Playback stuttering

[KodiaK 3]

I have an OLED TV (Sony A95K) and i noticed that when playing a movie via Emby i have very bad stuttering in panning shots. It' not a TV setting (Motion interpolation in TV is activated) since the playback is completely smooth when playing the same movie via Plex. I would like to use Emby though for the Trakt implementation.

Is there a setting somewhere in Emby which I am missing, that causes this stuttering??

I have attached the logs for a movie which stutters, if it helps.

embyserver-63902217600.txt

[Guest]

3 hours ago, KodiaK said:

I have an OLED TV (Sony A95K) and i noticed that when playing a movie via Emby i have very bad stuttering in panning shots.

I can't read logs and no source of actual useful info 

but the first thing I would do is disable video and audio transcoding per user setting on the emby server.  set your stream quality to 120mbps and not use auto.  See if that helps anything.

[KodiaK 3]

Where are the video and audio transcoding options? I could not find anything relevant under User Settings or under Server>Transcoding.

The stream quality (under Web settings>Playback) is set to 4K - 120Mbs

[yocker 1247]

I actually have the same issue but brushed it away as me not having had the TV setup correctly.
No transcoding at all happening.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, KodiaK said:

Where are the video and audio transcoding options? I could not find anything relevant under User Settings or under Server>Transcoding.

The stream quality (under Web settings>Playback) is set to 4K - 120Mbs

In the user settings on the server itself disable video and audio transcoding.  So go to your user and there is checkbox options.  Don't go to transcoding settings on the server. You need to be logged into the server as the admin.

Than on the clients you are using to play the media set the max bitrate to 120Mbps.  

 

 

Edited December 26, 2025 by embaaa

[Guest]

1 hour ago, yocker said:

I actually have the same issue but brushed it away as me not having had the TV setup correctly.
No transcoding at all happening.

Have you tried comparing the androidTV app vs the standard android app?  If its direct playing for sure that would be an interesting test.  

[seanbuff 1313]

5 hours ago, KodiaK said:

Is there a setting somewhere in Emby which I am missing, that causes this stuttering??

Depending on which client app you're using, have you tried playing with the below options to see if any make a difference?

Android TV app

Standard Android App

[yocker 1247]

1 hour ago, embaaa said:

Have you tried comparing the androidTV app vs the standard android app?  If its direct playing for sure that would be an interesting test.  

No change.

@seanbuffThose settings never seemed to do much for me unless it was for old cartoons, like from Disney ripped from DVD.
I mean, i know what they are supposed to do, but nothing much changes.

[seanbuff 1313]

9 minutes ago, yocker said:

No change.

Yeah unfortunately I don't think they have any affect on built-in Android TV devices, but was worth a shot for OP to check anyway. Thanks for reporting back.

[yocker 1247]

2 hours ago, seanbuff said:

Yeah unfortunately I don't think they have any affect on built-in Android TV devices, but was worth a shot for OP to check anyway. Thanks for reporting back.

In case by built-in you mean like Smart TVs, the settings doesn't do much on my Nvidia Shield either to remove judder.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, yocker said:

In case by built-in you mean like Smart TVs, the settings doesn't do much on my Nvidia Shield either to remove judder.

I use shieldTV pro and don't experience your issue. 

on the shield settings.  go to options...display and sound... make sure it's set to 59.940 hz 

[KodiaK 3]

7 hours ago, embaaa said:

In the user settings on the server itself disable video and audio transcoding.  So go to your user and there is checkbox options.  Don't go to transcoding settings on the server. You need to be logged into the server as the admin.

Than on the clients you are using to play the media set the max bitrate to 120Mbps.  

 

 

I am sorry but on my side the playback menu looks different. 

So, on the PC where the server is installed I go to systray and rclick on emby icon>Configure emby. The server config opens in a browser page and from there I went to the screenshot above.

On the TV I have installed the Android TV app, I assume, from the available apps I found on the store there. A lot less apps then i would find on a standard android device (like phone or tablet), so I assume all the apps here are Android TV apps. Is there a way to check exactly what app i have on the TV?

Edited December 26, 2025 by KodiaK

[Guest]

@KodiaK

I said you need to be looking at the server settings.  The user section.  

from this screen shot go select the user that you are using and you will see the option to disable audio and video transcoding. 

Edited December 26, 2025 by embaaa

[yocker 1247]

1 hour ago, embaaa said:

I use shieldTV pro and don't experience your issue. 

on the shield settings.  go to options...display and sound... make sure it's set to 59.940 hz 

Thank you for the advice, but the it is setup as it should.  

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, yocker said:

Thank you for the advice, but the it is setup as it should.  

Is it possibly just the quality of your media?  Low bitrate in general is going to effect things. Low bitrate x265 is horrible in motion compared to x264. I don't use x265 unless the bitrate is 50Mbps and higher anything below is garbage.  x264 is fine 5Mbps and up.  

Make sure you turn AI up scaling to basic on the shield too.  Detail enhancement is grayed out but on the low option.  

Edited December 26, 2025 by embaaa

[yocker 1247]

24 minutes ago, embaaa said:

Is it possibly just the quality of your media?  Low bitrate in general is going to effect things. Low bitrate x265 is horrible in motion compared to x264. I don't use x265 unless the bitrate is 50Mbps and higher anything below is garbage.  x264 is fine 5Mbps and up.  

