Samsung Tizen app unable to play FLAC – infinite loading, no playback, forces AAC transcoding

[Liskanet99 1]

Hello,
I would like to report a reproducible issue with FLAC playback on the Samsung Tizen Emby client.

Device / environment

• TV: Samsung QE55S95D (Tizen OS 2023/2024 generation) One UI 2111

• Emby Server: 4.8.11.0 (Synology package)

• Client: Emby for Samsung Tizen: 2.2.5

• Network: LAN (gigabit), no transcoding limits

Issue description

• When attempting to play any FLAC audio file on the Samsung Tizen app, the player shows endless loading (“buffering”) and never starts playback.

• Nothing appears in the “Now Playing” / “Activity” section – only an immediate session start + session end with duration 0ms.

• The same FLAC files play perfectly:

  via USB on the same TV

  via DLNA from the same NAS

  via Emby Android app (Direct Play FLAC)

  via Emby Web Client

Expected behavior

FLAC should play with Direct Play on Samsung Tizen TV (the TV fully supports FLAC decoding).

Actual behavior

The Tizen client requests:

EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
AudioCodec: aac
TranscodingContainer: aac
TranscodingProtocol: hls

 

EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True AudioCodec: aac TranscodingContainer: aac TranscodingProtocol: hls

The server attempts to transcode FLAC → AAC, but playback never starts.
The session closes after 0ms with no error visible on the client.

Logs

Here is the relevant log section from the server during FLAC playback attempts:

EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
AudioCodec: aac
TranscodingContainer: aac
TranscodingProtocol: hls

Playback stopped immediately (0ms). No media segments requested by the client.

EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True AudioCodec: aac TranscodingContainer: aac TranscodingProtocol: hls Playback stopped immediately (0ms). No media segments requested by the client.

Full logs can be provided if needed.

Summary

This appears to be a Samsung Tizen client bug, where the application:

• incorrectly reports FLAC as unsupported,

• forces AAC/HLS transcoding,

• but never actually starts HLS playback,

• resulting in infinite loading and immediate session termination.

Please advise if this is a known issue or if a fix is planned.
Happy to provide more logs or test custom builds if needed.

Thank you!

[Luke 42077]

 

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

 

[SamES 1056]

The problem with FLAC is that there are many flavours and support across both the Samsung and LG range is very inconsistent.  What works on one model year doesn't work on the next, and I even have samples from users that plays for a while and then the audio disappears after a random period.  While FLAC can DirectPlay in some cases, it is very unpredictable, and as a result, we disabled FLAC from DirectPlay as it was just not possible to reliably determine what worked and what didn't with FLAC.

Why the audio transcoding is failing is a different issue which we need to resolve when you provide some logs.

[FrostByte 5392]

Just now, SamES said:

The problem with FLAC is that there are many flavours and support across both the Samsung and LG range is very inconsistent.  What works on one model year doesn't work on the next, and I even have samples from users that plays for a while and then the audio disappears after a random period.  While FLAC can DirectPlay in some cases, it is very unpredictable, and as a result, we disabled FLAC from DirectPlay as it was just not possible to reliably determine what worked and what didn't with FLAC.

Why the audio transcoding is failing is a different issue which we need to resolve when you provide some logs.

You're referring to internal FLAC, correct?  Music should be good for all models.

FLAC is not listed as being support by Samsung on the S95D when used internally according to the manual

https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2024-tv-video-specifications.html

 

[Liskanet99 1]

38 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

You're referring to internal FLAC, correct?  Music should be good for all models.

FLAC is not listed as being support by Samsung on the S95D when used internally according to the manual

https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2024-tv-video-specifications.html

 

I am indeed talking about playing FLAC music files in the Emby app on a Samsung Tizen TV, where the Emby client streams the file from my Synology NAS (running Emby Server). So yes, this counts as “internal playback” using the Tizen internal player.

What is strange is that FLAC playback worked perfectly for me until about a week ago.
I was able to play any FLAC file from my music library without issues, no transcoding, and no infinite loading.

However, this changed after several updates happened around the same time:

• Emby Server on Synology was updated

• Samsung TV Tizen UI / One UI Home was updated

• Possibly the Emby client on the Samsung TV updated as well

Since these updates, no FLAC file can be played anymore.

[FrostByte 5392]

I'm using app v2.2.8 with server 4.9.2.7 and FLAC music is direct playing for me right now.  You may want to provide the logs Luke requested.

[SamES 1056]

Yes, I think you’re  right, DirectPlay for FLAC audio files is probably still enabled. Sounds like the logs will help

[Liskanet99 1]

---

Playback client details (Samsung TV)

Device model: Samsung OLED TV QE55S95DATXXH
Model name code (MN): QE55S95DATXXH
Production date (PD): 2024-12-26
Firmware version (FW): T-PTMDDEUC-0090-2111.0
Firmware code (FC): SWU-OU_T-PTMDDEUC-0090_2111_250908
Main image (MI): T-PTMDDEUC-0090
Location setting (LS): EU
One UI version (Tizen UI): 2111
Emby client version (Emby for Samsung): 2.2.5

---

Server details (Synology NAS)

NAS model: DS723+
Operating system: Synology DSM 7.2.1-69057 Update 8
Emby Server version installed: 4.8.11.0-724081100

 

---

PartOfLog_PossibleProblem.txt 02 I'm Fed Up!.flac.MediaInfo.txt 01 - The Boy in the Bubble.flac.MediaInfo.txt embyserver.txt

Edited December 5, 2025 by Liskanet99

[Liskanet99 1]

it looks like my Samsung Tizen TV reports FLAC as a supported audio format, but Emby Server still forces transcoding to AAC instead of doing a direct play.

