Problems on Linux Mint?

[double_DD 2]

Hi all,

First things first, hello from a new emby user.

Secondly, how is your emby working on Linux? I have it only for a short time, and so far nothing but problems.  

So my setup is this: I'm running emby server on Intel NUC8 (i5-8259U, Iris Plus Graphics 655 (with 1GB allocated RAM), 12GB RAM, SATA SSD), clean install, meaning Linux Mint and (almost) nothing else. All my mkv files are on NAS behind 1GB network (everything is fullHD, including my TV, so no 4K; files are x264 or x265 with stereo or 5.1, so nothing exotic).

As far as I've seen, emby client for Linux is behind a paywall, so I've tried watching my shows in Firefox browser with terrible results - either constant buffering or dropped frames (a whole lotta them). Basically unwatchable. Similar results with other browsers. I've done a bit of digging, and found a client called Tsukimi, which resolved some issues - now I don't have buffering problems, just dropped frames. Irritating, but watchable. I've tried looking into some log files, but haven't found anything that caught my eye as an issue.

So, my question is this: is this NUC simply underpowered for this task? (doesn't seem so, nothing is maxxed in system monitor; hell, neither CPU, GPU, RAM or network is above 30%). Is there some driver that could affect it? (I've tried running kernels 6.8 and 6.14). Is there some specific log that I might have overlooked? None of the above?

It's quite annoying, as I'm new to both Linux and emby, when nothing seems to work.  And I don't believe I'm asking too much of this little NUC.

Any help or advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Lessaj 467]

1 hour ago, double_DD said:

As far as I've seen, emby client for Linux is behind a paywall

No sure where you've seen this, Emby Theater is free. There will soon be a public beta for the new Linux client as well. 

Please provide logs. how to report a media playback issue

[sargenthp 35]

My server has been running Mint for 7 years.

Do you have hardware acceleration enabled?  If you don't have a correct video card, and it is enabled it will cause havoc.

[Luke 42077]

Quote

so I've tried watching my shows in Firefox browser with terrible results - either constant buffering or dropped frames (a whole lotta them). Basically unwatchable

 

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

 

[double_DD 2]

10 hours ago, Lessaj said:

No sure where you've seen this, Emby Theater is free. There will soon be a public beta for the new Linux client as well. 

Please provide logs. how to report a media playback issue

Interesting, I distinctively remember installing it just to see something in the lines of "there's 2 weeks of trial period and afterwards you need Premiere to unlock functionality" and then uninstalling it, but maybe something got mixed in my head. I'll try installing it again, and also check HW acceleration as was also suggested, and then if the problem persists come back with a proper issue report.

Thanks for your help and patience so far!

[double_DD 2]

21 minutes ago, double_DD said:

Interesting, I distinctively remember installing it just to see something in the lines of "there's 2 weeks of trial period and afterwards you need Premiere to unlock functionality" and then uninstalling it, but maybe something got mixed in my head. I'll try installing it again, and also check HW acceleration as was also suggested, and then if the problem persists come back with a proper issue report.

Thanks for your help and patience so far!

Nope, it's still like that. I can install emby Theater, but when I want to play something, a popup comes to "unlock features" and I'm only allowed to play 1minute.  

[GrimReaper 4739]

17 minutes ago, double_DD said:

Nope, it's still like that. I can install emby Theater, but when I want to play something, a popup comes to "unlock features" and I'm only allowed to play 1minute.

Active Premiere subscription is required for Full playback.

Emby Premiere Feature Matrix

Ditto for:

18 minutes ago, double_DD said:

and also check HW acceleration

 

[double_DD 2]

3 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Active Premiere subscription is required for Full playback.

Emby Premiere Feature Matrix

Ditto for:

 

If I understand it correctly, HW acceleration requires emby Premiere subscription, so why does it matter if it's ENABLED or DISABLED if I don't haev emby Premiere? I don't see any difference in behaviour when I change it.

Hvala

[Neminem 1518]

@double_DDDevs would need logs to see what wrong.

