Constant pausing when playing using browser

[astuff 3]

This started a few weeks ago and still happening with today's 4.1.1.0 update.

 

I try playing live or recorded shows using firefox or safari or edge on multiple machines. Usually several times a minute the screen and audio freezes for a half second.  Using a Roku or playing files directly using VLC works fine so at this point I mainly use emby for the recording engine.

 

Can you see anything from the attached log?  Using MacOS 10.14.4 as the server.

 

Thanks.

emby_pause.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, is this only happening with live tv? What about completed video files?

[astuff 3]

Seems to be anything broadcast or stored as TS files.  Old eyeTV files also pause the same way.

[Spaceboy 2573]

Yep same here. This has got significantly worse recently as I haven’t noticed it before

[Luke 42077]

Can you try lowering the in app quality setting? Thanks.

[astuff 3]

Yes, just tried and pauses aren't there with the lowered quality.

 

I think I know part of what's going on.  The server process ffmpeg that does transcoding isn't keeping up.  If I shut down other apps on my server ffmpeg shows using around 150% of the CPU and the pauses aren't very frequent.  If I run other apps then ffmpeg goes down to 120% and the pauses are almost constant.

 

Strangely when I lower quality to 720p @ 2 mbps it doesn't pause but the ffmpeg goes up to 300% (CPU otherwise idle).  Goes down to 200% with other apps but still no pauses.

Edited May 1, 2019 by astuff

[Carlo 4560]

Do you have Enable Throttling enabled/check mark or not?

If enabled, can you try it turned off?

[astuff 3]

Enable Throttling was not checked.   I turned it on but doesn't seem to make a difference.

[astuff 3]

Thanks for the hint.  I looked at the other settings and saw that the transcoding thread count was set to "1."  I changed it to "Auto" and playback is working fine again.  It also made the controls much more more responsive.

[Carlo 4560]

Funny I was going to ask about that but figured "nah". Should have asked

 

So obviously 1 core isn't quite enough for smooth playback but probably 2 or cores and you're fine.  Leaving it set to AUTO is the way to go.

 

Glad you got it figured out!