Constant hangups and freezing on Nvidia Shield TV, Firestick 4k and windows 10 server

[rldev 1]

Hello,

I am trying to switch over from Plex to Emby. It hasn't gone well so far. The problem I'm having is that my Emby clients keep locking up during dvr recording playback. This occasionally happens on live tv as well. This is not an occasional thing. It happens many times while watching a recording. Fast forwarding(playback skip) also locks up as well. Sometimes taking 30 seconds to resume. When these problems arise, I can't access the emby server from a web browser, so it would seem the server is locking up. I didn't really experience much of these problems with Plex and Channels DVR. I prefer Emby and want to try and figure out the problem. Thanks for your help.

 

Server Windows 10 Home 64bit: up2date

Network: Gigabit hardwired to all devices.

Emby Server Version: 4.2.1.0

Firestick 4k: Up2date

Nvidia Shield TV: 8.0.1

HD Homerun Prime: Up2date 

 

Attached is the Log from the time of the last incident, approximately 9:04pm EST

Edited October 2, 2019 by rldev

[arrbee99 1815]

Think you forgot to attach said log...

[rldev 1]

It just said I attached it. Here you go.

embyserver.txt

ffmpeg-directstream-7ba07f90-3de3-4670-b4c4-0bc7c6839504_1.txt

ffmpeg-directstream-7313dc1e-b810-4916-a3b4-45e008cb398d_1.txt

ffmpeg-directstream-c8967252-2eee-4c22-bffd-ddb4438c03d4_1.txt

Edited October 2, 2019 by rldev

[Happy2Play 9780]

Are there corresponding ffmpeg logs also?

[rldev 1]

I just uploaded them.

[ebr 16184]

Looks like maybe this was actually at 9:06 according to your server time?

2019-10-01 21:06:05.505 Info HttpServer: HTTP POST http://192.168.7.68:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress. UserAgent: Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 9; SHIELD Android TV Build/PPR1.180610.011)
2019-10-01 21:06:05.506 Info HttpServer: HTTP Response 204 to 192.168.7.66. Time: 1ms. http://192.168.7.68:8096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Progress
2019-10-01 21:07:05.510 Info SessionManager: Session 75a8353a4460d9d963e5f69beab2693f has gone idle while playing
2019-10-01 21:07:05.510 Info SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app AndroidTv 1.7.52g playing Sink or Swim. Stopped at 1591086 ms

Progress reports are coming in right on time prior to this point and then it just stops.  Is it possible there is a network problem?

 

Can you follow the instructions to send a log from the app right after one of these "hang ups" occurs?

[rldev 1]

I will followup with a log from an app shortly. As I said though, emby server becomes unreachable when this happens(not the server itself, just the emby portion). Not sure what to say about the network as it is all wired gigabit and gigabit switches. I don't have any problems streaming 20GB 4k files.

[rldev 1]

Ok. I sent the log over from a firestick 4k.

 

Testing with a recording of 911

 

10:13am skip caused 30 sec freeze

10:18am  playback froze for 20 seconds

10:20am  playback froze for 24 seconds

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  What was the name of the Emby user that was logged in?

[ebr 16184]

I think I found your log but, if I did, it was sent at 10:55 but the last reported problem was at 10:20 so the log no longer contains any information from that far back.

 

Please stop playback right after one of these issues occurs and send the log then.

 

Thanks.

[rldev 1]

6:11pm same problem. Error log sent right after.

user: hmedia

[ebr 16184]

Okay, yes playing along fine and then the app can no longer get a response from your server:

HttpDataSource$HttpDataSourceException: Unable to connect to http://192.168.7.68:8096/emby/videos/85094...

And you say nothing can get a response from the server at this point either.  We can see from the server log that it isn't a case of the server getting bogged down doing something so it almost has to be something in some other process interfering with communications.

 

Do you have anything like a reverse-proxy or special firewall or other security software in play?

 

Also, when the server is not responding like this, what does CPU utilization look like on the server machine?

[rldev 1]

Okay, yes playing along fine and then the app can no longer get a response from your server:

HttpDataSource$HttpDataSourceException: Unable to connect to http://192.168.7.68:8096/emby/videos/85094...

And you say nothing can get a response from the server at this point either.  We can see from the server log that it isn't a case of the server getting bogged down doing something so it almost has to be something in some other process interfering with communications.

 

Do you have anything like a reverse-proxy or special firewall or other security software in play?

 

Also, when the server is not responding like this, what does CPU utilization look like on the server machine?

