Missing and flashing images

[revengineer 142]

Problem reoccurred. It may my linked to coverart issue I reported here: https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50602-coverart-broken/?p=484515. Server log posted in that thread.

[Luke 42077]

Can you try removing the cover art plugin? thanks.

[revengineer 142]

Can you try removing the cover art plugin? thanks.

Removing it now. I will not be able to fully test this tonight and I will be on travel until Friday. If time permits I may be able to check the log files. And I am sure I hear from my folks if things go sour. Will let you know.

[revengineer 142]

I removed coverart and was able to browse the trailers without missing images. It will take a few days to confirm 100% that coverart is at fault, but so far my testing points to a bug in the plugin.

 

I should have noted that as soon as the errors occurred, the setting were missing the coverart preview again as shown in above post https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/50602-coverart-broken/?p=484138

[revengineer 142]

I removed coverart and was able to browse the trailers without missing images. It will take a few days to confirm 100% that coverart is at fault, but so far my testing points to a bug in the plugin.

 

I cross-posted this in the "Coverart broken" thread in the Windows Server section. I believe more and more that these two issues are related.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Interesting bug that is only affecting your system.

[Luke 42077]

I think it could just be an issue of overloading the device with images that are too large for it to handle. Not any single image but rather a cumulative effect, possibly causing memory problems on the roku.

[revengineer 142]

Interesting bug that is only affecting your system.

I do not think we can conclude that. More accurate: The bug affects my system, it does not affect your system, and others have not (yet) reported a similar issue. 

[revengineer 142]

I think it could just be an issue of overloading the device with images that are too large for it to handle. Not any single image but rather a cumulative effect, possibly causing memory problems on the roku.

Was there any change since covertart version we used for server 3.2.26? I did not encounter these issues before that and the memory of my Roku has sure not changed. Should I turn off coverart in the Roku settings?

[Luke 42077]

In order to accommodate transparency all images that go through cover art will come out as png. This can cause them to be significantly larger than the original size. It might just be too much for your Roku to handle. We saw similar things on iOS although newer iOS devices are able to handle it. No fix was made by emby, its all from the newer devices being more powerful.

[Luke 42077]

I responded in the wrong thread. This should just be merged with the Roku topic.

[ebr 16169]

I'm very interested to know the answer to this question as it may be a clue to whether or not that error is related to what you are seeing or not.

 

 

Are those errors still in your log now that things are working properly?

[revengineer 142]

In order to accommodate transparency all images that go through cover art will come out as png. This can cause them to be significantly larger than the original size. It might just be too much for your Roku to handle. We saw similar things on iOS although newer iOS devices are able to handle it. No fix was made by emby, its all from the newer devices being more powerful.

That could explain funky flashing behavior of the Roku UI. It does not explain the code crashed on the emby server. It also does not explain why coverart stops functioning on the server. This is manifested by newly added movies not getting the coverart treatment and the coverart settings not showing the example cover art as shown in my screenshots. In other words, issues on the Roku should not bring the server down. 

 

I just checked the logs and since yesterday when I DISABLED coverart, no errors have shown up in the log files and the server is alive and kicking. I will let this run while on travel and check again when I return home on the weekend.

[revengineer 142]

I'm very interested to know the answer to this question as it may be a clue to whether or not that error is related to what you are seeing or not.

The errors returned after more browsing on the Roku. I have not checked whether browsing from another client could cause the issue. It seems though that the errors are gone since I disabled coverart (see my response to Luke).

[Luke 42077]

What Roku device do you have?

[revengineer 142]

I have a Roku 2 and a Roku 4 and I have encountered the problem on both. If the problem occurs on one, it also occurs on the other. Conversely, if one works fine, so does the other. Smells like a server issue to me.

 

I just checked the server logs, not a single error in the log the second day in a row. Of course, I sure would like to enable coverart again.

[Luke 42077]

No, I don't think it's a server issue. I think it is just too much for the roku to handle like i mentioned earlier.

[Luke 42077]

Anyway this is a good time to review the app and make sure the image resolutions that we get from emby server closely match the sizes they're being displayed at to minimize in-app scaling. then we'll look at the compression that roku is requesting and see if we can increase that without a noticeable degrade in quality. Both of those things can help reduce the size in bytes of the images that come down from emby server.

 

If that doesn't help make the symptoms go away, then we may have to look at more drastic options which would be to just not allow cover art in the app. but hopefully we don't have to go there.

[revengineer 142]

No, I don't think it's a server issue. I think it is just too much for the roku to handle like i mentioned earlier.

I would have expected that the Roku 4 has more ram to handle the images better.

 

Then I think the only thing I can do is to turn off coverart in the Roku settings. I cannot remember whether I had this turned on or off when I was running version <=3.2.26 when everything was working. If I turn it off and everything starts working perfectly again, then it was off before and we will leave it at that. If I still have problem, then something else is amiss. 

[revengineer 142]

Anyway this is a good time to review the app and make sure the image resolutions that we get from emby server closely match the sizes they're being displayed at to minimize in-app scaling. then we'll look at the compression that roku is requesting and see if we can increase that without a noticeable degrade in quality. Both of those things can help reduce the size in bytes of the images that come down from emby server.

 

If that doesn't help make the symptoms go away, then we may have to look at more drastic options which would be to just not allow cover art in the app. but hopefully we don't have to go there.

Ok, great and we can touch back next weekend on progress on both ends. Thank you for the help!

Edited September 7, 2017 by revengineer

[Happy2Play 9780]

But why would not effect more Roku users?

[skidmarks 199]

Anyway this is a good time to review the app and make sure the image resolutions that we get from emby server closely match the sizes they're being displayed at to minimize in-app scaling. then we'll look at the compression that roku is requesting and see if we can increase that without a noticeable degrade in quality. Both of those things can help reduce the size in bytes of the images that come down from emby server.

 

If that doesn't help make the symptoms go away, then we may have to look at more drastic options which would be to just not allow cover art in the app. but hopefully we don't have to go there.

 

Lets hope not as cover art is a vital need for my libraries.  Without cover art box sets become a mess when you have a mix of standard movies and 3D versions of the same titles.  Without out that 3D overlay there is no way of knowing which title is normal and which title is the 3D version (box sets).

[BeachBum65 0]

I am experiencing a similar issue.  Poster files are in the folders but when viewing the library only banners are showing with poster view selected.   I have checked for updates, restarted server, refreshed metadata in libraries with and without "replacing existing images" checked.

The only thing that has worked is to manually delete the poster.jpg in the film's folder and then refreshing.  I hate to resort to this for my entire collection so going to explore this further.  This just occurred over the weekend and displayed perfectly prior.   

[Luke 42077]

@@BeachBum65 in this topic we are discussing the cover art plugin, which is different from what you're mentioning. Please open your own topic while following the guidelines in how to report a problem, and we'll do our very best to help you. Thanks !

[BeachBum65 0]

Uhhh sorry, did not intend to hijack. I meant to mention that based on the cover art issue above (and responses I read in past threads that the CoverArt plugin impacted posters as well) I thought I would post it here since the original poster's timing and problems were similar to my own experience. I had the CoverArt plugin installed as well.  Anyway my apologies, in my eyes it was related.