Jellyfin not playing the occasional media file

[Atileture77]

Hi, all. 

I've had Jellyfin running on my Synology NAS for a little over a year. I love it and it plays 99.9% of whatever I throw at it without issue. I would like some help troubleshooting the occasional one-off I get where it /doesn't/ play media.

My setup is as follows:
- Jellyfin server on Synology DS920+
- Intel 8100t w/ 32gb mini PC attached to NAS and Smart TV
- I use the 'Jellyfin Media Player' app on the mini PC to play videos.

The below is a copy/paste example of Jellyfin's logs when I tried playing a file today through Jellyfin Media Player (JMP). Trying to play the file resulted in JMP freezing. I should note that the file opens fine playing locally with VLC and it even plays seamlessly while accessing Jellyfin through a browser (Brave or Firefox):

[2023-08-03 10:09:30.506 -07:00] [INF] [188] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "user". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2023-08-03 10:09:30.506 -07:00] [INF] [188] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="Jellyfin Media Player", Path="/data/movies/Nefarious (2023)/Nefarious (2023).mkv", AudioStreamIndex=null, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "mediavideos/6418ffc1-f985-274c-af16-500a36e9a753/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=6418ffc1f985274caf16500a36e9a753&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=ac3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&SubtitleMethod=Encode&Tag=a52e1127be73888b7a36412567b35040"

[TheDreadPirate]

Do you have transcoding on or off? What codec is this example movie encoded with?

[Atileture77]

Do you have transcoding on or off?  What codec is this example movie encoded with?

Thanks for the reply.

Codec:
video x264
audio AC3 - 5.1

Transcoding:
I've always had the setting 'Server > Playback > Transcoding > Hardware Acceleration" set to None.

[Atileture77]

I realize my reply didn't provide much info. Here is the detailed file info per Jellyfin:

Video
CodecH264
AVCYes
ProfileHigh
Level40
Resolution1920x804
Aspect ratio2.40:1
InterlacedNo
Framerate30
Bitrate2058 kbps
Bit depth8 bit
Video rangeSDR
Video range typeSDR
Pixel formatyuv420p
Ref frames1
NAL4 

Audio
Languageeng
CodecAC3
Layout5.1
Channels6 ch
Bitrate320 kbps
Sample rate44100 Hz
DefaultYes
ForcedNo
ExternalNo

Do you have transcoding on or off?  What codec is this example movie encoded with?

Thanks for the reply.

Codec:
video x264
audio AC3 - 5.1

Transcoding:
I've always had the setting 'Server > Playback > Transcoding > Hardware Acceleration" set to None.

[TheDreadPirate]

Any particular reason you have hardware acceleration set to none? The 920+ has a pretty capable Gemini Lake Intel CPU and supports QSV. The official jellyfin docker image has all the Intel drivers built in.

I would also need your full jellyfin log and ffmpeg log, if it exists. To diagnose what is going on with the 0.01%.

[Atileture77]

Any particular reason you have hardware acceleration set to none?  The 920+ has a pretty capable Gemini Lake Intel CPU and supports QSV.  The official jellyfin docker image has all the Intel drivers built in.

I would also need your full jellyfin log and ffmpeg log, if it exists.  To diagnose what is going on with the 0.01%.

99% of the time I've used Direct Play and never needed to tinker with settings thus have never ventured into Hardware Acceleration territory

I turned on Direct Play and am still having the same challenge.

Here is the log from when I tried playing with JMP. It resulted in app hanging and needing to be force-closed.

