Playback issue

[tuvx 14]

Using a Fire Stick 4K to play a 4K movie on a 1080p TV. The first movie started stuttering (pausing then playing every other second), I tried multiple times to stop then replay without success. Finally it started to play (before the dashboard stated the movie was being transcoded and could not keep up; then finally stated Direct Streaming), but after about 5 minutes, it stopped the spinning wheel came up then did the stuttering again. Tried another movie (also 4K), and it played fine for about 14 minutes, then same issue. I attached the logs.

 

Any ideas if this is a server hardware issue, Fire stick issue, or media file issue?

[tuvx 14]

Logs.zip

[Luke 42077]

Hi, if it was transcoding it's possible your server just couldn't keep  up with it.

[tuvx 14]

I'm running an i7-4770K; what would you recommend instead to transcode a 4K? Also, why does it sometimes transcode and others Direct Streaming for the same device and switch while playing?

[Sammy 790]

A better GPU should do the trick.

 

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

[ebr 16169]

Hi, if it was transcoding it's possible your server just couldn't keep  up with it.

 

Yes, that is the answer for the transcodes.  Only 11 frames per second:

21:23:12.885 frame=  163 fps= 11 q=28.0 size=    4797kB time=00:17:04.10 bitrate=  38.4kbits/s throttle=off speed=67.2x    
21:23:13.511 frame=  170 fps= 11 q=28.0 size=    5036kB time=00:17:04.48 bitrate=  40.3kbits/s throttle=off speed=64.8x    
21:23:14.127 frame=  177 fps= 11 q=28.0 size=    5264kB time=00:17:04.76 bitrate=  42.1kbits/s throttle=off speed=62.8x    
21:23:14.521 frame=  182 fps= 11 q=28.0 size=    5430kB time=00:17:04.91 bitrate=  43.4kbits/s throttle=off speed=60.9x    
21:23:15.002 frame=  188 fps= 11 q=28.0 size=    5624kB time=00:17:05.21 bitrate=  44.9kbits/s throttle=off speed=  59x    

Also, why does it sometimes transcode and others Direct Streaming for the same device and switch while playing?

 

That is actually a very complex question to answer .  Please see Why is my media transcoding and let us know if it helps.

[CTPAHHIK 1]

Using a Fire Stick 4K to play a 4K movie on a 1080p TV. The first movie started stuttering (pausing then playing every other second), I tried multiple times to stop then replay without success. Finally it started to play (before the dashboard stated the movie was being transcoded and could not keep up; then finally stated Direct Streaming), but after about 5 minutes, it stopped the spinning wheel came up then did the stuttering again. Tried another movie (also 4K), and it played fine for about 14 minutes, then same issue. I attached the logs.

 

Any ideas if this is a server hardware issue, Fire stick issue, or media file issue?

 

Fire Stick 4K is able to play any 4K video stream. There should not be any video transcoding.

If you are using Emby app for Fire TV this would be the culprit. Video + audio + subtitles support in Emby Client is very rudimentary.

Switch to Kodi with Emby for Kodi Sync Add-On (not EmbyCon).

[ebr 16169]

If you are using Emby app for Fire TV this would be the culprit. Video + audio + subtitles support in Emby Client is very rudimentary.

 

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true.  The app supports a wide range of video/audio and subtitles.

[CTPAHHIK 1]

I'm sorry but that simply isn't true.  The app supports a wide range of video/audio and subtitles.

Correct, all legacy formats are covered. New formats seem to be an issue.

You do have excellent feature of choosing an external video player.

 

Fire TV, Android and iOS Emby Clients have problems.

Fire TV -> Kodi

Android -> MX Player Pro

iOS -> still looking

 

Server/client side communications are excellent.

Media scrappers are amazing.

Playback needs improvement.

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Exactly what formats are you having trouble with?

[tuvx 14]

I read through some of the topics regrading hardware recommendations, but have not seem to get a definitive answer.

