Cannot play 480p content on TV or mobile devices

[Skellum]

I have several 480p movies that play fine through my web browser, they have been stored in a collection and all metadata appears correct so the file seems to be reading correctly.
It has detected chapters, audio settings fine.
When I attempt to play the movie on my TV it loads but does not progress the screen simply sits black, it detects the file length, skipping forward/back has no effect.
The file is not played at all, no audio is heard.

On my browser the file plays without issue but I really need this to play on my TV.
I imagine this is an app issue as I am using the Google Jellyfin app (FireTV Stick) and the IOS app on my Iphone 12. Neither will play this movie but 1080p movies play fine.

I am curious if this is an upscaling issue and what the difference is being the browser and the app.
Any suggested settings I can change would be appreciated!

Thanks

[wenzelja]

What is the codec of the movie you're trying to play, H.264, AV1, etc.? Is this a DVD rip into a *.mmkv file, or something else? I've been ripping DVDs from my collection, which are 480p and they play just fine.

[Skellum]

They vary but typically these are AV1 SDR or MPEG4
Files are MKV files and play on my PC browser and through VLC on my machine.
Wonder if theres a vlc plugin for Jellyfin?

[wenzelja]

It might be the AV1 causing problems.

@TheDreadPirate should be able to help.

[Skellum]

Found another file which is apparently a 720p mpeg4 which is also unable to play.

[wenzelja]

Do you have transcoding enabled?

[Skellum]

Transcoding is enabled for all formats.
I've found a workaround fix, if I force the tv app to use external player (VLC) it will load and play every movie without issue, obviously a codec issue here.
Only caveat is I've had to enable automatic signin in the settings as the only way to exit VLC is to use the back button on the remote (no stop option on the movie) but doing sends you back to the movie details screen so its almost the same experience as the native player.

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you share your jellyfin log via pastebin? And if you have ffmpeg logs, share that as well. And your server specs and OS.

[Skellum]

How would I do this via the tv app?
Server details are:
Windows Server 2012
16GB Ram
AMD FX9590
Nvidia GTX 1060

[TheDreadPirate]

You can't perform admin tasks from the TV app. Go to the server directly and go to C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\logs or access Jellyfin in a browser and go to Dashboard > Logs.