[2023-08-08 23:15:07.746 -07:00] [INF] [214] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Creating new access token for user 56ffa1d6-e943-4f7f-99c8-723a466aa94e
[2023-08-08 23:15:07.793 -07:00] [INF] [211] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-08 23:15:09.928 -07:00] [INF] [209] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "x3JTueoYcpKtWz5o". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2023-08-08 23:15:09.928 -07:00] [INF] [209] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="Jellyfin Media Player", Path="/data/movies/movies-all/Nefarious (2023)/Nefarious (2023).mkv", AudioStreamIndex=null, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "mediavideos/6418ffc1-f985-274c-af16-500a36e9a753/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=6418ffc1f985274caf16500a36e9a753&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=ac3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&SubtitleMethod=Encode&Tag=a52e1127be73888b7a36412567b35040"
[2023-08-08 23:15:20.867 -07:00] [INF] [150] Jellyfin.Server.Implementations.Users.UserManager: Authentication request for "x3JTueoYcpKtWz5o" has succeeded.
[2023-08-08 23:15:20.867 -07:00] [INF] [150] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Current/Max sessions for user "x3JTueoYcpKtWz5o": 0/0
[2023-08-08 23:15:20.870 -07:00] [INF] [150] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Creating new access token for user 2ae48337-5bd5-4b4c-8044-b3282646bc86
[2023-08-08 23:15:20.929 -07:00] [INF] [182] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-08 23:16:03.367 -07:00] [INF] [209] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" closed
[2023-08-08 23:16:07.798 -07:00] [INF] [209] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2023-08-08 23:16:19.799 -07:00] [INF] [141] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2023-08-08 23:16:31.800 -07:00] [INF] [124] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Lost 1 WebSockets.
[2023-08-08 23:17:03.736 -07:00] [INF] [36] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" closed

Here is the log from when I played via Firefox and Chrome browsers - no issues with the video and it played normally

[2023-08-09 01:21:27.028 -07:00] [INF] [206] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-09 01:22:59.295 -07:00] [INF] [31] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "x3JTueoYcpKtWz5o". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2023-08-09 01:22:59.297 -07:00] [INF] [31] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="Anonymous Profile", Path="/data/movies/movies-all/Nefarious (2023)/Nefarious (2023).mkv", AudioStreamIndex=null, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=Transcode, TranscodeReason=VideoCodecNotSupported, AudioCodecNotSupported ) "mediavideos/6418ffc1-f985-274c-af16-500a36e9a753/master.m3u8?MediaSourceId=6418ffc1f985274caf16500a36e9a753&VideoCodec=h264,h264&AudioCodec=aac,mp3&AudioStreamIndex=1&VideoBitrate=139616000&AudioBitrate=384000&MaxFramerate=30&api_key=<token>&TranscodingMaxAudioChannels=2&RequireAvc=false&Tag=a52e1127be73888b7a36412567b35040&SegmentContainer=ts&MinSegments=1&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&h264-level=40&h264-videobitdepth=8&h264-profile=high&h264-rangetype=SDR&h264-deinterlace=true&TranscodeReasons=VideoCodecNotSupported,%20AudioCodecNotSupported"
[2023-08-09 01:22:59.729 -07:00] [INF] [170] Jellyfin.Api.Controllers.DynamicHlsController: Current HLS implementation doesn't support non-keyframe breaks but one is requested, ignoring that request
[2023-08-09 01:22:59.732 -07:00] [INF] [170] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.TranscodingJobHelper: "/usr/lib/jellyfin-ffmpeg/ffmpeg" "-analyzeduration 200M -fflags +genpts  -i file:\"/data/movies/movies-all/Nefarious (2023)/Nefarious (2023).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 libfdk_aac -ac 2 -ab 384000 -af \"volume=2\" -copyts -avoid_negative_ts disabled -max_muxing_queue_size 2048 -f hls -max_delay 5000000 -hls_time 6 -hls_segment_type mpegts -start_number 0 -hls_segment_filename \"/config/data/transcodes/28d269f847683a52bd628eb3f7b6a87d%d.ts\" -hls_playlist_type vod -hls_list_size 0 -y \"/config/data/transcodes/28d269f847683a52bd628eb3f7b6a87d.m3u8\""
[2023-08-09 01:23:00.255 -07:00] [WRN] [119] Jellyfin.Server.Middleware.ResponseTimeMiddleware: Slow HTTP Response from "http://192.168.1.100:8096/videos/6418ffc1-f985-274c-af16-500a36e9a753/hls1/main/0.ts?DeviceId=TW96aWxsYS81LjAgKFdpbmRvd3MgTlQgMTAuMDsgV2luNjQ7IHg2NDsgcnY6MTA5LjApIEdlY2tvLzIwMTAwMTAxIEZpcmVmb3gvMTE1LjB8MTY4OTQ5MzYzMTk0Ng11&MediaSourceId=6418ffc1f985274caf16500a36e9a753&VideoCodec=h264,h264&AudioCodec=aac,mp3&AudioStreamIndex=1&VideoBitrate=139616000&AudioBitrate=384000&MaxFramerate=30&PlaySessionId=3491bd74a3c3427eacc604d1883d7f46&api_key=59a496d5b67d4b9d9211fc333d4a88f2&TranscodingMaxAudioChannels=2&RequireAvc=false&Tag=a52e1127be73888b7a36412567b35040&SegmentContainer=ts&MinSegments=1&BreakOnNonKeyFrames=True&h264-level=40&h264-videobitdepth=8&h264-profile=high&h264-rangetype=SDR&h264-deinterlace=true&TranscodeReasons=VideoCodecNotSupported,%20AudioCodecNotSupported&runtimeTicks=0&actualSegmentLengthTicks=122390000" to "172.29.0.1" in 0:00:00.5291025 with Status Code 200

