Playback error “no compatible streams”

[Neminem 1626]

Did you read an understand the help text under this ?

Are you client devices on the same subnet as your server?

How are your client device connected ( wifi / cable )?

If wifi have you restarted your router?

If wifi do you have AP Isolation enabled on you AP?

If cable are you using a managed switch with multible vlans?

[tbischof72 0]

Yes, client devices on same subnet, connected via cable, not using a switch

using a mesh network, the NAS with the Emby server is directly connected to the main hub, which is connected via ethernet cable to the mesh nodes and the TV is also connected directly to one of the nodes

Again, a file plays fine when a Samsung compatible audio codec is selected (like AC3), but when I select one that requires transcoding (like TrueHD or DTS) it fails.
Can that issue be network related?

Edited February 5 by tbischof72

[Neminem 1626]

It can.

if the server sees the client as remote.

Try this in your lan networks.

Replace 192.168.50.229 with 192.168.50.0/24

Here is my network config.

1) 10.253.0.0/24 - VPN access.

2)  192.168.1.0/24 - local lan network.

3) 172.17.0.0/24 - Docker network.

 

Edited February 5 by Neminem

[SamES 1087]

Or even initially, just remove this setting completely and see if that changes anything

[tbischof72 0]

Ok, tried both with 192.168.50.0/24 and then no entry, no luck.

Also, tried a complete new install of emby on the NAS and removed the system folders manually before re-installing (thinking as I had emby originally before Synology DSM upgrade to 7.2 maybe it's better to start with a clean slate) but no luck either.

[SamES 1087]

And no ffmpeg logs at all?

[tbischof72 0]

3 hours ago, SamES said:

And no ffmpeg logs at all?

Correct, none when playing from Samsung TV.

Only when I play from other devices, like a Hisense (that runs on Google TV) I get them

[SamES 1087]

5 hours ago, tbischof72 said:

Correct, none when playing from Samsung TV.

Only when I play from other devices, like a Hisense (that runs on Google TV) I get them

Unfortunately this doesn't make any sense to me, and I don't know what else to suggest.

We have:

• Confirmed that server transcoding is working for other devices
• Clean installed the app on the TV
• Verified that the TV network settings are all correct
• There are no errors in the log, but also no indication that ffmpeg is being launched on the server.

Do you have an 'non-standard' app, tools etc running on you network such as an adblocker, Pi-hole, VPN configured in your router, etc. Other than that, I think I'm out of ideas.

[tbischof72 0]

Nope, none of that ...

But well, not a deal breaker for me - I still can use my Oppo via DLNA to play the movies, and in that case it does not even have to transcode and it preserves the original format, so that's even better, maybe I'll add an apple tv at some point and use that, and probably my next TV is not going to be a Samsung but rather one w/ Google TV that does not have such format limitations ... we'll see

Thanks for your  help and support!

[Luke 42255]

Hi, can you give it another try?

[brainfryd 10]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is hijacking this thread and please let me know if i need to start another, but I am experiencing very similar issues with 2 Samsung TV's that just cannot play back anything, no movies, tv shows or even just music, at all since 29th March.
These devices do connect via a remote SSL connection, can view and navigate Emby, but just fail on playback. As noted earlier by previous OP, there are no transcode / ffmpeg logs generated as for the most part, it looks they devices are trying to direct play.
For reference an LG TV and a Fire TV stick in this location can connect and playback media with no issues. The two TV's previously have also played fine.
I also have other users with devices in other remote locations that can playback with no issues. 
Today I changed the remote connection to connect without using SSL to see if that made a difference, and still no change to playback 

I've attached screenshots and my main emby log from earlier today where I have attempted to play a variety of variety of media files with no success. Sometimes a "no compatible streams message will show, sometimes a error will show in the top right corner as others have advised ( i was unable to capture that message today although we did see it occur) and other times, the playback attempt will just time out and drop back to emby selection. 

I have also tried to force transcoding with no success as well. 

QA75Q60AAWXXY with Firmware version 2301.1

App Version ( I manually installed the update to 2.3.4 from 2.2.8 with no change/success),  the other Samsung  TV (UA75R7100WXXY ver 1501.1) is still running 2.2.8 

 

My Emby server updated on the 29/03/26 to 4.10.0.7 so i'm not sure if its related in any way as the last time the TV's could play anything was the 28/03/26


User playback history ( for reference, this user has only been using the Samsung QA75Q60AA to watch 

 

Server alert log

Playback attempts today

 

 

 

It just very strange that its only the Samsung's that are unable to play anything now ... please let me know if there's anything else i can provide. 
Sorry for the massive screenshots, i could figure out how to paste them smaller

Regards

Brett

embyserver.txt

Edited yesterday at 08:41 AM by brainfryd
remove useless image

[SamES 1087]

I think this is still https related.  I believe the Samsung media player connects slightly differently to the UI, so I've seen this in the past where navigation works fine, but playback does not.  In these cases it also won't start the transcoding session.

