MKV artifacts on TV

[strangecasual]

I recently bought a mini pc which im planning to setup as a server for media etc and use jellyfin etc but I'm wondering if i'll need to just have it connected via hdmi as a media player as well.

Whenever I try to play MKV files directly on the TV either from an external hard drive or via jellyfin I get these little white artifacts sporadically throughout the video. I've tried the same files on a pc on VLC and they are fine and also tried disabling all the motionflow and other enhancing features just in case but no joy.

Is this just due to limitations of the hardware on the tv?

[TheDreadPirate]

If it only happens on the TV it might be the TV. What client are you using to play the video on the TV? What OS is the TV running? WebOS or Android TV?

[strangecasual]

The bravia OS is android 7 I believe. When playing the video I use the jellyfin app on my phone and select "BRAVIA 2015 - DLNA". I'm not sure which client is playing the video, but I can control the video with my tv remote or phone from there. There is also the option for Google cast on my phone rather than DLNA.

[TheDreadPirate]

Ah. I thought you were using the Android TV or Roku client or something.

What happens when you watch jellyfin on your PC in the browser client? Playing with VLC is not comparable.

DLNA is available in Jellyfin, but the DLNA protocol has been abandoned by the consortium that created it. Jellyfin's casting implementation is sometimes buggy, but I'd choose that over DLNA.

[strangecasual]

Watching on the Mac that I've set the server up on, within the browser client seems fine, but lower in quality, but no artifacts. Whats is the difference between DLNA and the google cast options when using the android app to cast? The google cast option works but doesn't offer any video controls. when I use DLNA on the tv, what is doing the leg work to render the film?
Sorry for all the questions lol, I'm just trying to wrap my head around how the software works etc, thanks in advance.

[TheDreadPirate]

All clients have to render the video. Whether this is via DLNA, Casting, or directly with the Jellyfin app. What codec it is sent depends on what the client requests. If the client determines it can't play the video as is it will request a transcode. For DLNA transcoding is dependent on there be a DLNA profile for your TV. It may need a transcode but isn't requesting it due to incorrectly determining it can direct play without issue.

Can you share your jellyfin logs with us? Redact any WAN IPs and upload it to https://sourceb.in/ and link it back here.

[strangecasual]

sorry for late response, i checked my tv's supported codecs and it doesn't support h265 which might explain the artifacts but its playing them anyway. The same film in h264 doesn't have issues but with slight less quality.

[TheDreadPirate]

Your TV might have been software decoding the H265 video and not doing a good enough job. I see you tried to play with an Android device. I'm assuming you were attempting to cast to your TV?

IMO, the best option is to get an Android TV dongle. I have the Chromecast with Google TV 4K and like it. And it comes with a small remote.

[strangecasual]

Yeh so in that log i'm casting to my sony tv from my android phone to my sony bravia which is also android but im using the dlna option on the mobile app.