New Samsung TV is unable to play some media via Emby

[sobeitjedi 4]

Hi.

Have been using Emby for a number of years and love it - fantastic product and I've got a paid Premier account. I use it on my laptop (Windows), kids use on their Android tablets but we all primarily use on our TV. We've recently upgraded from an LG TV (about 5 years old) to a Samsung 2021 model. Everything would play via Emby on the LG tv, but I'm not having much success with playback on the Samsung TV with the same files (which play fine on other devices).

Can someone help with a resolution or give some advice? It's very hit and miss. Typical error on the Samsung TV is:

"Playback Error

No compatible streams are currently available. Please try again later or contact your system administrator for details"

Best advice I'm being given at the minute is to switch to Jellyfin or Plex, but I'd really rather not.

 

[Luke 42077]

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[sobeitjedi 4]

ffmpeg-transcode-38fb2061-da7c-4c9e-804c-20cbea0ebe57_1.txt

Is that right?

[Luke 42077]

And the main emby server log as well?

[sobeitjedi 4]

embyserver.txt

[SamES 1056]

Can you please copy one of the files to a USB drive and connect to the TV and try and play using the TV's built in media player?

This looks like an old encoding and something I've noticed over recent years is that there are formats that work on older TV's no longer work on newer TV's.  We've seen this with some mpeg and avi files.  I suspect this is the case as playback is initially failing (which I suspect is a result of the file not being supported).  Testing it via USB will help confirm this.

What hardware is the server running on?  It doesn't appear to be very powerful as it is unable to transcode the file fast enough to allow playback.

Are these live tv recordings?

[sobeitjedi 4]

I'm not in front of my TV at the moment, but I can tell you that the files that fail to play via Emby, are able to be played from the NAS on the the Synology app on the Samsung TV (the interface is poor though - not as great as Emby).

The hardware is a Synology NAS DS215j - agree it's not that powerful, but all the files work on other devices.

[SamES 1056]

3 minutes ago, sobeitjedi said:

are able to be played from the NAS on the the Synology app on the Samsung TV (the interface is poor though - not as great as Emby).

How do you play these?  Is that using a DLNA media server function on the NAS?

[sobeitjedi 4]

No, it's using the Synology app on the TV - think it's called DS Video?

[SamES 1056]

7 minutes ago, sobeitjedi said:

No, it's using the Synology app on the TV - think it's called DS Video?

Thanks.  I would suggest testing with a USB drive and let me know the result, then we can work out what to do next.

[sobeitjedi 4]

Ok, will try later today

[sobeitjedi 4]

Ok, just tried putting the file on a USB - played perfectly (and quickly) using the TV's native media player

 

[sobeitjedi 4]

The Synology app I can use to play media from my NAS is indeed called DS Video.

So the file plays using USB, DS Video, just not through Emby.

[maxiniedermeier 17]

Hi,

Just saw the Post and Remembered a similar Thread i started a while ago Time.

 

The Problem "was", (is) that the DVD MKV´s always get Transcoded "Direct Play error" even if the Files Play Fine via USB.

When Subtitles are Turned on the Debug info turns to "Transcode Subtitle Format not supported" but via USB it Works also Well.

[sobeitjedi 4]

Not sure I follow - What is the solution?

[Luke 42077]

12 minutes ago, sobeitjedi said:

Not sure I follow - What is the solution?

Can you try this usb version of the app: tizen.zip

It will put up a message on screen of the error code that we're getting from the player that's causing us to switch to server transcoding. Thanks.

[sobeitjedi 4]

Not quite sure what I need to do with the zip file?

[Luke 42077]

4 minutes ago, sobeitjedi said:

Not quite sure what I need to do with the zip file?

instructions are here:

Except just use the build I gave you rather than the one in the instructions. Thanks.

 

[sobeitjedi 4]

Ok, understood - will give this a try tomorrow and report back

[SamES 1056]

1 hour ago, sobeitjedi said:

Ok, understood - will give this a try tomorrow and report back

Can you please also send me a link via PM to a download of one of the files?  Thanks

[sobeitjedi 4]

Ok, the USB installer ran. I assume it ran successfully - Emby For Samsung 1.5.4 is now displayed (but not sure what version it was on before the installer ran). However the media file still does not play - same error.

[sobeitjedi 4]

9 hours ago, SamES said:

Can you please also send me a link via PM to a download of one of the files?  Thanks

On it's way

[Luke 42077]

8 hours ago, sobeitjedi said:

Ok, the USB installer ran. I assume it ran successfully - Emby For Samsung 1.5.4 is now displayed (but not sure what version it was on before the installer ran). However the media file still does not play - same error.

Do you get an onscreen toast with a message? That’s what I want to know. Thanks.

[sobeitjedi 4]

I don't know what an onscreen toast is, so I'll say no, I didn't get one.

When I play the file, just get a ring/circle that spins for quite a while, then the screen goes black, then I get the original error. 

[Luke 42077]

Can you try it again and look out for a message  that comes up in the corner and goes away in a few seconds?