Media won't play since enabling hardware acceleration

[rdrulez]

Hi all, I've recently set up Jellyfin on my new intel-based mini PC. I specifically chose this mini PC because it was mentioned by others as being suitable for Jellyfin-streaming.

After enabling my library, and playing with hardware acceleration DISABLED, and thus playing via direct play, everything has been fine and very smooth.

Today, for the first time I tried to enable some PGS subtitles on a file, which I now know forced a transcoding of the file. With software-based transcoding it was slow-loading and non-functional. That's when I saw in the Jellyfin admin settings that hardware-acceleration was set to None.

I have since set this to Intel QuickSync (QSV) and saved.

However now when I try to play any title I'm getting the error "Playback failed due to a fatal player error."

My related transcode log (attached) ends with

Code:

[av1_qsv @ 000001ea03cb9ec0] Current codec type is unsupported
[/color]
[color=#000000][av1_qsv @ 000001ea03cb9ec0] some encoding parameters are not supported by the QSV runtime. Please double check the input parameters.[/color]
[color=#000000][vost#0:0/av1_qsv @ 000001ea03d054c0] Error initializing output stream: Error while opening encoder for output stream #0:0 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height[/color]
[color=#000000][libfdk_aac @ 000001ea03cbb6c0] 2 frames left in the queue on closing
Conversion failed![/color]
[color=#000000]

Can anyone help me understand the root issue I'm facing? I guessing it's one or a combination of:
* My Jellyfin hardware transcoding configuration is wrong
* My media files are simply unsupported by my intel iGPU
* and/or my Intel iGPU doesn't have the right features for my needs

Machine specs:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.22000 Build 22000
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer AZW
System Model MINI S
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU 01
Processor Intel® N100, 800 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) with Intel® UHD Graphics + Intel QuickSync: Yes

---

Jellyfin config:

Transcoding
Hardware acceleration
[SELECTED] Intel QuickSync (QSV)

Enable hardware decoding for

[YES] H264
[YES] HEVC
[YES] MPEG2
[YES] VC1
[YES] VP8
[YES] VP9
[YES] AV1
[YES] HEVC 10bit
[YES] VP9 10bit

[YES] Prefer OS native DXVA or VA-API hardware decoders

Hardware encoding options

[YES] Enable hardware encoding
[YES] Enable Intel Low-Power H.264 hardware encoder
[YES] Enable Intel Low-Power HEVC hardware encoder

Encoding format options

[YES] Allow encoding in HEVC format
[YES] Allow encoding in AV1 format

Enable VPP Tone mapping
[YES] Full Intel driver based tone-mapping.

[TheDreadPirate]

The N100 doesn't support AV1 ENCODING. Uncheck "Allow encoding in AV1 format".

[rdrulez]

Hi, thank you for your quick reply. After unchecking that option I no longer get the fatal playback error. However I am getting a forever-loading screen of the title I try to play. The loading wheel just keeps spinning and the title never plays. Looking at task manager > Performance I'm not seeing any load hitting the iGPU (During spinning loading wheel: CPU at 20% and GPI at 3%. And also strangely checking the logs there's no transcoding log for the play attempt, it makes me think something else is not working.

I was really hopeful this mini PC would have the specs for even multiple simultaneous transcodes, but I'm struggling to get 1 running.

Do you have any other suggestions to resolve transcoding via Intel QuickSync?

Thank you for your time to help

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you share both the new ffmpeg and the jellyfin server log?

[rdrulez]

Hi, I'm now thinking the issue might be related to the new WebOS 4.0+ LGTV app.

When transcoding via my browser, everything seems to run smoothly, transcoding included. For example, running a title on the LGTV WebOS Internet Browser app (LG Smart TV Jellyfin Web 10.9.6) playback is fine, but trying the same title in the official app (LG Smart TV Jellyfin for WebOS 10.9.6) I get 2-3 seconds of transcoded playback then frozen video, the audio continues to play.

I'm seeing this statement in the logs which backs up what I saw in the playback attempt (full log attached)

Code:

frame= 7399 fps=721 q=-0.0 size=N/A time=00:05:10.88 bitrate=N/A dup=0 drop=50 speed=30.3x   
[hls @ 0000022c0b900700] Opening 'C:\ProgramData\Jellyfin\Server\cache\transcodes\2ee12c6b6d1b5de5df0e60202cc5937a102.mp4' for writing

Transcoding is paused. Press [u] to resume.

The statement on 'transcoding is paused' is seen on all the failed playback attempts. Could this be a WebOS app specific issue?

[TheDreadPirate]

That looks like transcode throttling. It pauses when the transcode is about 5 minutes ahead of the playback. It SHOULDN'T affect playback since our clients don't receive segments that far ahead. Once playback starts to catch up transcoding will resume.

But for testing you can go to Dashboard > Playback. Near the bottom is the setting for transcode throttling.

[rdrulez]

Hi, I disabled transcoding throttling as suggested, but the playback issues remain as before.

I tested this with 2 different titles, resuming didn't work at all.

Playing from beginning transcodes the video for a second then it freezes, while the audio continues.

Logs attached from the latest "play from beginning" test.

[TheDreadPirate]

I just noticed that the transcode resolution is really low.

Code:

Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (hvc1 / 0x31637668), qsv(tv, bt709, progressive), 426x230 [SAR 1:1 DAR 213:115], q=2-31, 292 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 24k tbn

Then I noticed this in the stream info.

Code:

Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main 10), yuv420p10le(tv), 1920x1036, SAR 1:1 DAR 480:259

For some reason the DAR was set to an extremely low resolution and I wouldn't be surprised if the image scaler in your TV doesn't support upscaling this low of a resolution (I know mine doesn't).

Whoever created this file messed it up.

I see the same thing in the first log you posted.

[rdrulez]

Hmmm, that's quite strange then. As the same titles play just fine via transcoding when using the web browser on the LGTV. This issue is only when using the Official (and relatively new) Jellyfin WebOS 4+ app.

Also, the transcoding issue with the exact same behaviour was observed on 3 unrelated titles, which really leads me to believe what you mentioned isn't entirely the issue here (file related)

At present my workaround for the issue is to use Jellyfin via the LGTV web browser, which isn't ideal. I'd really like to get to a point if we can confirm this is an issue with the WebOS app.

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you find the transcode ffmpeg logs when you playback this file on other devices?