Memory issue with External Player

[csadoian 36]

There has been some discussion on this before, but to my knowledge has never been resolved (or explained).

 

The problem has to do when using an external player to stream live TV from Emby causing the server to eat memory at an incredible pace.

 

I should mention that I have seen this occur while using the Windows Theater client and the Android TV client.

 

For this specific test I use an Android TV box using Emby for Android TV.  I like to watch some of the "older" TV shows (60s, 70s, etc), and most of them are in the old 4:3 video format.  Emby's built in player does not display the video very well, and the provided zooming functions don't seem to work at all.  So I prefer using an external player, in this case I use MX player, which is one of the best ones out there.  I also use a codec pack that restores AC3 audio capability that was recently removed from MX player.

 

Anyway, as a test I restarted the server and it settled in using about 1.1GB of memory (not just Emby, the whole computer).  I then used Emby for Android TV to tune to my local channel 30.1, which broadcasts in 720P.  I set Emby for Android TV to use an external player and selected MX player, and the video came up. Emby Dashboard showed it as a DIRECT STREAM (no transcoding).   Immediately Emby Server started increasing memory usage.  Within 1 minute, 20 seconds I had to shut down the stream because memory usage on the server had increased from 1.1GB to 7.77GB (my server has 8GB total)!  After shutting down the stream the server never gives the memory back.  I have to restart the server to release the memory.

 

I have never see this behavior with the built in video players.  It always happens when I use an external player, be it MX player, or VLC or whatever.  Since the stream is being direct played, I am not sure what Emby Server is doing with all that memory.  Doesn't DIRECT PLAY imply the external player is directly receiving the stream from the HDHomeRun (Connect, in this case)?  If that is so, I am not sure why Emby Server is needing all that extra memory while the stream is playing.

 

Of course, if at some point in the future you could improve the built in players ability to change aspect ratio of the stream, then I wouldn't need the external player. 

 

I should also mention when I play a recorded program with an external player the memory used by the server does not increase.  Only during Live TV.

 

Attached is my server log.  The server is 192.168.60.93, the Android box I was using to do the test is 192.168.60.206.

 

Thanks!

 

server-63639515146.txt