 

I didn't say the server itself was unresponsive when this happens. It's the emby server software that becomes unresponsive when this happens. When this type of stuff happens I try to access the server from a web browser and it is takes a while to respond. As for software and firewalls, nothing special. Windows 10 firewall and eero network(no eero secure running)

[ebr 16184]

Can you look at task manager to see if Emby Server (or anything) is ramping up CPU or disc access during this time that the server is not responding quickly?

 

Is it possible that there is some failing hardware somewhere (like a disc drive that Emby is using)?

 

There is absolutely nothing in the server log when this happens yet the server just stops responding so something somewhere is hanging it up.

 

Also, if you have any plug-ins at all that you installed, remove them and see if it makes a difference.

 

Thanks.

[rldev 1]

Can you look at task manager to see if Emby Server (or anything) is ramping up CPU or disc access during this time that the server is not responding quickly?

 

Is it possible that there is some failing hardware somewhere (like a disc drive that Emby is using)?

 

There is absolutely nothing in the server log when this happens yet the server just stops responding so something somewhere is hanging it up.

 

Also, if you have any plug-ins at all that you installed, remove them and see if it makes a difference.

 

Thanks.

 

I will check. It's not hard since everything freezes. I wonder if it will freeze with playback on the local machine.There are no drive errors though. I refreshed this pc a few weeks ago. Emby runs on an ssd and stores recordings to a raid array. (WD Red Drives) diagnostic software says they are good.

[rldev 1]

Ok. It is definitely on the server side of things. It is not the network. I played the same recording locally via chrome browser. 

 

Very High CPU usage, constantly hitting over 90%(core i3-4130 3.4Ghz)

Very High disk usage of c drive(ssd): up to 100%(No errors on drive)

Ram usage 50%(4GB)

 

Even sometimes doing things like opening a log file on the emby server causes the system to freeze. When playing the recording, chrome may freeze, the task manager may freeze, etc. 

The only emby plugin I have is Trakt.

Edited October 2, 2019 by rldev

[Happy2Play 9780]

In that test how was the media being played?  But with those numbers I would assume Transcoding.

[rldev 1]

Yes I was playing the same file throughout all these tests, I don't know how it was being played. I just hit the play button in emby. Why would emby have to transcode on the local server to play? and certainly one transcode should not be doing this. I'm able to transcode 2 streams no problem in Plex. However, I don't need to play a file to freeze emby and crash chrome. Sometimes just opening a log file will do it. There is something definitely borked with this emby install.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Without logs it is hard to say exactly.  When you play something it is about the player your are using and has nothing to do with locally on the server.  A web browser is limited on the codecs it supports (every device has different limitations).

 

 

Personally I don't like comparison as Emby does things Plex does not.

[rldev 1]

I just tried to click the settings icon in emby and at the bottom of them browser it said waiting for cache. I see ssd disk is at 100% in task manager.

Edited October 3, 2019 by rldev

[rldev 1]

Going back to my server admin roots, my guess is that it's a emby cache issue and it's flooding the OS drive(SSD). This in turn is causing I/O problems and spiking the cpu. 

How can I change cache location? Can I test cache on a 7200rpm drive? It certainly can't be worse then what it's doing now. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

[Happy2Play 9780]

Going back to my server admin roots, my guess is that it's a emby cache issue and it's flooding the OS drive(SSD). This in turn is causing I/O problems and spiking the cpu. 

How can I change cache location? Can I test cache on a 7200rpm drive? It certainly can't be worse then what it's doing now. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

 

You can change the cache location via Dashboard-Settings, in the Advanced section

 

Emby will automatically create a cache sub-folder in what ever path you apply.  This is do to too many people applying the same customized path for metadata, cache and transcoding temp.

[rldev 1]

I stand corrected. My cache was already setup for the slower raid drives. I will move it back to the ssd drive for testing purposes. If it improves, I will drop an ssd drive in just for cache.

 

I think this may also be a Windows 10 problem. 100% usage on ssds seem to be a problem for many. I will investigate and report back. Does anyone recommend installing emby on something other then Windows 10? I'm getting tired of the Win 10 headaches. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by rldev

[Luke 42078]

I stand corrected. My cache was already setup for the slower raid drives. I will move it back to the ssd drive for testing purposes. If it improves, I will drop an ssd drive in just for cache.

 

I think this may also be a Windows 10 problem. 100% usage on ssds seem to be a problem for many. I will investigate and report back. Does anyone recommend installing emby on something other then Windows 10? I'm getting tired of the Win 10 headaches. 

 

Yes there's lots of linux users here, although I would just use the OS that you feel most comfortable with.

[rldev 1]

Ok so I fixed the 100% the disk usage problem, but playing back any recording in emby on the local server via the emby web interface drives the cpu up to 100%. Strangely, it still works better. So how can I identify such cpu usage from Emby?