 

Would a multi-core processor help (e.g. like the AMD Ryzen 3900X)?

Does a high end graphics card help (e.g. like an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super)?

Is there benefit to upgrading both the processor and GPU or is only one used for transcoding?

[Sammy 790]

I just built a Ryzen 3700x with GTX 1060 6Gb. It is smooth as silk. That said, my previous I5 4690k Devil's Canyon with that same GTX 1060 had no issues except for running MCEBuddy to convert recordings from MPEG2/ts to HEVC/mkv which is taxing. Adding just a GPU to your i7 will probably get you there so start with that then see how it goes.

[tuvx 14]

My main PC is about 8 years old now and I was going to be replacing anyway. My thought was to just do a shift and use my current Emby server as my main PC now, and build a new one for Emby. I guess my main question is if having both a high-end graphics card coupled with multi-core processor would be beneficial. I know nothing of how transcoding works, and am confused if you have to choose to only use the GPU or CPU, or if both are used together as needed. This build would only be used for Emby, and while I will invest the money necessary, don't want to waste money on an unnecessary component.

[Sammy 790]

Emby will use the GPU until it reaches capacity and then will fail back to the CPU in Software. Quite ingenious. The consumer grade / lower end nVidia cards can have their drivers hacked to allow more simultaneous streams as they are limited to only 2 but a capable of doing more..

 

Here's some links to get you started but there's more in the Hardware Subforum.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/80307-high-end-cpu-vs-low-end-cpu-gpu/

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/75437-hardware-transcode-sessions-limit-on-gpu-fail-back-to-cpu-in-emby/

[tuvx 14]

Thank you, I had seen the first thread before but not the second, which provided exactly the information I needed.

[CTPAHHIK 1]

I've tried Ryzen 1700 with GTX 250 (10 year old) and was able to transcode 2x 4K HEVC ABR BT.2020 into 1080p AVC CRF=22 streams. There was still room to spare, even three streams might have worked.

 

I was unable to get AMD RX 580 to work. Nvidia 1070 had no problem with two streams either. Didn't try more.

 

Think about what would you like to achieve and you might get away with only CPU upgrade. RTX 2080 is nowhere near Ryzen 2700 price.

[tuvx 14]

So I was finally able to upgrade my server, and still have an issue. I watched the transcoding which completed in about 5 minutes, but then the media would pause (spinning circle) then start again. When I looked at the transcoding, it had restarted(?) and was not moving along more than a few seconds ahead of playback. These issues continued for about 5 minutes before the media just stopped with the message "Too many errors". There are a few logs, so just zipped them as I do not know which are relevant.

 

Round 2.zip

[ebr 16169]

If you can send an app log right after this happens we can learn more but that progression of events would indicate something wrong in the file itself as the app encounters an error and re-tries with a different playback method until it finally runs out of playback methods.

 

An app log should show us what the error is.

 

Thanks.

[tuvx 14]

Very reproducible (every time), so here is the log immediately after the first stop (and re-transcode).

embyserver.txt

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  You need to send the log from the app.

 

Thanks.

[tuvx 14]

I sent the log.

It had issues twice, and the third time the quality was bad (washed out colors), although it continued to play.

[Luke 42077]

When you send a log there are more instructions besides just saying "i sent the log". These are all listed at the bottom of the link Ebr provided. Can you please do those? Thanks !

[tuvx 14]

Time (same as post): ~1:36pm

User (only one): tuvx

[ebr 16169]

Can you please tell me exactly what happened in that session?

 

All I saw was what looked like playback for a while and then you backing out of it.  I did not see all the error fallbacks indicated by your previous logs.

[tuvx 14]

Weird. It resumed playing for about 3-5minutes, stopped (paused) with a spinning circle, then resumed; repeated that a second time giving washed out colors. I was watching the dashboard via another device and again could see the transcoding proceeding nicely (initially), then reset at one of those blips to never properly recover. I'm away now, but will do all over again and resend the log later.