Playback error: h264 file with AC3 audio will not playback on swiftfin

[linuxnoob0009]

What model Apple TV?  AFAICT, the newer models can play any Dolby audio format.  And the log you shared says it is simple stereo AC3.  The commentary track is also stereo AC3, so why that would place with the experimental feature is definitely a head scratcher.

Just to make sure you have the correct log, Millennium - 01x01 - Pilot.mp4 is the file in question, correct?

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if all else fails, can i maybe transcode sound to aac on playback?

Yes.  Transcoding on the fly is a core feature of Jellyfin.  Both audio and video.  The ffmpeg log you shared indicates it was transcoding the audio to AAC.

Hello - thanks for replying. Yes, that is the file in question and I believe I have a 4th gen Apple TV.

The weird thing is - I have another file, also AC3 and h264 which plays fine on the Apple TV:
https://pastebin.com/RsqWRwb9.

It seems to me that something goes wrong in the Transcode of the Millennium episode - and this applies for the rest of the season too. But what? I'm guessing it's in the audio transcode. because as i mentioned in the first post i tried transcoding an episode in xmedia recode where I copied the video track and converted the audio track to aac (i think it also changed the container to mkv) and this played fine on the apple tv.

Here are my transcode settings:
Hardware Acceleration:
X Intel Quicksync (QSV)
Enable transcoding for:
X VP9 (10 bit)
X HEVC (10 bit)

X Prefer OS Native DXVA or VA-API Hardware decoders

X Enable Hardware encoding
X Allow encoding in HEVC format

Everything else is standard values, I believe. No tone mapping.

In the other general settings I have:
X Enable DTS (DCA)
Since I have the Apple TV hooked up to a DTS compatible soundbar with HDMI.

When trying to play on the Apple TV, the server tn the dashboard says:
Direct playing
The source file is entirely compatible with this client and the session is receiving the file without modifications.

This is with out experimental>force direct play.
But as said, when I turn on direct play it kind of works (except I can't pick the audio track to not hear the commentary)