Playback Issues - 30+ Seconds to start, then stops 5 seconds in

[saltedhash 4]

Hi all,

 

I did as much Googling as I could before resorting to posting my issue. I'm hoping someone can help.

 

About a week ago, external users are unable to successfully stream content. Internal still works fine. I did not change anything on the server, so I'm puzzled as to what is going on. If I start a stream externally, it takes over 30 seconds of spinning before the video plays, then 5 seconds in, it stops. i attached logs, including a portion that mentions a cert error (which I have never seen and did not make any recent changes to my cert).

 

Some background, I'm using a Sophos XG reverse proxy in front of the Emby server. In troubleshooting, I have fully disabled the reverse proxy and went direct to server, and the same issues occur. To me, this rules out the reverse proxy being the culprit. 

 

Please let me know if I need to provide any more information. My users are getting upset!

 

Thank you.

 

server_log.txt

transcode_log.txt

[Happy2Play 9782]

Does this still happen if you disable transcode throttling?

[Luke 42081]

Hi, have you tried asking your user to lower their in-app qulaity setting? In the example you posted here, they're using about 7.2 mbps. Perhaps that is just too high for the network connection? Have them try lowering it to say 1.5 mbps, and then they can always increase from there.

 

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks.

[saltedhash 4]

Yes it still happens when I disable transcode throttling. Just tested it.

 

Luke, I tried a 720p @ 1mbps stream and it was still choppy, but did play somewhat. I don't think it's necessarily feasible to tell people to lower their quality that low. Plus, for over a year I could easily handle 3 1080p streams when they are set at Auto, instant play, no stops, etc. My upload speeds are around 10mbps, so it should at least be able to handle a single stream with no problems like it did before this week.

[Luke 42081]

Hi, perhaps something on their end has changed, such as ISP throttling?

[William LeDuc @gmail 2]

Have you done an internet speed test to see what your upload speed is? There could be a number of factors effecting internet performance. Based on your test at 720p it would seem to indicate an internet bandwidth problem. 

[saltedhash 4]

Hi all,

 

Sorry been out for a bit. 

 

So I ended up upgrading my internet to 400 down/20 up. This seems to have helped a bit and I do truly get 400/20 in speedtests.

 

What's weird now is if I start a stream with Auto quality, it always picks the lowest possible value (usually 480p - 420kbps or 480p - 720kbps). This happens 100% of the time and isn't friendly for users that may not be savvy enough to understand how to select a higher quality.

 

I check the server and see no other bandwidth usage and no other devices in my LAN are doing anything bandwidth intensive for this to happen. If I manually set a higher quality such as 720p - 10 mbps it runs perfectly fine, not choppy at all.

 

I have a per stream limit of 10mbps so I'd imagine this, setting to Auto and having 20mbps available for upload it should work fine. 

 

Any ideas on what to do? Just for testing I spun up Plex and it negotiates a much better quality every time, so this and all other network device testing considered, it feels like this is limited to Emby and it's configuration somehow.

[Luke 42081]

Hi there, can we please look at an example? Thanks.

[saltedhash 4]

Attached is the transcode log.

 

I let it play for 1 minute then stopped it. Hopefully this should be enough.

 

This is for any external user only. Internally this doesnt happen.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Also attached is the server log

server-log.txt

transcode-log.txt

Edited July 28, 2019 by saltedhash

[Luke 42081]

Can you try raising the video quality just slightly, maybe picking the next option up? Please see if that helps. Thanks.

[Luke 42081]

I notice you also customized the transcoding crf. Whenever you're having a problem i would suggest setting those kinds of things back to default.

[saltedhash 4]

Hi Luke,

 

When you say raise the video quality do you mean the H264 encoding preset? I had that pretty high so I lowered it to "Fast". I also changed the CRF back to default, 23. 

 

Same thing happens for external streams. Auto quality on the client player still plays at 144p. I can manually change it to 720p - 10 mbps and it plays fine. I just cant figure out why Auto doesn't work well. 

[Luke 42081]

 

 

 I had that pretty high so I lowered it to "Fast"

I would set this back to default, which is Auto.

 

I guess for some reason the mobile web app thinks your bandwidth is very low. Have you tried the mobile android app to compare?

[saltedhash 4]

I would set this back to default, which is Auto.

 

I guess for some reason the mobile web app thinks your bandwidth is very low. Have you tried the mobile android app to compare?

 

Set it back to Auto as well.

 

Good call on the mobile android app. That got around 6mbps. Much better, but still not everything that was available for upload speeds.

 

I cleared my Chrome cache and restarted my phone but still is the same using Chrome. This did happen on some Roku streams so I don't think its isolated to Chrome on android. Unfortunately I don't have Roku so I'd have to ask a friend to try a stream to get some logs of that.

 

I'm still stumped. 

[Luke 42081]

I think Chrome 76 is landing tomorrow or in the coming days after. You could re-evaluate with that once you have that.

[ebr 16185]

Due to the way we determine the auto bitrate, your server being heavily loaded at the time of the test could cause a reading lower than your pure network availability.  Perhaps that was the case...

[Luke 42081]

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[saltedhash 4]

Looks like Chrome 76 isn't out for mobile yet. I'll re-evaluate once that comes along.

 

I made sure my network and server weren't being taxed during my testing. CPU was under 5% and under 200kbps on the NICs. I also made sure my firewall/proxy wasn't being taxed.

 

Just tested again and same results