Incorrect aspect ratio for certain media through AirPlay

[MediaJelly]

Hi!

I am running a Jellyfin server(v10.10.7) on my Mac Mini M2, the media residing on external storage. Just upgraded to this setup because Mac Minis are incredibly affordable and good form factor wise too. Previous to this I was running Jellyfin on my main Windows PC, which was not an optimal setup at all because I can't have that running 24/7.

Everything has been going great so far, but now I seem to have run into an obscure issue. Or at least one no one else on the forum seems to have run into before.

I have two devices I use to stream media content from the server. The first being my LG TV, which I have had absolutely no issues with so far. Everything just works.

The second is a small form factor Samsung 'The Freestyle' projector. Since Jellyfin unfortunately doesn't (yet!) have a native app in whatever Samsung's app store is called, I have to resort to mirror the content to the Freestyle in some other way. There are two ways I can do this currently.

1. Use my MacBook Pro to Screen Share to the projector and that's that. Works without issues (if you don't count occasional stream hitching due to subpar WiFi, which I don't)

2. Use the Jellyfin app on my iPhone and AirPlay the content over to the projector, as it does have AirPlay support.

The second method with AirPlay is where the oddity occurs.

The issue: Certain media is stretched to 4:3 aspect ratio when AirPlay is used, when the format is 16:9 in every other player I've tried(native VLC, web player on PC, just streaming it directly to the iPhone itself).

Playing around with the aspect ratio settings in the player app does unfortunately not do anything while AirPlay is on. 

Now, to be absolutely clear, this does not happen for all video media. It seems to specifically affect a few titles, which leads me to believe it might have something to do with the files themselves. What that something is I have no idea on, unfortunately.

Anyone have any clues on as to which direction to start unraveling this one from? Or should I just give up on the AirPlay idea altogether. That would unfortunately also most likely render Jellyfin quite useless for the projector, since lugging the MacBook back and forth for Screen Sharing is a PITA.

If there is any additional information I can provide to help with debugging this issue, do ask! I'm not the most tech savvy person, but more than happy to provide whatever info I am able to.

[bitmap]

Any idea if the media files have a SAR/DAR set in the metadata? No clue if AirPlay respects those, but might be worth looking at.

[MediaJelly]

I’ll have a closer look at the files tomorrow and report back with further details.

I did notice just now that the Video information in Jellyfin for these is displayed as 576p H264 SDR. As far as my internet sleuthing tells me, that is *not* usually a 16:9 aspect ratio resolution, but a 4:3 one.

So I guess it is somewhere in the files then, which makes AirPlay force it to the ’incorrect’ aspect ratio, maybe? Since they do play as 16:9 everywhere else.

I wonder if I can re-encode the files with Handbrake and affect that.

[MediaJelly]

Any idea if the media files have a SAR/DAR set in the metadata? No clue if AirPlay respects those, but might be worth looking at.

SAR was not set, but DAR is, and annoyingly enough it is set to 16:9... So the hunt continues to figure out why it gets morphed to 4:3 when AirPlayed. 

Here's all of the video data, in case there is something obvious here I am missing:

Code:

Video
ID                                      : 1
Format                                  : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                          : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                  : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 5 frames
Codec ID                                : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                : 21 min 59 s
Bit rate                                : 2 407 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                  : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                    : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                              : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                      : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                      : 0.232
Stream size                              : 379 MiB (91%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 164 r3186 585e0199
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=5 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=20.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=17500 / vbv_bufsize=17500 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                  : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics                : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.601

[MediaJelly]

Okay, now things are getting even more curious.

1. Since the Tizen UI sucks on the projector anyway, I hooked up an Apple TV box to it and bam, no more incorrect aspect ratio. Shame that the app seems to have some issues regarding saving progress on incomplete views and such.

2. I tested the same video file on my webOS based LG tv with the native Jellyfin app and now it’s forcing the 4:3 aspect ratio there!

I am confused beyond confusion. I guess the only conclusion I can draw from this so far is that it is something with the file. What that something could be remains a mystery though.