Playback Suddenly Stops

[xibinim 7]

Drama continues. I have managed to stop the garbled black screen issue by simply replacing S2 of B-99. However the new issue still continues on my phone, where play just pauses (previous issue used to be it just stopped playing and went back to the show menu in Emby). The play controls are still there but click on play does nothing, and you can see the timeline has buffered enough for it to play. I tried switching to Chrome on my phone, but the original problem just comes back - where it suddenly stops and returns to the menu.

The latter issue also just happened on Supergirl, so spread to a new show. Still utterly bamboozled. I wonder if it's worth rebuilding my library again?

[Carlo 4561]

I just reread the thread looking for clues. Tried to reread logs but they are gone now.

What are you running Emby Server on? (PC, NAS, etc)

How is your Emby Server attached to your network? Is it using Ethernet or WIFI?  What speed is it connected to your local network?

Are you using this same machine when doing torrents or is the torrent downloading done on a different machine on the network?
 

What kind of Internet service is used for your LAN where Emby Server resides?

[xibinim 7]

1 hour ago, cayars said:

I just reread the thread looking for clues. Tried to reread logs but they are gone now.

What are you running Emby Server on? (PC, NAS, etc)

How is your Emby Server attached to your network? Is it using Ethernet or WIFI?  What speed is it connected to your local network?

Are you using this same machine when doing torrents or is the torrent downloading done on a different machine on the network?
 

What kind of Internet service is used for your LAN where Emby Server resides?

I have wondered at times if it's the internet/network but haven't had a proper look yet. Running Emby server on a W10 HTPC. The HTPC, my main rig upstairs and the living room TV are all on Ethernet. And there's good coverage for WiFi with an additional access point in the kitchen (Ethernet back to the switch so it broadcasts a strong connection). It's the HTPC for the torrents. And we have 350/35Mbps (down/up) for our internet connection. When I have checked the network backend (Unifi), on paper at least, everything seems fine (gives a rating for connections and clients).

Edited September 15, 2021 by xibinim

[Carlo 4561]

Thanks,

You get some weird things happening which doesn't sound specifically like an Emby issue but could be network or media related.

While on lan (not remote) have you tried changing the client to a max bitrate setting to not force transcoding?
When the file direct plays do you get this same issue with playback?

[xibinim 7]

16 hours ago, cayars said:

Thanks,

You get some weird things happening which doesn't sound specifically like an Emby issue but could be network or media related.

While on lan (not remote) have you tried changing the client to a max bitrate setting to not force transcoding?
When the file direct plays do you get this same issue with playback?

Thanks again for your continued help. Just seen my bit rate was set to 5Mbps in Emby, but I think I only did that recently to test something and the problems existed before this change. Now back to blank/auto. One thing I did note yesterday (was watching some network information whilst playing); whilst streaming 1080 60Mpbs on the main rig (LAN), Unifi was reporting a seemingly low bandwidth (800kbps) for that machine which seems way too low to be dishing out 1080 @ 60Mbps? AFAIK the problem usually correlates with direct play, it's my other users whose viewing uses transcoding though I have seen it happen on my machines a few times. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by xibinim

[Carlo 4561]

If it were me, what I'd try and do is set the local bitrate as high as you can manually set it so it will direct play.  Do this on a couple of clients and get them playing while watching network statistics looking for anything out of the ordinary.  Direct Play should remove any issue with the server as it's not transforming the media and allow you to flex the network a bit looking for a possible issue.

You've got a unique issue that's likely going to take some thinking outside the box.

[xibinim 7]

5 minutes ago, cayars said:

If it were me, what I'd try and do is set the local bitrate as high as you can manually set it so it will direct play.  Do this on a couple of clients and get them playing while watching network statistics looking for anything out of the ordinary.  Direct Play should remove any issue with the server as it's not transforming the media and allow you to flex the network a bit looking for a possible issue.

You've got a unique issue that's likely going to take some thinking outside the box.

LOL story of my life when it comes to computer issues. Will have a go at your suggestion. Question though - how do you set the local bit rate? I only have a global option for setting it and it's already on the highest setting (leaving blank). 

[Carlo 4561]

You can always click the cog icon during playback and change the quality from there.

[muzicman0 84]

I had something similar happen to one of my Shields at my house a month or 2 back.  It was just one of them (out of 2).  In my case, I finally narrowed it down to the WiFi would cut out for short periods of time.  I could use Analiti (android app) to run a iPerf3 test between the Shield and the Server, and it would show 0 Mbps for short periods of time, then jump back up.  I worked out a way to hard wire it, and have not had issues since.  The weird thing is that the other Shield was in a location that had much worse signal, but it was fine.

I discovered that just running a internet speed test would not show the problem.  Instead of dropping to 0 Mbps when WiFi cut out, it would continue showing the last non 0 value.  But iPerf between the server and client would show the 0 value.

Not sure if your case is the same, since you have multiple clients having the issue, but figured it was worth posting.  If nothing else, the symptoms (as I read them at least) point to a network drop for some reason.

[xibinim 7]

Thank you, that's handy to know - will look into iPerf. Would be so funny if it's something ridiculous like it happened every time my mother-in-law used the microwave 

[xibinim 7]

Another update. The issue continued to grow and then I suddenly started being unable to add any more subtitles. I decided I wanted a fresh start to rebuilt the library, only then finding out the subtitles stopped working because I had reached a max limit on my opensubtitles account .

Any way - since rebuilding the problem hasn't happened once and the only difference I see is the buffering timeline now extends a good chunk beyond where it is on the episode. When the problem previously occurred, I noticed the buffering line could not be seen (hope that makes sense). Oh and previously the downloads folder was full of episodes weirdly - not sure why any of my clients were downloading content. This is now empty. 

Edit - what I mean by the buffering timeline

Edited December 8, 2021 by xibinim

[Luke 42078]

Thanks for the feedback.

[xibinim 7]

It's like whack-a-mole. The subtitles issue has got worse. I think I left the default option so it tried to download subtitles for a lot of shows and films, and this seems to have exceeded my opensubtitles account (again). Is there an alternative (free) to this other than making another account? 

[Luke 42078]

Perhaps an open subtitles vip account?

[xibinim 7]

5 hours ago, Luke said:

Perhaps an open subtitles vip account?

Don't mind paying/looking into it. But just to be sure before I pull the trigger. You can use up a free account's limit with OS in Emby? With my previous library, I think I changed an option so it tried to automatically download subtitles for everything. And with my new library I think I had it on the default option so it did it again. 

[Luke 42078]

Quote

You can use up a free account's limit with OS in Emby?

Depending on the size of your library, yes. It will try to find subtitles for everything that doesn't already have them, if you enable the automatic downloading.