Roku's Fast Forward and Rewind Far Superior

[e27 7]

Can some one help explain why Roku is able to fast forward and rewind beautifully through a movie at different increments of speed, while all other apps including the server itself's fast forward is only a skip so many seconds at a time? I thought it was because I was using MKV files, but after using the Roku I don't think that anymore. I just wish the Roku app layout was verbatim to Theater.  Thanks. 

[Jdiesel 1431]

The Roku utilizes "bif" files that are generated in advance. These files are pretty much a collection of screenshots at the skip interval meaning you can visually see forward/back without having to actually advance to the point in the video. This preview gives the illusion of a smooth experience because you don't actually tell the video player to move the playback position until you click "OK".

 

I too really like the way Roku handles FF/RW

[ebr 16169]

The Roku is the only modern streaming video device that I've seen still utilize this method of FF/Rew.  Most all of them skip in increments.  I think it really is too it is just that it automates it.

 

With the other apps you should be able to achieve basically the same thing by holding down the button.

[notla49285 48]

@@ebr is there any news on the issue of the thumbnails being 10 seconds out yet?

[e27 7]

@@ebr Roku seems to stop the video for fast forwarding allowing me to fast forward a movie slow or super fast in no time, from the beginning to the end of a movie. It shows the time progression on the screen the whole time.  It has three speed increments.  The Server or other apps when I attempt to do this only skips 30 secs at a time.  Holding the fast forward does nothing.  It would be really nice if what Roku does could be integrated into the server and other apps.  A three speed fast forward feature. Roku may do what you say, but it feels like a real fast forward and rewind.  Thanks

Edited January 28, 2019 by e27

[ebr 16169]

Having become used to the skipping that virtually every other interface uses these days, I do not like the way the Roku works.  I try to jump ahead 30 seconds or a minute and end up flying off into the future and have to fumble with the remote to stop it .

 

On the Android TV and Fire TV apps, you can hit the button multiple times or hold it down to progressively skip further and further into the item.  I find this much more natural now that I'm used to it in other interfaces as well.

[notla49285 48]

I do like the way Roku works over the others, the only issue I see with this method is the available speeds, but that's down to the device you're using. I prefer Roku's method, I like being able to see exactly where I am when FF/RWDing, maybe it's because I was brought up on VHS tapes 

[halter73 0]

> With the other apps you should be able to achieve basically the same thing by holding down the button.

 

Sadly this isn't the case. I just tested this in the Xbox One Emby Theater app. It took 1 minute and 22 seconds to fast forward only 30 minutes. The entire time I was forced to listen to lurching audio. An extremely unpleasant all around. I could only imagine trying to seek two hours into a recording.

 

And this is on an Xbox where you could quickly and accurately operate a cursor or scrubber with the thumbstick on the controller given the option, but I think multiple fast forward speeds is a bare minimum.

 

There's a reason the twitch app on Xbox lets you fast forward up to 256X: if you're trying to get to a specific part of a multi-hour recording, only being able to skip 30 seconds at a time is absolutely maddening.

 

I just switched from Plex Pass and subscribed to Emby Premium today because I learned it actually supports watching a recording while it's in progress, but if I cannot skip to the part of the recording I want to watch in less than a minute that feature is worthless anyway. I'll probably have to switch back to Plex since at least it supports multiple rewind and fast forward speeds.

Edited July 7, 2019 by halter73

[ebr 16169]

> With the other apps you should be able to achieve basically the same thing by holding down the button.

 

Sadly this isn't the case. I just tested this in the Xbox One Emby Theater app. It took 1 minute and 22 seconds to fast forward only 30 minutes. The entire time I was forced to listen to lurching audio. An extremely unpleasant all around. I could only imagine trying to seek two hours into a recording.

 

And this is on an Xbox where you could quickly and accurately operate a cursor or scrubber with the thumbstick on the controller given the option, but I think multiple fast forward speeds is a bare minimum.

 

There's a reason the twitch app on Xbox lets you fast forward up to 256X: if you're trying to get to a specific part of a multi-hour recording, only being able to skip 30 seconds at a time is absolutely maddening.

 

I just switched from Plex Pass and subscribed to Emby Premium today because I learned it actually supports watching a recording while it's in progress, but if I cannot skip to the part of the recording I want to watch in less than a minute that feature is worthless anyway. I'll probably have to switch back to Plex since at least it supports multiple rewind and fast forward speeds.

 

Hi.  Did you enable the thumbnail creation for your library?  If so, I believe you should get the ability to visually seek using the thumbs/scrub bar.

