SOLVED: Playback Error

[Dirty504]

That's another interesting caveat... it's not throwing the playback error message.  Jellyfin says everything is cool, but the Firestick 4k Max shows just a black screen with only audio.  

I may make a post about it later tonight... I haven't decided if I want to dig into the logs further or if I want to just return this 4K Max and pay-up for another Nvidia Shield.  I was mainly trying to help the guy who was struggling to understand why the "fix" isn't working for him on the 4k Max... because I'm in the same boat.

Based on that description, just the media info for the file is sufficient. The Fire TV 4K has a bug that causes files with both Dolby Vision and HDR+ profiles to show a black screen with only audio playing. If that describes most of your media then I would recommend returning it.

Thanks... Yea, that does describe most of the media causing problems, and I was unaware of that bug.  

But it's still strange (to me at least) that i only get the black screen on the new Firestick 4k Max... but not on the old Firestick 4K 1st Gen... when both are essentially the same, playing the same file with all the same settings, and both using VLC.

[theguymadmax]

This issue specifically affects ExoPlayer, not libVLC, and unfortunately, there’s no fix expected in the near future. The Dolby developers even determined it was an issue with FireTV. Workarounds include using the Jellyfin plugin for Kodi. You can check out the bug report here for more details—it’s quite an interesting read.

Another possible workaround is to force transcoding by setting the audio to stereo or reducing the bitrate. This issue impacts both generation 1 & 2 devices, so if it’s working on a gen 1 device, it’s likely due to transcoding.

It's not worth the hassle, if it's an option return it.

[Dirty504]

This issue specifically affects ExoPlayer, not libVLC, and unfortunately, there’s no fix expected in the near future. The Dolby developers even determined it was an issue with FireTV. Workarounds include using the Jellyfin plugin for Kodi. You can check out the bug report here for more details—it’s quite an interesting read.

Another possible workaround is to force transcoding by setting the audio to stereo or reducing the bitrate. This issue impacts both generation 1 & 2 devices, so if it’s working on a gen 1 device, it’s likely due to transcoding.

It's not worth the hassle, if it's an option return it.

Lol wow that was an interesting thread... and it actually makes me feel better that the team at Dolby seems just as confused as I am regarding why their codecs are working on some firesticks but not others.  

Yea, it's getting returned; but, for anyone that is stuck with a 4k Max Firestick and trying to get a file to work... I can confirm that stripping the HDR10 metadata from the file by using the following command does make the file playable using VLC.

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0 -c copy -bsf:v "filter_units=remove_types=39" output.mkv

[Hostile_18]

I "only" use 1080p Bluray Remux, so no HDR to consider for my films. Still have clients only able to play around 60% of my films now.

If it can't be sorted, I'll have to go to Plex rather than get myself and everyone else to replace their firesticks. I've being getting hassle from people every time a film won't play for weeks now, since the alternative player was removed.

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you try setting your audio output in the Jellyfin app on your firestick to "downmix to stereo".  IIRC, this is a bug that is being worked on.

[Hostile_18]

Can you try setting your audio output in the Jellyfin app on your firestick to "downmix to stereo".  IIRC, this is a bug that is being worked on.

Hi sorry forgot to reply to this. I told my clients to use this option and it is indeed working as a temporary fix.