Emby buffering 4K

[flexkikr 5]

Hi Luke,

Has this issue been addressed? I have been having the same issue as the OP but to no avail playing 4k MKVs both via web player app and emby smart tv app. But of course, direct streaming from my NAS to my teli works fine and NAS to my projector (Home Theatre room) works fantastic all through emby player. I've even plug a cat6a patch lead directly from my gigabit switch straight to my 8k tv still no luck.

@Happy2Play please move my posting to a new topic. Thanks.

My Rig:

Server: QNAP TS-453BT3, fw 4.3.6.0950 (Intel Celeron 1.5Ghz 4cores, 16GB ram, 40TB Ironwolf redNAS, 2x1TB m.2 SSD 2280, 10Gbe) running Emby Server 4.5.4

HTPC: HP EliteDesk (Intel i7-8700 12-core cpu, Toshiba 256GB NVMe, 32GB ram, nVidia Quadro P400 2GB gpu) Emby Theatre (latest version)

A/V Components: ICON 100" curve 3D panel display, Denon AVR-1713, Mitsubishi VLT-HC7800LP 3D projector, Polk Audio TL1900 5.1 Blackstone speaker

TV: Samsung QA65Q800TAWXXY QLED 8K

[MRobi 161]

Your HTPC likely has the capabilities of direct-playing the file, the tv probably doesn't. Your screenshot shows transcoding, and while I'm not a transcoding expert I'm going to say that a 4-core 1.5ghz celeron isn't a strong enough processor to transcode 4k content. Your HTPC however looks more than capable of handling it. Ever thought of running your Emby server on the HTPC and mounting a share from the qnap to give it access to the files? Much stronger processor and a GPU for hardware transcoding.

[mastrmind11 722]

yeah dude, put emby server on your htpc and use your NAS as a NAS.  Odd setup considering your hardware available.

[Luke 42078]

@flexkikr

[flexkikr 5]

@MRobi My NAS is fine, I can watch 4k movies on my TV with it's default player pulling out direct from my NAS with no constant buffering. It can't be my upload bandwidth as I have just boosted my internet download/upload speed yesterday with another Australian broadband provider from 50/20 to 100/40 and still buffers. I thought boosting my upload speed would fix the buffering problem but still no luck

[flexkikr 5]

@Luke one of the reasons I built a dedicated NAS (always-on) in my home theatre setup is to avoid multiple hdd cradles hooked up to my htpc and to avoid running emby server on it (used to do this back in "Media Browser" days). So if this tells me to run the emby server "again" on my htpc and make my NAS as a dedicated file storage, this leaves me for my htpc to configure as "always-on" device meaning I have to rewire everything and reconfigure my universal remote to bypass my htpc when startup/shutdown process?

[MRobi 161]

2 hours ago, flexkikr said:

@MRobi My NAS is fine, I can watch 4k movies on my TV with it's default player pulling out direct from my NAS with no constant buffering. It can't be my upload bandwidth as I have just boosted my internet download/upload speed yesterday with another Australian broadband provider from 50/20 to 100/40 and still buffers. I thought boosting my upload speed would fix the buffering problem but still no luck

You're missing some of the basic principles here. I'd recommend reading up on transcoding requirements.

There is a big difference between direct play and transcoding. Direct play means the playing device (ie: your HTPC which is a beast) can fully handle the file it is attempting to play so all it needs to do is access the file through your internal network.  This all has nothing to do with any internet connection, in fact you can do it without being hooked to the internet at all. Transcoding is when your playing device (ie your TV) can't handle the file it is attempting to play, whether that be the codec, the audio stream, whatever... So at that point the hardware your server is running on has to convert the file on the fly into a format the playing device can handle. A 1.5ghz celeron processor in a NAS with no GPU can not handle doing that with a 4k video file.

Your HTPC, with an i7 processor and a decent gpu could transcode multiple 4k streams without breaking a sweat. Hence my recommendation to run the server on the HTPC. But yes, it would have to be on 24/7 so you'd have to make adjustments for that but at least you can do so with what you already have and no extra money. I can't see you needing to re-wire anything though. You'd simply mount the share from your NAS to the HTPC with a NFS/SMB share so it's really just reconfiguring your remote to bypass turning the HTPC on/off. Your other option would be to upgrade your NAS to one that can handle that type of transcoding but that's not a cheap option.

[MRobi 161]

Reading on your specific model of NAS it does say it supports hardware accelerated h264 decoding/encoding. But without h.265 hardware acceleration support that file will be transcoded using the cpu which is severely underpowered for that file.

Also in the "Reason for transcoding" you can see it says "Subtitle format not supported". Try disabling subtitles and play the file on the TV again and see what you get. It's possible that TV can direct play the file without subtitles.

[flexkikr 5]

@MRobi thanks heaps for all your inputs here but I need one more clarification as I'm not a transcoding expert either. All I wanna do at the end of the day is to watch latest movies with Emby on 4K resolution. Of course having a subtitle while watching is magnificent (especially when you are surrounded by your three kids in primary).

Question: Why every time I watch 4k on my TV with it's default player works fine? This is outside Emby player for smart tv. BUt when i play the same 4k movie with emby player for smart tv it buffers constantly? Is it because my teli's default player by itself can handle it and the emby player can't without it's server app running on the hardware that's capable of transcoding h.265 hardware acceleration?

[flexkikr 5]

Looks like my tv's default player converts it down to 1080p, the reason why it doesn't buffer

[MRobi 161]

21 hours ago, flexkikr said:

@MRobi thanks heaps for all your inputs here but I need one more clarification as I'm not a transcoding expert either. All I wanna do at the end of the day is to watch latest movies with Emby on 4K resolution. Of course having a subtitle while watching is magnificent (especially when you are surrounded by your three kids in primary).

Question: Why every time I watch 4k on my TV with it's default player works fine? This is outside Emby player for smart tv. BUt when i play the same 4k movie with emby player for smart tv it buffers constantly? Is it because my teli's default player by itself can handle it and the emby player can't without it's server app running on the hardware that's capable of transcoding h.265 hardware acceleration?

In this particular example, it's the subtitle that's forcing the transcode. If you look about half way down in the screenshot in your first post "Reason for transcoding: Subtitle format not supported". Try turning subtitles off and see if it direct plays. If it does, then possibly try to find different subtitle formats until you find one that works with your TV. SRT is by far the most widely supported.

[Luke 42078]

Has this topic helped answer your questions?