Who is the SSL certificate from? Can you determine the valid from/to dates for each certificate, including the root and intermediate certificates? The easiest option is to check this from a normal web browser on a PC.  Have any of the certificates been recently renewed?

How did you test the http connection?  Is the server set to Prefer or Require a secure connection, or is secure connection disabled? Did you also update the server and port details in the client when you changed this to ensure it is only connecting via http and port 8096? You might even be better to delete all the configured servers in the client and ensure only the plain http server is configured.

If it's still an issue, can you please enable debug logging on the server, restart the emby server process so that we capture the full server startup in the log, then do a playback test and post (or PM) a copy of the log?

[SamES 1087]

1 hour ago, brainfryd said:

Sorry for the massive screenshots,

Double click on the inline image during editing, then you can set the size

[brainfryd 10]

27 minutes ago, SamES said:

I think this is still https related.  I believe the Samsung media player connects slightly differently to the UI, so I've seen this in the past where navigation works fine, but playback does not.  In these cases it also won't start the transcoding session.

Who is the SSL certificate from? Can you determine the valid from/to dates for each certificate, including the root and intermediate certificates? The easiest option is to check this from a normal web browser on a PC.  Have any of the certificates been recently renewed?

How did you test the http connection?  Is the server set to Prefer or Require a secure connection, or is secure connection disabled? Did you also update the server and port details in the client when you changed this to ensure it is only connecting via http and port 8096? You might even be better to delete all the configured servers in the client and ensure only the plain http server is configured.

If it's still an issue, can you please enable debug logging on the server, restart the emby server process so that we capture the full server startup in the log, then do a playback test and post (or PM) a copy of the log?

Hi Sam
Thanks for your response...

For reference when I was at the location today... I changed the client app from connecting to  https://########.net, port 8899 and changed it to http://#######.net Port 8096...
Would this not bypass the SSL connection issue? 

As far as additional info, yes... my SSL cert was recently renewed approx 18 days prior to the playback issues and has worked fine until the 28th

Here's my network config page in Emby... this setup has worked perfectly for approx 3 years including on the Samsung TV's.
It may not be the best setup, i'll grant that... 

Here is my SSL Cert screens, issued by Sectigo
 

400

I can enable debug logging etc if required, but if the client is not connecting via SSL, i'm not sure how it will help... the timing of it stopping just seems strange to me i.e the day after a server update ?

Regards
Brett
  

[SamES 1087]

59 minutes ago, brainfryd said:

For reference when I was at the location today... I changed the client app from connecting to  https://########.net, port 8899 and changed it to http://#######.net Port 8096...
Would this not bypass the SSL connection issue? 

It should, but what if you set the secure connection to disabled?  It's possible that the client also has https connection cached and is falling back to it, which is why I suggested deleting the connection, then recreating it using plain http.

However, regarding the https connection it is sounding identical to this issue below which is also using sectigo root and intermediate certificates that were recently updated (and I think also a 2021 model TV). If your TV is a 2021 model, and the certs are valid from 2021, then I'm almost certain that the TV doesn't have the the root certificates updated to include them. I suspect that the past certificates were being signed by sectigo using an older certificate chain and they have recently updated them which is why these issues have started.

You mention that the cert was updated on the 18th, but it stopped connecting after the server update around the 28th. Just keep in mind that even if you update the certificates on the server, they don't take effect until the server is restarted which would have happened as part of the server update. I suspect that maybe the certs were updated on the 18th without the server bing restarted until the 28th, at which time the new certificates took effect and the problems began.

 

[brainfryd 10]

Thanks Sam

I do appreciate you responding, i'll just clarify a couple of points
The SSL cert was updated on server pc on the 10th/11th... the Emby server has done two updates(restarts) , once on the 17th Mar (4.10.0.6)  and then again on the 28th (4.10.0.7) 
Also i did recreate the client connection on the TV when i changed from https to http.
I did read the other thread and i do see the similarities, however it seem like the other was totally unable to connect at all.

I have checked my old ssl cert and it does seem the root CA has changed from Sectigo (AAA) to  Sectigo Public Server Authentication Root R46 with this cert renewal which if the SSL is the issue, that would be frustrating. 

For reference, i will investigate changing the remote connections to SSL disabled this morning on the server and enabling debug logs to see what difference that will make and i'll update with progress. 

Regards
Brett

[SamES 1087]

Thanks for clarifying.  I agree, the timing seems a bit off, but I'm fairly sure that R46 certificate is the issue, and it is the same root signing certificate that was used in the other case.  I have seen mixed results where the UI works and playback doesn't when there are SSL issues.  I suspect there is some amount of caching going on in the TV.  Before testing disabling SSL, this would be an interesting test.

• Fully uninstall the emby client
• Remove power from the tv for a few minutes
• Reinstall the app and connect to the plain http address

I wonder what works and what doesn't after that.

