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

[FrostByte 5540]

I don't see anything related to FLAC playback in the release notes but maybe try updating your Emby server (4.9.1.90) and Samsung client (2.2.8) to the latest versions.  And if you really want to go wild DSM 7.3 Update 1 is out.

[Redji59 1]

Bonjour, je confirme depuis la MAJ de TIZEN OS les .FLAC lu par Emby tourne en boucle et la lecture ne demarre jamais je suis sur TrueNAS, Emby Server derniere version et TIZEN OS egalement

 

Hello, I can confirm that since the Tizen OS update, .FLAC files played via Emby get stuck in a loop and playback never starts; I am running TrueNAS with the latest versions of both Emby Server and Tizen OS.

[Luke 42755]

4 hours ago, Redji59 said:

Bonjour, je confirme depuis la MAJ de TIZEN OS les .FLAC lu par Emby tourne en boucle et la lecture ne demarre jamais je suis sur TrueNAS, Emby Server derniere version et TIZEN OS egalement

 

Hello, I can confirm that since the Tizen OS update, .FLAC files played via Emby get stuck in a loop and playback never starts; I am running TrueNAS with the latest versions of both Emby Server and Tizen OS.

 

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

 

[Redji59 1]

On 7/16/2026 at 12:11 PM, Redji59 said:

Bonjour, je confirme depuis la MAJ de TIZEN OS les .FLAC lu par Emby tourne en boucle et la lecture ne demarre jamais je suis sur TrueNAS, Emby Server derniere version et TIZEN OS egalement

 

Hello, I can confirm that since the Tizen OS update, .FLAC files played via Emby get stuck in a loop and playback never starts; I am running TrueNAS with the latest versions of both Emby Server and Tizen OS.

2026-07-18 16:45:07.635 Info PlaystateService-0HNN084NTQB99:0000000F: http/1.1 Response 204 to host4. Time: 1ms. POST http://host1:9096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Stopped?X-Emby-Client=Emby for Samsung&X-Emby-Device-Name=Samsung Smart TV (TQ65Q80CATXXC)&X-Emby-Device-Id=10bdd30f-e796-4249-8128-60a32cb9a868&X-Emby-Client-Version=2.2.8&X-Emby-Token=x_secret5_x&X-Emby-Language=fr&reqformat=json.
2026-07-18 16:45:07.645 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: http/1.1 GET http://host1:9096/emby/Audio/9303/universal?UserId=x_secret2_x&DeviceId=10bdd30f-e796-4249-8128-60a32cb9a868&MaxStreamingBitrate=200000000&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&api_key=x_secret5_x&PlaySessionId=1784385582945&StartTimeTicks=0&EnableRedirection=true&EnableRemoteMedia=false. Source Ip: host4, Accept=*/*, Connection=keep-alive, Host=host1:9096, User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (SMART-TV; LINUX; Tizen 9.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) 120.0.6099.5/9.0 TV Safari/537.36, Accept-Encoding=identity;q=1, *;q=0, Accept-Language=fr-FR, Range=bytes=0-
2026-07-18 16:45:07.645 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: GetPostedPlaybackInfo request. IsPlayback: true, isInLocalNetwork: True
2026-07-18 16:45:07.647 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: User policy for redji. EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
2026-07-18 16:45:07.647 Info SessionManager: Setting _lastPlaySessionId for session d33520133093f189309e70555973bab3 to 1784385582945

 

[visproduction 364]

Related specs:  A quick review seems to mention flac may be available for audio only playback, but not if there is a video playback with flac.

Forum comment (2024): https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js/issues/6306

https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications.html
https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2023-tv-video-specifications.html

https://docs.stg.tizen.org/application/native/tutorials/feature/app-multimedia-audio/

https://en.tab-tv.com/list-of-video-and-audio-codecs-supported-by-samsung-tvs/

From search: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Tizen+app+Sansung+playback+flac+audio&ia=web
 

[FrostByte 5540]

Correct, Samsung has never supported FLAC internal to video container.  Samsung only supports it as a music/audio file.  It may have semi worked before, but if it now doesn't because of a Tizen update and not an app update then it sounds like Samsung pulled the plug altogether. 

However, it should at least try to transcode.

[Redji59 1]

attention se ne sont pas des videos ce sont des fichiers audio en FLAC qui sont lancé, tous mes titres en audio .FLAC ne passe plusdepuis la mise a jour TIZEN OS 9

 

Please note: these aren't videos; they are FLAC audio files that are playing. None of my FLAC audio tracks work anymore since the Tizen OS 9 update.

[Redji59 1]

je precise que en DLNA mes fichiers audio .FLAC sont lu directement par la TV (je n'aime pas cette methode), avec jellyfin les .FLAC ne sont plus lu egalement 

 

I should point out that with DLNA, my .FLAC audio files are played directly by the TV (I don't like this method), whereas with Jellyfin, the .FLAC files don't play either.

