FireTV 4K Mysterious Transcoding

[Peter Banfield]

Hello all, I am seeing a weird issue around a new Firetv client transcoding files to play where as far as I can figure it should be direct playing.

I have been using a FireTV 4K First Generation along with the Jellyfin app for Android TV for a while now and have had a great time without issues.
Every file I attempted to play would directly play without issue.

Recently I decided to upgrade the FireTV to the new generation of the device and the first thing I did was install the Jellyfin app and attempt to play a file.
This is where I started running into issues. The file that I attempted to play (media info shown below) was transcoding. Looking at the transcoding information and 
eventually, through the logs, I found that the reported reason was that the video level was not supported.
This sent me down the trail of learning what that meant and then looking into what video levels were supported by the new FireTV compared to the old one.

That brought me to the device specifications page (links below) from Amazon where I found that the video level supported by both FireTVs was the same for the video codec being used by the test file.

At this point, I reconnected the original FireTV to double-check that it could directly play the same file that was transcoding on the new one and confirmed that the old stick could directly play the test file.

Based on all this information I would expect the file to directly play on both FireTV devices but that is not the case.

I was hoping that maybe someone here might see something I am missing that could explain what is going on.

Thanks in advance for anyone looking at this.

Version Information and logs:

Jellyfin Server: 10.8.12 (Docker container on Unraid)

Original FireTV: FireTV 4K First Generation
Device Specifications https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-t...ftvstick4k
Jellyfin AndroidTV: 0.15.12

New FireTV: FireTV 4K Second Generation
Device specifications: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-t...k4k_gen2_8
Jellyfin AndroidTV: 0.15.12

Screenshot of Media Info for test file
   

The logs do not want to upload, I will get them added ASAP
Got the logs uploaded. I had to split it into multiple parts as the file was too big to be uploaded.

[abpjf]

I'm not saying that this is the cause rather more of an observational comment, but never take published specs as gospel; it's not unheard of for a mfr to basically copy-paste specs (you're dealing with Marketing at the end stage, rather than Engineering) onto "upgraded" versions of an item. too, a 'new generation' device doesn't automatically mean it's "better" than the previous version - many cases of newer-model items to actually be less-capable than previous generations, regardless of what the specs say. if you feel like doing some poking, try some of these (I'm assuming that both your sticks were tested on the same TV, not different TVs):

1. borrow another same-model stick from someone and see if the same behavior occurs
2. make sure your stick is running whatever the latest firmware/OS is provided (not sure if Amazon does updates)

[TheDreadPirate]

Your firestick supports the codec, but not the LEVEL.

Code:

TranscodeReasons=VideoLevelNotSupported

I'm assuming your firestick only supports up to level 42. Level 5X is primarily intended for high frame rate 1080P or 4K content.