Choppy playback and 100% CPU usage

[wakeboarder141 40]

Attempting to playback a TV show on Emby is acting very choppy, starting and stopping, and using 100% CPU on the Synology NAS where the content is stored.  I am on my home network with the NAS playing from a Windows 10 PC.  I will attach what I hope are the correct log files. 

embyserver.txt

ffmpeg-transcode-9ed565c3-a73a-4639-b63b-fdb5f9bc3c71_1.txt

[rechigo 364]

Your video appears to be transcoding because the browser (firefox) does not support the video you're trying to play back. Your NAS CPU is likely not sufficient enough to transcode your file on the fly which is why the playback is choppy. You should try using Emby Theater as opposed to firefox as it can play a wider range of video formats.

Sent from my Galaxy S10

Edited April 22, 2020 by rechigo

[wakeboarder141 40]

I have never had this issue with a TV show before.  The odd thing is it seems to resolve itself as the episode plays.  It starts out super choppy, but will be playable by a few minutes in.  Also, this NAS says it should transcode 4K so that is disappointing that it can't even handle 1080p.  I don't have Emby Premier so I can't currently use Emby Theater.

Edited April 22, 2020 by wakeboarder141

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Just glanced, but your filename says it's VC1 and DTS-HD.  Neither works in a browser and VC1 is difficult to transcode, requiring a lot of CPU.  Use a more capable client, more capable server, or convert your media to formats your existing clients support.

 

edit-filename didn't lie.  Who the heck remuxes to VC1?!?  In any case, not a good file for browser playback.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Deathsquirrel

[Luke 42083]

Correct, vc1 is much more resource-intensive to transcode. If your file was h264 it would perform much better.

[wakeboarder141 40]

It sounds like I just need to use another program to play these files.  Thank you for the explanation.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

It sounds like I just need to use another program to play these files.  Thank you for the explanation.

If you have a remotely new CPU or GPU you can easily transcode your VC1 content yourself with handbrake using hardware encoding. I've started running mine through on h264 nvenc encoding at the exact same bitrate just to eliminate this possibility.  I've got about 200 blu-rays using that stupid encoding and a handful that are, for some insane reason, 1080i.  Everything else I just rip as-is but those are worth re-encoding IMO.

[wakeboarder141 40]

If you have a remotely new CPU or GPU you can easily transcode your VC1 content yourself with handbrake using hardware encoding. I've started running mine through on h264 nvenc encoding at the exact same bitrate just to eliminate this possibility.  I've got about 200 blu-rays using that stupid encoding and a handful that are, for some insane reason, 1080i.  Everything else I just rip as-is but those are worth re-encoding IMO.

Just transcode it all ahead of time on my PC and then save it that way on the NAS?  I have an i9 9900k and a 2080 ti so I would think they qualify as "remotely new"

[Luke 42083]

It sounds like I just need to use another program to play these files.  Thank you for the explanation.

 

There's no program that can play VC1 in a web browser without transcoding. If you play with Emby Theater, Emby for iOS or Android, they can play the VC1 without transcoding and it will perform better.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Just transcode it all ahead of time on my PC and then save it that way on the NAS?  I have an i9 9900k and a 2080 ti so I would think they qualify as "remotely new"

Sure, it's a good option for VC1 files because support for that format is pretty limited.  Even though my main playback devices support VC1 and my server is capable of transcoding it, I prefer not to have it as an obstacle.

[Luke 42083]

@@wakeboarder141 has this helped?

[wakeboarder141 40]

@@wakeboarder141 has this helped?

Yep, converting them with HandBrake worked great.  Now, I am down to 20% CPU usage instead of 90-100%.  Thanks!