[TheDreadPirate]

First, lets turn on hardware acceleration.

Select Intel Quick Sync from the drop down.

Check these boxes
*****
H264
HEVC
MPEG2
VC1
VP8
VP9
HEVC 10-bit
VP9 10-bit

Enabled Hardware Encoding
Allow Encoding in HEVC Format
Enable VPP Tone Mapping
Enable Tone Mapping
******
Save

What happens now when you play one of these problem videos?

[Atileture77]

First, lets turn on hardware acceleration.

Select Intel Quick Sync from the drop down.

Check these boxes
*****
H264
HEVC
MPEG2
VC1
VP8
VP9
HEVC 10-bit
VP9 10-bit

Enabled Hardware Encoding
Allow Encoding in HEVC Format
Enable VPP Tone Mapping
Enable Tone Mapping
******
Save

What happens now when you play one of these problem videos?

Turned the above on.
Tried playing through Jellyfin Media Player, still no dice:

[2023-08-09 10:43:36.637 -07:00] [INF] [11] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-09 10:43:46.659 -07:00] [INF] [25] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-09 10:43:49.627 -07:00] [INF] [11] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: User policy for "cbs". EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
[2023-08-09 10:43:49.696 -07:00] [INF] [11] Jellyfin.Api.Helpers.MediaInfoHelper: StreamBuilder.BuildVideoItem( Profile="Jellyfin Media Player", Path="/data/movies/movies-all/Nefarious (2023)/Nefarious (2023).mkv", AudioStreamIndex=null, SubtitleStreamIndex=null ) => ( PlayMethod=DirectPlay, TranscodeReason=0 ) "mediavideos/6418ffc1-f985-274c-af16-500a36e9a753/stream.mkv?MediaSourceId=6418ffc1f985274caf16500a36e9a753&Static=true&VideoCodec=h264&AudioCodec=ac3&AudioStreamIndex=1&api_key=<token>&SubtitleMethod=Encode&Tag=a52e1127be73888b7a36412567b35040"
[2023-08-09 10:44:24.923 -07:00] [INF] [29] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Sending ForceKeepAlive message to 1 inactive WebSockets.
[2023-08-09 10:44:36.925 -07:00] [INF] [27] Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionWebSocketListener: Lost 1 WebSockets.
[2023-08-09 10:44:55.670 -07:00] [INF] [30] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" closed
[2023-08-09 10:45:01.966 -07:00] [INF] [36] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" request
[2023-08-09 10:45:04.181 -07:00] [INF] [38] Emby.Server.Implementations.HttpServer.WebSocketManager: WS "172.29.0.1" closed

[TheDreadPirate]

What OS are you running JMP on? And what hardware? The one that is freezing. It is direct playing so the issue is almost certainly client side. Possibly a bug with JMP.

[Atileture77]

Yeah, very strange  

Dell OptiPlex 3060
Windows 10 Pro
i3-8100T, 16GB

What OS are you running JMP on?  And what hardware?  The one that is freezing.  It is direct playing so the issue is almost certainly client side.  Possibly a bug with JMP.