[brainfryd 10]

ok.. i'll try that, however it does mean a trip back to that location, as user won't be able to complete this. I did try a complete delete app and re-install already but didn't power off TV at wall also didn't go straight to http connection... for clarity the app store here in Aus is sitting at ver 2.2.8 but i have 2.3.4 on USB, which version do you want me to install ?

[SamES 1087]

8 minutes ago, brainfryd said:

ok.. i'll try that, however it does mean a trip back to that location, as user won't be able to complete this. I did try a complete delete app and re-install already but didn't power off TV at wall also didn't go straight to http connection... for clarity the app store here in Aus is sitting at ver 2.2.8 but i have 2.3.4 on USB, which version do you want me to install ?

If it's too much hassle, don't worry about that test. I'm not expecting it to fix the SSL connection, although it might allow plain http to work with the 'preferred' option set rather than completely disabling it.

Either 2.2.8 or 2.3.4 should be fine.  Neither will impact this issue, so just whichever you prefer. Just keep in mind that the USB version needs to be reinstalled with the latest version every month.

[brainfryd 10]

ok thanks for that... I'm happy to try what you suggested to isolate whether the SSL cert is the issue. 
I'll stick to the store version then for now, i only tried the manual usb version s a troubleshooting measure anyway

[Luke 42255]

3 hours ago, brainfryd said:

ok thanks for that... I'm happy to try what you suggested to isolate whether the SSL cert is the issue. 
I'll stick to the store version then for now, i only tried the manual usb version s a troubleshooting measure anyway

Please let us know how things go. Thanks.

[brainfryd 10]

Ok ... 
So i uninstalled Emby client from both Samsung TV's, powered off units at wall for 5 mins approx. 
- Powered TV back on,  installed Emby client 2.2.28 from store, created connection via http://########.net , port 8096 on both TV's
- Clients connect ok to server, navigate no issues, but same behaviour in regards to playback. 

I then disabled SSL connections on server, enabled debug logging and restarted server. 

Still no playback of any media... spinning circle for minute or so, then either a black screen and then 'no compatible streams' message  or it just bounces back to media selection page

I then went into Diagnostic options, enabled force transcoding, updated transcoding logs to debug
attempted playback - no go

For reference, i grabbed a screenshot from my phone, looking at the server dashboard after forcing transcoding and it still says its attempting direct play even tho from my understanding the audio codec alone should make it transcode 



On the other TV, which is an older UA75RU7100, i was getting this error message, this was at 12:48 today


I have had a quick look through the log (attached), but don't really know to read them properly, i did see a number of bitrate exceeded errors, so just thought it was worth noting the app settings for the QA75Q60AA TV were set to auto for remote streaming


Hope this all makes sense, if there is anything else you want me to try, please let me know... but at this point, no SSL is involved and these two clients just won't playback anything.

Regards
Brett
 

embyserver 06-04-26.txt

[brainfryd 10]

Also potentially of note, changing the remote streaming quality settings to something like 4K-60 makes no difference to playback

[SamES 1087]

Thanks for all the info. Something doesn't make sense with this.  We'll have to try and get back to basics.

Just to eliminate this as possibly being a problem. Can you please try and find where this is being limited, it could be in the playback settings on the client?  

Quote

2026-04-06 12:24:46.518 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: User policy for Nadene. EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableTranscodingQuality: True
2026-04-06 12:24:46.518 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
2026-04-06 12:24:46.518 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
2026-04-06 12:24:46.520 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
2026-04-06 12:24:46.520 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
2026-04-06 12:24:46.523 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectPlay limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
2026-04-06 12:24:46.523 Info MediaInfoService-0HNKJGEKL8UM9:00000002: Bitrate exceeds DirectStream limit: media bitrate: 9675070, max bitrate: 7000000
 

Can you please turn off the hardware acceleration Transcoding option on the server and do some tests.

Please test with a basic mkv file with a h264 1080p video and ac3 audio track, and ensure subtitles are all off.

Does anything play, or is it just items that need transcoding due to TrueHD/DTS/bitrate that is the problem?

Let's try and get something DirectPlaying, then we can work from there.

[brainfryd 10]

Hi Sam, 

Thanks again, for looking into this ... 

I looked at the playback attempts from earlier today and the file that the log is referring to IS a basic 1080p mkv with Ac-3, so it should just direct play... I've attached a screenshot for the media info from Emby. 

Also for reference, I can't even play a basic MP3 music file, the same non playback behaviour happens...

I have other friends who can connect remotely to the server and the transcoding works perfectly the way it's setup. I can turn off the hardware transcoding if you think it's necessary, but 3 or 4 other clients including my phone, all transcode with no issues.

Also I sent the screenshot earlier of the playback settings on the client, it was set to auto, here's the playback settings for the user on the server 

 

Edited 38 minutes ago by brainfryd
Updated info