Player error on Emby app for Samsung smart TV (UE50CU7090UXZT)

[almaster 6]

Hello. I'va a problem with Emby app for my Samsung Smart TV (UE50CU7090UXZT). This is my first Samsung TV and i have never had any issues with Emby app for my other Android and LG TVs. I have successfully installed the last Emby app (version 2.1.0) from the Samsung store and it connects to my remote Emby server without problems. But as soon as I try to play any video, the player fails and exit with the following message: PLAYER_ERROR_CONNECTION_FAILED, player state: IDLE

It only happens with videos; it doesn't happen when playing music (it works perfectly with music). I attach the server log. Can someone help me understand if there is a problem with the TV, the app or the server? Thanks

embyserver-63882950400.txt

[Neminem 1518]

It looks like you have disabled all transcoding.

2025-05-15 10:18:35.967 Info App: User policy for user2. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

[visproduction 315]

Alm,

Related: Check here for compatible video and audio codecs for your TV.  Look closely to issues that can cause the TV to refuse to play content.  There are many and often it has to do with the media content being without errors.  Just becuase some media plays back on a 3rd party software product, does not mean it is error free.
https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2023-tv-video-specifications.html

[almaster 6]

4 hours ago, Neminem said:

It looks like you have disabled all transcoding.

2025-05-15 10:18:35.967 Info App: User policy for user2. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: False EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: False EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: False

Thanks, that was the first thing I tried. Even enabling all transcoding options for the user, the problem remains the same. So it is not a transcoding problem, also because the problem occurs with all videos of different encodings and containers.

2 hours ago, visproduction said:

Alm,

Related: Check here for compatible video and audio codecs for your TV.  Look closely to issues that can cause the TV to refuse to play content.  There are many and often it has to do with the media content being without errors.  Just becuase some media plays back on a 3rd party software product, does not mean it is error free.
https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2023-tv-video-specifications.html

Thanks for the help. I checked the specifications from the link you provided, and the videos I have are all with encodings and containers widely supported by the TV. The problem even occurs on 720p videos in h264 with mkv container and ac3 audio. However, I tried different formats, and the problem is always the same.

It seems to be a problem related to the player connection. In other topics for other TV models some users have solved with http connection instead of https. I will also try this.

[SamES 1056]

As a test, can you try connecting with plain http, not https? You might need to change the server setting to allow http connections.  Make sure you use the correct port number for plain http

[visproduction 315]

Check the .mkv files for excessive subtitles.  Some actually have 30 subtitles.  I think that can cause an issue.  Also, I believe there are a few flavors of ac3 audio possible.  Try removing the ac3 audio, converting to mp3 and remux the video with the mp3 copy.  It's actually only a 6 minute task for a 2 hour movie with Mkvtools,  and either ffmpeg or AVIDemux. Seems like a pain to do, but then you can check if the problem is the ac3 audio.  Of course just pointing the blame at data defects in the video, subtitles or audio codec, lets you know what's up.  Still would be nice if Emby transcoding could handle it.  Until you know which part is the problem, it's hard to fix.

Hope that makes sense.

[Luke 42077]

[almaster 6]

Thanks to all for the help. I managed to identify the problem: basically I can play all the videos correctly only if I connect in http; if I use https here comes the error in playback! It is a very strange thing, also because all the other devices (android, lg tv etc.) work perfectly in https. Does anyone know what could depend on?

[Neminem 1518]

Are all these devices in house / on your lan ?

If on you lan, don't bother with https, just use http.

If this is outside you lan, wan.

Are you using reverse proxy ?

Do you have a ssl certificate ?

or are you just port forwarding ?

Just some of the question, there will be more. 

[almaster 6]

4 hours ago, Neminem said:

Are all these devices in house / on your lan ?

If on you lan, don't bother with https, just use http.

If this is outside you lan, wan.

Are you using reverse proxy ?

Do you have a ssl certificate ?

or are you just port forwarding ?

Just some of the question, there will be more. 

Obviously all the devices inside the lan connect in http and have no problem. The Samsung TV in question (as well as various android devices and some LG TVs) are remote and pass through a router with port forwarding. The https certificate is generated with let's encrypt and has never had problems with other devices; only with the Emby app on this Samsung TV does the problem arise.

