AV1 "Reason for transcoding: Video codec not supported"

[tet 2]

SVT-AV1 is out and i was interested to test how it compares, but as soon as i tried to playback AV1 video files with Emby there was problem in Web App playback "Video codec not supported" resulting in transcoded video stream instead.

I thought Emby and Chrome supported AV1 decoding. Is this not the case ?

OS: Win10 21H2 Update

Browser: Chromium  101.0.4951.41

Emby Version: emby-server-4.6.7

[Guest goldenarchive]

Emby does support AV1 playback on almost every device.

Since you're on Windows with Chromium, did you download the AV1 Video Extension over the Microsoft Store? Without It you won't be able to play AV1 videos on any (chromium) browser.

You can find It here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/av1-video-extension/9mvzqvxjbq9v?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0&activetab=pivot:overviewtab

[tet 2]

27 minutes ago, goldenarchive said:

Emby does support AV1 playback on almost every device.

Since you're on Windows with Chromium, did you download the AV1 Video Extension over the Microsoft Store? Without It you won't be able to play AV1 videos on any (chromium) browser.

You can find It here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/av1-video-extension/9mvzqvxjbq9v?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0&activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Yeah Emby Android App Direct Played the AV1 video.. kinda.. frame by frame.

I just installed the AV1 Extension but no change with the Web App. Youtube and PotPlayer plays AV1 videos just fine even without the Extension.

Still thanks for the help.  

[Guest goldenarchive]

47 minutes ago, tet said:

Yeah Emby Android App Direct Played the AV1 video.. kinda.. frame by frame.

I just installed the AV1 Extension but no change with the Web App. Youtube and PotPlayer plays AV1 videos just fine even without the Extension.

Still thanks for the help.  

The Android App uses Exoplayer, which is horrible for AV1 playback.

If you enable the external player and use VLC you will be able to play those AV1 videos with a considerable low battery usage for a software decoder. (On real-time,  1080p 24-30fps ~5 Mbit/s Bitrate.)

On the Chromium issue, can you fetch the Emby logs to see what's the actual reason on why It's transcoding?

Even if the browser supports AV1, if Emby have to transcode either the audio or subtitle the video will also be transcoded. (Even changing audio tracks will make Emby transcode the video.)

Edited April 27, 2022 by goldenarchive

[tet 2]

I installed Jellyfin and it Direct Plays the AV1 files so problem solved i guess.

[Luke 40121]

Hi, for us it is resolved in the upcoming 4.7 server release. You can also use our hosted web app now with your 4.6.7 server:

http://app.emby.media

[tet 2]

10 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, for us it is resolved in the upcoming 4.7 server release. You can also use our hosted web app now with your 4.6.7 server:

http://app.emby.media

Thank you!

After using Jellyfin for couple hours i started to notice how janky it is and made me appreciate all the work that has been put into Emby 

[gbcox 13]

I have a Roku Ultra 2022 which supports AV1.  When I play an AV1 video, emby transcodes to H.264 instead of direct play passthru to the Roku. 

I'm using emby-server-4.8.0.21-1 and the Roku Client is:  Version 4.0 Build 75

 

 

[Luke 40121]

1 minute ago, gbcox said:

I have a Roku Ultra 2022 which supports AV1.  When I play an AV1 video, emby transcodes to H.264 instead of direct play passthru to the Roku. 

I'm using emby-server-4.8.0.21-1 and the Roku Client is:  Version 4.0 Build 75

 

 

Hi there, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

[gbcox 13]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi there, did you explore the stats feature in the video player to learn why it was transcoding?

I don't see a stats feature in the Roku client?  Tell me where it is and I'll be happy to check and report.

[Luke 40121]

Just now, gbcox said:

I don't see a stats feature in the Roku client?  Tell me where it is and I'll be happy to check and report.

It's there in the video player, in the menu. You can also check the server dashboard during playback.

