Playback Error (No Compatible Streams) on collections only

[jeepnheel 7]

I just set up a new Emby install with a single small TV library (50 shows), which appears to be working great outside of this issue.  I've set up test collections with only 2 shows in them, and am getting a playback error:

• If I try to Play-All or Shuffle on a collection itself, I get a "No compatible streams are currently available" playback error.  However, if I then try to do the same on any show individually within that same collection, everything works perfectly.  I've tried restarting the server, recreating the collection with completely different shows, and saved a log after the last failed attempt (attached).

 

After some searching, I see older threads from back in 2018 on the linux board with what looks like exactly the same issue I'm having, but the fix there was a new (old) version addressing it:  https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/64931-collections-playback-error-no-compatible-streams/

Does this sound like something I may have set up incorrectly on my install?  I've checked all the setting for the server/library/collection and don't see anything that stands out.  Thanks to anyone that can help shed some light on what might be happening...

Collection_PlayAll_NoCompStreams.txt

[Carlo 4561]

What client are you using?

[jeepnheel 7]

Sorry, should have mentioned -- it's happening on both web/Win10 (server pc itself) and on Android (no message there, just shows spin animation & hangs indefinitely).  Both installs were just set up today, and I've verified they are the most current -- thanks for the help

[Carlo 4561]

57 minutes ago, jeepnheel said:

• If I try to Play-All or Shuffle on a collection itself, I get a "No compatible streams are currently available" playback error.  However, if I then try to do the same on any show individually within that same collection, everything works perfectly.  I've tried restarting the server, recreating the collection with completely different shows, and saved a log after the last failed attempt (attached).

I've just tried this on a few clients and things work correctly for me.  I'm running version 4.5.0.15 beta for reference.

A question for you.  How do you do a play all or shuffle play on a show individually?  Or did you just mean you can play any show in the collection by itself just fine?

Any chance you should share a picture of one of you collections for added info?

[jeepnheel 7]

Absolutely -- thanks again for the help.  I've attached:

• pictures with red highlight around the buttons that cause the error -- Play-All, Shuffle, or the Play button on the collection itself, whether I have the collection open to view its' members, or when trying on the "Collections" media category page.
• pictures with green highlight around the buttons that work fine -- basically the same Play-All/Shuffle/Play buttons within both individual shows themselves, or on the entire library where both shows reside.

I'm running 4.4.3.0 on the Win10 server, and 3.1.23 on Android (both installed today).  The behavior (what works & doesn't) is the same on both clients.  It also doesn't seem to matter which shows are in a collection -- all have the same issue.  Are there any other pics/caps that might help confirm what might be causing the issue?

[Carlo 4561]

Since you have this problem with the Nintendo Collection and it's only 2 movies, could you post pictures of the metadata for those two movies?

That info is at the bottom of each movie's detail screen.

Thanks you.

[jeepnheel 7]

Both members of the pictured sample collection are actually TV shows, and not movies (I hadn't added any libraries with movie content yet).  To clarify, this issue happens when any collection I make has any TV show(s) in it -- not just the two in the pictures.  To follow up with your question and post movie metadata, I added a movie-type library to Emby, and got a potentially interesting result:

• If a collection I make has 1 or more movies in it, the Play-All & Shuffle buttons on the collection don't error out anymore, but will ONLY play the movie members of the collection and ignore/skip all TV shows.
• If a collection only has TV show members, the error still appears exactly as described above and nothing plays at all.

Is there something that prevents TV-show content from being play-all'ed or shuffled in collections?  Thanks, and let me know if it would help to show any metadata for a TV-show (any/all of the 50 results in the same error)...

[Carlo 4561]

From you main menu, not from within TV Shows or Movies. Enter the collections library and try from here.

Does it work as expected entering collections here or do you get the same issue?

[jeepnheel 7]

I do get the same error when opening Emby from scratch, then selecting "Collections" from the top-menu directly in the home page (and not going through any library) -- pic attached to clarify. 

Also, to simplify my test, I set up a library with a single TV show, containing only one episode.  I then added that TV show to a collection.  In all ways that I tested accessing that collection (main menu or through the library), I get the same error when trying to Play-All or Shuffle the collection.  However, both of those functions seem to work perfectly when I try them on the Library or within the TV show.

Is there something unique to how TV shows are handled by collections (movies are working fine) that could be causing a case where no video files are seen in queue?

 

[Happy2Play 9782]

What are you adding to a collection, a show/series or a episode?

I added a show and a movie to a collection and only the movie plays when I select Play All or Shuffle.  No errors in my test.

I added a episode and a movie to a collection and they both played, shuffle/play all.

But I am guessing there may be some logic issues playing a Series from within a collection.

4.5.0.15

[jeepnheel 7]

Hrm, good question!  In the collections I've tried so far, I've only added entire series.  I just checked, and if I only add an episode itself to a collection, the play-all & shuffle do work (just for that episode).

My testing lines up exactly with what you are describing -- movies and individual episodes play when in a collection using the Play-All/Shuffle, but Series are ignored/skipped.  I only see the "No compatible streams" error if the only members of a collection are Series.

Your guess definitely sounds correct to me given the behavior within Collections, and I wonder what allows it to work fine when done in the Library...

Unfortunately, shuffling within sub-sets/small-collections of TV series is exactly why I'm hoping to switch from Plex to Emby.  My main goal is to have groups of TV series that I can shuffle, but that will only play the "next up" so I am still watching that show's episodes in the proper order (not shuffling the chronological order of the series itself).  The behavior/effect works exactly like I'd hoped when I try it on the whole library, so if Collections can be fixed it would fit my case perfectly.

