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+--- Thread: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App (/t-unwanted-transcoding-of-dolby-vision-content-with-android-tv-app)
Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - TimoDeus - 2025-10-09
Hi!
I'm a happy user of Jellyfin 10.10.7 with Kodi as client.
Jellyfin server is running in a container on my NAS. Kodi client is running on a Homatics Box R connected via capable Denon AVR and eARC to LG G4 OLED
Everything direct plays, no transcoding at all (which my NAS couldn't handle). Dolby Vision, TrueHD audio, whatever I want, it just works.
Now while this all sounds fine, I don't really like the "workaround" with Kodi. I'd much more appreciate a simple solution of just using the Jellyfin App without any fiddling around. And here the problems start...
I know that 10.10.7 has problems with HDR metadata, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HDR10 fallbacks etc.
Should be fixed by this: https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin/pull/13277
So I had high hopes for 10.11 where this fix is included. Today I tried it out with a parallel install of 10.11.0 RC8 (current unstable version).
After starting up the container I added a small subset of my library for testing. I didn't change any settings at all.
Using Jellyfin Android TV App version 0.18.11 and a random Dolby Vision video:
Playback fails with an error message: "Player error encountered. Will re-try...". After a few seconds video starts playing, but transcoding to HDR instead of direct playing DoVi. My poor NAS is at 100% CPU usage, playback stutters.
Now I'm not sure where the problem is.
TV: Unlikely, it works flawlessly with Kodi
Android TV App: Is it already optimized for 10.11.0?
Jellyfin Server: Do I have to set up anything? For example, Kodi has the setting where I tell it to never consider HDR10+
Logfile of playback: https://pastebin.com/jhhyiFnd
(also attached to this thread)
RE: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - theguymadmax - 2025-10-10
You may have better luck with the .19.0 beta. https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/releases
RE: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - TimoDeus - 2025-10-10
nice, lots of DoVi/HDR and DirectPlay fixes. I'll give it a try!
RE: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - TimoDeus - 2025-10-12
OK, I tried 0.19.0 Beta 6 as client. No luck unfortunately, still the same problem. Video is transcoded to non-DoVI HDR in Jellyfin, works with 10.10.7 and Kodi client.
Logs of playback and capabilities are attached.
RE: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - TimoDeus - 2025-10-14
Posted this on GitHub as well:
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/issues/4952#issuecomment-3403079912
RE: Unwanted transcoding of Dolby Vision content with Android TV App - TimoDeus - 2025-10-15
Okay, to wrap this up:
Dolby Vision is dropped, but that's not the reason for transcoding.
There is a bug in the Android TV App which leads to incorrect device profile parsing and problems with removing enhancement layers. Even if this gets fixed, Jellyfin is currently not able to convert DV7 to DV8 on-the-fly, as Kodi is doing (compatibility mode).
Audio is transcoded though.
In my case the TrueHD audio seems to not work in Jellyfin, and that's why the audio is transcoding. Not sure exactly why this is happening, as my setup supports all lossless audio formats, including TrueHD and DTS-HD/DTS-X (Homatics Box R 4K Plus + Denon X1800H).
Anyways, I guess I will stick with Kodi as Client for Jellyfin 10.11