Allow audio playback that requires transcoding

[ragnarok]

When I listen to a FLAC file on Jellyfin, I can perceive some compression artifacts (highs are lost and lows are a bit muddy) as if the file is not being played in its original lossless form. When I look at the logs though, I don't see any indication of audio transcoding happening; just the message "User policy for "<username>". EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True".

If, however, I uncheck "Allow audio playback that requires transcoding" under Dashboard -> Users -> <username> -> Profile -> Media playback, the compression artifacts disappear and I can hear what sounds like lossless music.

I'm a bit confused. Why is the FLAC audio being compressed when the "Allow audio playback that requires transcoding" is checked, despite the Jellyfin Media Player being capable of playing FLAC audio without transcoding, and that too without any mention in the logs?

Some additional details. I am running the latest version of Jellyfin Media Player installed from Flathub on a Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon desktop PC, and am accessing a FLAC music collection stored on a different home server. The LAN connecting my desktop PC to my home server is gigabit, so no bottlenecks there.

[TheDreadPirate]

I'll do some testing when I get home. But I don't recall having that problem with FLACs on my deb package install of JMP.

What server version are you running? And what JMP version? Do you have LUFS scans enabled on the server?

[ragnarok]

Frankly, not sure if it's just me imagining this up, but I feel I can sense a slight difference compared to the same song played via Rhythmbox, which just sounds that wee bit more crisp and clear.

Server version is 10.9.11. JMP version is 1.11.1. LUFS scan has always been disabled.

[TheDreadPirate]

I tried jellyfin-web, flatpak JMP, my existing debian package JMP, and MPV player. I couldn't make out any noticeable difference nor issues with compression or clipping.

PopOS 22.04 -> Pipewire + EasyEffects EQ -> Schiit Modi 3 -> Schiit Asgard 3 -> Hifiman Sundaras

I do have LUFS and normalization enabled. In JMP I manually selected Pipewire server.

[ragnarok]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Will run a few more tests myself this weekend and report back. Could you please let me know how you manually selected Pipewire server though? I presume from Settings -> Client Settings -> Device? I'm running a relatively similar setup as you with Pipewire and EasyEffects EQ, but don't see the Pipewire server option to select.

[TheDreadPirate]

I noticed the "Pipewire server" only appears in the debian package version. In the flatpak version it appeared as "Easyeffects sink" IIRC (I already uninstalled it).

And that is the right setting location.

[ragnarok]

I remember that the guide recommends not to set the Easy Effects sink as the default sound device (https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects?tab=...le#warning): "Do not set Easy Effects virtual devices as your default audio input/output. Easy Effects is designed assuming that your hardware stays as default device", but I wonder if it is recommended to select it from individual apps. I presume you've faced no real issues with your setup?

[TheDreadPirate]

Not that I've noticed. Jellyfin is the only app that manually selects Pipewire server. I haven't had any issues with JMP playing music and playing games at the same time.

One thing to note is that it COULD become a problem if you enable exclusive use, I forget what it is called (I'm not at home). Since that would prevent other apps from using it.