Cant get videos to play after fresh install

[wade730]

Hey Guys!

Basically as the title says Anytime I play a video on my newly provisioned Jellyfin server I get 'Playback failed due to a fatal player error.' Doesn't work from the server itself or any time with the app in my house. I took a look at the logs and I can not discern anything relevant. (See attached.)
besides maybe "[2024-08-15 00:24:17.220 -04:00] [ERR] [10] MediaBrowser.Providers.TV.EpisodeMetadataService: Error in "Probe Provider" System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot start process because a file name has not been provided."

Logs: https://ctxt.io/2/AABYs9t9Fg

Please help!

OS: Nobara Linux 40
Kellyfin Version: 10.9.8

[theguymadmax]

Code:

[2024-08-15 00:24:07.580 -04:00] [ERR] [1] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Encoder.MediaEncoder: FFmpeg validation: The process returned no result
[2024-08-15 00:24:07.580 -04:00] [WRN] [1] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Encoder.MediaEncoder: FFmpeg: Failed version check: "ffmpeg"
[2024-08-15 00:24:07.583 -04:00] [INF] [1] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Encoder.MediaEncoder: FFmpeg: ""

It's failing because FFmpeg isn't installed. Could you provide details on how you installed it and how you start it? I've never installed Jellyfin on a Fedora-based system, so the best I can do is point you to the installation documentation.

[TheDreadPirate]

Your options are to install ffmpeg from your repo, which may be problematic for transcoding, or you could try using the "portable" version of jellyfin-ffmpeg.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-ffm...g/v6.0.1-8

[wade730]

So I used the documentation that you referenced to get it installed and that's also how I started the service.

I just ran a "dnf install ffmpeg" and it comes back with "Package ffmpeg-6.1.1-13.fc40.x86_64 is already installed." Maybe something needs to point to that? not sure...

I also looked at https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-ffm...g/v6.0.1-8 and all the Linux versions have a .deb extension which for Nobara/Fedora I need a .rpm.

Update: I just noticed under Dashboard>Playback>Transcoding the FFMPG path is not set and it will not let me set it through the GUI.

[TheDreadPirate]

If it isn't showing you the full list, expand the list of packages and one of them will be a Linux "portable" version in a tar.xz file.

But, you may need to reinstall ffmpeg via DNF. It sounds like Jellyfin isn't picking it up for some reason. What do you see when you type "which ffmpeg"? It should display a file path. Can you verify it is actually present?

[wade730]

So I just tried this solution: https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-ffmpeg-path...in-10-8-13 which did not work.

I had to do a which for that solution above and that gave me "/usr/bin/ffmpeg". As I said in my last post when i go under Dashboard>Playback>Transcoding the FFMPG path isnt set so yeah it seems jellyfin doesnt see it and the solution I just tried is supposed to hard code it.

[TheDreadPirate]

Changing the ffmpeg path in the UI was disabled in 10.8.12? .13?. You have to modify encoding.xml. /etc/jellyfin/encoding.xml with your ffmpeg path.

[wade730]

Changing the ffmpeg path in the UI was disabled in 10.8.12? .13?.  You have to modify encoding.xml.  /etc/jellyfin/encoding.xml with your ffmpeg path.

So I edited the encoding.xml to  add the following two lines:

Code:

  <EncoderAppPath>/usr/bin/ffmpeg</EncoderAppPath>
  <EncoderAppPathDisplay>/usr/bin/ffmpeg</EncoderAppPathDisplay>

now once I save and a systemctl restart jellyfin and cat the file the one line seems to be changed somehow resulting in the code below:

Code:

  <EncoderAppPath>/usr/bin/ffmpeg</EncoderAppPath>
  <EncoderAppPathDisplay />

The Encoder "EncoderAppPathDisplay" seems to edit itself and take the declared codec filepath out? Anyone know why that is happening? I did check and no videos are currently playing on my server.

[TheDreadPirate]

Oh. It just remembered. You can try modifying the startup process or service file.

The service file references this variable:

Code:

$JELLYFIN_FFMPEG_OPT

which is defined in /etc/default/jellyfin. Change this line in /etc/default/jellyfin to your desired ffmpeg path.

Code:

JELLYFIN_FFMPEG_OPT="--ffmpeg=/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg"

[wade730]

Oh.  It just remembered.  You can try modifying the startup process or service file.

The service file references this variable:

Code:

$JELLYFIN_FFMPEG_OPT

which is defined in /etc/default/jellyfin.  Change this line in /etc/default/jellyfin to your desired ffmpeg path.

Code:

JELLYFIN_FFMPEG_OPT="--ffmpeg=/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg"

Code:

mwade@tars:~$ cd /etc/default/
mwade@tars:/etc/default$ ls
grub  locale  scx  useradd
mwade@tars:/etc/default$

looks like I don't have that folder....is there somewhere else I can edit it?