edge, fine in Firefox

[Vidmo232 2]

Emby Server Version 4.9.1.90

Emby Server platform: Windows Server 2025

Client: Edge Version 142.0.3595.94 (Official build) (64-bit)

Issue: when playing HEVC content with Edge the playback stalls at the same exact location in each film when DirectPlay is being used. The content is using DirectPlay but transcoding the audio as you can see in the screenshot. This is occurring with any HEVC content where DirectPlay in Edge is being used, if the HEVC content does not use DirectPlay and is transcoded no issues are observed.

This issue is not present with Firefox HEVC content using DirectPlay.

ffmpeg-remux-9daa87b9-aae1-4693-821a-7631bc4d9b11_1.txtembyserver.txthardware_detection-63899486566.txt

[visproduction 315]

ffmpeg-remux...

lines 1118, 1119

Quote

09:24:53.527 elapsed=00:01:24.85 frame=38148 fps=450 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:26:01.89 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=18.4x    
09:24:54.032 elapsed=00:01:25.36 frame=38182 fps=447 q=-1.0 size=N/A time=00:26:03.30 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=18.3x    
 

The fps value and speed goes down with every line.

I think eventually your server falls to a speed that is no longer supportable for real time playback and this perhaps causes the freeze.

Solution, don't use original media that exceeds the speed capacity of your server + any hardware to deliver / transcode.  The bit rates, media and audio types and large number of subtitles probably contribute to the server demand to process the media.   Ideally, you want the server to not continue to decrease the fps and speeds.  Since I really don't ever deal with media of this size and direct playback and transcode issues, I am just guessing this is what is happening.

Does this make sense to other members, who works a lot more with hand bitrate media?

Edited November 23, 2025 by visproduction

[Vidmo232 2]

Possibly, but the server is just barely hitting 13% utilization during the playback. Hardly stressed at all. Note: Emby is using software transcoding and not hardware as I'm also using the Intel GPU for Blue Iris.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Vidmo232

[Vidmo232 2]

Plus, that would not explain why the playback of this content works just fine in FireFox.

Ran another test:

- Stopped my Blue Iris service (nothing using the GPU now)

- Enabled hardware acceleration in Emby, restarted

- Testing the same content, same result; Playback froze in the same spot

ffmpeg-remux-12d3e1d9-57d1-4f8d-87a3-4ccf5f786138_1.txt

[Happy2Play 9780]

Most likely a browser issue itself as the browser player is really out of Emby's control.

Is it all content or specific content?

Is it only remux content?

If video and audio Direct play do you see the same results?

 

[Vidmo232 2]

15 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

Most likely a browser issue itself as the browser player is really out of Emby's control.

Is it all content or specific content?

Is it only remux content?

If video and audio Direct play do you see the same results?

 

I've only got a dozen HEVC movies that I own, so its not a good sample size unfortunately. The issue occurs with every HEVC Star Wars title at the exact same time (0:59) into the movie. 

Top Gun: Maverick seems to be ok and it uses DirectPlay for video and transcodes the audio to MP3 just like the Star Wars movies. BUT right around the 1 minute mark it does stall for a brief second and drops a frame but then continues on from there.

It seems like the titles with TrueHD 7.1 as the audio source are more problematic. Maybe I'll remove that audio channel from a test title and see if that has an effect.

[Vidmo232 2]

Actually I don't need to do that, I just need to select one of the other audio tracks on the title page in Emby. So, I selected the AC3 5.1 audio track which ends up being DirectPlay in Edge and the issue disappears. No more stall.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Ideally that is the best route as it can be hard to troubleshoot issue like these as nothing stands out in the logs to me.

[Vidmo232 2]

So it seems like the root cause might be the conversion from TrueHD 7.1 to MP3 for Edge to use. Maybe title specific. I don't see this in FireFox as it going from TrueHD 7.1 to AAC.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Vidmo232

[Happy2Play 9780]

6 minutes ago, Vidmo232 said:

So it seems like the root cause might be the conversion from TrueHD 7.1 to MP3 for Edge to use. Maybe title specific.

At the same time I can not reproduce a issue with that but every file is different as mine are not that high of bitrate.

Edited November 23, 2025 by Happy2Play

[Vidmo232 2]

FYI: This MKV was made from the original source disc.

[Luke 42077]

3 hours ago, Vidmo232 said:

So it seems like the root cause might be the conversion from TrueHD 7.1 to MP3 for Edge to use. Maybe title specific. I don't see this in FireFox as it going from TrueHD 7.1 to AAC.

Not necessarily that. Either audio format should be fine.

[Vidmo232 2]

5 minutes ago, Luke said:

Not necessarily that. Either audio format should be fine.

Happy to provide the MKV file for you to test.