Stuttering on Google 4k Streamer

[Sean429 0]

Hello, 

I have been having issues with playback using the Emby for Android app on my new Google 4k Streamer device. The most recent example, I was playing a 1080p bluray rip of Skyfall. The app would take upwards of 5-8 seconds to begin playing the movie, and would play smoothly for a short while, then begin dropping frames or pause entirely for several seconds.

I have been using Emby for a while on a variety of devices in my house and have not had any issues with streaming content before including my phone, my LG OLED C5, and an older Sony Bravia A80j. The only new thing to my setup was that I connected a Google 4k Streamer device to my LG TV (I can't stand LG's interface, and I wanted better android app support), so I assume that this device is likely related to this issue. I don't really think its network bandwidth related, as I'm able to use this device to stream a variety of other content without lag and stutters, i.e. youtube, amazon prime video, etc... but I can't completely rule it out either.

I have read older threads and online discourse about how this device doesn't always play nice with Emby due to issues with handling Dolby Vision profiles, but I don't know if that is what is causing the current problem, or if its some other ghost in the machine.

I've attached my server log and ffmpeg transcode log for reference. Any thoughts on what I can try to do for troubleshooting? 

Thanks,

ffmpeg-transcode-03fa4806-46a1-4bad-be53-d8b623b411cc_1.txt embyserver (1).txt

[Abobader 3515]

Hello Sean429,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[Neminem 1864]

I would try turning off HEVC encoding to see if that helps.
Hardware Encoders for hevc
[X] QuickSync Intel UHD Graphics - H.265 (HEVC)

[Sean429 0]

2 hours ago, Neminem said:

I would try turning off HEVC encoding to see if that helps.
Hardware Encoders for hevc
[X] QuickSync Intel UHD Graphics - H.265 (HEVC)

Hey Neminem, thanks for the suggestion. I switched HEVC video encoding off and saved the change. Tried playing Skyfall again afterwards, but no dice unfortunately - the same behavior is displayed.

[Neminem 1864]

Ok sorry to hear that.

Devs will need logs from that attempt also  

[Neminem 1864]

What happens if you select AC3 sound track before start of play? instead of DTS.

Its can also be the shear numbers of PGS subs in that file, it has 35 of them.

And it has 10 differrent audio tracks.

I would make a copy of the movie file, and remux all track out that you don't need.

And see if that helps.

[Neminem 1864]

Hmm I also see this TranscodeReasons=ContainerBitrateExceedsLimit

Can you try setting the client bitrate higher, not sure what you have set that to.

[Sean429 0]

I've tried a few different tweaks to see what impact it would have:

1. Ensured video streaming quality is set to auto on client side device.
   1. No impact on performance, stuttering still present.
2. Selecting AC3 sound track (which was an audio commentary track)
   1. No impact on performance, stuttering still present.
3. Remuxed the file with MKVtoolNix and stripped all the audio tracks besides the default DTS 5.1. Removed all subtitle tracks besides english.
   1. Improved initial speed of loading the title, but still had the same stuttering problems on playback
4. Used Emby's conversion tool to convert the remuxed file, changed the audio track to AAC 5.1. Video format remained 1080p H264.
   1. No impact on performance, stuttering still present.

No additional logs were generated on these tests aside from the usual embyserver.txt and hardware_detection logs (no ffmpeg-transcodes or ffmpeg-directstream). If they are of any help, I have attached them as well.

hardware_detection-63921793644.txt embyserver (2).txt

[Sean429 0]

The more I look into it, the more it seems like its a flaw in the google 4k streamer device. There are a handful of threads floating around that complain about persistent stutter problems on other apps as well. I didn't notice much on other apps until I really started testing, but I did find some content on the youtube app began stuttering as well.

Seems like the device is just not well designed. Shame, because its not cheap and I'll need to start looking for an alternate android device.

Thanks for trying to help me fix it Neminem!

Edited August 9 by Sean429
correcting name

[Apotropaic 75]

Hi there, I have a Google 4k streamer device, it’s not my main device but I’ve tested plenty on it before so I’d be surprised if it can’t play a 1080p rip.

What’s the bitrate of the file and I’m assuming you’re on Ethernet and not using WiFi?

I’ll try and find something similar and test it tomorrow.

[Uncle_Frank 2]

If it stutters on youtube you should return it and use any mini pc and pair a remote to it. I have a mini pc in the livingroom with a firestick remote paired to it for iso movies that are 80gig bluray I just add them to the mini pc hard drive by clicking download from my emby server and they play fine.