No playback on android tv box

[Starr]

Hello there!
I have a jellyfin server installed on a yunohost instance (a selfhosting solution for beginners) , on a decent mini pc running debian 11.
I use it locally only.

It works well on my android phone and android tablet, but not on the android tv box.

Box is an X96 max+ (amlogic s905x3). Accessing jellyfin from any browser (chrome, Firefox, and couple others) does not work. When hitting play for example on a series, the series splash screen / wallpaper appears, an audio notification appears in the status bar, but no sound, no playback, the picture never moves. I tried lowering the resolution to quite low settings, activated/deactivated transcoding, to no avail. No error messages anywhere.

My question is how can I even troubleshoot this? I tried even flashing custom roms on the box with no result. My next move is to throw away that 3 year old box and buy a new one at this point, as I tried all I could with my limited knowledge.

Any suggestions? Any log files to look at? And look for what? Thank you.

Again, all worked out of the box on other android devices. The box itself plays Netflix, vlc, 1080p without issue

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you share your logs with us? Both the jellyfin and ffmpeg logs (if those exist). Redact any WAN IPs.

[Starr]

Thank you, I will do this tomorrow when I get hands on my pc.

[Starr]

So here is what I did today:
17:40 start jellyfin server
17:42 login to jellyfin on firefox/android smartphone on second attempt (first attempt with incorrect password...) and play series 1 ->plays fine, it creates an ffmpeg log
17:43 play next episode of series 1 on same device ->plays fine, it creates another ffmpeg log
17:43 logoff from jellyfin on firefox/smartphone
17:45 go to chrome/androidtvbox and play Series 2: nothing happens, no new ffmpeg log
17:47 hit next, still nothing
17:50 stop jellyfin server

Here is the file from /var/log/log_20231112.log on the server
https://paste.yunohost.org/fejoxocabu.sql

Here is the log from journalctl of the server:
https://paste.yunohost.org/akenezovij

Is there any point sharing the ffmpeg logs generated by the play on the smartphone, which works fine?
Edit: here is the first one from 17:42
https://paste.yunohost.org/lihosigoha.makefile

Is there a log with more verbose of a way to enable it? is there a log on the client side, and where?

thank you

[tmsrxzar]

"chrome/androidtvbox" is never going to work properly

use a real client

https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...l=en&gl=US

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/releases

[TheDreadPirate]

The first log you shared is truncated or something.  Doesn't include any of the logs from when you accessed it with your browser.

Also, like TMSRXZAR said, are you using a browser in Android TV?  Or the actual Jellyfin Android TV app?

[Starr]

I installed jellyfin via yunohost, thus it is behind ssowat so no app will work, can only do browser. I couldn't find a workaround on the internet for using the apps (jellyfin and jellyfin for android tv) when using ssowat.

For the logs I will repeat the actions tomorrow, I was already logged in the androidbox browser I realise; any clue on more verbose? In the client itself I see under activity things like user started playing such and such, finished playing etc...

[tmsrxzar]

I installed jellyfin via yunohost, thus it is behind ssowat so no app will work, can only do browser. I couldn't find a workaround on the internet for using the apps (jellyfin and jellyfin for android tv) when using ssowat.

For the logs I will repeat the actions tomorrow, I was already logged in the androidbox browser I realise; any clue on more verbose? In the client itself I see under activity things like user started playing such and such, finished playing etc...

chrome barely works, chrome on android is worse and i dont think 'on android TV' works at all

you should be spending your time and effort towards finding out why you can't use the official app with your provider
https://forum.yunohost.org

p.s.

if the server sees playback start/stop/ended etc then it's all client side and you will have to diagnose android/chrome issues likely through ADB or similar

[Starr]

Just to close this topic, I have given up.

PS:
- It is not just chrome, firefox too.
- I say android TV, but I tried a custom rom on the box that is almost pure aosp, still the same
- I managed to bypass sso on my server specifically for jellyfin; I can now use the app on my smartphone, tablet, but the box can't connect to server. I tried connecting the box via rj45 i/o wifi, still the same. I can ping the jellyfin server on termux. So definitely something wrong with the box, hence giving up

Conclusion jellyfin unlikely causing the issue, still I can connect to jellyfin on that box via the browser, browse the content of my library etc... I wish there was more verbose though on server side.

Thanks for the help anyway. A pity for a box that is technically 8k capable

[Starr]

another hint: the box runs android 9 so it might have been TLS incompatibility