[double_DD 2]

So I did the server restart, tried a bit of playing in Mozilla and then in Tsukimi. Then I switched off HW accel, did the server restart again (just to be sure), and again same playing. Emby user is "ana", local time between 12:50 and 13:10, in EST between 6:50 and 7:10.

Attached are the logs I downloaded.

If I did something incorrect or something is missing, I apologize in advance.

 

HW accel ON_hardware_detection-63901659054.txt HW accel OFF_embyserver.txt HW accel OFF_embyserver-63901659703.txt HW accel OFF_hardware_detection-63901659706.txt HW accel ON_embyserver.txt HW accel ON_embyserver-63901659051.txt

[GrimReaper 4739]

12 minutes ago, double_DD said:

If I understand it correctly, HW acceleration requires emby Premiere subscription, so why does it matter if it's ENABLED or DISABLED if I don't haev emby Premiere?

It doesn't. Without Premiere subscription, it'll not get activated, transcoding will still be done in software only.

[Neminem 1518]

@double_DDIt looks like you have disabled transcoding and remuxing for that user.

Try enabling that, and led the cpu do its work, and see how it goes.

Then report back, that way you should also see ffmpeg logs, that you can upload.

2025-12-18 12:51:36.760 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetitemById Episode 47352 /media/NASMedia/SERIJE/Columbo (1968) Season 1-10/Season 1/Columbo (1968) - S01E09 - Blueprint for Murder (1080p BluRay x265 Silence).mkv
2025-12-18 12:51:36.880 Info App: User policy for ana. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

[double_DD 2]

23 minutes ago, Neminem said:

@double_DDIt looks like you have disabled transcoding and remuxing for that user.

Try enabling that, and led the cpu do its work, and see how it goes.

Then report back, that way you should also see ffmpeg logs, that you can upload.

2025-12-18 12:51:36.760 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetitemById Episode 47352 /media/NASMedia/SERIJE/Columbo (1968) Season 1-10/Season 1/Columbo (1968) - S01E09 - Blueprint for Murder (1080p BluRay x265 Silence).mkv
2025-12-18 12:51:36.880 Info App: User policy for ana. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

Pardon my ignorance, but won't enabling transcoding a) put more tasks on the CPU/GPU and b) also result in lower video quality? NUC is connected (directly) to TV, and both file and TV are 1080p. Thanks.

[Neminem 1518]

5 minutes ago, double_DD said:

Pardon my ignorance, but won't enabling transcoding a) put more tasks on the CPU/GPU

Yes it will, but with the ffmpeg logs, we can see more info about the media file being played.

[Neminem 1518]

7 minutes ago, double_DD said:

also result in lower video quality? NUC is connected (directly) to TV, and both file and TV are 1080p. Thanks.

If its just a remux then it should be pretty low cpu consumtion.

[Lessaj 467]

2 hours ago, double_DD said:

Nope, it's still like that. I can install emby Theater, but when I want to play something, a popup comes to "unlock features" and I'm only allowed to play 1minute.  

Ah that's what you were referring to. For client apps, yes, need to have premiere.

[double_DD 2]

1 hour ago, Neminem said:

@double_DDIt looks like you have disabled transcoding and remuxing for that user.

Try enabling that, and led the cpu do its work, and see how it goes.

Then report back, that way you should also see ffmpeg logs, that you can upload.

2025-12-18 12:51:36.760 Debug SqliteItemRepository: GetitemById Episode 47352 /media/NASMedia/SERIJE/Columbo (1968) Season 1-10/Season 1/Columbo (1968) - S01E09 - Blueprint for Murder (1080p BluRay x265 Silence).mkv
2025-12-18 12:51:36.880 Info App: User policy for ana. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

I've just enabled transcoding and remuxing, and the most interesting thing just happened - in Firefox, where before it was completely unusable, now works perfectly fine with 0 dropped frames. Tsukimi, however works in the exact same way as before, with some dropped frames.

My understanding would be that apparently this system is somehow a bit underpowered and has to change some things on the fly to show them properly. I just added some applets and noticed that CPU temp jumps a lot (up to 80°C), maybe repasting is also in order.

