Stuttering playback without Transcoding TrueNAS > ATV

[vidkun 11]

I have a brand new TrueNAS build running Emby server that I'm having issues with playback stuttering even though it's Direct Play and no transcoding. Initially, I thought it was limited to files with high bitrates similar the guy reporting in the thread below. Was even seeing ffmpeg pegging a core at 100% despite reports of no transcoding.

 

However, my kids just had the issue this morning with a much lower bitrate movie. This time CPU usage is minimal. TrueNAS UI reporting 3% utilization and top showing nearly nothing going on.

So now I'm even more confused. I've been using Plex then Jellyfin for the longest time but trying to migrate to Emby so that I can get the family off of Plex. This is not helping the move though. 

So detail dump...

Brand new TrueNAS build:
Intel Core Ultra 7 265k
Asus Pro WS W880-ACE SE
64GB ECC RAM
Media pool is a single, 10 drive RAIDZ2 with a 1TB NVME L2ARC

Emby transcode and cache dirs are on a separate dedicated 1TB NVME drive

Emby runs in a docker container with the media directories directly mounted to the container as volumes (no SMB or NFS mounts). 

The NAS has dual 10GbE NICs in a LACP LAGG on Unifi Pro XG 10 POE switch. 

Client is official Emby app on AppleTV 4k over WiFi 5 5GHz via Unifi U6 LR AP. Client and server are on same VLAN.

Logs attached below. Any ideas where to start troubleshooting this further? Or any ideas what could be the issue here?

hardware_detection-63910745576.txt embyserver.txt

[vidkun 11]

Well still too soon to tell definitively, but so far it's looking like using Infuse pointed at Emby server is playing files just fine. Maybe it's just the official emby app that doesn't work well? Don't suppose there's a way to get logs from the client app?

[Luke 42290]

Hi, the Emby Apple TV app has option to switch between two different embedded players. How do you have that configured?

[vidkun 11]

21 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, the Emby Apple TV app has option to switch between two different embedded players. How do you have that configured?

Originally it was set to 'auto', but currently set to 'mpv'

[Luke 42290]

Can you try setting it back to auto?

[vidkun 11]

Sure. To clarify, it was defaulted to auto when I initially encountered the issue. While trying to troubleshoot the issue, I switched it to mpv which did not resolve the issue.

But yeah, I'll swap it back.

[vidkun 11]

Well last night was the first chance I got to sit down and watch something since changing the player back to auto. This time it did not stutter, but it would play about 30-45 minutes of the movie and then freeze completely. I couldn't pause it or get the player controls to come up or anything. The only thing I could do is hit the back button, but instead of it exiting out of the video back to the movie details screen, it would return to the AppleTV home screen as if the app had crashed. Happened twice trying to get through the movie. 

Of course, going back into Emby app > the movie > and resume started the movie right up instantly where it had frozen then played for another 40-50 minutes before freezing again.