Bitrate Exceeded

[rooser11 8]

Hi - I keep getting error messages like the following.  
I am direct playing all contents and I can play the same video just fine from other devices/clients like Kodi, VLC, and MPV.  
I can't seem to find an option where I can change the bitrate limits - not in the Playback settings in the More menu or the gear icon that I can see after start playing a video.  
Also, I noticed that this max bitrate number keeps fluctuating and I suspect that it has something to do with the Emby app on trying to switch to an optimum bitrate number based on my internet speed?  
The thing is, my internet speed is just fine as I get 200mbps+ download/upload from the Internet and also from the Emby server.  Any thoughts?

2021-01-08 00:10:36.266 Info App: User policy for XX. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False
2021-01-08 00:10:36.290 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 10187002, max bitrate: 7000000
2021-01-08 00:10:36.290 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 10187002, max bitrate: 7000000
2021-01-08 00:10:36.309 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 10187002, max bitrate: 7000000
2021-01-08 00:10:36.309 Info App: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 10187002, max bitrate: 7000000

Edited January 8, 2021 by rooser11
formatting

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, are you experiencing a problem, or did you just interpret this as a problem?

[rooser11 8]

I do have a problem.  Pretty much I can stream for 2-3 seconds and then the videoplay is frozen.  And then I get an error message saying incompatible video playback.  When I turn off WIFI and go mobile and then on WIFI again, sometimes the app works again.  But it randomly freezes again.  This happens on both WIFI/cellular.  My friend apparently also has issues with playing videos on his mobile phone.  He is on Android 10 and I am on Android 11, if that matters.  The server is on the latest stable docker build on debian 10 host.

[Luke 42077]

Ok, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. thanks.

[Luke 42077]

I can already pretty much guess at the problem though - you're forcing the direct play by restricting user access to transcoding, but the network connection can't keep up and that leads to the freezing. Then finally the android video player says enough is enough and throws an error. At this point, the app would normally automatically switch to server transcoding to retry, but since you've restricted access to that, that's why you get the error message about incompatible video playback (it's a generic message and needs to be improved).

So I believe this is just an issue of data not getting to where it needs to go quickly enough, but let's see if I'm right.

Quote

The thing is, my internet speed is just fine as I get 200mbps+ download/upload from the Internet and also from the Emby server

There could still be ISP throttling occurring on either side of the connection (server or mobile device).

[rooser11 8]

Yes, if I allow transcoding, the video playback works with the reason for transcoding being bitrate is higher than my network speed.  This is not an ideal solution though and I am still troubled because only android mobile clients are reporting as having this issue despite other clients right next to the phones can play the same videos from the same server just fine.  Don't have other sample clients at the moment but those with the low bitrate issues are Samsung S10 and Samsung Z Fold 2. 

I will see if I can play with my network again but like I said, this is happening on both WIFI (250Mbps+) and cellular (150mbps+).  This also happens when I am on VPN (I tried to see if I was throttled by ISPs in any way) but despite VPN's throughput is over 100mbps, I still cannot even direct play 10mbit videos.

[rooser11 8]

As a quick update, when I play the same content from the same server using Yatse and MX Player, I can see the server constantly uploading at around 15mbit for my phone and I have no issues playing this 10mbit video.  But when I play the same content using the official Emby app (3.1.73), I can see the server at first spiking up to 20-80mbit momentarily and then pretty much is dead and spits out max bitrate of the video exceeds the client's network connection messages, which aligns with what I see on my phone - first 2-3 seconds of video plays and then stops unless I enable transcoding and transcoding works at like 2mbps.  I think this started happening some time ago around when you guys were improving HDR playback... (of course, more likely it could have been coincidence as back then I did not really play videos on my phone other than quick testings).  I see some people reporting the same issue on Google play store.  (One dude reporting it does not work on his s10 since 3.1.64)

[rooser11 8]

As a last update for today as it is late here, I can confirm that this video playback issue happens pretty much all the time when playing on the latest Emby app (3.1.73).  I installed a much earlier version by grabbing 3.1.22 or 3.1.23 from APKMirror and confirmed that it plays the same video without any issue.  As soon as I upgraded the Emby app through the play store to 3.1.73, the app started having the same problem as before.  It does not matter if I uninstall the app completely and reinstalls the latest one from the play store.  I think I provided enough information, let me know if you need me for troubleshooting anything but as some stated, at least this is a big problem on some of Samsung devices and may for others too.

[Luke 42077]

Can we look at a playback example? Thanks.