Emby Theater (Win Desktop) CPU Thrashing

[tomasstendahl 2]

Hi,

 

Very impressed with Theater in general and use it 24/7 as our main TV front end. Since latest update, however, it causes 90-100% CPU load all the time, even at rest. This starts as soon as ET is started so is not a playback issue.

 

ET is running on the same machine as ET Server, it's a AMD A-6000 with 8G RAM. No problems before most recent update.

 

As an aside, this is not the first time over the years that an ET update has broken an otherwise stable working system. Please could you give us an option to decline/delay/manually accept new builds, especially one as major as this? Even better, a means to roll back ot the last working version would be great.

 

Thanks again.

[Luke 42078]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I haven't seen this, or anyone else report it but I will do some testing and see if I can reproduce. Thanks !

[tomasstendahl 2]

OK, thanks - a bit more information. As soon as I start ET (with Task Manager open so I can see what's happening), Emby Server's  CPU use goes up to about 30% (from 1-5%) and I get three separate instances of Electron running at 20-30% each. This is just at 'rest', i.e. just looking at the GUI, not playing a file.

 

I have lost Live TV capability (HD-HomeRun tuner) altogether. Some video files seem to play OK but others, especially ones recorded from on-air TV, do not play at all. Instead, I get a continuous spawning of multiple instances of ffmpeg.exe running in the background. These continue to run even after ET has been closed down (although no more are spawned) until manually closed down using Task Manager.

 

I have attached some log files.

 

Also -correction to original post- it is a AMD A6-6400K CPU.

ffmpeg-transcode-6cda2da1-525c-497b-8a12-9784cfd3e423.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-6f8e24af-6f95-4d1d-b44c-3ff4e1b0c1ad.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-8a64dca2-dfba-4368-b347-98bf01c648a6.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-697e4ec5-3987-4b96-8965-9550bb65f2f2.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-a6c2a54d-e4c6-4a3b-b19c-b73b0c582aab.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-a03804b9-19df-4e9d-95fc-8b17a4277c02.txt

server-63630044720.txt

Edited May 11, 2017 by tomasstendahl

[Luke 42078]

@@tomasstendahl, I would try the latest version of the app, 2.6.9. It updates our embedded Chromium from version 56 to 58 which may improve performance.

 

As far as recording playback, when were these recordings created? Was it with the emby recording feature? thanks !

[tomasstendahl 2]

These are recordings made by emby from the HD homerun tuner. I have tried converting to streaming-friendly format (MP4) with and without preservinmg original video/audio.

 

I think the problem is with the fact that ES is transcoding anyway, despite the fact that the files should be perfectly playable directly (as I have ET and ES and the files in question all on the same machine).

 

This, coupled with the new ET version's much greater CPU usage, seems to be grinding the system to a halt (CPU 100%). It seems to run better (CPU still at 90-95%, but at least I can watch things) when playing MKV files, so I will try to convert my recording to this format, but that would not address the loss of live TV and recordings already made.

[Luke 42078]

As far as CPU thrashing, I found the cause of that and an update has been pushed out. See notes here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/2142-emby-theater/?p=451732

 

Thanks !

[tomasstendahl 2]

Hi Luke,

 

CPU thrashing is now sorted, thanks. I now have full use of live TV and ability to record programs, too.

 

However, I am still having an issue with multiple instances of ffmpeg running. Although their CPU use is now 0%, when they get up to 15 or more instances I start to get playback issues and have to restart.

 

Also, I am still having the black/blank screen problem on ET startup. The best workaround I have found is to change the desktop size between 720p and 1080p (in either direction) and then I can see the ET window.

 

The missus is giving me a hard time, as this is our main TV watching system

 

Cheeers,

 

TS

[Luke 42078]

@@tomasstendahl, we're looking at the black screen startup issue. It was resolved earlier via update to third party component, but we had to roll that back on account of the cpu usage. We are testing workarounds though.

 

As far as ffmpeg instances, can you please provide a server log from when this happens? You can learn how to do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

 

Thanks !