Emby apps try to direct play AV1

[tomlin20011 0]

I have a GPU that's capable of transcoding AV1 and on the server dashboard under transcoding -> advanced I can see AV1 is there but on any Emby app iOS & Android the clients that don't support AV1 try to direct play. I only have 1 device that is capable of directly playing AV1 the rest are unable. On a device that doesn't support AV1 e.g. Amazon FireTV using the emby app, the emby app direct plays the video stream this causes the video to play like a slideshow if I change the bitrate on the client to below the bitrate of the original stream emby successfully transcodes the stream and video / audio play fine. 

I have tested this on FireTv and iPad both have no AV1 support and get the same results as above, Im wondering if iv missed something or is this just normal behaviour? I thought the emby apps auto request transcoding based on the clients capabilities as iv seen on some that don't support HDR get the mapping without any manual setting on the client.

Using the web app on a laptop the AV1 file is always transcoded automatically without needing to mess with the bitrate.

For the user account I have all the transcoding permissions enabled.

For now I have resorted to emby for kodi next gen and have the force AV1 transcoding enabled. I would love to find a fix where I don't have to mess with the bitrate as I have a lot of HVEC 4K films and don't need those transcoding all the time. 

Thanks

[Abobader 3464]

Hello tomlin20011,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[tomlin20011 0]

Log from server attached, played on a iOS device with no AV1 support. Media played direct play without transcoding. Time was 11:05 rotated log before capture. 

embyserver-2.txt

[Luke 42077]

Hi.  Can you try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

 

[ebr 16169]

On 1/6/2025 at 6:07 AM, tomlin20011 said:

played on a iOS device

 

[Luke 42077]

Hi, does it not play smoothly on iOS?

[tomlin20011 0]

On the emby iOS app on the iPad that doesn't support AV1 the stream was setup as direct play and would play like a slideshow, If I change the bitrate to lower than the original media it will transcode instantly and play as it should.

Tried both the Emby and Emby for FireTV apps on the amazon stick that doesn't support AV1 and both apps have the same behaviour, choppy playback until bitrate is lowed to below the original media.

[ebr 16169]

12 minutes ago, tomlin20011 said:

and Emby for FireTV apps on the amazon stick

That app should have already been transcoding as it knows the device doesn't support AV1.

[tomlin20011 0]

Is there a setting then I should look for on the server dashboard? I assumed it was setup correctly as it transcodes fine when I set the bitrate lower than the original media. But if the Emby app is on Auto it will direct place across all the apps iOS/Android/AFTV

[ebr 16169]

4 hours ago, tomlin20011 said:

AFTV

Hi.  Can you please show an example of this?

As for the other apps, they are attempting to direct play by decoding in software.  If the device is not powerful enough, that can be an issue. There is no setting for this right now.

[Luke 42077]

@tomlin20011?

[tomlin20011 0]

Done some more testing, to be sure there wasn’t anything wrong with my setup iv started fresh again with new docker container and re-scanned in the libraries. It’s now working on the AFTV Emby app but not on iOS. Is there anything else I can do to get iOS devices that don’t support AV1 to auto transcode it at the server without altering bit rates?

 

also not sure if this was the fix but before I started fresh I had hardware transcoding set to advanced and now it’s set to just yes. 

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, tomlin20011 said:

It’s now working on the AFTV Emby app

Thanks for confirming.

1 hour ago, tomlin20011 said:

Is there anything else I can do to get iOS devices that don’t support AV1 to auto transcode it at the server without altering bit rates?

 

On 1/11/2025 at 10:18 AM, ebr said:

There is no setting for this right now

 

[Sparxle 11]

I have the same problem with Emby for Android on a Nvidia Shield. The app always tries to decode AV1 in software and creates a slideshow. 

I noticed there is a new setting in 3.4.46 to force conversion for some formats. But it is only available for AVI, MPEGTS and VC1.

Could you please add AV1 to this list?

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, Sparxle said:

I have the same problem with Emby for Android on a Nvidia Shield. The app always tries to decode AV1 in software and creates a slideshow. 

I noticed there is a new setting in 3.4.46 to force conversion for some formats. But it is only available for AVI, MPEGTS and VC1.

Could you please add AV1 to this list?

Hi, yes we can.

[cpmcalary 1]

Any update to this? I had some media in AV1 to save space but still completely unplayable in the TV apps. Used to work fine for 1080p or below.

[Luke 42077]

7 hours ago, cpmcalary said:

Any update to this? I had some media in AV1 to save space but still completely unplayable in the TV apps. Used to work fine for 1080p or below.

 

On 3/9/2025 at 1:10 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes we can.

Hi, yes we can add an av1 option. Thanks.

[Neureka 16]

AV1 is trying to software decode on the Apple TV Emby App and it is a slideshow as well. I have to manually drop the quality to force a transcode to make it watchable. My entire library is AV1 and this is a huge problem for my users.

[Sparxle 11]

I noticed and checked out the new option to always trancode AV1 on the Shield and it is working fine. Thank you!