[jeepnheel 7]

To add to my test above, I just did the following steps and got what appears to be the same error (no popup message, but results in unresponsive/hung spinning wheel):

1. Go to library with only TV shows/series in it (Play-All & Shuffle still work at this level)
2. Click "Genres" from menu at the top, then click into one of the genres so its' TV series members are shown
3. The Play-All & Shuffle buttons at the top (while genre members are listed below) now only result in infinite spinning wheel/hang

Does that line up with your experience as well?

Edited July 28, 2020 by jeepnheel

[Happy2Play 9782]

15 hours ago, jeepnheel said:

To add to my test above, I just did the following steps and got what appears to be the same error (no popup message, but results in unresponsive/hung spinning wheel):

1. Go to library with only TV shows/series in it (Play-All & Shuffle still work at this level)
2. Click "Genres" from menu at the top, then click into one of the genres so its' TV series members are shown
3. The Play-All & Shuffle buttons at the top (while genre members are listed below) now only result in infinite spinning wheel/hang

Does that line up with your experience as well?

No if I go to TV-Genre and select a genre, then select play all/shuffle my items begin to play.

Are there errors in the server log when you do this action?

[Carlo 4561]

I just tried to reproduce this following these steps and I have no problems either as it works correctly for me.

[Luke 42080]

When a collection contains items that are folders, yes this is a known issue right now.

When a collection only contains media items, e.g. movies, then there will not be a problem.

[MClark 0]

Thanks very much for the follow-ups and sorry for the long delay on my part.  I figured I'd finish scrubbing the last items in my library through filebot and start again with a completely fresh Emby install to purify my tests.  I got interesting results (to me, anyway) at the bottom:

Library:
Only TV episodes (no movies), and EVERY SINGLE file in it processed through filebot using the official TVDB show & episode names.  All NFO files were deleted before my reinstall, and were rebuilt from scratch.  All files are mp4s or mkvs and play perfectly/instantly in Emby.  The only other items in my TV series folders are pics that were created by Emby, and "theme.mp3" files created by TV Show Themes plugin.
ex:  Taxi (1978)\Season 02\Taxi (1978) S02E03 Reverend Jim A Space Odyssey.mp4

Server/App:
Uninstalled & cleared all files in Emby server & log folders, then reinstalled 4.3.3.0 from a fresh download yesterday.  All shows & episodes matched correctly during initial scan, then I put a few in test collections.  I'm mainly using the Web app on the same Win10 pc running Emby server, but also tried Android phone app with same result.

A. Random/Play-All buttons at top do NOT work for TV Series items when:
- Opening & displaying a "Collection" (whether accessed through main menu or otherwise)
    - Any movies or TV episodes added individually to a collection will play after skipping any series items.  If no movies/episodes, then infinite loop for random or error message for play-all.
- Using "Genres" header link in top of TV library, then selecting one to display its members
- Using "Networks" header link in top of TV library, then selecting one to display its members

B. Random/Play-All buttons at top DO work for TV Series items, and play ANY unwatched episode of a show (OK for sitcoms/shows where episode order doesn't matter, but terrible for anything with a storyline):
- Using "Folders" header link in top of TV library, then selecting one to display its members
- Using "Episodes" header link in top of TV library (definitely see why true random would be desirable here)

C. Random/Play-All buttons at top DO work for TV Series items, and play the NEXT unwatched episode of a random show (exactly the behavior I'm personally wanting from them):
- Staying on default "Shows" header link in TV library, displaying all shows
- Staying on default "Shows" header link in TV library, then using "Filters" button to filter for anything (genres, studios, etc)

 

It seems odd to me that Genre & Studio/Network work perfectly through the filter button on the "Shows" header, but not when accessed by their own header links in a TV library and selected/opened that way.  As Collections also are accessed nearly the same way, I'm assuming that the issue could be the same affecting them?   

1.  Happy/cayars -- when the play-all/random buttons worked for you, did you use the method in scenario A above, or instead the filters under the "Shows" header?  Could you tell me the best way to check my log (I know how to view & export it) for an error to share after I try it unsuccessfully?

2.  Luke -- my TV series are all in show/season folders as described above, but those same files (and movies, which I also keep in individual movie-file-named folders) work when using filters.  Does that sound like the same issue you are describing, or something separate?

3.  If not just a "me" issue, and a complete fix isn't possible at this point, can "Collection" (or another free-form field to group Series items together) be added to the available filters in a TV library?  This would be a totally usable workaround for my own use case, as I'm desperately looking for a media server with the functionality described in the scenario C above.

Thanks again for the help & feedback -- I'm really liking Emby a lot so far outside of the one issue (unfortunately very important to me) here.

[Carlo 4561]

I'm not sure I actually understand exactly what you're doing in A above.

[MClark 0]

Probably better than me trying to poorly describe my clicks -- here's a few screencaps:

First pair is going through TV Library > Genres >  [open one] > Random/Play-all

Second pair is going through Collections > [open collection with only TV series in it] > Random/Play-All

[Happy2Play 9782]

29 minutes ago, MClark said:

First pair is going through TV Library > Genres >  [open one] > Random/Play-all

Mine start to play when selecting either buttom

29 minutes ago, MClark said:

Second pair is going through Collections > [open collection with only TV series in it] > Random/Play-All

But this one I get the error on play all and spinner on shuffle.  But would assume this falls under Luke's known issue as it is items that are folders.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Happy2Play

[Luke 42080]

When a collection is comprised of folders (series), this is currently a known issue. If media is added directly to the collection, then there won't be any problem.