[Luke 42755]

2 hours ago, Redji59 said:

je precise que en DLNA mes fichiers audio .FLAC sont lu directement par la TV (je n'aime pas cette methode), avec jellyfin les .FLAC ne sont plus lu egalement 

 

I should point out that with DLNA, my .FLAC audio files are played directly by the TV (I don't like this method), whereas with Jellyfin, the .FLAC files don't play either.

Results in the dlna player will not always match what you see in the apps. We have seen cases where the dlna player supports things that the app player does not. By app player, I mean the one provided by Samsung for us to embed.

[Luke 42755]

7 hours ago, Redji59 said:

2026-07-18 16:45:07.635 Info PlaystateService-0HNN084NTQB99:0000000F: http/1.1 Response 204 to host4. Time: 1ms. POST http://host1:9096/emby/Sessions/Playing/Stopped?X-Emby-Client=Emby for Samsung&X-Emby-Device-Name=Samsung Smart TV (TQ65Q80CATXXC)&X-Emby-Device-Id=10bdd30f-e796-4249-8128-60a32cb9a868&X-Emby-Client-Version=2.2.8&X-Emby-Token=x_secret5_x&X-Emby-Language=fr&reqformat=json.
2026-07-18 16:45:07.645 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: http/1.1 GET http://host1:9096/emby/Audio/9303/universal?UserId=x_secret2_x&DeviceId=10bdd30f-e796-4249-8128-60a32cb9a868&MaxStreamingBitrate=200000000&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&api_key=x_secret5_x&PlaySessionId=1784385582945&StartTimeTicks=0&EnableRedirection=true&EnableRemoteMedia=false. Source Ip: host4, Accept=*/*, Connection=keep-alive, Host=host1:9096, User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (SMART-TV; LINUX; Tizen 9.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) 120.0.6099.5/9.0 TV Safari/537.36, Accept-Encoding=identity;q=1, *;q=0, Accept-Language=fr-FR, Range=bytes=0-
2026-07-18 16:45:07.645 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: GetPostedPlaybackInfo request. IsPlayback: true, isInLocalNetwork: True
2026-07-18 16:45:07.647 Info UniversalAudioService-0HNN084NTQB99:00000010: User policy for redji. EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True
2026-07-18 16:45:07.647 Info SessionManager: Setting _lastPlaySessionId for session d33520133093f189309e70555973bab3 to 1784385582945

 

Hi there, please attach the Emby server log from when the problem occurred:

How to Report a Problem

Thanks!

 

[Redji59 1]

9 hours ago, Luke said:

Bonjour, veuillez joindre le journal du serveur Emby correspondant au moment où le problème est survenu :

Comment signaler un problème

Merci!

 

voici le LOG comme demandé

les .FLAC sur tizen OS 8 tout fonctionné mais pas sur tizen os 9

 

 

Here is the log as requested.

.FLAC files worked fine on Tizen OS 8, but not on Tizen OS 9.

embyserver.txt

[yocker 1739]

18 hours ago, FrostByte said:

Correct, Samsung has never supported FLAC internal to video container.  Samsung only supports it as a music/audio file.  It may have semi worked before, but if it now doesn't because of a Tizen update and not an app update then it sounds like Samsung pulled the plug altogether. 

However, it should at least try to transcode.

Googling this.
It seems Samsung only allows Flac from it's USB via internal player. Any network and/or third party app will be blocked from Flac playback.
Bunch of people complaining on Reddit and Github about it.

Don't have a Samsung my self or i could test it.

[FrostByte 5540]

Oh ya, lots of posts out there about FLAC playback being broken with Tizen 9. 

Temp solution might be to just transcode music also after checking if TV is running Tizen 9.

Edited 10 hours ago by FrostByte

[Redji59 1]

1 hour ago, FrostByte said:

Ah oui, il y a plein de messages qui circulent sur le fait que la lecture des fichiers FLAC est défectueuse avec Tizen 9. 

Une solution temporaire pourrait consister à transcoder également la musique après avoir vérifié si le téléviseur fonctionne sous Tizen 9.

How do you do it, and is there any loss of quality?

comment faire et perd t'on de la qualité ?

[yocker 1739]

10 minutes ago, Redji59 said:

How do you do it, and is there any loss of quality?

comment faire et perd t'on de la qualité ?

There will always be a loss of quality when transcoding, Flac is a lossless format and transcoding it will make it lossy so there will always be something missing in the conversion. 
It's not always noticeable, specially not when not using some VERY high end headphones.

For example, MP3 is a lossy format but most people don't complain about hearing any degradation in quality.

Edited 8 hours ago by yocker

[FrostByte 5540]

4 minutes ago, Redji59 said:

How do you do it, and is there any loss of quality?

comment faire et perd t'on de la qualité ?

The only other lossless audio format you can convert it to, and Samsung supports, is wav and that would double or triple the size of the file.

My suggestion (if the devs agree) would be for Emby to temporarily transcode FLAC to mp3 for users on Tizen 9. There would be some loss in quality, but you wouldn't have to change anything and the devs could put things right after Samsung fixes it.

This way you can at least play your music which is better than nothing.

 

[FrostByte 5540]

That chart is actually for my 2018 TV.  Samsung has dropped WMA playback for newer TVs now.