Won't stream live TV to the internet higher than 480p

[AaronC 2]

I am running Emby on Ubuntu with an Intel N150 CPU.  I have an HDHomerun Extend tuner.  While I am on my local LAN, I can stream live TV through Emby in the full broadcast quality (720p or 1080p).  But when I am outside my network I can only stream at 480p (1mbps).

I have Emby Premiere.  I have a 1gbps upload and port forwarding is set up and working.  I don't have any value in the "Remote Streaming Bitrate" box (global or user). I don't have a CPU throttling enabled and I don't have a max transcode resolution set.

When I check the steam quality on my phone, I see up to 1080p - 60 Mbps while connected to my local LAN, but only 480p - 1 Mbps when connected to the cellular network or any other network.

Does anyone have any idea why I can't stream higher than 480p from the internet?

 

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[AaronC 2]

OK.  Here are two log files that should cover the time frame when I connected directly and through the cell network, and two screen shots showing direct connection (no transcode) and the remote connection (max 480p).

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-c04ac1ee-b782-4ac9-9f4e-8b8991ea9ee1_1.txt

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  That appears to be the resolution of the source.

[AaronC 2]

The source is 720p.

[Luke 42077]

4 hours ago, AaronC said:

The source is 720p.

At least for the example ffmpeg log you provided, the server probed it and got this as the resolution:

"Height":240,"Width":352

Is this the right log example to focus on?

[GrandpaC 0]

I don't know why it would show that.  Did you see where the local network version showed 720p?

Does Emby have the ability to change the transcode setting in the HDHomerun Extend?

[AaronC 2]

I don't know why it would show that.  Did you see where the local network version showed 720p?

Does Emby have the ability to change the transcode setting in the HDHomerun Extend?

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, AaronC said:

I don't know why it would show that.  Did you see where the local network version showed 720p?

Does Emby have the ability to change the transcode setting in the HDHomerun Extend?

Why do you ask? Is that how you configured it in the HDHR ?

[AaronC 2]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

Why do you ask? Is that how you configured it in the HDHR ?

I was wondering if Emby could change it which would change the source resolution.

I'll give you some more information about this.  I have Plex running on the same server and it can stream Live TV (in high definition) over the internet for my Dad to watch.  I like Emby's user interface better so I have been trying to get Emby working but it seems to have a limit of 480p for internet streaming.  (I see that on my phone, he sees it at his house.)  I just wanted to be able to 

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, AaronC said:

but it seems to have a limit of 480p for internet streaming

Hi.  It does not.

Are you testing with the exact same source channels setup the same way?

[AaronC 2]

I am. 
Can you cover with me what can cause Emby to drop to 480p wheN streaming over the internet but would allow original quality when on the local network?

 

[Luke 42077]

How have you configured the quality setting in the app that you’re playing from?

[TMCsw 246]

Can you also look at these settings?

I mean all of them not just the one hilited...

[AaronC 2]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

How have you configured the quality setting in the app that you’re playing from?

Auto

[AaronC 2]

57 minutes ago, TMCsw said:

Can you also look at these settings?

I mean all of them not just the one hilited...

 

[TMCsw 246]

Then my best guess would be ISP's Throutlings...

Are you using SSL/TLS encryption?

Or a reverse proxy?

Edited January 30 by TMCsw

[AaronC 2]

4 hours ago, TMCsw said:

Then my best guess would be ISP's Throutlings...

Are you using SSL/TLS encryption?

Or a reverse proxy?

Not using SSL/TLS.

i have 1gbps upload. No reverse proxy. Plex is able to stream in full quality without transcoding to 480p.

[Q-Droid 989]

Don't use Auto. 

[AaronC 2]

37 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

Don't use Auto. 

On my iPhone the highest resolution available is 480p when connected to cellular data. 1080p shows up while connected to local lan.

So the auto setting is at the max resolution available .

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Have you checked this?

And this?

[AaronC 2]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Have you checked this?

And this?

 

[Q-Droid 989]

Pointing out a few things though I myself don't have the answers.

It looks like the source stream is indeed changing between HD and SD though it may be how Emby interacts with the HDHR or the tuner doing it itself.

From the server log:

2026-01-27 11:21:57.857 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_4.1
2026-01-27 11:21:57.858 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_4.1, with streamId: heavy_dcae7ee91da8349d9a3089106668280d_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"1080i H264" 
"Height":1080,"Width":1920,"AverageFrameRate":29.97003,"RealFrameRate":29.97003,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

2026-01-27 11:48:27.974 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_6.1
2026-01-27 11:48:27.974 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_6.1, with streamId: internet240_e6a5ee655c7e0ae736a968d5b2efee79_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"SD H264"
"Height":240,"Width":352,"AverageFrameRate":29.97003,"RealFrameRate":29.97003,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

2026-01-27 11:50:15.125 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_4.1
2026-01-27 11:50:15.125 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_4.1, with streamId: internet240_dcae7ee91da8349d9a3089106668280d_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"SD H264"
"Height":240,"Width":352,"AverageFrameRate":29.97003,"RealFrameRate":29.97003,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

2026-01-27 12:30:22.528 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_6.1
2026-01-27 12:30:22.528 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_6.1, with streamId: heavy_e6a5ee655c7e0ae736a968d5b2efee79_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"720p H264"
"Height":720,"Width":1280,"AverageFrameRate":59.94006,"RealFrameRate":59.94006,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

2026-01-27 14:13:20.041 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_4.1
2026-01-27 14:13:20.041 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_4.1, with streamId: heavy_dcae7ee91da8349d9a3089106668280d_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"1080i H264"
"Height":1080,"Width":1920,"AverageFrameRate":29.97003,"RealFrameRate":29.97003,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

2026-01-27 14:14:12.270 Info LiveTvManager: Opening channel stream, external channel Id: hdhr_4.1
2026-01-27 14:14:12.270 Info LiveTV: Streaming Channel hdhr_4.1, with streamId: internet240_dcae7ee91da8349d9a3089106668280d_65b32a817eafc731ab9c2a14685d0e7c

Opens this stream:
"DisplayTitle":"SD H264"
"Height":240,"Width":352,"AverageFrameRate":29.97003,"RealFrameRate":29.97003,"Profile":"High","Type":"Video","AspectRatio":"16:9"

 

 

 

 

[AaronC 2]

I appreciate everyone trying to help out with this!

It appears that the only way to fix this is to disable the transcode function in the HDHomerun.  See attached.

I had it set to "heavy" by default which seemed to work with Plex but didn't with Emby.  (I just didn't see a need for a full bandwidth MPEG-2 ATSC stream, so I thought it was better to have the Extend transcode.  But by setting the HDHomerun to "none" then Emby will stream TV channels in 720p/1080i.

Thanks for your help everyone!

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for following up !