Make sure you turn AI up scaling to basic on the shield too.  Detail enhancement is grayed out but on the low option.  

Is one of the movies tested with.
Tbh. i suspect it's my TV that's shite.. It's a Sony so the possibility is certainly there (personal opinion  )

[Guest]

I know someone with a new sony tv that looks awful but I suspected it was because it was over 70 inches in size.  

I'm on a 4K LG OLED TV so everything just looks incredible.   I'm also using a 15inch 1080p a lot too without any issues.

 

[yocker 1247]

18 minutes ago, embaaa said:

I know someone with a new sony tv that looks awful but I suspected it was because it was over 70 inches in size.  

I'm on a 4K LG OLED TV so everything just looks incredible.   I'm also using a 15inch 1080p a lot too without any issues.

 

Yeah Sony's are not what they have been, i was one of those unlucky people tricked, scammed and cheated by Sony with the X900H TV. Look up Sony X900H 4K 120hz fake resolution.
Luckily that TV is now in some thrash heap some where.

To stay on topic, i'm constantly messing with it, maybe i find a setting that works to remove the judder.

[Guest]

There is a new thread on reddit that might be related r/movies

 

Make sure to turn off motion smoothing if you've got a new TV

It makes the TV insert fake frames in-betweem real ones which makes movies and shows look wrong with detail lost in camera pans and artifacts around objects.

LG calls it TruMotion, Samsung calls it Clear Motion, Auto Motion or Motion Clarity, and Sony calls it Motionflow. They all turn it on by default.

However Real Cinema / Cinema Screen / Cinemotion / frame rate matching should be left enabled if you have a 120hz TV as they remove the judder caused by 3:2 pulldown.

 

[KodiaK 3]

2 hours ago, embaaa said:

@KodiaK

I said you need to be looking at the server settings.  The user section.  

from this screen shot go select the user that you are using and you will see the option to disable audio and video transcoding. 

Found it, thanks. I went here initially, but realize i had to click my user after, to get to the screen you mentioned. I disabled auto transcoding, replayed the section that stuttered before and now it was a lot better. Then i wen beck and enabled auto transcoding and checked the Dashboard and it said direct play at both audio and video. So the option basically does nothing. I checked the same section again, and now it's also smooth...

So i don't understand at all. Basically now i have the exact same settings as before, but now playback is smooth. And it was not an isolated issue. I have 2 movies that i watched the past couple of weeks where I had to switch to Plex due to horrible stuttering. I will check some other movies during the holidays and see if it's really fixed. 

 

Regarding Motionflow, unfortunately on OLED TVs, due to extremely low pixel refresh rate, panning shots look very chunky  On low or medium, the artifacts are almost non-existent, so there's barely any trade-off

[Guest]

7 hours ago, KodiaK said:

Found it, thanks. I went here initially, but realize i had to click my user after, to get to the screen you mentioned. I disabled auto transcoding, replayed the section that stuttered before and now it was a lot better. Then i wen beck and enabled auto transcoding and checked the Dashboard and it said direct play at both audio and video. So the option basically does nothing. I checked the same section again, and now it's also smooth...

Your best to just keep trancoding disabled though because you never want to transcode.  For all you know it was transcoding when you experienced the issue.  

[Luke 42077]

On 12/26/2025 at 5:34 AM, KodiaK said:

Found it, thanks. I went here initially, but realize i had to click my user after, to get to the screen you mentioned. I disabled auto transcoding, replayed the section that stuttered before and now it was a lot better. Then i wen beck and enabled auto transcoding and checked the Dashboard and it said direct play at both audio and video. So the option basically does nothing. I checked the same section again, and now it's also smooth...

So i don't understand at all. Basically now i have the exact same settings as before, but now playback is smooth. And it was not an isolated issue. I have 2 movies that i watched the past couple of weeks where I had to switch to Plex due to horrible stuttering. I will check some other movies during the holidays and see if it's really fixed. 

 

Regarding Motionflow, unfortunately on OLED TVs, due to extremely low pixel refresh rate, panning shots look very chunky  On low or medium, the artifacts are almost non-existent, so there's barely any trade-off

Hi, the option does not do nothing. You are not enabling or disabling transcoding with these options. You are allowing it or disallowing it. The distinction is you are choosing to allow transcoding or not, but whether it actually does or not depends on many other factors.

[ebr 16169]

On 12/26/2025 at 1:30 PM, embaaa said:

Your best to just keep trancoding disabled though because you never want to transcode.  For all you know it was transcoding when you experienced the issue.  

This is not true.  It is much more likely to cause problems for you if you disable those options.

What you describe sounds like frame rate judder and your example was a 24fps item.

[KodiaK 3]

Yes, I'm starting to think that the transcoding option has no effect on my issue. I played another movie last night and it was again choppy during panning shots, so I had to switch to Plex. 

It's not judder, it's stutter. But since the same movie from the same source file, on the same server plays fine on Plex, and not on emby, it's some sort of issue with emby, which I can't figure out

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, KodiaK said:

Yes, I'm starting to think that the transcoding option has no effect on my issue. I played another movie last night and it was again choppy during panning shots, so I had to switch to Plex. 

It's not judder, it's stutter. But since the same movie from the same source file, on the same server plays fine on Plex, and not on emby, it's some sort of issue with emby, which I can't figure out

Hi, did you have subtitles enabled in the video player?