Video lags when played on AppleTV app or directly on samsung smart TV, but not when played on iPhone

[BenjaClacla 2]

Hello there,
So the title pretty much sums it up. 

I have an emby server running on a pretty old computer, with Linux Mint installed. I cleaned up the PC, hard and software, before installing Mint and the Emby server is pretty much the only thing running on here.

For some videos (not all of them), when played on AppleTV app or directly on samsung smart TV, the video appears to be laggy. Files are 1080p tv shows episodes.

This does not occur when I switch on my iPhone app, with screen sharing on the same AppleTV.

Do you have any hint regarding my issue ? 
I tried looking for an already existing topic but couldnt find any matching with the exact same symptoms. 

Thanks a bunch

Ben

[visproduction 315]

BC,

Well, you described 4 different playback routes.  iPhone, iPhone shared screen, Samsung TV App, Apple TV App.  They all use Emby, but there are differences in hardware and software.  It's very likely that a high quality media plays fine on iPhone but not with the TV Apps.  There is also 2 (now 3) types of Wifi speeds. Which bandwidth are you using and how far away is the router?  Plus Wifi as a lot that can interfere with the signal.  Even a metal fire poker, a couple feet from a Wifi receiver has been known to cut the reception.  Are you using Ethernet?

Try using a test quality compressed or site 2  720P and 1080P with a bit rate lower than 2400 kbps.  If that works fine, then it's either your connection bandwidth and hardware or it's your media.  Test larger test files to see if it is your media.

Hope that helps.

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[BenjaClacla 2]

Hi ! 
Thanks for your answer.
Please find attach the log file embyserver.txt for today.

I registered the attached video around 8:05 PM so this should be the time to check.

We tried playing S01E01 of Shrinking, wich was all laggy when played with Emby for Samsung. 
Then we started playing the same episodes on my iPhone 16 and everything was smooth as always.

Many thanks,

Ben

[Luke 42077]

Hi, how is the quality setting configured in the app?

[BenjaClacla 2]

Hello,

it’s in auto.

even when downgrading quality to, let’s say, 720p 2 mbs it’s still laggy :/

[SamES 1056]

On 10/02/2026 at 08:06, BenjaClacla said:

Hi ! 
Thanks for your answer.
Please find attach the log file embyserver.txt for today.

I registered the attached video around 8:05 PM so this should be the time to check.

We tried playing S01E01 of Shrinking, wich was all laggy when played with Emby for Samsung. 
Then we started playing the same episodes on my iPhone 16 and everything was smooth as always.

Many thanks,

Ben

IMG_3447.MOV

Not sure which device playback that video is from, but if it is using the samsung app, then I suspect there may be too many subtitles or audio tracks in the file. Can you please post the full media info for that episode and any ffmpeg logs from some playback tests?

[BenjaClacla 2]

Yes, this is the samsung tv app.

The same issue occurs even with no subtitle tracks. There is only one audio track. 
It appears that there are no playback issues with a lower quality file tho (lets say 480p for old stargate episodes. We were able to watch the whole show without any lag problem on the samsung tv).

 

[SamES 1056]

Then it sounds like you might have network.bandwidth issues. If you can post the full media info for that episode and any ffmpeg logs from some playback tests we can check further

[BenjaClacla 2]

I will try to do so !

[Luke 42077]

19 hours ago, BenjaClacla said:

I will try to do so !

Hi, that would be great. Thanks.

[BenjaClacla 2]

Hi there, 

So here's the full playback log from on laggy episodes played on Samsung for Emby App.

There appears to be no ffmpeg file generated for this playback.

hardware_detection-63906588915.txt embyserver.txt

[SamES 1056]

Is this a new setup, or is it an older setup that was working and is now having issues? 

Are the playback devices local/on the same network or are you trying to remote play?

[BenjaClacla 2]

Hi Sam,

so it’s a fairly new server on a pretty old computer.

But I kinda had the same issues with my first server on a fairly new gaming computer (so no ram or cpu problem).

Everything is connected on the same home network, and we do have a quite recent router with a really decent bandwidth normally.

Even when remote playing on my iPhone, it is still working fine. 
I might add that I also tried playing the file in Firefox both directly on the computer running the Emby server and on my other computer, and I did not encounter any issues.

So the problem seems mainly to be on the Samsung app and I wondered if there is any settings that could help it work fine. The tv is quite recent also (I’d say 20…19 maybe), but is connected via Wi-Fi. I could plug Ethernet electrical socket but I can’t plug the tv directly to the router as it is 10 meters away from the TV on the opposite side of the room.

 

hope that helps

thanks already for the kind help

Ben

[SamES 1056]

I suspect that on the devices where you are hiving issues, it is using DirectPlay, and on the ones working correctly, it is possible Transcoding video, audio or both. You can confirm that in stats for nerds in the apps during playback or on the server dashboard during playback.

If that is true, then the transcoding is probably dropping the bitrate which is helping playback.

So are you using a wifi connection to the TV and AppleTV or a wired lan? If wifi, is it 2.4GHz band or 5GHz?

Do you have any other network switches, etc, or just the router?

I think your problem is network related

[BenjaClacla 2]

It appears indeed to be in direct play.

Tv is on WiFi, I suppose it is using 5ghz as it has both options and the router is supposed to choose whichever is best.

We do not have any switch, only the router.

[BenjaClacla 2]

But it seems to be playing also in direct play on the iPhone app, though playback nitrate seems to be different.

I am using the same WiFi than the TV is on.

 

Edited Saturday at 10:06 PM by BenjaClacla

[SamES 1056]

I would double check and force it to 5GHz. I wouldn’t rely on the auto switching of bands as the 2.4 might be the stronger signal but it will be much slower than a 5GHz signal

I normally set the SSID differently for 2.4 and 5 so that I can control which devices use which band. You want any devices playing media to avoid 2.4GHz

[SamES 1056]

3 minutes ago, BenjaClacla said:

playback nitrate seems to be different.

It’s just displaying it weirdly and not rounding to 11. I’ve not seen that occur before, is that the Samsung app?

The phone will have much better buffering to cope with a slower/less stable network and because the phone is mobile, it’s probably getting a better signal. 
 

How far away from the router is the TV, and how many walls between them. Try forcing it to 5GHz, but I’m still certain your problem will be network

[BenjaClacla 2]

Yes, this the fort screenshot is from the Samsung tv app. The other one is from the iOS app on my iPhone.

I’ll try the router thing tomorrow, thanks !

Tv is like 10 meters away from the router. No walls at all between them !

Edited Saturday at 10:17 PM by BenjaClacla