Media is streaming and not playing directly

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Everyone,

Its been a while since I have had to ask a question on here, I would appreciate any help you can give me.

I have been using emby for a few years now but I have always ran on a windows box or VM.  I have switched to the app on the synology and am having a few problems I can not solve.

 

I have a synology D1817+ the emby app loaded and configured fine.  I have loaded up a library but when I go to my win 7 WMC emby client it can not find the local file and streams the movie.  The libraries look normal and I can browse through the content with no issues, it just will not direct play the movie.

 

My NAS IP is 192.168.1.220 and is called synologynas.  I can use file browser on the client \\synologynas\movies\movies or \\192.168.1.220\movies\movies and I see all of my movie folders, I can open up these folders and play the movies.  When setting up the libraries in emby server I have tried /vol1/movies/movies and path substitution of \\synologynas\movies\movies then switched it to  \\192.168.1.220\moves\movies.  Next I tried setting the path and substitution to both \\synologynas\movies\movies and also tried the IP address in case DNS was messing this up.  Again everything looks fine in emby server and client but when I hit the play button it will not direct play.

 

Basically I have a pile of libraries with all of the above options so I could test them all and I mostly get the error when I hit the play button of "could not access media.  Will attempt to stream..."  I have closed out the client and checked the path in file browser and everything works fine manually in windows 7.  Sometimes I will not get the error it will just pause for about 20 seconds and then stream the movie.

 

I am at a loss on how to trouble shoot this any further does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Thank you I really appreciate the help, this forum has been a life saver.

Simon

 

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, can we please look at an example? Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Luke,

Thank you for the help I have no idea how you have kept up with this forum for this many years!

 

I have attached the server logs.  To generate the log I signed into the emby WMC client (latest version on the website not the beta), went to one of my libraries and clicked on the movie Winchester, then hit the play button.

 

 This time it did not display an error message it just hung.  I clicked on the file at around 3:37pm.

transcode.txt

Server.txt

[rouq 23]

Did you give read access to embysvr user? This user own emby server process and need at least read permission to your share folders.

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Rouq,

Yes the shared folder on the nas has read/write access for admin and embysvr.

 

Thanks,

Simon 

[scouser1023 0]

When making the libraries in the emby server I can browse to the local directory and it populates all the movie folders, the issue seems to be on the client side gaining access.  I thought this was a function of the path substitution which is why I tried UNC pathing for both the directory and path substitution.

I am wondering if I need something set in my router like port forwarding or something.  

[scouser1023 0]

I forgot to mention I did try:

\\synologynas\videos\horror\ and \\synologynas\videos\horror with the same result

[marcinsko 0]

I have a problem with subtitles, I can watch movies from my synology nas when subtitles are off, If I turned them on emby server start transcoding and as it is a nas it is to weak to process. I Have Kodi 18 alpha 3 with embycon and that combo is working perfectly I can browse lib all looks good but I want to support dev and use Emby theather on Xbox abut as long as it will try to transcode simple sub in srt format I need to use Kodi.

 

My library in Emby server like that:

 

Show advanced settings

 

 

Foldersadd

/volume1/video/Family Movies

nfs://192.168.0.250/volume1/video/Family Movies

 

 

So in Kodi with embycon sub are perfectly playble, On Emby theather are not as they force server to transcode why?

 

Cheers

[Luke 42077]

I have a problem with subtitles, I can watch movies from my synology nas when subtitles are off, If I turned them on emby server start transcoding and as it is a nas it is to weak to process. I Have Kodi 18 alpha 3 with embycon and that combo is working perfectly I can browse lib all looks good but I want to support dev and use Emby theather on Xbox abut as long as it will try to transcode simple sub in srt format I need to use Kodi.

 

My library in Emby server like that:

 

Show advanced settings

 

 

Folders add

/volume1/video/Family Movies

nfs://192.168.0.250/volume1/video/Family Movies

 

 

So in Kodi with embycon sub are perfectly playble, On Emby theather are not as they force server to transcode why?

 

Cheers

 

@@marcinsko this is unrelated to this discussion. Please open a new topic and make sure to attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[Luke 42077]

hi @@scouser1023, can you show us what your emby library setup looks like, perhaps a screenshot? thanks.

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Luke,

Thank you for the help.  I have attached some screen shots.  All of the libraries seem to be acting the same, it basically hangs as I don't think the transcoding can handle bluray content.

I do have it set up for and external player VLC, VLC is not opening which lead me to the logs and concluding direct play is not working.  The same windows client was working fine with a windows VM emby server.  On the client I have removed emby and tried both the beta and stable versions without any success.  Everything other than direct play looks normal on the client.

 

Share folders - Synology permissions

Shares - Permissions in subfolders, same as admin permissions

Test1 - Normal suggested pathing

Test2 - Remove the final \ from the unc pathing and used IP address

Test3 - Removal of the \ from the unc pathing

File explorer - showing DNS resolution and IP pathing in windows

Lib set up - Creating a lib

Lib - Screen shot of the completed scan and libaries

Dashboard - Showing everything looking normal...I think

 

I will grab some screenshots from the client shortly.  Did you see anything in the logs that did not look right?  And is there anything specific you would like a screenshot of?

