I've had my server running for over a year and it's been fantastic until last week. Suddenly, I'm having a lot of issues playing certain titles on certain devices, but none of it really makes sense to me. Here's what I know: I have two Roku TVs in separate rooms. Both are nearly identical models (and support the same codecs). One is directly connected to the server and the other uses a power line adapter or WiFi. The direct connection does not stutter when playing anything so far. The other tv is nearly unplayable with stuttering. My first thought was a network issue, but other apps (Netflix, etc) play just fine. I then thought it was transcoding ( I use QSV), but it doesn't make sense that the DC tv doesn't have the same issue. Other devices which connect over WiFi also have the same issue. Is there some way to tell through the logs if jellyfin is actively transcoding or failing to serve media in real-time? Or any other steps I could take to troubleshoot the root cause of my issues. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: After checking logs and testing on a few devices, I'm pretty confident that the issue is my WiFi signal. It doesn't seem to be able to handle streams over 3 Mbps. Not really sure what has caused my router to lose speed so significantly, or what I can do to fix it, but at least I know jellyfin isn't the issue. Thank you everyone for your help, I learned a lot about transcoding and reading the logs at least.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The OTHER thing that could cause stuttering is if it needs to be transcoding and that transcode is happening slower than realtime (unlikely to be happening here).

You'd look in the logs for a transcode log for this sort of thing:

frame=  408 fps= 82 q=37.0 size=N/A time=00:00:15.51 bitrate=N/A speed= 3.1x  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c875.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c876.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c877.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c878.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c879.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8710.mp4' for writing  
frame=  796 fps=145 q=30.0 size=N/A time=00:00:31.65 bitrate=N/A speed=5.75x  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8711.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8712.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8713.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8714.mp4' for writing  
[hls @ 0x5c9ae0dde940] Opening '/config/transcoding-temp/transcodes/2d181c04b2b6d7ab2bdc2405c6ae5c8715.mp4' for writing  
frame= 1189 fps=198 q=20.0 size=N/A time=00:00:48.04 bitrate=N/A speed=8.01x

if the speed drops below 1.0x, you'll stutter.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This should be in the stuttering faq in the doc 😁

Also if your CPU maxes out, a GPU would do a better job

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

That's exactly what I was wondering. I will start digging through the logs. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I'd first make sure what the culprit is (server or client). Once that's done you'd identify the actual issue e.g. transcoding, en-/decoding, playback etc.

For the first step: Try to use the Jellyfin media player on Windows/Linux or the mobile app and make sure you have h/w support (player information -> Directplay, remux, transcode, directstream).
If you want additional help, you can shoot me a message per PM (I might not see it immediately due to 3rd party client)

Anyway: If you find it what the issue was, please update the post what it was and (if) how you solved it :)
Don't pull a DenverCoder9

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If you're watching high quality video like blu-ray remuxes, that's a much higher bitrate than stuff like Netflix. Netflix will also automatically adjust the quality of the stream, whereas Jellyfin will default to max quality.

The first thing I'd try is this:

You could set the max bitrate to a lower level on the Roku that's lagging, maybe 15 Mbps (generally the highest bitrate used by Netflix)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I will test this out. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't Jellyfin automatically reduce bitrate as well?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, there's an "Auto" setting on clients but it doesn't work especially well and doesn't adjust on-the-fly like the big streamers can.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Any idea if there's work underway to improve this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

In short, it's not planned. The work necessary is out of scope for Jellyfin