playback shows blank screen on Google TV Streamer

[vertebrae]

I just set up a Google TV Streamer (Android TV box) and installed Jellyfin. A few videos are playing fine, but most are getting stuck on a blank screen when I start payback.

For example, all I see when I play Dune (4K HDR) is a blank pink screen (image attached). Most videos seem to show a black screen instead of pink. A small percentage of videos seem to play back fine.

Is this a known issue? Is there any good way to track down what's happening?

   

[TheDreadPirate]

Can you share the Media info for the video? In the Jellyfin web UI it is in the "..." context menu. Then click "Media Info".

[theguymadmax]

I experience the same magenta screen issue on my Fire TV Stick 4K when playing media with both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ metadata, which is a known bug. There are reports that the Google TV Streamer uses the same MediaTek chip as the Fire Stick 4k and is also affected by this bug.

[vertebrae]

There seem to be two different problems.

1) The magenta screen. When this happens, trying to fast forward or rewind does not display the overlay, and it's basically frozen until I hit the back button and wait a few seconds. The files with the frozen magenta screen indeed have both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. This seems to be the same issue as the known bug linked in comment #4. I started playing about 10 different 4K videos, and only two had this problem

2) The black screen: stuck in pause mode. This affects all but one of the 4K videos I tried. Unlike with the magenta screen, when I use the left/right arrows, the overlay displays, and it fast forwards and rewinds. However, it is stuck forever on the frame without playing. So basically, the reason that it initially shows a black screen is that it's stuck on the first frame. When I fast forward, it shows the frame I fast forwarded to, but it doesn't actually play. In other words, it's basically paused, and trying to pause/unpause toggles the play/pause icon, but it never starts playing.

This second problem is happening for all but 1 of the 4K videos I tried to play. None of these files had both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and the player behavior is different, so it definitely seems to be a different issue than the first one.

All but one of the 1080p videos I tried to play worked fine. The one problematic 1080p video had the black screen (stuck in pause mode) behavior in the player.

I'll share a few instances of mediainfo here.

This is the 1080p video that has the black screen issue:

Container: mkv

Video
Title: 1080p H264 SDR
Codec: H264
AVC: Yes
Profile: High
Level: 41
Resolution: 1920x960
Aspect ratio: 2:1
Interlaced: No
Framerate: 23.976042
Bitrate: 22212 kbps
Bit depth: 8 bit
Video range: SDR
Video range type: SDR
Color space: bt709
Pixel format: yuv420p
Ref frames: 1
NAL: 4

Audio
Title: French Dolby Atmos 7.1 - TRUEHD - Default
Language: fre
Codec: TRUEHD
Layout: 7.1
Channels: 8 ch
Bitrate: 2794 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Bit depth: 24 bit
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: French Forced SRT - Default - SUBRIP
Language: fre
Codec: SUBRIP
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: French AC3 5.1 - Dolby Digital
Language: fre
Codec: AC3
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 640 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: English Dolby Atmos 7.1 - TRUEHD
Language: eng
Codec: TRUEHD
Layout: 7.1
Channels: 8 ch
Bitrate: 2883 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Bit depth: 24 bit
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: English AC3 5.1 - Dolby Digital
Language: eng
Codec: AC3
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 640 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: French SRT - SUBRIP
Language: fre
Codec: SUBRIP
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: French Forced SUP - PGSSUB
Language: fre
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: French SUP - PGSSUB
Language: fre
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: English SUP - PGSSUB
Language: eng
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

This is the one 4K video that worked:

Container: mkv

Video
Title: redacted
Codec: HEVC
Profile: Main 10
Level: 153
Resolution: 3840x1600
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Interlaced: No
Framerate: 23.976025
Bitrate: 31142 kbps
Bit depth: 10 bit
Video range: HDR
Video range type: HDR10
Color space: bt2020nc
Color transfer: smpte2084
Color primaries: bt2020
Pixel format: yuv420p10le
Ref frames: 1

Audio
Title: English - DTS-HD MA - 5.1 - Default
Language: eng
Codec: DTS
Profile: DTS-HD MA
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 3453 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Bit depth: 24 bit
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: redacted
Language: eng
Codec: AC3
Layout: stereo
Channels: 2 ch
Bitrate: 224 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: English - PGSSUB
Language: eng
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Chi - PGSSUB
Language: chi
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Chi - PGSSUB
Language: chi
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Cze - PGSSUB
Language: cze
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Danish - PGSSUB
Language: dan
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Dut - PGSSUB
Language: dut
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Finnish - PGSSUB
Language: fin
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Fre - PGSSUB
Language: fre
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Ger - PGSSUB
Language: ger
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Italian - PGSSUB
Language: ita
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Japanese - PGSSUB
Language: jpn
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Korean - PGSSUB
Language: kor
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Norwegian - PGSSUB
Language: nor
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Polish - PGSSUB
Language: pol
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Spanish - PGSSUB
Language: spa
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Spanish - PGSSUB
Language: spa
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Swedish - PGSSUB
Language: swe
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Thai - PGSSUB
Language: tha
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: English - PGSSUB
Language: eng
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Fre - PGSSUB
Language: fre
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Ger - PGSSUB
Language: ger
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Italian - PGSSUB
Language: ita
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Japanese - PGSSUB
Language: jpn
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Spanish - PGSSUB
Language: spa
Codec: PGSSUB
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