 

Thank you!

Simon

 

 

 

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Luke,

Apparently I can not take a screen shot of the WMC Emby client.  When I open it, it allows me to log in, then the libraries match whats on the server.  I can click on a library and see all the content of which loads quickly.  When i click on play on any of the test libraries it throws an error saying it can not locate the media...

If I close the client and log back in and choose any movie from the 3 test libraries all give the same error message, can not locate the media.

 

Attached is a screenshot of file explorer on the client.

 

How does emby access the network media?  And why can it access it to stream but not for direct play?  Seems like I am missing access or permissions on a protocol.  I tool a look through the windows services on the client but I did not see anything that emby would be using.

 

Thank you!

 

P.S. I downloaded the ios client yesterday and paid for the steaming option, that is quite impressive.

Edited July 8, 2018 by scouser1023

[Luke 42077]

when you browsed with the file explorer on the client, did you have to enter network credentials in order to do that?

[scouser1023 0]

Yes, and selected it to save credentials.

 

The account user name and password on my win pc and symbology nas are the same. However I am not sure hiw this plays with the Emby bad account.

 

What is the typical?

 

Thank you.

[Luke 42077]

Ok so that's going to be the problem. You need to make sure the network share is accessible anonymously. Emby for WMC doesn't have these credentials and there's no configuration for you to enter them. So the only way it will be able to reach folder is via anonymous share.

 

If you don't want to do that, then yes, content will stream through emby server and not over the lan file interface but that should work just fine.

[scouser1023 0]

Ahh okay thanks luke. Just to be clear there is no run as admin option?

Maybe it’s time for me to move to the theater version...

[Luke 42077]

i guess you would have to run wmc as admin. Is that possible?

 

As far as file access goes, the same will apply to Theater, but if streaming is used with emby server, it will do a better job of avoiding transcoding. I think you might be misperceiving this a little in that you can still direct play even when streaming through emby server, and Theater can do that very well.

[scouser1023 0]

Hi Luke,

I have tried a few things and none of them have worked.

I have opened up rights for the movie folder to every user on the Nas and the Emby server can still not access the media. The streaming of blue ray with 7.1 is very glitchy and takes a while to start up. It is not watchable.

I have a different PC login than what’s on the bad so the guest account should work on the NAS. Next I will try to add the windows login as a user on the bad and see if that works.

 

I am fairly good at networking etc and have ran a Windows ad domain for a while. Yet I have yet to get Emby working right on a qnap or synology nas. I ended up using a VM on the qnap, I really don’t want to do that on the synology. Seems like this should all be easier...

 

Thank you,

Si

[Luke 42077]

I recall this being a very challenging and not commonly seen example. I will re-read all of this tonight and try to offer more thoughts. 

[scouser1023 0]

It’s okay Luke. I am just frustrated as I can never get thinks working 100 percent of everything is not on a windows network. As a side not I did try “run as admin” with no change in the results. It really looks like a permissions issue but I don’t understand how the steaming is working. I have a few things left to do, use a totally different PC, set up the Emby user in windows and try that log in, reformat and go from windows 7 to the dreaded windows 10. I can also set up a VM on the synology but I really do not want to go that way again for about 20 different reasons. And lastly load up the theater version but I am assuming it will have the same issues physically getting to the files. I have done a lot of reading on both Emby and synology forums and this seems to be set up correctly.

 

Thanks,

Si

[scouser1023 0]

Luke,

I think I am going to try a few more things and move along to something else.  I have been very happy with Emby when it works and I do feel a lot of loyalty to you and have been impressed with your support and patience.  I have been using the product for I think 5 years now.  Just to give you the history I started with a windows based client server and it worked very well.  I moved to a qnap and the app would not work unless the media was all on its local drives, I had tried a few things including learning putty etc.  2 months later I loaded up a VM on the qnap and ran windows and everything worked however it slowed down my qnap and any restarts were a problem etc.  QNAP died, customer service was not very helpful, so I moved to synology with the excitement to finally have emby working from the app (this time bought enough space to hold all the media).  Well I am back into months of research again and this time I saw a push to go to the theater version.  I just ran this and realized its a paid subscription and the first movie that had subtitles transcodes and does not run well.  I can browse across the network and play with VLC with no issues at all.  I did download the IOS app and paid the $5, figured you have more than earned that and its a cool setup.  It works very well and I can cast to my TV while I try and get the rest working.  I liked the idea of having my media available when not on my network, but that did not work.  I have not put much time into that other than forwarding ports for HTTP and HTTPS but again its a huge time sink.

 

I don't know if I am just missing something easy or not but I am fairly handy with PCs and networking.  Does not seem like the average person would be able to get all this stuff up and running without issues.  If everything worked I would think the $120 is expensive vs other software but I would probably be in.

 

Anyway I just wanted to give you some feedback please don't take it as me being rude or angry.

 

Cheers,

Si

[Luke 42077]

Have you tried the Emby Theater desktop app? It doesn't need direct file access in order to direct play:

https://emby.media/emby-theater.html