Playback Degredation

[darrenkdean 31]

Good Evening All,

 

I hope this message finds you well.  I'm tracking a playback performance degredation that started a couple of weeks ago around the time of the 3.1 update, the root cause of which I have not been able to isolate, but I believe to be server side.

 

Previous to this time, there were 4-8 active connections at any given time on the Emby Server.  Some would Direct Stream, some would be at 8Mbps & others in the 3Mbps range.  Since the time of the update, everything appears to Transcode and most all of the streams are between 1.3Mbps & 2.4Mbps.  The issue appears to be agnostic to the device connecting, ie: Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Fire Stick.

 

I have enclosed the Server Log & a transcode log in hopes that this might be a good starting place.

 

Emby Server

i7-6700 @ 4.00GHz

16GB RAM

Intel HD Graphics 530

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

Windows 8.1 Pro with MCE 64-Bit

Fiber Connection - 1Gbps

 

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

 

Best-

server-63618925507.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-21f55078-fda1-4b3d-917c-823a4a2ff9d7.txt

[Luke 42085]

Hi, welcome, sorry to hear about this. What specific issue are we looking at in these logs here? Thanks !

[darrenkdean 31]

Good Morning,

 

Thank you for your response.  My expectation of the Emby Server, given it's hardware & connection speed, is that the typical client connects using Direct Streaming or transcoded streams around 8.6 Mbps.  Prior to a few weeks ago, this was the case.  I was hoping you could tell me if others are experiencing external client playback issues (specifically slow connection & transcode speeds) &/or if you see anything in the logs that might be causing it.  I'm not sure if an uninstall & fresh install of the Emby Server would fix the issue I'm having or if there is a larger issue at play & just need to be patient for the next release?  The typical external device is a firestick  connecting on a 60 Mbps connection to an Emby Server with a 1 Gbps upload speed.  I'm somewhat baffled as to why external connections since the 3.1 update are connecting at sub 2 Mbps transcoded stream rates.  There's a limiting factor or error somewhere, I'm just not sure where to look or what to try next.

 

Emby Server Transcoding Settings:

     Hardware Acceleration: Intel Quick Sync

     Transcoding Thread Count: Auto

     Enabled Throttling: Enabled

     FFmpeg version: Use a custom version

     H264 Encoding Preset: Auto

     H264 CRF: 23

 

Any thoughts on what might be causing the slow connection/transcode speeds or what I might try to further troubleshoot &/or resolve the issue?  Greatly appreciate you guys!

 

Best-

Edited January 3, 2017 by darrenkdean

[MSattler 390]

Good Morning,

 

Thank you for your response.  My expectation of the Emby Server, given it's hardware & connection speed, is that the typical client connects using Direct Streaming or transcoded streams around 8.6 Mbps.  Prior to a few weeks ago, this was the case.  I was hoping you could tell me if others are experiencing external client playback issues (specifically slow connection & transcode speeds) &/or if you see anything in the logs that might be causing it.  I'm not sure if an uninstall & fresh install of the Emby Server would fix the issue I'm having or if there is a larger issue at play & just need to be patient for the next release?  The typical external device is a firestick  connecting on a 60 Mbps connection to an Emby Server with a 1 Gbps upload speed.  I'm somewhat baffled as to why external connections since the 3.1 update are connecting at sub 2 Mbps transcoded stream rates.  There's a limiting factor or error somewhere, I'm just not sure where to look or what to try next.

 

Emby Server Transcoding Settings:

     Hardware Acceleration: Intel Quick Sync

     Transcoding Thread Count: Auto

     Enabled Throttling: Enabled

     FFmpeg version: Use a custom version

     H264 Encoding Preset: Auto

     H264 CRF: 23

 

Any thoughts on what might be causing the slow connection/transcode speeds or what I might try to further troubleshoot &/or resolve the issue?  Greatly appreciate you guys!

 

Best-

 

I ran into an issue with remote users using Android TV/Fire TV app using 3.1.2 when using QuickSync.  Basically playback would always look pixelated.  If I switched transcoding back to cpu based transcoding it would be fine.

 

I reverted back to 3.1.1.0 and have no issues using QuickSync.

 

Thanks!

[MSattler 390]

Here is the link to my original post:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/43276-playback-issue-with-312-and-firetv/

[darrenkdean 31]

Thank you for the reference to your post.  I can confirm everything you wrote.  Lowering the CRF value to 18 did improve the transcoding rate & connection speeds but created an odd pixilation to the degree that 1.3 Mbps stream looked better on screen than an 8.0 Mbps stream.  Reverting back to 3.1.1.0 fixed the issues.  Thank you for your help!

[Luke 42085]

If you look at your command line, CRF is not used with quick sync so any changes you make are only causing a placebo effect.

[MSattler 390]

If you look at your command line, CRF is not used with quick sync so any changes you make are only causing a placebo effect.

 

Luke,

 

When can we expect a fix?  Really would like to go to a build where I don't have to worry about the volley errors.

 

Thanks!