This is one of the 4K videos with the black screen / pause issue:

Container: mkv

Video
Title: 4K HEVC SDR
Codec: HEVC
AVC: No
Profile: Main 10
Level: 153
Resolution: 3840x1606
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Anamorphic: No
Interlaced: No
Framerate: 23.976025
Bitrate: 21457 kbps
Bit depth: 10 bit
Video range: SDR
Video range type: SDR
Pixel format: yuv420p10le
Ref frames: 1

Audio
Title: Engelsk - Dolby TrueHD/Atmos Audio / 7.1 / 48 kHz / 7347 kbps / 24-bit - English - Default
Language: eng
Codec: TRUEHD
AVC: No
Profile: Dolby TrueHD + Dolby Atmos
Layout: 7.1
Channels: 8 ch
Bitrate: 7350 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Bit depth: 24 bit
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: Dansk AC-3 DD 5.1 - Danish - Dolby Digital - Default
Language: dan
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 384 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: Finsk AC-3 DD 5.1 - Finnish - Dolby Digital - Default
Language: fin
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 384 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: Norsk AC-3 DD 5.1 - Norwegian - Dolby Digital - Default
Language: nor
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 384 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: Svensk AC-3 DD 5.1 - Swedish - Dolby Digital - Default
Language: swe
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 384 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: Yes
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: Engelsk - Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1-EX / 48 kHz / 640 kbps - English
Language: eng
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: 5.1
Channels: 6 ch
Bitrate: 640 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Audio
Title: redacted
Language: eng
Codec: AC3
AVC: No
Layout: stereo
Channels: 2 ch
Bitrate: 192 kbps
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Engelsk - English - SUBRIP
Language: eng
Codec: SUBRIP
AVC: No
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Dansk - Danish - SUBRIP
Language: dan
Codec: SUBRIP
AVC: No
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Finsk - Finnish - SUBRIP
Language: fin
Codec: SUBRIP
AVC: No
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Norsk - Norwegian - SUBRIP
Language: nor
Codec: SUBRIP
AVC: No
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Subtitle
Title: Svensk - Swedish - SUBRIP
Language: swe
Codec: SUBRIP
AVC: No
Default: No
Forced: No
External: No

Image
Codec: MJPEG
AVC: No
Profile: Baseline
Resolution: 120x176
Bit depth: 8 bit
Color space: bt470bg
Pixel format: yuvj444p
Ref frames: 1

Image
Codec: MJPEG
AVC: No
Profile: Baseline
Resolution: 213x120
Bit depth: 8 bit
Color space: bt470bg
Pixel format: yuvj444p
Ref frames: 1

Image
Codec: MJPEG
AVC: No
Profile: Baseline
Resolution: 600x882
Bit depth: 8 bit
Color space: bt470bg
Pixel format: yuvj444p
Ref frames: 1

Image
Codec: MJPEG
AVC: No
Profile: Baseline
Resolution: 1067x600
Bit depth: 8 bit
Color space: bt470bg
Pixel format: yuvj444p
Ref frames: 1

[TheDreadPirate]

I'll do some testing tomorrow night on my Google TV Streamer.

[theguymadmax]

Are the files playing directly, or are they being transcoded? If any files are having issues during transcoding, share the ffmpeg logs. Additionally, what are your server specifications? What A/V equipment are you using, and how is it connected? -The two problem files you identified both had 7.1 TrueHD audio.

[vertebrae]

I'm pretty sure there's no transcoding happening. Going to the Logs, I see for each playback attempt a line like, Emby.Server.Implementations.Session.SessionManager: Playback stopped reported by app "Android TV" "0.17.8" playing "redacted". Stopped at "240005" ms. I don't see anything about transcoding, and I wouldn't expect transcoding to happen in this case.

[vertebrae]

The server is a i5-11400, and all of the media is on SSD. Playback has generally been fine using the Jellyfin app on a Roku Ultra 4K and on the TV itself, as well as on Android tablets. I don't think the issue is server-side. (The only playback issue I've ever noticed is a known bug on the Roku where it has issues with certain files.)

The A/V equipment is a Sony STR-AZ3000 ES receiver connected to the Google TV Streamer, and a Sony A80L TV connected to the receiver.

[vertebrae]

I looked at media info of all of the files, and I think the TrueHD Atmos 7.1 theory is correct. All of the files that seemed to work don't have TrueHD Atmos 7.1, and all of the files that don't work do have TrueHD Atmos 7.1.

I think I'll probably return the Google TV Streamer.

[TheDreadPirate]

AFAICT, this is a limitation of exoplayer and not the Google TV streamer, specifically.

IIRC, TrueHD Atmos support is very very limited compared to non-TrueHD Atmos support.