[halter73 0]

I have not yet enabled thumbnail creation for my library, but after making my last post, I learned that I can use the Emby Android app to control the Xbox app which for me is the superior way to to seek to the middle of a long *completed* video anyway. It's pretty great. It's lot more reliable than Plex's remote control in my experience, so thanks for that!

 

The real problem is trying to seek more than a few minutes into a *recording in progress*.  The whole reason I'm trying Emby out is so I can actually watch recording in progress unlike Plex, but the client *always* starts buffering the recording in progress from the *very beginning* of the recording and refuses to let the client fast forward past what the client has already buffered. That means that if I attempt to resume a recording in progress because I accidentally hit the back button on my remote 30 minutes into a show for example, the client will not immediately start playing the recording from 30 minutes in. Instead, it will start buffering the recording from the very beginning even though I hit the "resume" button.

 

If I try to let the recording in progress play at normal speed in order to let the buffer build up, the buffer will not advance much more than a minute past what is currently being "watched", so that doesn't help. No matter the client, even on Android and the PC where I could *theoretically* just click on the scrub bar to instantly jump 30 minutes into the recording, I wind up having to mash the fast forward button to get back to 30 minutes into the recording which, as I mentioned before, takes over a minute to do to just fast forward 30 minutes. God forbid I accidentally hit the back button an hour and a half into a recording in progress. At that point, I'd definitely just give up and wait for the recording to finish to watch it, but if I was planning to do that, I'd just watch it on Plex.

 

I can try enabling the thumbnail creation for your library, but the warnings about the extra CPU and storage requirements scare me. I don't want thumbnails for my already-recorded content. I just want to be able to quickly seek through a recording in progress like you've been able to do with a cable DVR box for decades. Is enabling the thumbnail creation really going to fix my issue with recordings in progress? That seems to be something that would only effect completed recordings.

[Luke 42077]

The thumbnail feature will not resolve any problems, it only serves to enhance by making the process more visual. If you're having a problem, then let's look at that in more detail and we're happy to help. Please see how to report a media playback issue. thanks !

[halter73 0]

First of all, I want to thank you for the prompt reply.

 

I just found https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/65912-ffwd-of-recording-in-progress-fails which describes my issues to a T (or rather the thread as a whole does, not necessarily the initial post). If you fix that and allow me to prioritize recordings so I don't accidentally miss a major sporting event due to my regularly scheduled jeopardy recording, I'll be a very happy customer.

 

In the meantime, since I mostly want to resume recordings in progress to watch live sports, the workaround that I've found is to cancel the recording in progress and then immediately restart the recording when I want to start watching the recording. If I do this, I can easily skip to where I want to start watching in the canceled recording, and by the time I reach the end of the canceled recording, I can switch to the recording-in-progress which starts right where I left off. It's definitely not great, but it's far better than trying to fast forward through a recording in progress which is a miserable experience today if you want to fast forward more than a few minutes.

Edited July 7, 2019 by halter73

[halter73 0]

Oh yeah, for the sake of your other customers, I would still seriously reconsider adding multiple FF/RW speeds. Like I said, it doesn't matter for me now, since I've found using the Emby Android app as a remote control is better for seeking anyway. But for your costumers who don't have or want the mobile app, only being able to seek in 30s/10s is infuriating if you need to seek more than a couple minutes past some commercials.

 

I get that enabling thumbnail creation might also help fix this for already-completed videos, but that shouldn't be necessary to waste all that CPU and storage space just to be able to quickly jump to a spot in the video. I'm sure there must been many people cursing out the Emby developers under their breath daily because they just wanted to watch the end of a video, but they have to spend minutes holding the forward button on their remote just to get there.

 

And before you say Netflix does the same thing, it doesn't. Netflix accelerates the fast forward speed as you start holding down on the forward button until it quickly reaches max speed. This max speed is much faster the Emby's with the max 30s forward skip. I can get to the end of an hour long show in about ~30s on Netflix VS over 3 minutes in Emby which is a massive difference. Netflix also doesn't have lurching/stuttering audio and video like Emby does as it tries to momentarily start playing the video at the start of each 30 second interval even though I'm still holding down on the forward button on the remote.

 

Netflix isn't who you should be copying anyway for something like controlling a DVR with a TV remote. The much better examples to follow would be TiVo/cable DVR boxes, Plex, MythTV, Windows MCE, etc... all of which have multiple FF/RW speeds.

Edited July 7, 2019 by halter73

[mrfragger 39]

The thumbnails takes awhile to generate about 20 to 30 seconds for each one on my slow computer. But it’s worth it cuz once that’s done you can quickly fast forward. I use an nvidia shield and the longer you hold down the remote the quicker the fast forwarding begins. You should at least test out the thumbnais for at least one library so you can form your own opinion as to whether it suffices.