Throttled connection?

[KillermanGabe 4]

I'm very confused right now. If I open chrome and test my internet speeds I get 160/15. I have Emby server running on a remote machine that has 1000/1000. For some reason however, whenever I stream content it only downloads at 1mbps max, regardless of quality setting. I assume at some point, there is some throttleing going on. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? I know for a fact my internet can handle a 10mbps 1080p stream but it's only using 1mbps download according to task manager. I know it's not a transcoding issue either because it's a powerful CPU, and I've streamed a movie at 1080p 60mbps the whole way through just fine before.

[Luke 42077]

Hi there @@KillermanGabe, we're very sorry to hear about your issue. In order for us to best help you, please provide the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[KillermanGabe 4]

Here are the logs

server-log.txt

transcode-log.txt

[Ponyo 22]

I have a similar problem. Up until now I never opened a topic about it because I haven't yet managed to rule out my provider not being the root cause (unlikely as they told me they don't do any throttling but as the VPN I run at home isn't getting good speeds either I figured that might not be true).

Anyway my situation is as follows:

 

At home I have 1Gpbs connection. Never hit that speed but I never seen it go below 100Mbit either so speed isn't the problem.

At work and at my girlfriends place I have no problems streaming at 10Mbps (and higher).

 

However, at my parents home and my brothers home 1 ~ 1.5Mbps is the max. My parents have 20Mbit down and my brother something like a 100 I believe. Certainly fast enough to stream at 5Mbit because downloading a file gives stable speed.

 

The thing is, my parents and brother are 9000km away. Distance is probably an issue, running a speedtest to a server in their countries results in only 20 ~30Mbps down and 10 ~ 20Mbps up but that should still be enough for a decent stream.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Ponyo

[JeremyFr79 228]

I have a similar problem. Up until now I never opened a topic about it because I haven't yet managed to rule out my provider not being the root cause (unlikely as they told me they don't do any throttling but as the VPN I run at home isn't getting good speeds either I figured that might not be true).

Anyway my situation is as follows:

 

At home I have 1Gpbs connection. Never hit that speed but I never seen it go below 100Mbit either so speed isn't the problem.

At work and at my girlfriends place I have no problems streaming at 10Mbps (and higher).

 

However, at my parents home and my brothers home 1 ~ 1.5Mbps is the max. My parents have 20Mbit down and my brother something like a 100 I believe. Certainly fast enough to stream at 5Mbit because downloading a file gives stable speed.

 

The thing is, my parents and brother are 9000km away. Distance is probably an issue, running a speedtest to a server in their countries results in only 20 ~30Mbps down and 10 ~ 20Mbps up but that should still be enough for a decent stream.

Latency is going to be your killer there for that kind of distance which will also negatively affect the speed at which they can watch video from your server.   Transfer speed isn't the only important factor to look at in a connection latency is as important if not more important.  

[KillermanGabe 4]

Latency is going to be your killer there for that kind of distance which will also negatively affect the speed at which they can watch video from your server.   Transfer speed isn't the only important factor to look at in a connection latency is as important if not more important.  

My server is located in Virginia. I live in Ohio so distance shouldn't be too much of an issue. Especially because the machine has a gigabit fiber connection. Also, something really weird, if I use my laptop to stream it works fine. Going well above the 2mbps my desktop seems to be limited to. This is okay, just I can't play it to my home theater like my desktop is hooked up too. I find this extremely odd though seeing as both my desktop and laptop are on the same network. The desktop is wired actually.

[Luke 42077]

@@KillermanGabe, the app is only requesting 1mbps to the server. that most likely means at some point you changed video quality to 1mbps. Try putting it back on Auto. If it's already on Auto, try setting it to a value you're comfortable with. thanks.

[KillermanGabe 4]

@@KillermanGabe, the app is only requesting 1mbps to the server. that most likely means at some point you changed video quality to 1mbps. Try putting it back on Auto. If it's already on Auto, try setting it to a value you're comfortable with. thanks.

I have the quality setting on Auto. It automatically sets it to 1080p 60Mbps. If I manually change it to 1080p 10Mbps it still stutters and only uses 2Mbps of bandwidth.

