Android vs Android TV Subtitle Support

[RedPhosphorus]

I've noticed that whenever I watch content on my TV using the Android TV app, I'll transcode due to not supporting the .ass subtitles. (Not exactly a huge issue, but I spend some time trying to figure out if it could use extracted subtitles instead of transcoding.) During that process, I played my test file on my phone and realized that it doesn't transcode the video at all. (It does remux from .mkv to .mp4 though.)

So I guess I have two questions here:

1. Is it possible for the Android TV app display the subtitles without transcoding?
   
2. Is there a way use extracted subtitles instead of transcoding the video?
   

Android

Code:

[2025-01-05 21:54:56.455 -06:00] [INF] [41] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager: "/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg" "-analyzeduration 200M -probesize 1G -fflags +genpts -f matroska  -i file:\"/media/Anime/Ameku M.D. Doctor Detective (2025) [tvdbid-448477]/Season 01/Ameku M.D. Doctor Detective (2025) - S01E01 - 001 - Dr. Sherlock.mkv\" -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map -0:s -codec:v:0 copy -bsf:v h264_mp4toannexb -start_at_zero -codec:a:0 copy -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 6 -hls_segment_type fmp4 -hls_fmp4_init_filename \"e0bd4f6403a159f8b4cc33e977251e55-1.mp4\" -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename \"/cache/transcodes/e0bd4f6403a159f8b4cc33e977251e55%d.mp4\" -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y \"/cache/transcodes/e0bd4f6403a159f8b4cc33e977251e55.m3u8\""

Android TV

Code:

[2025-01-05 21:56:13.143 -06:00] [INF] [44] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager: "/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg" "-analyzeduration 200M -probesize 1G -f matroska -init_hw_device vaapi=va:,vendor_id=0x8086,driver=iHD -init_hw_device qsv=qs@va -filter_hw_device qs -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_output_format vaapi -noautorotate -i file:\"/media/Anime/Ameku M.D. Doctor Detective (2025) [tvdbid-448477]/Season 01/Ameku M.D. Doctor Detective (2025) - S01E01 - 001 - Dr. Sherlock.mkv\" -noautoscale -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 -threads 0 -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map -0:0 -codec:v:0 hevc_qsv -tag:v:0 hvc1 -preset veryfast -b:v 8118634 -maxrate 8118634 -bufsize 16237268 -profile:v:0 main -g:v:0 72 -keyint_min:v:0 72 -filter_complex \"alphasrc=s=1920x1080:r=23.976025:start='0',format=bgra,subtitles=f='/config/data/subtitles/8/8ca85328-f8ca-772d-463a-b25dda058dfe.ass':alpha=1:sub2video=1:fontsdir='/cache/attachments/5afcbc43648ddea483e5234f0d60a5a3',hwupload=derive_device=qsv:extra_hw_frames=64[sub];[0:0]setparams=color_primaries=bt709:color_trc=bt709:colorspace=bt709,scale_vaapi=format=nv12:extra_hw_frames=24,hwmap=derive_device=qsv,format=qsv[main];[main][sub]overlay_qsv=eof_action=pass:repeatlast=0:w=1920:h=1080\" -start_at_zero -codec:a:0 copy -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 3 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename \"/cache/transcodes/a742ffc3a01040e981bba1ead13170cd%d.ts\" -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y \"/cache/transcodes/a742ffc3a01040e981bba1ead13170cd.m3u8\""

---

Almost forgot; Server is running 10.10.3, Android TV is 0.18.3, Android is 2.6.2

[Efficient_Good_5784]

The Android TV Jellyfin app does not support ASS subs at this time. There is planned support for directly supporting them, but that will come in the future with no set release timeframe.

The Android phone app does have some form of support for ASS subs as long as you use the native ExoPlayer.

[theguymadmax]

So I guess I have two questions here:

1. Is it possible for the Android TV app display the subtitles without transcoding?
   
2. Is there a way use extracted subtitles instead of transcoding the video?
   

1. No, ASS subtitles on the AndroidTV client need to be burnt-in and will trigger a transcode.
2. If you use external SRT subtitles and they have the same filename as the video file, you can play without transcoding. This does not work for ASS subtitles.

[RedPhosphorus]

Thanks, hopefully .ass support is apart of that playback rewrite. I see now that the phone app uses a web player by default instead of the ExoPlayer. When I toggle over to ExoPlayer it transcodes the subtitles.