[SamES 1056]

Does the TV have the latest firmware?  Samsung TV's are known to be a bit picky about which SSL certs it supports, although I would have thought LetsEncrypt should be fine on a 2023 model if you have the latest firmware, it's definitely no good on older year models.  There could still be an issue with the reverse proxy setup that is causing an issue for the Samsung TV 

[almaster 6]

11 hours ago, SamES said:

Does the TV have the latest firmware?  Samsung TV's are known to be a bit picky about which SSL certs it supports, although I would have thought LetsEncrypt should be fine on a 2023 model if you have the latest firmware, it's definitely no good on older year models.  There could still be an issue with the reverse proxy setup that is causing an issue for the Samsung TV 

Thanks for the tip. This TV is from the 2023 series. It is definitely a problem with the Emby app on this TV. I tried to navigate with the TV's integrated web browser, I connected to the Emby server in https and everything works perfectly; the videos are played without problems; however, going to the app, same server, same videos, the problem occurs again (only in https). Unfortunately, navigating with the integrated web browser is very inconvenient, otherwise it would have been enough for me. There is not even the option to choose the player, so at the moment I cannot use Emby on this TV. I hope you can find the error.

[SamES 1056]

40 minutes ago, almaster said:

Thanks for the tip. This TV is from the 2023 series. It is definitely a problem with the Emby app on this TV. I tried to navigate with the TV's integrated web browser, I connected to the Emby server in https and everything works perfectly; the videos are played without problems; however, going to the app, same server, same videos, the problem occurs again (only in https). Unfortunately, navigating with the integrated web browser is very inconvenient, otherwise it would have been enough for me. There is not even the option to choose the player, so at the moment I cannot use Emby on this TV. I hope you can find the error.

Unfortunately, the app uses different certificates to the built in browser and it is all out of our control as the root and trusted certificate store is controlled by Samsung through the firmware.  Can you provide any details about the provider of the intermediate and root certificates for your server?  I can try and check if it should be supported.  I used to have a list of certs by model/year.  A lot of people moved to ZeroSSL due to issues with LetsEncrypt certs on Samsung TV's

 

[almaster 6]

58 minutes ago, SamES said:

Unfortunately, the app uses different certificates to the built in browser and it is all out of our control as the root and trusted certificate store is controlled by Samsung through the firmware.  Can you provide any details about the provider of the intermediate and root certificates for your server?  I can try and check if it should be supported.  I used to have a list of certs by model/year.  A lot of people moved to ZeroSSL due to issues with LetsEncrypt certs on Samsung TV's

 

The Emby server is exposed through a router (with port forwarding) and the router has a WAN with a public static IP. I registered a domain and use the certbot utility to generate the Let's Encrypt certificate (authorized with acme txt record in dns)

I will try zerossl and let you know if it works. Thanks

[almaster 6]

On 5/19/2025 at 11:47 AM, SamES said:

Unfortunately, the app uses different certificates to the built in browser and it is all out of our control as the root and trusted certificate store is controlled by Samsung through the firmware.  Can you provide any details about the provider of the intermediate and root certificates for your server?  I can try and check if it should be supported.  I used to have a list of certs by model/year.  A lot of people moved to ZeroSSL due to issues with LetsEncrypt certs on Samsung TV's

 

Thanks, I confirm that the problem was in the ssl certificate. In particular, the player for the Samsung TV does not accept Let's Encrypt certificates; by installing a ZeroSSL certificate on the Emby server instead, everything works correctly. I would never have imagined such a problem on relatively new Samsung TVs. I will never buy a Samsung TV again. Thanks to everyone for the tip.

[Luke 42077]

1 hour ago, almaster said:

Thanks, I confirm that the problem was in the ssl certificate. In particular, the player for the Samsung TV does not accept Let's Encrypt certificates; by installing a ZeroSSL certificate on the Emby server instead, everything works correctly. I would never have imagined such a problem on relatively new Samsung TVs. I will never buy a Samsung TV again. Thanks to everyone for the tip.

Well you have to buy some TV, and none of them are without their own set of quirks.