HLS IPTV Streams Forcing Transcode - 22 Second Channel Change Delay Zap (4.9.3.0)

[whubbartt 1]

Hi all,

I'm having an issue with IPTV M3U streams taking around 22 seconds to load and experiencing freezing during playback. Playing the same streams directly in VLC works perfectly with no delay.

The issue is consistent across all my clients:
- Emby Web (Chrome, Windows)
- Fire TV
- Nvidia Shield

running on unraid with emby latest 

**Server version:** 4.9.3.0

**Tuner setup:** M3U tuner added under Live TV with a direct URL (Default format)

**Session info when stream is playing:**
Stream: MPEGTS (8 mbps) / HLS (7 mbps)
Video: 720p H264 → Transcode (H264 7 mbps)
Audio: AAC stereo → Direct Play
Note shown: "Reducing bitrate due to quality setting" and "Recovering from playback error"

**What I have tried:**
- Setting local and remote streaming quality to Auto and Maximum — no change
- Changing the M3U URL endpoint from /Default to /ts — returns "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error
- Verified streams play instantly in VLC with no issues

It looks like Emby is detecting the stream as HLS and transcoding it even though the source is H264 720p, which all my clients support natively. The "reducing bitrate due to quality setting" message appears even with quality set to Auto.

Is there a way to force Direct Play for HLS IPTV streams in 4.9, or is this a known limitation? Any help appreciated.

[Luke 42414]

 

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

 

[whubbartt 1]

Not sure what ones you need so here is all for last reboot time

ffmpeg-transcode-5950198b-b315-4817-8b41-b72dd53ec21b_1.txt embyserver-63914138262.txt hardware_detection-63914138264.txt ffmpeg-directstream-15d3e332-1bbf-44f3-a9f1-6de4cf2d34f5_1.txt ffmpeg-directstream-b7693233-68da-421d-9188-175ac967a73a_1.txt embyserver.txt