Cannot Select Subtitles or Language on Samsung Smart TV (CU7000)

[arh27]

I switched over to Jellyfin recently after Universal Media Server was failing to successfully interface with my new Samsung CU7000 Smart TV.  Unlike UMS, Jellyfin is able to stream via DLNA to the TV without any major problems with audio or video.

However, I am unable to select subtitles or language options on streaming files that contain them.  On UMS, there would be a "transcode" folder showing different subtitle, language, and formats available through the server, but I can't seem to find anything equivalent on Jellyfin. On some models of Samsung Smart TV, users have reported that they can just go to the little cog of options when the video is running and it will show subtitles there (so long as the stream isn't paused).  However, that does not occur for me.

Being new to Jellyfin, I'm not sure if I'm simply missing something in the PC client settings or if there is something else I'm supposed to be doing.  I'd appreciate the help.

[tmsrxzar]

Unlike UMS, Jellyfin is able to stream via DLNA to the TV without any major problems with audio or video.

does this mean that jellyfin client is not installed directly on the tv?
-> https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-tizen

[arh27]

Unlike UMS, Jellyfin is able to stream via DLNA to the TV without any major problems with audio or video.

does this mean that jellyfin client is not installed directly on the tv?
-> https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-tizen

Correct. The client is not installed on the TV as I'm using Jellyfin as a DLNA server over my home network.  If there is a method that does not involve side-loading an app, that'd be preferred, but I am aware Jellyfin can be side-loaded using developer mode.

[tmsrxzar]

pretty sure dlna doesn't support this, if it does then it's still the client that needs to support multiple audio tracks and in your case the client is from samsung

i was trying to set this up on my own samsung tv to see if i could find a better answer but it seems to be just the latest thing i've found broken in jellyfin and i'm not even able to get it set up for testing

edit:

after the frustration getting jellyfin to serve dlna to my samsung i was able to get it to work from emby
no, it does not allow switching audio tracks

and might i add, that is one craptastic experience, why would anyone use DLNA? i've found a new thing to hate

[arh27]

pretty sure dlna doesn't support this, if it does then it's still the client that needs to support multiple audio tracks and in your case the client is from samsung

i was trying to set this up on my own samsung tv to see if i could find a better answer but it seems to be just the latest thing i've found broken in jellyfin and i'm not even able to get it set up for testing

edit:

after the frustration getting jellyfin to serve dlna to my samsung i was able to get it to work from emby
no, it does not allow switching audio tracks

and might i add, that is one craptastic experience, why would anyone use DLNA? i've found a new thing to hate

I've been using DLNA for quite awhile through UMS. It handles multiple audio tracks and subtitle tracks by transcoding each one separately, meaning you can simply choose the combination you want and have it stream rather than having to manipulate options through the client.  For some reason, UMS isn't playing on the Samsung client at all, so I'm exploring this option.  I'll probably see about getting Jellyfin side loaded onto the TV here eventually.  I'm worried that might open a whole new can full of worms though, since I'm just savvy enough to get myself into trouble I can't fix if I screw something up.

[Toastyyy]

So I have the same issue currently. The weird thing is that I it worked until a few days ago. I believe I upgraded some packages and played around with the Proxmox Firewall and ever since I can‘t select a language or subtitles, when playing via DLNA.
Will investigate the upgraded packages a little further once I have the time.

Also the time showed like 534 hours and some minutes for The Hunger Games. However, I couldn‘t find any errors that seemed relevant to me in the logs.

[Toastyyy]

So I believe I found a workaround. For me it was the DLNA Profile used that didn't work. Apparently the Samsung Smart TV profile doesn't work as good on Samsung Smart TVs as the "Generic Device" or "Default" profile.

Steps to fix on Linux:
- Get into the server via ssh or something
- Go to the location of the plugins. For me that was /var/lib/jellyfin/plugins/.
- Then go into either DLNA_2.0.0.0 or DLNA_3.0.0.0 whichever is installed on your server (or even both) and into the profiles folder (so absolute path right now is /var/lib/jellyfin/plugins/DLNA_3.0.0.0/profiles/)
Now the important part:
- Open the "Samsung Smart TV.xml" with a text editor
- Remove either some "<" or ">" so it isn't proper xml code anymore. Usually jellyfin will use the Samsung Smart TV profile when a Samsung Smart TV is connected via DLNA. We want to prevent this! So removing any "<" or ">" will lead to an internal parsing error and thus that profile won't be used and it will fallback to the "Default.xml".
REMOVING OR RENAMING the Samsung Profile will only work until the next restart of jellyfin as it creates the file again. "Breaking" it by changing it will not lead to a new creation of that file so you'll only have to do this once.

Or of course you overwrite the Samsung Profile with the Default profile. Since the files will be created once missing you don't really need to backup the original Samsung Profile.

After doing that I can play, pause, select languages, subtitles etc. just like you would expect it to work.

I really hope I could help somebody with that.