From the log:

Container=mp3|mp3,mp2,mp3|mp2,aac|aac,m4a|aac,flac,webma,webm,wma,asf,wav|PCM_S16LE,wav|PCM_S24LE
TranscodingContainer=aac
TranscodingProtocol=hls
AudioCodec=aac

As far as I understand:
the first line is the list of formats the TV sent to the server, which includes FLAC,
but the server still decides to transcode FLAC → AAC (HLS) instead of direct playing it.

[Liskanet99 1]

Hi, is there anything else needed from my side? If not, could someone please take a look and respond? Thanks.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Liskanet99

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, what makes you think it's forcing transcoding?

[Liskanet99 1]

.../emby/Audio/69278/universal?...
Container=mp3|...,flac,... 
&TranscodingContainer=aac
&TranscodingProtocol=hls
&AudioCodec=aac

[Luke 42077]

That is not an indicator that it is transcoding. 

[Liskanet99 1]

Thanks.
In that case, could you please clarify what the presence of these parameters does mean?

TranscodingContainer=aac
TranscodingProtocol=hls
AudioCodec=aac

If the server is not transcoding, why is it preparing an AAC/HLS playback pipeline instead of sending the FLAC file directly?

A normal direct-play request for audio should not include any transcoding parameters, and would typically reference the original file path, not /universal.

So if this is not indicating transcoding, what process is the server triggering here?

[Luke 42077]

that's just what our audio urls look like. they tell the server what to do if transcoding is needed. it seems like it is just direct playing.

[Liskanet99 1]

Thanks. If it's direct playing, could you please explain why:

The client sends
Range: bytes=0-
which is normal,

but the server only responds 27 seconds later:

Response 206 ... Time: 27309ms

 And playback always stops at 0 ms:

Playback stopped ... Stopped at 0 ms

If this were a true direct play, the server would return the FLAC file immediately and playback would start instantly.
A 27-second delay followed by a 0-ms stop is not consistent with direct play at all – it looks exactly like a transcoding pipeline not producing data in time.

[Luke 42077]

That's not responding 27 seconds later. That is the request completing after streaming data for 27 seconds.

[Liskanet99 1]

Thanks.

I understand what you mean about the request duration, but there is still something important I don't understand:

If the server is not preparing a transcoded stream, then why does the playback request include:

TranscodingContainer=aac

TranscodingProtocol=hls

AudioCodec=aac

These parameters tell the server how to produce a transcoded output if needed, but if direct play is actually happening, I would expect the request to contain no transcoding directives at all.

[Liskanet99 1]

Also, is there a specific device profile for Samsung Tizen TVs that I can check or adjust on the server side?

For example, something like:

<DirectPlayProfiles>

  <DirectPlayProfile container="flac" audioCodec="flac" type="Audio" />

</DirectPlayProfiles>

 

[SamES 1056]

9 minutes ago, Liskanet99 said:

These parameters tell the server how to produce a transcoded output if needed, but if direct play is actually happening, I would expect the request to contain no transcoding directives at all.

Can you please check the server Dashboard and post the same image like FrostBytes earlier post that shows the actual playback method? You can also check Stats For Nerds on the TV during playback to confirm what it is actually doing. Or does playback never start?

 

[Liskanet99 1]

Playback never starts.
The TV immediately reports:

Playback stopped at 0 ms

So I cannot open Stats for Nerds or see any playback method in the server Dashboard, because the stream does not reach a playable state at all.

[Luke 42077]

Is it only certain flac? This might actually tie in with why we used to always transcode flac. Samsung TV's have always claimed to support it but historically have not played it very well, leading to problems like this.

Then about a year ago roughly they released a software update that improved things, but we don't know to what extent it can be trusted.

[Liskanet99 1]

As I mentioned, all FLAC files have been affected since the updates I referred to. I'm not sure which update exactly broke it, but there were no issues before — all my FLAC files from my music library played fine.

Since nothing starts playing at all now, I was hoping it would be possible to read something from the logs that could point to where the problem is. I’m not very familiar with interpreting them myself, but I was hoping the data might give you some clues about what’s going wrong.

[SamES 1056]

12 hours ago, Liskanet99 said:

As I mentioned, all FLAC files have been affected since the updates I referred to.

Do you think it was a TV firmware update, Emby server update or Emby Samsung client update that caused this problem to start?

[Liskanet99 1]

Hard to say — I have auto-update enabled on the TV, so first the Emby TV Tizen client may have updated, then I had the option to manually update the TV’s One UI to One UI version (Tizen UI): 2111. But I don’t remember whether I played any FLAC after that update; the last thing that stopped working was the Emby server on the Synology.