Nvidia Shield Server Constant Pausing While Watching Live TV

[samson1701 0]

Hello,

 I’m new to all of this so it’s very possible that it’s just a case of pilot error. With that said:

I have the server set up on my Nvidia Shield Pro. When watching live OTA TV, I get constant pausing. But, when I watch OTA on my Roku TV, it plays smooth as butter. But, has constant pausing on my iPad and iPhone.
 

I’m using an HDHomeRun Duo attached to my Nvidia Shield Pro. 

I’ve tried adjusting the playback bit rate.

Also, how do I enable OTA live TV subtitles on the Emby Roku app?

What am I doing wrong?
 

From the Nvidia Shield 

ffmpeg-transcode-3b3060dc-c55a-471e-b5f6-d792d11c4914_1.txt embyserver.txt

Edited December 11, 2020 by samson1701

[samson1701 0]

BTW, I’ve also tried enabling Direct Play, which does solve the problem. But, I can’t pause the playback when using it like that. I need to be able to pause what I’m watching and resume when I ready.

[ebr 16169]

5 hours ago, samson1701 said:

I’ve also tried enabling Direct Play, which does solve the problem.

That would suggest to me that there is an I/O bottleneck on the device as its being used as server, transcoder and playback device.  Where is your transcoding temp folder?

[samson1701 0]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

That would suggest to me that there is an I/O bottleneck on the device as its being used as server, transcoder and playback device.  Where is your transcoding temp folder?

The transcoding temporary path box on the Transcoding page is empty. I also took a screenshot of the paths section.

[Luke 42077]

Can you try this on the Shield and see how it compares?

Thanks.

[samson1701 0]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

Can you try this on the Shield and see how it compares?

Thanks.

Do I uninstall anything before I install this?

[samson1701 0]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Can you try this on the Shield and see how it compares?

Thanks.

Yes, this plays smoothly. But, my subtitles aren’t working, now.

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, samson1701 said:

Yes, this plays smoothly. But, my subtitles aren’t working, now.

Hi, what subtitles do you mean exactly?

[samson1701 0]

6 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, what subtitles do you mean exactly?

The regular subtitles/closed captions that are accessible when watching OTA broadcasts.

[ebr 16169]

13 hours ago, samson1701 said:

Yes, this plays smoothly. But, my subtitles aren’t working, now.

I think that is just going to be the same as enabling the direct play option in the other app, no...?

[samson1701 0]

4 hours ago, ebr said:

I think that is just going to be the same as enabling the direct play option in the other app, no...?

I’ve enabled them. But, they’re not playing. In the current version of Emby, the subtitles/closed captioning worked fine. But, in the version I was told to instal from October, they’re not working.

What do we try next? 

[ebr 16169]

18 hours ago, samson1701 said:

I’ve enabled them. But, they’re not playing. In the current version of Emby, the subtitles/closed captioning worked fine. But, in the version I was told to instal from October, they’re not working.

What do we try next? 

That app does not support closed captions at this time.  You will need to go back to the TV app if you require the CC.  If you enable the direct play option, it should behave exactly like the other app (but with CC).

[samson1701 0]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

That app does not support closed captions at this time.  You will need to go back to the TV app if you require the CC.  If you enable the direct play option, it should behave exactly like the other app (but with CC).

The only problem with direct play is I can’t pause live OTA broadcasts. Is there nothing else to be done?

Closed captioning and being able to pause live TV is basic OTA functionality, isn’t it?

[Luke 42077]

22 minutes ago, samson1701 said:

The only problem with direct play is I can’t pause live OTA broadcasts. Is there nothing else to be done?

Closed captioning and being able to pause live TV is basic OTA functionality, isn’t it?

Yes we are working on improving it. Thanks for the feedback.

[samson1701 0]

54 minutes ago, Luke said:

Yes we are working on improving it. Thanks for the feedback.

Well, thank you for trying to help me sort this out. But, I guess Emby isn’t for me. I need both of those functions to work.

Is there another OTA DVR app based solution that you’d recommend? 

[jrwalte 17]

If you want an all-in-one solution, you need to look at a DVR hardware box (HDHomeRun sells one) not an app add on for a shield. That's just asking too much from a playback device, IMO. Emby would work just fine for you if you'd offload the server part to a PC as it is meant to be run. The PC would then transcode for you and you wouldn't have the hiccups on any device.

Edited December 15, 2020 by jrwalte

[samson1701 0]

3 hours ago, jrwalte said:

If you want an all-in-one solution, you need to look at a DVR hardware box (HDHomeRun sells one) not an app add on for a shield. That's just asking too much from a playback device, IMO. Emby would work just fine for you if you'd offload the server part to a PC as it is meant to be run. The PC would then transcode for you and you wouldn't have the hiccups on any device.

I’ve been thinking of doing just that. But, it would undermine my whole reason for buying the Nvidia Shield Pro. Streamer, games and DVR. Sounded like just what I was looking for. I wanted one box that could do it all in an easy enough way that my girlfriend wouldn’t have to rely on me to “troubleshoot” every time she wanted to watch OTA broadcasts and Netflix or do some light gaming. She needs subtitles. So, even if it plays smoothly, no subtitles is a dealbreaker.

Shame, cause I really liked Emby until this.

[Carlo 4560]

Hi, the question that I'd ask is why this is being transcoded in the first place?  That 720p channels should have no problem direct streaming with full CC and trickplay support.

Live TV is pretty high IO and is right on the border IMHO of what the Shield TV handles. When you add the extra IO for Transcoding and writing all those HLS packets, it becomes a bottle neck on many devices. Then considering this device is doing double duty as the player as well with yet more IO the HLS processing and it's close to impossible to work reliable.

With that said some good news is the pipeline in the new Live TV implementation in progress uses far less IO and will go a long way in making the Shield TV and other devices with limited IO ability to handle this type of thing much better.

[Luke 42077]

Are you still having an issue with this?

[samson1701 0]

On 12/24/2020 at 6:40 PM, Luke said:

Are you still having an issue with this?

Hello and Merry Christmas!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a solution and gave up after about a week of reading forums and trying different things. I’m looking into other services. May go back to TIVo (something I really don’t want to do). I really liked Emby, but I need the subtitles and smooth OTA play at the same time.

I don’t know if this helps, but Plex has almost the exact same problem using Android streamers with my Shield Pro as the server. But, on my Roku TV, again using the Shield Pro as my server, it runs smoothly and the subtitles work. However, I still had the same problems using Emby on my Roku TV.

But, when I use the Shield Pro or FireTV stick as a client, Emby will run smoothly with direct play but, there’s no subtitles and I can’t pause. If I get the subtitles to work, it doesn’t play smoothly. Constant pausing or sometimes it would lock up altogether.
 

Thanks for trying to help and checking back.