Issue: Android TV app cannot fast forward/rewind for certain videos

[tutivog 1]

Hello All:

I've been trying to set up my newly acquired TV to play videos stored on my Emby server running on a Synology NAS. I installed the Emby for Android TV app on my TV and played several movies (all in 1080p HEVC). It's a weird issue that while all videos played fine (smooth decoding with no lags or latencies) several videos only allowed me to play straight from the beginning where I can neither fast forward nor rewind. If I ever try to fast forward in those videos, the app will start play the movie right from the beginning, regardless of what was the original playing position. For example, I could watch, without experiencing any playback issues if I do not attempt any fast forward, to 0:31:00 of the movie, and if I fast forward then, emby will replay the movie from the beginning.

Since I also have other emby apps on other ends, I tried playing the same movie with such issue on both Emby Web with Chrome, and Emby Theatre for Windows, no such issue was experienced on these two ends. And I can fast forward to any point in the video without any issue.

I have read other posts with a similar issue, and people suggest it was a issue with the file or the encoding of the file. However, in my case, the same file experienced no problem except being played through Emby for Android TV app. I have submitted a log electronically within the app:

Log submitted around 11:40 pm ET on 21/09/2020, name of Embyserver was "N1Box"

[CBers 7450]

@tutivog The chances are it's the file itself.

Try opening in mkvtoolnix, or similar, and re-save. 

[Luke 42077]

Actually before you do that, what device is the app installed on?

[tutivog 1]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Actually before you do that, what device is the app installed on?

Sony TV 9000H 55inch

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Can you try refreshing metadata on the problem item?

[tutivog 1]

10 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Can you try refreshing metadata on the problem item?

Thanks for advice, but it the issue persists.

 

16 hours ago, CBers said:

@tutivog The chances are it's the file itself.

Try opening in mkvtoolnix, or similar, and re-save. 

OK, so I tried using mkvtoolnix and it worked, the newly-saved file can be played in Emby on Android TV and fast forwarded without any problem. I know that I might be asking too much, but it still seems that the original file could be played on other platform, for example, on Kodi, without any problem + able to fast forward. For certain reasons, I MUST keep the original files. If I was to create new files just to be played on Emby, it will take me for another 2TB on my NAS which is too much.

Is it possible that something be fixed on the client-side so that Emby for Android TV no longer experience fast forwarding problem with certain files?

 

[CBers 7450]

6 hours ago, tutivog said:

For certain reasons, I MUST keep the original files. If I was to create new files just to be played on Emby, it will take me for another 2TB on my NAS which is too much.

Surely once you've saved the file via mkvtoolnix, it is the original? You would only need enough space for the temporary processing.

[FrostByte 5392]

I think he has another app which checksums the files to make sure they are the actual original

[tutivog 1]

1 hour ago, CBers said:

Surely once you've saved the file via mkvtoolnix, it is the original? You would only need enough space for the temporary processing.

By keeping the original, I mean the hash of the file must remain the same. That means I cannot use any program modify the file, even with the mkvtoolnix.

[CBers 7450]

8 minutes ago, tutivog said:

By keeping the original, I mean the hash of the file must remain the same. That means I cannot use any program modify the file, even with the mkvtoolnix.

Why, what are you using that for ?

 

[Luke 42077]

Are you able to sideload apps? You could try this on the same device:

And see how it compares.

[FrostByte 5392]

I've got a similar issue with an episode of a show I'm watching which I can't resume, skip, ff, rwd, jump chapters, etc in ATV.  However, if I use Emby Theater for Android on my Shield it works.  Use mkvtoolnix to remux and the file works in ATV just fine.

 

[FrostByte 5392]

I sent logs from ATV at 1342 EDT user Rick.  

Clicked resume on an episode of Strike which should have resumed at about 20:52, but instead it started at the beginning.  Same thing happens if I skip, choose a chapter, etc it just restarts the episode at the beginning.

Remuxing episode fixes the problem

However, if I switch over to ET on the Shield I can resume, skip, rewind, and start from a particular chapter, etc with no issues using original file

[Carlo 4560]

Did some testing with some STRM files that other clients play fine and these to cause a problem in ATV.

Besides not being able to FF/RW the timeline does not advance when playing either (all other apps fine).

Something different in stream playing in ATV.

[FrostByte 5392]

Not sure if this helps, but I can use VLC as an external player within ATV and the same mkv file will resume, skip, etc correctly.  As soon as I go back to using ATV internal exoplayer it just restarts the episode at the beginning again.

[Luke 42077]

If Emby for Android can handle it then that's a good sign. That means the TV app will ultimately get the same improvement.

[FrostByte 5392]

13 minutes ago, Luke said:

If Emby for Android can handle it then that's a good sign. That means the TV app will ultimately get the same improvement.

yep, sounds good

[Carlo 4560]

14 minutes ago, Luke said:

If Emby for Android can handle it then that's a good sign. That means the TV app will ultimately get the same improvement.

It does for me!

[ebr 16169]

4 hours ago, FrostByte said:

However, if I switch over to ET on the Shield

You mean the test version of the Android Mobile app that is also using Exo?

[Luke 42077]

Yes.

[FrostByte 5392]

49 minutes ago, ebr said:

You mean the test version of the Android Mobile app that is also using Exo?

Correct, I guess it says Mobile app in the settings -- it just looks like ET on Samsung