AFTV does not play particular movie file

[ieblj01 3]

I am running into an interesting issue.  Emby client on AFTV  (and Emby Theater on Windows 10) will not play a particular mkv movie file.  I have several AFTVs and the symptom is the same.  The movie appears to queue up fine, but just sits at 0.00 seconds and never actually starts to play.

 

This file plays fine on the Emby Android app (Galaxy S9+) as well as directly off the emby server front end. It also plays fine using VLC, Avidemux, and (shudder) Plex app on AFTV.  I see nothing in the sever logs and have included the lines relevant to this particular mkv file below:

Info App: User policy for <user>. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
Info App: Profile: VideoAudioCodecProfile, DirectPlay=false. Reason=Android-Exo.AudioChannels Condition: LessThanEqual. ConditionValue: 2. IsRequired: False. Path: /mnt/Movies/Everest (2015).mkv
Info App: Profile: VideoAudioCodecProfile, DirectPlay=false. Reason=Android-Exo.AudioChannels Condition: LessThanEqual. ConditionValue: 2. IsRequired: False. Path: /mnt/Movies/Everest (2015).mkv
Info App: Profile: VideoAudioCodecProfile, DirectPlay=false. Reason=Android-Exo.AudioChannels Condition: LessThanEqual. ConditionValue: 2. IsRequired: False. Path: /mnt/Movies/Everest (2015).mkv
Info SessionManager: Playback start reported by app AndroidTv 1.7.53a playing Everest. Started at 0 ms

When I stop trying to play it:

Info SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app AndroidTv 1.7.53a playing Everest. Stopped at 0 ms

All other mkv files play just fine and the log file for those movies looks exactly like the above, expect the 'Stopped at X ms' is not 0 obviously because it actually starts to play.

 

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Edited December 18, 2019 by ebr
Formatting

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  You said this same thing happens with Theater?

 

Can you please play this item for a few seconds and then send a log from the app and also attach (not paste) the entire server log file here?

 

Thanks.

[ieblj01 3]

Sorry for the delay.  Work got in the way of playtime

 

Full server log from today attached (first 3 octets of IP addresses are replaced with <IP>)

 

Emby user is Kodi

The log from AFTV was sent just after 2PM Eastern

Selected the movie Everest (file name Everest (2015).mkv), movie queued up, screen goes black as if the movie is about to start...then nothing.  Let the movie 'play' for several seconds, then backed out to home screen.

 

Let me know if you need anything else.

 

Thanks!

EmbyPlayBackEverest.pdf

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Your log was almost entirely the following message (100s of them):

E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument

You said this item also won't play in Theater?

 

If you use the Playback Correction option during playback in the Fire TV app, does it start playing?

[ieblj01 3]

Hi.  Your log was almost entirely the following message (100s of them):

E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument
E/ffmpeg_jni(16642): Error in avresample_open: Invalid argument

You said this item also won't play in Theater?

 

If you use the Playback Correction option during playback in the Fire TV app, does it start playing?

 

Yes it does!  Any ideas why that is required on the AFTV and not the other apps?

Edited December 19, 2019 by ieblj01

[ebr 16169]

Yes it does!  Any ideas why that is required on the AFTV and not the other apps?

 

The other apps may already be transcoding it.

 

The bottom line is there is something fishy in this encode.  Most likely in an audio track.

[ieblj01 3]

The other apps may already be transcoding it.

 

The bottom line is there is something fishy in this encode.  Most likely in an audio track.

Sounds good.  I may try and recopy it and see if that doesn't clear it up.  Appreciate the insight.

[Luke 42077]

Can you provide a copy of the media info from the bottom of the web app detail screen? Thanks.

[ieblj01 3]

Can you provide a copy of the media info from the bottom of the web app detail screen? Thanks.

Here you go!

[Luke 42077]

What model fire TV is this? Does it support h264 level 50?

[ieblj01 3]

I have a mix of first gen and second gen AFTVs and it will not play on either model.  I am looking through my movie files now and seeing if I have anything others that are h264 L50.  So far they are L40 or 41.  I will let you know if I find another L50 file.

[Dizzy49 99]

I am having a very similar issue.  Playing on the Fire Cube.  It looks like it will load, I get the spinny thing for a second, it goes away and I get a black screen.  We have let it set for a good 30 seconds with no results.  We tried it multiple times, and it wasn't until I force it to transcode did it work.  First we had issues where things that should be transcoded aren't, and now things that shouldn't need to be transcoded have to be... What is going on lately?  I have attached the media info and log (issue starts around 21:20 with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation).

 

Here is my media info:

 

 

 

embyserver-63712569602.txt

[Luke 42077]

and now things that shouldn't need to be transcoded have to be... What is going on lately?  

 

Here is my media info:

Screenshot_1.png

 

@@Dizzy49, firstly, in the interests of self-service, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Can you please confirm if this is the case?

 

 You said this same thing happens with Theater?

[ieblj01 3]

Hi.  Can you please confirm if this is the case?

Yes, that is correct.  It never plays when trying to watch it using Theater on Windows 10.

[Luke 42077]

That's interesting because theater will generally handle everything. Have you run a hard disk check to scan for a possible drive failure? The file could be corrupt.

[ieblj01 3]

That's interesting because theater will generally handle everything. Have you run a hard disk check to scan for a possible drive failure? The file could be corrupt.

Hard disk checks out fine.  I just re-encoded it via Avidemux to L41 and replaced the original file and it still fails to play on AFTV or Theater, but plays fine with the other apps just like before.  And I can point another app, i.e. VLC directly to the file on the NAS and it plays fine.

Edited December 22, 2019 by ieblj01

[ieblj01 3]

I just re-encoded the file again as mpeg....and AFTV plays it, but Theater still chokes on it for whatever reason.  Having it work on AFTV was my goal, so I am going to call it done

[Dizzy49 99]

@@Dizzy49, firstly, in the interests of self-service, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

 

It was a while back.  The ATV wasn't playing 4k videos.  The only way it would play was to force it to transcode.  The ATV should be able to play 4k content, so I don't understand why it needed to be transcoded.

 

It's playing across my local network.  My network is Cat6 with a 10G switch.  Traffic from the server to any of the players is prioritized.  Nothing else was playing on the server.  Nothing was downloading, etc.  Server was otherwise idle.

My wife says she has noticed many videos have the audio off.  Some start out OK and are off by 1/2 second or so, I watched one that was off when it started and got worse.  It was 3 seconds behind at the end.

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for the feedback.

[Dizzy49 99]

I am able to direct play everything to my Windows 10 machine via Theater.

I will get some logs in the next week or so for the audio sync issue, and try the 4k again.

Any idea why Christmas Vacation wouldn't play?

[Luke 42077]

I would try playing it again and then check the stats feature inside the video player.