Android TV client playback lags significantly, but other clients are fine

[Hansolo]

Hello Jellyfin enthusiasts,

I'm new and have started setting up a media home server   Looking for some help!

Issue: videos played from my client Android TV, using jellyfin android TV app, are heavily lagged. I.e. video stream seems to run at extremely low FPS and audio stream is slowed down making it sound like people speak slowly and with a heavy voice. However, if the movies are played from my client Pixel 8 smartphone using the jellyfin Android app, they run smoothly.

When the movie plays from the Android TV app, my Jellyfin server dashboard says it's "Direct Playing".
When the movie plays from the Pixel 8 app, my Jellyfin server dashboard says it's "Direct Streaming".

If I configure jellyfin Android app to use VLC as an external player, movies play smoothly. But I'd like to use the jellyfin native client app to get sufficient information about who's playing what.

All client devices connect to my home network via WiFi (192.168.14.0/24 subnet). Jellyfin server is on my Home Network (192.168.17.0/24 subnet). I have a 1 GbE switch connecting all client devices and the jellyfin server.

I don't have many video files in my library. I've tested this on 5 files of various container formats (mkv, mp4, avi. See attached their ffprobe output) and they all have the same problem.

I'll focus this post on one video file (see attached ffprobe output): Asterix - Le domaine des dieux (2014) [tmdbid-170522].mkv

Client Android TV specs
- Android TV OS version: 12
- Jellyfin app:
--- Version: 0.19.2
--- Audio Output: Direct
--- Max Streaming bitrate: 200 Mbits/s (maximum available)
--- Advanced Settings / Audio / Bitstream Dolby Digital audio: enabled
- Hardware specs:
--- Brand = Bell Streamer STI6130
--- CPU: Quad-core 1.8 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53)
--- GPU: ARM Mali-G31 MP2
--- RAM: 2GB
--- Codecs: VP9, H.264, H.265 (HEVC)

Client Smartphone specs
- Google Android version: 16
- Jellyfin app version: 2.6.3
- Hardware specs: Google Pixel 8 specs

Jellyfin Server specs
- Ubuntu version: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (and one "renderD*" device exists in /dev/dri as per jellyfin docs)
- Jellyfin server version: 10.11.2
- Hardware:
-- HP t630 Thin Client
-- CPU: AMD Embedded G-Series GX-420GI Radeon R7E
-- RAM: 8GB

Attached:
- "jellyfin20251116.log": Log events when the movie Asterix was played from the Android TV and Pixel 8 clients. Android TV client starts movie at 18:10... ends at 18:11. Pixel 8 client starts movie at 18:15.... ends at 18:16
- "upload_Jellyfin_Android TV_0.19.2.log": what was sent by the Android TV client from the playback's advanced options (media capabilities report)
- "1.ffprobe-asteri1.txt": ffprobe output for the movie Asterix - Le domaine des dieux (2014) [tmdbid-170522].mkv

Some other posts with similar problems but that didn't seemed to work:
- (client h/w decoding set to decode.enabled) https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-solved-jell...slow-speed
- (client or TV refresh rate scaling) https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-is-there-an...just-works
- (Dolby TrueHD with Atmos studio) https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-jellyfin-fo...n-for-kodi

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers