Jellyfin Linux Desktop Client Performance Slow

[juchestalin]

I haven't found anyone else in these forums, on reddit, or anywhere else who has seen this issue. I probably just can't find the right search parameters, so I'd be extremely happy with a link to a relevant thread that might inspire some diagnostic or troubleshooting steps.

Details:
Jellyfin server version: 10.9.11 (docker hash de4f7879e9d1)
Jellyfin client version: 1.11.1-1
Installation method: docker (server) / deb (client)

The issue I'm having is that desktop app performance (including the official app and alternative clients) is extremely poor within my LAN. There is no encoding happening on the server when I look at video statistics. The same files exhibit satisfactory performance in the browser, over NFS with MPV, and using the Kodi jellyfin add-on.

Some various attempts at playing the same file on the same system:
* Jellyfin official desktop client: low FPS
* Other non-official desktop clients: low FPS
* NFS Mount playing with mpv: perfect
* Jellyfin web client installed via .deb file (hosted by the same server which hosts the files) (e.g. http://local.ip.goes.here:8096): perfect
* Kodi jellyfin add-on: perfect


Other use cases:
* A different device, a smart TV: perfect
* Other more powerful PC using web client: perfect
* Other more powerful PC using jellyfin official desktop client: perfect

When I set up the configuration on each of the above, I used the local ip address, without https and without a reverse proxy.

[juchestalin]

System Details for Problematic Performance:
Model: Odroid H2+
Intel Quad-core processor J4115 (14nm) with 4MiB Cache, up to 2.5Ghz(Single Thread) or 2.3Ghz(Multi Thread)
16GB DDR
Realtek Wifi USB
Intel UHD Graphics 600

[juchestalin]

The plot thickens... So on the TV, I have to always make sure no transcoding happens or it's terribly slow, so naturally I checked if it was transcoding in the desktop player, and it wasn't.

I was not expecting to see that the fast browser performance included transcoding.

Fast.png shows the transcoding browser player which is working well.
Slow.png shows the non-transcoding desktop player which is performing badly.

[Fate]

Your client is probably too slow to play the hevc file directly. It should be able to decode it via hw acceleration. What is the cpu usage while playing on the client?

TO check:
Go to the jellyfin client into settings -> client settings and check "force transcode hevc" does that solve it?

[juchestalin]

It looks like it's slightly faster, but still pretty stuttery.

CPU:
With Force transcode HEVC: 100% on one core basically always, changes core occasionally
Without Force transcode HEVC: 100% on one core basically always, changes core occasionally
In browser: ~20-30% each core

[juchestalin]

Your client is probably too slow to play the hevc file directly. It should be able to decode it via hw acceleration. What is the cpu usage while playing on the client?

TO check:
Go to the jellyfin client into settings -> client settings and check "force transcode hevc" does that solve it?

If it were too slow to play it directly, would I experience the same problems playing it over a direct NFS mount? What about the Kodi Jellyfin addon? I can't really understand why that one especially is working. I'm not sure how to get the same playback info from the kodi jellyfin addon.

[34626]

Please share settings from Jellyfin server under playback -> transcoding

[juchestalin]

Sure thing, screenshots attached.

   

[TheDreadPirate]

If that video is not transcoding, that means the client is locally tone mapping. Jellyfin Media Player cannot display HDR due to how the rendering pipeline currently works. So it locally tone maps HDR videos, even if no transcoding happens on the server.

[juchestalin]

Under the hood it uses MPV, right? MPV running locally doesn't seem to have any issues. Could I try MPV directly against the jellyfin stream somehow, bypassing the app?

Why wouldn't Kodi suffer from the same problem?