SOLVED: Jellyfin for Fire TV refuses to play one certain file

[Primey]

The version of Jellyfin you are running (e.g. 10.8.10): 10.10.3
Your installation method and platform (e.g. Linux Docker, Debian repository, Windows installer, etc.): Debian repository
What client(s) you are using and how the issue manifests: Jellyfin for Fire TV 0.18.3

I bought and ripped Godzilla Minus One on UHD and wanted to play it via Jellyfin but whenever I try to play it via the Jellyfin for Fire TV client no picture appears but I do get sound. When I pause it via the remote control pause button no Jellyfin UI appears and pressing the typical buttons to bring up the UI doesn't bring it up. When I access the Jellyfin dashboard on another device it says the file is direct playing so no transcoding is involved. Plex has zero issues with this file.

This movie is the only movie I'm having trouble with, I've successfully ripped and watched at least 20 UHD movies via Jellyfin and I'm not doing anything different when ripping this specific movie. This movie works perfectly fine when I try to watch it on my PC with the official Jellyfin desktop client on Windows 11. Here's the file details, nothing unordinary stands out.

---

General
Unique ID                      : 288187224089278834181100711577132089946 (0xD8CED7277DBE51B49EFED6C970AE425A)
Complete name                  : C:\Video\Godzilla Minus One\Godzilla Minus One_t00.mkv
Format                        : Matroska
Format version                : Version 2
File size                      : 74.3 GiB
Duration                      : 2 h 4 min
Overall bit rate mode          : Variable
Overall bit rate              : 85.4 Mb/s
Frame rate                    : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                    : Godzilla Minus One
Encoded date                  : 2025-01-04 20:33:02 UTC
Writing application            : MakeMKV v1.17.8 win(x64-release)
Writing library                : libmakemkv v1.17.8 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)

Video
ID                            : 1
ID in the original source medi : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                        : HEVC
Format/Info                    : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                    : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, Profile 7.6, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, no metadata compression, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, Version HDR10, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                      : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                      : 2 h 4 min
Bit rate                      : 80.7 Mb/s
Width                          : 3 840 pixels
Height                        : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio          : 16:9
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                    : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling            : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                      : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)            : 0.406
Stream size                    : 70.3 GiB (95%)
Language                      : English
Default                        : No
Forced                        : No
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics      : PQ
Matrix coefficients            : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primar : Display P3
Mastering display luminance    : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level    : 1039 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Le : 512 cd/m2
Original source medium        : Blu-ray

Audio
ID                            : 2
ID in the original source medi : 4352 (0x1100)
Format                        : MLP FBA 16-ch
Format/Info                    : Meridian Lossless Packing FBA with 16-channel presentation
Commercial name                : Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                      : A_TRUEHD
Duration                      : 2 h 4 min
Bit rate mode                  : Variable
Bit rate                      : 4 593 kb/s
Maximum bit rate              : 10.4 Mb/s
Channel(s)                    : 8 channels
Channel layout                : L R C LFE Ls Rs Lb Rb
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                    : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Bit depth                      : 24 bits
Compression mode              : Lossless
Delay relative to video        : 2 s 2 ms
Stream size                    : 4.00 GiB (5%)
Title                          : Surround 7.1
Language                      : Japanese
Default                        : Yes
Forced                        : No
Original source medium        : Blu-ray
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE

Text
ID                            : 3
ID in the original source medi : 4768 (0x12A0)
Format                        : PGS
Codec ID                      : S_HDMV/PGS
Codec ID/Info                  : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
Duration                      : 2 h 3 min
Bit rate                      : 20.9 kb/s
Frame rate                    : 0.298 FPS
Count of elements              : 2201
Stream size                    : 18.4 MiB (0%)
Language                      : English
Default                        : Yes
Forced                        : No
Original source medium        : Blu-ray

Menu
00:00:00.000                  : en:Chapter 01
00:08:24.128                  : en:Chapter 02
00:17:51.987                  : en:Chapter 03
00:27:39.491                  : en:Chapter 04
00:37:17.401                  : en:Chapter 05
00:51:16.156                  : en:Chapter 06
01:02:24.157                  : en:Chapter 07
01:14:44.229                  : en:Chapter 08
01:24:20.180                  : en:Chapter 09
01:35:15.960                  : en:Chapter 10
01:45:00.210                  : en:Chapter 11
01:53:35.391                  : en:Chapter 12

[TheDreadPirate]

This is a known issue with exoplayer (the underlying player in AndroidTV). Your video is Dolby Vision profile 7.6, which no streaming device supports. Bluray players only. But exoplayer is SUPPOSED to fall back to Dolby Vision 8 or HDR10, but it doesn't. This is an open issue with Google.

Your options are to force transcoding by lower the bit rate during playback or globally, or stripping your videos of Dolby Vision which converts them to HDR10. I have a guide for the latter in the walkthrough sub-forum.

[Primey]

This is a known issue with exoplayer (the underlying player in AndroidTV).  Your video is Dolby Vision profile 7.6, which no streaming device supports.  Bluray players only.  But exoplayer is SUPPOSED to fall back to Dolby Vision 8 or HDR10, but it doesn't.  This is an open issue with Google.

Your options are to force transcoding by lower the bit rate during playback or globally, or stripping your videos of Dolby Vision which converts them to HDR10.  I have a guide for the latter in the walkthrough sub-forum.

Thank you video now plays but now when I play the changed file again with Jellyfin for Fire TV a black frame flashes every 2 seconds, the file is fine when played locally. Did I do something wrong with ffmpeg?

[TheDreadPirate]

You used exactly the same ffmpeg command in my guide?

Can you take a video of this issue and share it via a Google drive link or something?

And can you share the output of ffprobe on the original and the new file?

[Primey]

You used exactly the same ffmpeg command in my guide?

Can you take a video of this issue and share it via a Google drive link or something?

And can you share the output of ffprobe on the original and the new file?

Video

ffprobe: Original, New file.

[TheDreadPirate]

Does this also happen when you watch the video on a PC?

The other possibility is that the Dolby Vision metadata was used to cover up a bad (possibly on purose) HDR10 base video (dolby vision 7 and 8 are layers on top of HDR10).

[Primey]

No, when I watch it directly on my PC the issue doesn't happen. The blank frames only happen when I watch via Jellyfin on Fire TV

[Primey]

For anyone else having the same issue after talking to TheDreadPirate in DMs he has has came to the conclusion that it's a device specific bug so I'm just going to use Plex from now on. The original file works perfectly on Plex even though apparently that uses exoplayer as well but clearly they did some work to it.

[Giancarlo Massari]

Same troubles, I have some 4k Dolby Vision rips that works without troubles in Plex but in Jellyfin all I get is a balck screen with audio (using Fire TV Stick 4k Max, both 2022 or 2024 model)