[cul8rmom1 5]

direct play for appletv with emby player and AV1 has issues.  Running it in infuse linked to emby works fine.  I have a friend that is a TV .. “enthusiast”. He rips all his blu-rays raw and keeps them on his nas so he doesnt have to worry about disks.  50GB+ each.  I got him to use plex back in the day but their product became a slow bloated piece of garbage so I got him to try emby.  He likes many aspects of it but the quality from the player in emby compared to plex was not as good.  Seeing that as a personal challenge and not wanting him to go back to plex I found that you could link emby with infuse player and the quality is perfect (for direct play raw ripped stuff),  His test media was a raw rip of blade runner 2049 early on in the movie when the car is flying thru a blue sky the blocking/dithering is extremely noticeable in emby player and non existent in infuse.   Which is to mean…. meets his strict definition of good.  He said it must use “dark magic”.  He is a crazy person….. but the kind of crazy I respect and admire to certain limits.  He just spent like 5k on a 150Watt mcintosh amp that weighs 75lbs.  Is there a setting in the software to force transode AV1 i cant seem to find that? Running appletv with latest ios, running latest emby app on the appletv.  AppleTV model number A2169 (32GB) ios version 18.5 [22L572].  Emby app version 1.9.9–Released May 19, 2025,  Running 2 emby instances inside an ESX server running in a windows 10 VM doing hardware transcoding (I do direct play at home mostly). on a few different types of quadro cards (Older cheap ones).  Emby server version 4.8.11.0.  Cheers great product thanks for being awesome :D.

[Luke 42077]

On 6/1/2025 at 5:09 AM, cul8rmom1 said:

direct play for appletv with emby player and AV1 has issues.  Running it in infuse linked to emby works fine.  I have a friend that is a TV .. “enthusiast”. He rips all his blu-rays raw and keeps them on his nas so he doesnt have to worry about disks.  50GB+ each.  I got him to use plex back in the day but their product became a slow bloated piece of garbage so I got him to try emby.  He likes many aspects of it but the quality from the player in emby compared to plex was not as good.  Seeing that as a personal challenge and not wanting him to go back to plex I found that you could link emby with infuse player and the quality is perfect (for direct play raw ripped stuff),  His test media was a raw rip of blade runner 2049 early on in the movie when the car is flying thru a blue sky the blocking/dithering is extremely noticeable in emby player and non existent in infuse.   Which is to mean…. meets his strict definition of good.  He said it must use “dark magic”.  He is a crazy person….. but the kind of crazy I respect and admire to certain limits.  He just spent like 5k on a 150Watt mcintosh amp that weighs 75lbs.  Is there a setting in the software to force transode AV1 i cant seem to find that? Running appletv with latest ios, running latest emby app on the appletv.  AppleTV model number A2169 (32GB) ios version 18.5 [22L572].  Emby app version 1.9.9–Released May 19, 2025,  Running 2 emby instances inside an ESX server running in a windows 10 VM doing hardware transcoding (I do direct play at home mostly). on a few different types of quadro cards (Older cheap ones).  Emby server version 4.8.11.0.  Cheers great product thanks for being awesome :D.

Hi, there is not currently such a setting, but it's something we can look at adding. Thanks.

[Oldjuju 4]

On 14/05/2025 at 14:23, Sparxle said:

I noticed and checked out the new option to always trancode AV1 on the Shield and it is working fine. Thank you!

Hi, I'm running the nvidia shield with Emby for Android TV 2.1.23g.

When I play one of these files, my server's fans prepare for take off. The video playback is fine, but the fan noise is nuts.
My server is a NUC6i7KYB with Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 integrated GPU and 8GB RAM.

Where is this option? On the emby client on the shield?

I have this option on the server.

thanks,

Cam

[ebr 16169]

50 minutes ago, Oldjuju said:

Hi, I'm running the nvidia shield with Emby for Android TV 2.1.23g.

When I play one of these files, my server's fans prepare for take off. The video playback is fine, but the fan noise is nuts.
My server is a NUC6i7KYB with Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 integrated GPU and 8GB RAM.

Where is this option? On the emby client on the shield?

I have this option on the server.

thanks,

Cam

Hi.  That app already transcodes AV1 as evidenced by your server machine working harder.

Try searching for our standard android app (Just "Emby" on Amazon and "Emby for Android on Google) on the same device's app store and see how that compares?

Thanks.

 

[Oldjuju 4]

Thanks for the reply.

You'll have to excuse my ignorant questions here...

I thought that if the server's GPU could handle the transcoding, the CPU wouldn't run as hot and the fans wouldn't be noisy.
So if the "Emby for Android TV" already requests AV1 videos to be transcoded, it should all be nice and quiet.

I did install the "Emby for Android" on the shield and played the same video.
The fans didn't kick into gear, but the video was choppy.

[Neminem 1518]

Have a look at you GPU, it look like it does not support AV1 in Hardware transcoding.

The reason for you CPU coolers ramping up, is the Emby will then fall back to CPU to transcode it.

 Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 Benchmarks & Specs