Is there any hope for the slow channel changing?

[turgin 0]

I've done a fair bit of searching on this so I think I know the answer, but are there any updates or anything coming to help with the painfully slow channel changing?

 

I do see threads about using Emby Theater on a RPI3 but I pretty quickly hit some errors I can't find a solution for so I gave up on that. Not a Linux expert and if I have to tinker that much to get it installed then I don't feel good about day to day usage.  

 

I need to provide, as close as possible, a user experience similar to my cable company's DVR solution (down to a remote with dedicated buttons) to get buy-in from my wife.

 

I was very pleased with Emby until I started changing channels.  At this point, this is a deal breaker for me.  I will gladly convert to a lifetime subscription if I can get this working to my satisfaction.

 

I have an HDHomeRun Prime for a tuner.  My client devices right now are a Firestick, a Mi Box, and I have a spare Raspberry Pi3 I'm testing with.  I am open to other hardware choices this is just what I have on hand and I'm not interested in spending hundreds of dollars buying clients to test.  Ideally, my final solution would be less than $150 per TV including a remote, etc.

 

I don't need 4K and I don't have any high-end sound requirements since we just use the speakers in the TVs.  I have excellent 802.11N wifi coverage throughout my house, but I also have Cat6 already ran to everywhere I have a TV.   

 

So, is there any hope for fast(ish) channel changing with Emby?  The only thing I care about is live TV with pause/rewind and DVR functionality with a good ole grid style guide.

 

 

server.txt

ffmpeg-transcode.txt

Edited December 23, 2017 by turgin

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, can you please discuss a specific example? Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[turgin 0]

Hi there, can you please discuss a specific example? Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

 

Sure, on either my Mi Box or Firestick changing from one channel to another takes upwards of 30 seconds.  I'll grab a log from the server shortly.

 

From my searching of the forums I was led to believe this was a very common problem with the HDHomeRun tuners specifically that was due to the way the tuner is used by Emby.  I hope I'm mistaken and this can be resolved.

[Guest asrequested]

Sure, on either my Mi Box or Firestick changing from one channel to another takes upwards of 30 seconds.  I'll grab a log from the server shortly.

 

From my searching of the forums I was led to believe this was a very common problem with the HDHomeRun tuners specifically that was due to the way the tuner is used by Emby.  I hope I'm mistaken and this can be resolved.

 

On your MiBox, do you have use VLC to play tv, selected? Live tv takes 2 seconds to start, on mine. Make sure VLC is installed, and enable that option. 

[mastrmind11 722]

I have a Mi Box and do not experience this kind of lag... maybe a few seconds at most.  Running hard wired via a MoCA bridge to the main switch, so if you are hard wired and experience this lag, then I doubt it's your network.  Interested in seeing a log when this happens.

[ebr 16169]

Make sure VLC is installed,

 

That is not necessary for the in-app option.  But, also, using the in-app option isn't necessarily going to have an impact on this.

[Guest asrequested]

That is not necessary for the in-app option.  But, also, using the in-app option isn't necessarily going to have an impact on this.

 

When I disable that, it takes between 11 and 18 seconds to start Live TV. But I didn't realize that VLC doesn't need to be installed, separately. On a related note, mpv is planned for use with ATV in the future, correct?

[ebr 16169]

On a related note, mpv is planned for use with ATV in the future, correct?

 

Subject to exactly what capabilities it provides, yes.

[turgin 0]

On your MiBox, do you have use VLC to play tv, selected? Live tv takes 2 seconds to start, on mine. Make sure VLC is installed, and enable that option. 

 

It looks like that only works with direct stream which doesn't let me pause/rewind live TV.

[turgin 0]

I have a Mi Box and do not experience this kind of lag... maybe a few seconds at most.  Running hard wired via a MoCA bridge to the main switch, so if you are hard wired and experience this lag, then I doubt it's your network.  Interested in seeing a log when this happens.

 

Both the Mi Box and the Firestick are wireless which I know isn't ideal.

[mastrmind11 722]

Both the Mi Box and the Firestick are wireless which I know isn't ideal.

The wifi on the mibox is brutal.  At the very least do yourself a favor and get a USB to ethernet adapter.  Can't speak to the Firestick, but I'm guessing it might be the same issue.  I'd also do yourself a favor and upgrade to wireless AC.

 

Side note, you say you have excellent wifi coverage.... how are you accomplishing that?  A single router or do you have extenders involved?

Edited December 23, 2017 by mastrmind11

[turgin 0]

The wifi on the mibox is brutal.  At the very least do yourself a favor and get a USB to ethernet adapter.  Can't speak to the Firestick, but I'm guessing it might be the same issue.  I'd also do yourself a favor and upgrade to wireless AC.

 

Side note, you say you have excellent wifi coverage.... how are you accomplishing that?  A single router or do you have extenders involved?

 

I have 4 x CIsco 1142N autonomous access points all hardwired over cat6 back to a 1gig switch. 