[gbcox 13]

Which menu?  I'm using the Roku emby client... There is nothing that says "Stats" on the home screen.  If I go into settings, there is only Display, Playback and Advanced.  There is nothing in those submenus that say anything about stats...

Edited February 6, 2023 by gbcox

[GrimReaper 4159]

4 minutes ago, gbcox said:

Which menu?  I'm using the Roku emby client... There is nothing that says "Stats" on the home screen.  If I go into settings, there is only Display, Playback and Advanced.  There is nothing in those submenus that say anything about stats...

 

15 minutes ago, Luke said:

It's there in the video player, in the menu.

Bring up OSD during playback.

[gbcox 13]

10 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

 

Bring up OSD during playback.

 

Thanks I did that and it gives the information in the photo above.  It doesn't say why it is transcoding.

It just reports that it is transcoding.

 

[GrimReaper 4159]

Post ffmpeg log created.

Edited February 6, 2023 by GrimReaper

[gbcox 13]

Here you go.... Thanks!

emby_ffmpeg_av1.txt

[GrimReaper 4159]

Your device is reporting not supporting AV1:

Quote

&VideoCodec=h264,hevc,mpeg2video&AudioCodec=ac3,aac,mp2,mp3,eac3,flac,vorbis,lpcm

hence transcoding occurs:

Quote

&TranscodeReasons=VideoCodecNotSupported

Whether that's player implementation issue or device limitation, I wouldn't know. @speechles or @ebr would have to comment.

[ebr 15672]

Hi. It does say why it is transcoding right under it. "Converting video to a compatible codec".

We query the device for support and yours does not appear to be reporting support for AV1.

[Luke 40121]

As a test you could try temporarily restricting user access to transcoding and then seeing if it plays successfully.

If it does, then we likely need to adjust our av1 support detection. If it doesn't, then you know your device doesn't actually support it. Please let us know how this goes. Thanks.

[gbcox 13]

@luke I didn't see how to temporarily restrict access to transcoding, but it works fine with Plex but their auto detection isn't working either, I have to force direct play.  So apparently you're using the same detection method as Plex and it isn't working.  Here is the URL which verifies that Roku Ultra supports AV1:  https://www.roku.com/products/roku-ultra

 

[GrimReaper 4159]

3 minutes ago, gbcox said:

I didn't see how to temporarily restrict access to transcoding

Settings>Users tab>edit desired user>untick Allow video transcoding, if necessary, during media playback.

[Luke 40121]

Make sure to undo that after you're done testing or it will likely cause playback problems.

[gbcox 13]

Thanks @GrimReaper& @Luke.  I unticked video transcoding and no video, only sound.  Weird, because on Plex it shows direct play AV1 (photo attached)

 

and I asked a question on the Roku forum, and this was their reply:

On my Ultra 4800:

di=createobject("rodeviceinfo")
vf={codec:"av1"}
?di.candecodevideo(vf)
<Component: roAssociativeArray> =
{
    result: true
}

My Ultra says it's a 2020 Ultra (model 4800), but I believe all the 480x devices are essentially identical.  I have no idea how Emby/Plex is doing their auto detection, but I'd say it's flawed.  I don't know of any external way to query a device for what codecs it supports.

[speechles 2013]

@gbcox

Brightscript Debugger> ? full_mp4video_codec_list

<Component: roArray> =
[
    "av1"
    "hevc"
    "mpeg1"
    "mpeg2"
    "h263"
    "mpeg4 avc"
    "vp8"
    "vp9"
]

The coding mechanism we use to detect video codecs does work. The detected codecs that are found are stored in variables.

To show this I am using a Roku Express 4K+ (Model: 3941X).

* the version number on my personal dev version is rarely updated just FYI *

I also found a bug with our current detection logic which should enable AV1 on devices that support it. I forgot the current detection logic isn't yet using the new lookup method with variables. This fix will be available very soon to correct the current logic. Thank you for spotting the issue and apologies. Please stay tuned.

[gbcox 13]

@speechlesThank you very much!