Why is lscr.io's Jellyfin so keen on storing subtitles?

[ickyfehmleh]

I'm running Jellyfin via the lscr.io docker image.  Previously I ran the proper Jellyfin image but for whatever reason hardware acceleration with my ARC A310 refused to work properly with it.  

For whatever reason the lscr.io build is very, very hot for subtitles.  I have 9.1gb of them.  I've used maybe 2 or 3 subtitles in the past year, but Jellyfin keeps processing subtitles -- to the point where things become unwatchable (ffmpeg will exit and the Android TV client will error) unless Jellyfin religiously pulls ALL the subtitles out and stores them, OCD-style.  Subtitles for languages I can't even pronounce are taking up space and processing time.  If I delete them, Jellyfin will literally stop everything until it re-pulls its precious subtitles.

Sometimes it'll even complain:

> System.ArgumentException: Unsupported format: srt

Subtitles aren't even enabled in the Android TV client for playback but Jellyfin nopes out because it can't handle the subtitles I don't even want.

Why does this happen, how do I turn it off, and how do I make sure it stays off?  I don't recall this ever being an issue with the proper Jellyfin image.

[TheDreadPirate]

The official Jellyfin image should work with an Arc A310. I use the official image with my A380 on Ubuntu 24.04. What OS is the host running?

[ickyfehmleh]

The official Jellyfin image should work with an Arc A310.  I use the official image with my A380 on Ubuntu 24.04.  What OS is the host running?

Ubuntu 24.04.  Tried quite a few times and the stock Jellyfin docker image refused to do anything hardware accelerate-y.  The LSCR image works fine, minus the aforementioned subtitle OCDness, which was super super odd.  

Just for poops and grins I brought up a Jellyfin container, passing /dev/dri in devices and configuring VAAPI like I did in the LSCR container.  The stock Jellyfin container refused to play the VP9 content that the LSCR image plays fine, the LSCR image successfully passing it off to the A310 for acceleration.  Grabbed a bash shell in the Jellyfin image and I see /dev/dri there, with card0 and the render node as well.

I guess I'll just cope with the nearly 10gb of useless subtitles as hardware acceleration is significantly more important to me.

[ickyfehmleh]

Turns out it's not the docker image but the Android TV client that is demanding subtitles. This, in turn, causes ffmpeg to exit prematurely as the subtitles aren't up to its standards.

I believe this is a bug in the Android TV client as it shouldn't care about subtitles until they're activated, nor should it be sending any sort of subtitle request.

[TheDreadPirate]

Do you have an iGPU? What are the full specs of your system? To me, this sounds like you have another GPU in the system.

[ickyfehmleh]

I've only exposed the A310 via Docker and this VM only sees the A310 but this is on a Proxmox 8.3 Dell T620 w/2x E5-2690 v2 procs, 512gb mem total, ~80tb disk total, an A310/4gb and an A770/16gb, running in an Ubuntu 24.04 VM with 160gb mem allocated so transcodes can go to a 60gb tmpfs mount.

I've since wiped the Android TV client cache/config and it no longer requests subtitles; previously, it would demand subs and automagically show the first subtitle (usually English), prompting viewers to go into the subtitle menu and select 'no subtitles'.

[bitmap]

For the subtitle issue: If you don't use subtitles, delete all the triggers for subtitle extraction to stop it from happening at all. Or change the trigger to something more appropriate like 1 AM with a limit of 7 hours (for example). If you don't care, turn it off by deleting all triggers. I think TDP has the rest covered. Just figured since I use the LSIO image I'd chime in.

[ickyfehmleh]

For the subtitle issue: If you don't use subtitles, delete all the triggers for subtitle extraction to stop it from happening at all. 

Unfortunately that meant the client would sit and wait while ffmpeg on the server extracts the subtitles.  Then ffmpeg would complain that certain subs have issues but playback would (finally) start.

Or change the trigger to something more appropriate like 1 AM with a limit of 7 hours (for example). If you don't care, turn it off by deleting all triggers. I think TDP has the rest covered. Just figured since I use the LSIO image I'd chime in.

I had set the Extract Subtitles cronned at 1am but was more concerned with _why_ this was happening in the first place.  There must have been some oddball setting in the Android TV client that triggered this; wiping the Android TV client config (clear cache/settings) seems to have eliminated this issue altogether.

[bitmap]

Do you have "Extract Subtitles on the Fly" enabled? Dashboard > Playback > Transcoding.

Or do you have OpenSubtitles set up on libraries with any boxes checked underneath? Dashboard > Libraries > Libraries > pick one, scroll all the way down. Uncheck the entire downloader or check/uncheck the options below it that meet your needs. If you don't care, uncheck the OS downloader so you don't have to think about it at all.

Subtitles (SRT) cut down on transcoding, so it's advantageous to have them in the folder with the media. I do not believe LSIO's image does anything different -- on this front -- than vanilla Docker Jellyfin.

[ickyfehmleh]

Do you have "Extract Subtitles on the Fly" enabled? Dashboard > Playback > Transcoding.

Or do you have OpenSubtitles set up on libraries with any boxes checked underneath? Dashboard > Libraries > Libraries > pick one, scroll all the way down. Uncheck the entire downloader or check/uncheck the options below it that meet your needs. If you don't care, uncheck the OS downloader so you don't have to think about it at all.

Subtitles (SRT) cut down on transcoding, so it's advantageous to have them in the folder with the media. I do not believe LSIO's image does anything different -- on this front -- than vanilla Docker Jellyfin.

I tried setting and unsetting Extract Subtitles On The Fly but I don't recall it having any effect on the AndroidTV client requesting subtitles.  If the behavior occurs again I'll try to remember to grab a backup of the AndroidTV settings before wiping them.  I'm reasonably sure the client had some wonky setting regarding subs.

I didn't have any of the Subtitle modules (apart from Extract Subtitles) enabled/installed as I was tired of subtitles.  I'm still tired of subtitles.