 

They were salvaged from the trash pile at work when we upgraded to 3702i APs.  I have a dozen or so for spares.

Edited December 23, 2017 by turgin

[mastrmind11 722]

I have 4 x CIsco 1142N autonomous access points all hardwired over cat6 back to a 1gig switch. 

 

They were salvaged from the trash pile at work when we upgraded to 3702i APs.  I have a dozen or so for spares.

Spend $10 on a usb ethernet adapter and see if it solves your issue.  I gave up on wifi for streaming anything locally years ago, just too problematic depending on house construction, appliances, etc etc etc.  For $10, imo it's worth the experiment.

[turgin 0]

Spend $10 on a usb ethernet adapter and see if it solves your issue.  I gave up on wifi for streaming anything locally years ago, just too problematic depending on house construction, appliances, etc etc etc.  For $10, imo it's worth the experiment.

I will do that.  Any specific recommendations?

[mastrmind11 722]

Nah I bought some cheap POS from Microcenter, works fine. Haven't benchmarked it, but seems to perform alright.

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[turgin 0]

Hi there, can you please discuss a specific example? Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

 

I attached the files to my OP.

[Guest asrequested]

I have a long range Unifi AP 2ft from my MiBox, I'll be surprised if hard wiring will make a difference.

[Tur0k 148]

The Mibox I have wouldn't connect to the 5GHz wifi. Also it couldn't do HT40 width on 2.4 GHz wifi. The unifi controller app showed some 24 Mbps when the wifi network was running HT40 and the Emby app would only play for 2 minute intervals then would disconnect often.

 

A wireless mesh is useful to cover large areas or support heavy wireless device density. If you are creating a wireless mesh in your home, where you have multiple APs and only one 2.4 GHz SSID, using stand alone AP units, you need to make sure that the AP's foot prints are not overlapping heavily. This is something that soft controlled or completely managed devices do well. First, Set the APs to non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11), and choose channels on each AP that are not already heavily used. Then reduce the antenna power such that the the coverage bubble footprint of each AP isn't completely overlapping other APs.

 

most APs need a at least 60' distance between them. it might be worth using a wifi scanning/surveying tool (acrylic or netspot) and seeing if maybe the AP's coverage area is overlapping.

 

So, for guide related issues, have you checked that you are limiting the guide to the channels you actually watch? also, have you checked that you are running the latest firmware for the HDHomerun run tuner?

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited December 24, 2017 by Tur0k

[ebr 16169]

30 seconds is extreme.  I'm not sure I've ever seen it take that long so I would try some of the network suggestions above.

 

If you watch primarily SD interlaced content (probably all SD is going to be interlaced) then using the direct stream and VLC options in the app will probably produce faster start times due to the fact that Exo cannot de-interlace that content but VLC can.  For HD content or boxes like the Shield, this is not a problem.

[alphabanks 0]

I am seeing the same exact problems. I am using a 2017 Nvidia Shield also my entire house is hardwired channel changes taking from 15 to 30 seconds. I also have Kodi 17.6 along with a NextPVR backend it changes channels in 3 seconds.

[turgin 0]

I have access to a Netscout Aircheck from work and I did see some overlap on the 2.4Ghz channels so I reconfigured my wireless a bit to see if it would help.  I turned off one AP and set the channels to 1,6,11 on the remaining three and saw no difference.  Tried a USB to Ethernet adapter and no difference.  I've moved the server to a spare PC I had (old 1st gen Core i7-860) instead of a VM and no difference.  Not sure what exactly is going on, but I've moved on in my search for a cable company DVR replacement.

 

I'm now using the HDHomeRun DVR service with a Raspberry Pi 3 running OSMC and the "unofficial" Kodi plugin from the Silicon Dust forums and that is working well.  I really wanted to find a one box solution for live TV, DVR, Netflix, Prime, etc but so far no luck.  From what I can tell the Nvidia Shield may be the answer for client hardware but it would seem the new version doesn't have an IR receiver and thus I can't use a universal remote.

 

Thanks for the responses and help everyone.  I'll keep an eye on Emby updates and maybe give it a try again in the future.

[alphabanks 0]

Turgin I'm also in search of a DVR since I dropped DirecTV. I am currently testing NextPVR I will test Tvheadend next. I'm glad I only purchased  one month of Emby Premiere in short I cancelled it this morning. I am using Kodi as my Front end for all of our media as well as live tv.

[Luke 42077]

Try the next release of emby server. Startup will be very fast. Thanks.

[Luke 42077]

If you'd like to try the latest beta server it will shave off a few seconds, thanks.

[PrincessClevage 175]

If you'd like to try the latest beta server it will shave off a few seconds, thanks.

Quite a bit faster to load live tv, now we just need mini guide (similar to wmc ) to assist with channel surfing, EBR did post some screenshots of a mini guide in another old post, is this on the to do list for ET Luke?