How does the Android app handle mkv files?

[jerrac 4]

I just subbed to Premiere so I could use the app, but I've hit a snag. When I try to watch a movie, it stops playing the video after a short while, but keeps playing the audio.

This surprised me since the tv show I had watched worked just fine.

I tried downloading the movie and then playing it, and it stopped at the same point with the same behavior.

If I manually open the downloaded file in VLC, it plays just fine.

The difference between the two files is that the tv show is mp4, and the movie is mkv. Oh, and the movie is in h265.

Which brings me to my subject's question, how does the Android app handle mkv files? Does it try to transcode them? Does it do that on the server, or on the mobile device?

Is there a way to optimize things so that I can play my stuff?

 

[Carlo 4560]

Hi, it's going to depend on the hardware you're running on but the app itself handles H.265 just fine in MKV on Android as this is how 99% of my files are.

You could just have a semi-bad file.  Try playing a couple of other mkv/hevc files.

[Luke 42077]

HI, yes is it just a problem with one specific file?

[xd003 7]

I too face this exact issue where exoplayer cannot seem to software decode hevc vidoes properly in my case , video frame gets stuck and only audio is present.  i had reported it here - https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/96990-video-frame-gets-stuck-after-34-seconds-of-playback/ .  Haven't seen any update on it yet , been over a month

[ebr 16169]

I think the latest changes we made recently to our Exo mods may address this for you so please test this with the next beta.

[jerrac 4]

Apologies for the late reply. I forgot to make sure I was subscribed to notifications on this topic...

Anyway, I've tested several files. All the mkv's exhibit various levels of video pausing. As in, the audio and subtitles will keep playing, but the video will not. Sometimes I can get it to continue playing by pausing and playing.

The only other thing I can think of is that my files are 12bit h265.

On 5/18/2021 at 6:48 AM, ebr said:

I think the latest changes we made recently to our Exo mods may address this for you so please test this with the next beta.

How would I get the beta onto my Android device?

[Carlo 4560]

2 hours ago, jerrac said:

The only other thing I can think of is that my files are 12bit h265.

That could certain be your issue.  Can your device decode in hardware 12 bit HEVC?
Why are you using 12 bit? If you don't have a legit reason to use more than 8 bit, don't if your doing the ripping/converting.

[jerrac 4]

I'd think my tablet should be able to handle it. VLC plays the files just fine.

I have been planning to reevaluate my 12bit encoding... The idea was to future proof my files. But I'm not sure I'm actually accomplishing that.

[Luke 42077]

Please try again with the next update to the Emby android app and let us know if this is improved. Thanks.

[jerrac 4]

As of a couple weeks ago the issue was still occurring. Not sure if your update was live then, or not...

I did try re-encoding the 12bit files I was testing with to 8bit. That does make them work.

So I'm currently doing that to all my files.

 

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for the update.