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Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Printable Version

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Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Nachtigaller - 2024-08-24

I have the following problem: My server, which is also the client, is too weak to play a movie without stuttering. So I googled a bit and there seem to be two solutions to this problem being using either Kodi with the Jellyfin add on or Jellyfin MPV Shim. As Kodi has problems with my library structure I looked into MPV Shim and while it looked promising I couldn't get the direct path option to work resulting in insufficient performance.
So my question is if anyone of you got it working and if it is even possible with the current version of the Jellyfin server.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - TheDreadPirate - 2024-08-24

It is compatible. The way you use it is to start the MPV Shim tray app, enter your server address and credentials and then it "connects". In a browser, MPV Shim will show up as a casting target. You select MPV Shim and start playing a video in the browser and it will start playing in MPV Shim.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Nachtigaller - 2024-08-24

It does play but it not directly the corresponding file as suggested by the direct path setting in MPV shim and other posts I came across but rather casting it resulting in quite the tremendous overhead (opening the file with MPV: 25% CPU usage, casting it to MPV shim: 95% CPU and microstutters).
The reason I asked if is supported in current versions is that the MPV shim Git Hub page states "Note that Shared network folder support was deprecated in Jellyfin 10.9, and is no longer exposed in the Jellyfin UI." and while I don't use network folders since it's all local on this one machine I don't know what it actually means in practice.
I also just did some more testing and found out that when starting the video with MPV shim its console states that it couldn't open the file '' which seems to me that it either didn't got a file path from Jellyfin or something failed withing MPV shim and subsequently falling back to casting.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Efficient_Good_5784 - 2024-08-24

I don't think you need to be messing with most of its settings off the bat. When I first used it, it was simple and direct played most of my content without changing settings.

I would suggest you also try Jellyfin Media Player as it also uses MPV for the player.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Nachtigaller - 2024-08-24

Jellyfin Media Player was even worse when it came to performance sitting at 100% CPU usage and major stuttering as I think it doesn't even attempt to play the file locally.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Efficient_Good_5784 - 2024-08-24

Can you share the media info of the videos you're trying to play? And also your server logs?

I suspect transcoding might be happening.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Nachtigaller - 2024-08-24

Here's the log in two pieces due to it's size and media info but regarding the log: I was trying a lot of different things so I don't know what random stuff there is in there.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Efficient_Good_5784 - 2024-08-24

Your file is in HDR.

Both MPV Shim & JMP will need to transcode that to SDR.


RE: Jellyfim MPV Shim direct path - Nachtigaller - 2024-08-24

It's always the things you least expect.
But just for my understanding: Why does it have to transcode (even with direct path) when playing the file directly with MPV doesn't anything?