[Guest asrequested]

What apps are you using? With so much bandwidth, I'm wondering why it's transcoding at all???

[KillermanGabe 4]

What apps are you using? With so much bandwidth, I'm wondering why it's transcoding at all???

I'm using Emby Theater for Windows.

[Luke 42077]

@@KillermanGabe, that's not what I see according to the log. Please try again and provide both the complete emby server log and ffmpeg logs. thanks !

[sebasmiles 8]

I would try the website with a browser and see how that goes first, maybe there is something wrong with your installed version of Emby Theater?

Also theres 2 places where you can put a limit, in the server config and in the profile of the person, try going thru the emby dashboard, pick the user and hit the edit settings at the top, see if its still set to auto.

[Guest asrequested]

I would try the website with a browser and see how that goes first, maybe there is something wrong with your installed version of Emby Theater?

Also theres 2 places where you can put a limit, in the server config and in the profile of the person, try going thru the emby dashboard, pick the user and hit the edit settings at the top, see if its still set to auto.

 

There is no per user bandwidth control (but it's been heavily requested). But there is a global streaming limit in playback settings, which each user is allowed that bandwidth.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Doofus

[KillermanGabe 4]

I would try the website with a browser and see how that goes first, maybe there is something wrong with your installed version of Emby Theater?

Also theres 2 places where you can put a limit, in the server config and in the profile of the person, try going thru the emby dashboard, pick the user and hit the edit settings at the top, see if its still set to auto.

I get the same result when playing through the web app. I have checked the bandwidth settings there as well but they are on Auto.

[KillermanGabe 4]

Here is the new logs you requested @@Luke  The server log is most recent, however it did not generate a new transcode log so I attached a different one than before.

emby-server-log2.txt

emby-transcode2.txt

Edited January 22, 2017 by KillermanGabe

[Happy2Play 9780]

This one you got "MaxStreamingBitrate=10000001" 10Mb, only the audio was converted from ac3 to aac.  Audio conversion is normal as the only browser that supports ac3 is Edge.

Edited January 23, 2017 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42077]

So now you're at 10mpbs, is there still a problem?

[KillermanGabe 4]

So now you're at 10mpbs, is there still a problem?

Well yes, it's streaming at 10Mbps but my internet isn't going above 2.5Mbps. So it stutters like crazy. I'm trying to figure out the root of the problem.

[Guest asrequested]

Well yes, it's streaming at 10Mbps but my internet isn't going above 2.5Mbps. So it stutters like crazy. I'm trying to figure out the root of the problem.

 

Wait! Is it trying to stream greater than your upload bandwidth? If you lower your stream bandwidth in the app to below 2.5 Mb/s, does it play well?

[KillermanGabe 4]

Wait! Is it trying to stream greater than your upload bandwidth? If you lower your stream bandwidth in the app to below 2.5 Mb/s, does it play well?

Well my upload bandwidth is 1000Mbps. My server has a gigabit fiber connection. My home network has 150/15.

[Guest asrequested]

Well my upload bandwidth is 1000Mbps. My server has a gigabit fiber connection. My home network has 150/15.

 

And you're sure that nothing has changed with the server's connection? And have you tried playing a file at 2 Mb/s?

[Happy2Play 9780]

In theory it shouldn't matter but have you tried a test with a HTTP connection instead of HTTPS?

[KillermanGabe 4]

And you're sure that nothing has changed with the server's connection? And have you tried playing a file at 2 Mb/s?

Yes, nothing has changed with the server's connection. A speed test shows it still has 1000/1000. If I switch the quality to 720p 1Mbps it plays fine. But looks bad :/

 

In theory it shouldn't matter but have you tried a test with a HTTP connection instead of HTTPS?

If I connect via HTTP I get the same problem.

[Guest asrequested]

This is starting to sound like a hardware issue, but what are your settings in Theater?

[KillermanGabe 4]

This is starting to sound like a hardware issue, but what are your settings in Theater?

It's worked fine before. I don't believe its a hardware issue. My settings in theater are as follows: (I only listed the ones I changed from default)

Max Streaming Bitrate: Auto

Audio: 5.1

Bitstreaming: SPDIF