Constant Buffering issues with Emby for Kodi addon 1.1.39 on FireTV

[gmacman 3]

With the new 1.1.39 stable release I found out (and obviously others after reading a few posts) that my path substitution was actually incorrect and it was silently defaulting to http streaming.  Actually pleased it now shows the message because I was able to sort out my path substituion problem.  I don't use Windows so when I first set up my CIFS share on FreeNAS I totally messed it up, but I digress.

 

Okay, so I got path substituion working right and it's now Direct Play, but now I get significant buffering issues on literally every movie.  I've attached my kodi.log file.  Again this is the 1.1.39 addon on Kodi 15.0 running on a FireTV (not the Stick) on a local wired network.

 

kodi.log

[Angelblue05 4132]

@@xnappo

 

Maybe do something about the db log line....?

[gmacman 3]

I don't understand.  Did I do something wrong posting the log?  I'm a total noob so just let me know.

[Angelblue05 4132]

Your log is fine, kind of - you didn't enable debug in the add-on settings > advanced > info log. I'm thinking maybe the hammering of the database version log line may cause some lag. That's why I'm asking xnappo to fix it. Otherwise, if it doesn't fix the issue, then I'm not sure. Direct play playback is out of our control, it's all Kodi doing the work unlike direct stream and transcoding.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Angelblue05

[gmacman 3]

Your log is fine, kind of - you didn't enable debug in the add-on settings > advanced > info log. I'm thinking maybe the hammering of the database version log line may cause some lag. That's why I'm asking xnappo to fix it. Otherwise, if it doesn't fix the issue, then I'm not sure. Direct play playback is out of our control, it's all Kodi doing the work unlike direct stream and transcoding.

 

Cool, thanks.  Got worried there for a minute I put in something up I shouldn't have.

 

 

 

I will enable debug and then grad another log after a playback attempt and repost.

 

Edit-

 

Here's a new log with debug enabled.  I did a restart of kodi so it did a resync with the Emby server (which is a long explanation for "sorry for the extremely long log file").  But took the log right after the buffering prob so it's right there at the end of the file.

 

kodi.log

Edited September 15, 2015 by gmacman

[Angelblue05 4132]

Ok, you can set your log level to Info instead of debug in the add-on settings.

 

Can you test this version, let me know if the buffering issue goes away. I've moved the database log line so it only writes in once, hopefully this will fix the issue you are seeing.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Angelblue05

[gmacman 3]

Unfortunatley didn't seem to help.  

 

And just to make sure I installed and used the new addon a few times.  Always unintalling the Emby plugin first, then reinstall from the zip, a couple of times tried to do a full sync first before testing with a movie.  But each had the extensive buffering issues.  Also, tossing in the last test I ran log file (with debug enable) just in case you need it.

 

Also I did make sure to shutdown kodi and relaunch for each test I ran.

 

 

kodi.log

Edited September 15, 2015 by gmacman

[Angelblue05 4132]

Ok, well if it didn't help there's nothing else we can do. You are direct playing and that's all that I can validate here. The issue lies with Kodi or your network, not the add-on. The add-on is only involved in giving the path to Kodi, then reporting progress which has no impact on the playback whatsoever. Do not forget to change the add-on debug to info or none. 

 

What I suggest at this point is google "smb buffering fire tv kodi" and try solutions you come across.

 

Edit: if nothing works, then maybe try to direct stream instead - this will bypass the smb protocol and will play with the help of your Emby server. However, I do not know if it will fix your issue.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Angelblue05

[gmacman 3]

Ok, well if it didn't help there's nothing else we can do. You are direct playing and that's all that I can validate here. The issue lies with Kodi or your network, not the add-on. The add-on is only involved in giving the path to Kodi, then reporting progress which has no impact on the playback whatsoever. Do not forget to change the add-on debug to info or none. 

 

What I suggest at this point is google "smb buffering fire tv kodi" and try solutions you come across.

 

Edit: if nothing works, then maybe try to direct stream instead - this will bypass the smb protocol and will play with the help of your Emby server. However, I do not know if it will fix your issue.

 

That's fine.  Till the 1.1.39 came out I was happily watching via direct stream and didn't realize it.

 

 

So I'm fine with going that route and then try to determine what the issue is.  And when doing direct stream I had NO buffering issues, so that truly is workable solution for me.

 

And for a noob like me, what are the benefits of direct play vs direct stream, how much work is the server doing by going direct stream?  Is it transcoding anything?

 

Just curious.

[Angelblue05 4132]

Direct stream, the server feeds the file to Kodi without any modifications so it doesn't do much work really. 

 

There's really not much difference between direct play and direct streaming other than Kodi loading the file vs the server loading the file.  If it doesn't buffer when using direct stream then go for it, you are not losing out.

Edited September 15, 2015 by Angelblue05

[gmacman 3]

Direct stream, the server feeds the file to Kodi without any modifications so it doesn't do much work really. 

 

There's really not much difference between direct play and direct streaming other than Kodi loading the file vs the server loading the file.  If it doesn't buffer when using direct stream then go for it, you are not losing out.

 

Cool, thanks again for your help on this.  My guess is an issue with the my NAS which is pretty old hardware (not to mention not "real" nas hardware, ie old desktop pc stuff) and since I'm planning on a complete rebuild of it anyway, I'll stick with direct stream for now.  Again, everything works beautifully that way, my files aren't huge bit rates due to the FireTV's limitations so it's not like I need to be bleeding edge.