SOLVED: Video freezing on TV App

[f-d-ffm]

Hello,

I'm getting video freezes after about 1:40 min, sound continues normally. 
Here's my setup:I'm running a jellyfin server on an Umbrel Home. I'm streaming movies using my Telekom MagentaTV One (2nd Generation) (SEI Robotics) with the jellyfin app from the play store (v 0.17.6 release). 
When I started my server, everything went as expected. After returning from vacation in August, the freezing occurs. I happen every time I'm watching a show or a movie from my MagentaTV Box. When watching from a browser on a Mac or PC, everything works fine.
The MagentaTV Box as well as the jellyfin App are up-to-date and had 2 or 3 updates since the error occurred the first time.

I've attached the logs from the last time I tried to start a movie. Also, there's a screenshot of my encoding settings (in German).

I tried restarting the server, TV, MagentaTV Box, I also tried different Settings for the encoding. As this problem only occurs on the MagentaTV Box, I couldn't find a solution online so far. I can't run the jellyfin app directly on my TVs hardware, as the model is too old to run h.265 files.

I hope someone can help me out. Thanks in advance.

[TheDreadPirate]

Are the browsers remuxing? Or is only the Android TV remuxing?

[theguymadmax]

Code:

Level":186

Did you encode your media using HEVC main level 6.2 for a resolution of 702x300? I haven't seen any devices that specifically advertise playback at that level, even if some can handle it. When you play your media, what does the dashboard say about the reason for the remux? If it’s not supported, it should trigger a transcode instead of just a remux. I can replicate the situation on my end, and I’d recommend re-encoding it to a more common level.

[TheDreadPirate]

Code:

Level":186

Did you encode your media using HEVC main level 6.2 for a resolution of 702x300? I haven't seen any devices that specifically advertise playback at that level, even if some can handle it. When you play your media, what does the dashboard say about the reason for the remux? If it’s not supported, it should trigger a transcode instead of just a remux. I can replicate the situation on my end, and I’d recommend re-encoding it to a more common level.

They disabled video and audio transcoding.

Code:

[INF] [26] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "streamer". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

[theguymadmax]

They disabled video and audio transcoding.

Ah, that makes sense now.

[f-d-ffm]

Are the browsers remuxing?  Or is only the Android TV remuxing?

As I can see, both of them are remuxing. But I'm not quite sure. I get this message on the jellyfin dashboard, when clicking on the "i" button on the currently playing media (see attachment). It says (translated) :

REMUXING
The media is in an incompatible file container (MKV, AVI, WMV), but video as well as audio are compatible with the device. The media will be repacked during playback, before they get sent to the device. The Remux needs very little compute power, with original media quality.

This message is the same for playback on the TV Box as well as on a browser.
All my files are either in the mp4 or MKV container. All of them are h.265 files with stereo aac sound (multiple languanges) and subtitle tracks. They all still worked before my vacation, no problem.

Can I change the remux settings per device? I only found the settings for Remux within the user settings.

Do you need more information? What else can I provide?

Thanks in advance.

[TheDreadPirate]

@theguymadmax - Do you think this is the same bug you've referenced in other threads regarding AAC and remuxes? Even though this video is already stereo?

[theguymadmax]

The issue seems to stem from how transcoding and level checks are handled. By disabling transcoding, the level check that would normally force a transcode is bypassed, instead remuxing the file. This allows the device to attempt playback even if it technically doesn’t support the format.

On my TV, the SoC can handle up to HEVC level 6.2, but it only reports compatibility up to level 5.2. This means any content above 5.2 gets transcoded. When transcoding is disabled, the video and audio are remuxed, bypassing the level check and plays fully without any issues.
  remux.txt (Size: 16.88 KB / Downloads: 20)

In contrast, with my Firestick 4K, the SoC cannot handle level 6.2. If I disable transcoding on the server, the file is remuxed, but playback results in a black screen.

As for why it worked now but not before, I can't say for sure. To resolve this, you could either transcode your media to a level that your player officially supports, such as HEVC Main Level 4, or enable transcoding on the server.

[f-d-ffm]

I tested reencoding my files in h.265 Level 4 Main. I did a short test and it seems to work (started to watch a movie and it went far beyond 1:40 min, I had to stop at 15 min because of an upcoming meeting). I'll do a long test tonight with a long movie and let you know if it worked.

Is there any way to get the information, what variations of a codec my TV Box can handle natively? I've read about adb commands (dumpsys media.player) but somehow jellyfin must know whether a client supports the codec or doesn't. Is there a way to get this information easily?

Also, is there an easy way/automated way to re-encode all videos? This will take me weeks to do manually.

Thanks a lot

[theguymadmax]

Some manufacturers provide this information while others don’t, so you may need to rely on the device description. Since your device supports 4K HDR, it's reasonable to conclude it can handle up to level 5.1, as indicated in the reference chart. To confirm the maximum level, you can encode a couple of sample files: one at 5.1 and another at 5.2. If it remuxes the file, that means it's not supported. Anything above 5.2 falls into the realm of 8K tier, and I haven't seen any players that claim to support that level yet.