The new logs are also attached.

Thanks for everyone and their great suggestions so far!

ffmpeg-transcode-ea189807-2f35-479b-8097-369e8f2ee2b9_1.txt embyserver.txt ffmpeg-remux-404b1281-c372-4d12-bbb9-9452c4522c67_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-634a210f-73bc-4618-b97c-4a8d24c57c8f_1.txt

[Neminem 1518]

29 minutes ago, double_DD said:

I've just enabled transcoding and remuxing, and the most interesting thing just happened - in Firefox, where before it was completely unusable, now works perfectly fine with 0 dropped frames.

Nice so that helped. I Think you issue with temps stem from converting your subs when using firefox, browsers do not like picture based subs.

As they are not build for that.

Stream #0:2(eng): Subtitle: hdmv_pgs_subtitle

15:36:48.899 elapsed=00:00:00.11 frame=    1 fps=0.0 q=0.0 size=N/A time=00:00:00.00 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=   0x    
15:36:49.396 elapsed=00:00:00.62 frame=   48 fps=0.0 q=28.0 size=N/A time=00:00:01.72 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=2.75x    
15:36:49.905 elapsed=00:00:01.12 frame=   94 fps= 83 q=28.0 size=N/A time=00:00:03.71 bitrate=N/A throttle=off speed=3.29x 

Can you try without subs enabled?

Or get .srt subs?

[Neminem 1518]

Also try with this setting.

That should insure that you only transcode what is needed in the timeframe you are watching.

This option will enable burst transcoding, as needed.

Without this setting your server will transcode the whole file, and first stop when it's done with that.

And will start over if you stop the stream, for a restroom break

[Lessaj 467]

Yes browsers can't handle PGS subs, and even some client devices can't, so it has to transcode the video to burn them in. Without premiere it's limited to CPU only, which per your logs is fast enough to do it, but it's working pretty hard to do it. This would be faster/less resource intensive if utilize the QuickSync encoder on the CPU, but that requires premiere. Alternatively, yes, SRTs are basically universal since it's just text, so it may not need to transcode the video as long as the browser supports HEVC playback, it will still transcode the audio to AAC or MP3 though (if audio track is AC3/EAC3 or other formats like DTS or TrueHD).

[double_DD 2]

Well, you do learn something new every day! I had no idea about different subtitle formats.

I just did a little test, and you're both correct, PGS subtitles in a browser are a bad idea. When playing in Firefox with subtitles disabled CPU usage is around 10%, but as soon as I enable them BOOM usage goes to 100% on all 8 cores/threads!  

However, in that other client there's absolutely no difference, whether subtitles are on or off, or whether transcoding/remuxing/throttling is enabled or disabled. I constantly loose about 20-25 frames every minute. But I guess it might not be a problem for this forum.

I'm so grateful to everyone to have reached a satisfactory result, I still need to do some more testing but at least I know much more than when this post was started.

[Neminem 1518]

Do you have a link to that client.

As I have never heard of it, when speaking of Emby compatibility.

I might be wrong.

Its not a official Emby client

Edit.

You might need to ask the dev of that player if it's compatibility with Emby.

Edited December 18, 2025 by Neminem

[Neminem 1518]

Its made for jellyfin

tsukinaha/tsukimi: A simple third-party Jellyfin client for Linux

[double_DD 2]

2 minutes ago, Neminem said:

Do you have a link to that client.

As I have never heard of it, when speaking of Emby compatibility.

I might be wrong.

Its not a official Emby client

Edit.

You might need to ask the dev of that player if it's compatibility with Emby.

Here it is:

https://github.com/tsukinaha/tsukimi

Developer states that it's "also partially compatible with Emby", but I'm not sure what exactly that means. I found it because Firefox wasn't working at all, now I have 2 viable solutions.  Until I decide to cash up for Premiere.

[Lessaj 467]

It is well worth the lifetime cost in my opinion! You'll have access to full playback on all the client apps, and hardware accelerated transcoding.