I loaded my entire Plex movie library in to Jellyfin and at first everything was going great. Realized pretty quickly some files won’t play on my Apple TV. I tried multiple Jellyfin apps for ATV but I imagine the issue is the transcoding on the backend.
I understand mixing open source software like Jellyfin with closed source Apple products is a weird combo. But I’m not willing to ditch my Apple TV right now.
I confirmed the video files that weren’t playing via Jellyfin played no problem via Plex. Plex continues to make decisions that make me want to switch to Jellyfin, but it also seems Plex’s transcoding is better. Am I doing something obviously wrong?
Edit: Looks like Raspberry Pi 5 doesn’t pay nice with Jellyfin when it comes to hardware acceleration :(
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/transcoding/hardware-acceleration/#raspberry-pi-hardware-acceleration-support-deprecation
For a client on apple tv, ios, etc, check out Infuse. Hands down best client on Apple.
I actually already purchased infuse. Same issues with playback so I guess that means it’s definitely on the backend. Apparently the Rasbury Pi version of Jellyfin no longer supports hardware acceleration. Anyway, sound like Infuse isn’t FOSS but I did appreciate that it’s a one time purchase and not a subscription.
Infuse is not free. It’s not Open. Its devs are a bit obscure.
But, hands down, it’s the best option for tvOS. It’s the only subscription I pay for.
Yeah. It’d be great if it was open source, but it is what it is.
When I was on apple stuff it was the only subscription I paid for as well.
Anyone remember when infuse was a jailbreak tool for the Apple TV 2?
Wait, whaaaat?
Yeah, so Fire core built infuse off the software call Seas0npass that was used to jailbreak the AppleTV 2. Infuse was what would inject code into the AppleTV.
lol thanks for that!
Edit; oops, I thought you talked about both Apple and Android, I’m so used to ATV being Android tv. I might leave the comment anyway if it helps someone else.
For Android tv, if using the official app, I would recommend downloading “Just (Video) Player” and then configuring the Jellyfin app to use external player. On my Shield the videos play much better without transcoding
Plex’s transcoding may be better, but jellyfin’s will work fine once you get the settings dialed in. A bit more info would be helpful, mainly: What kind of jellyfin install (docker, native package manager, podman)? What video codec is the file? Are you using hardware transcoding, and if so, what hardware?
Docker (via CasaOS) running on a rasbury pi 5 with 16gb ram. Same exact hardware I’m running Plex on. I understand it’s not ideal hardware but I’m only looking for as good of performance as Plex.
What about the video file that won’t play? Do you have logs?
I don’t, and you’re right that’s the first thing I should have done. I was hoping it was set and forget but I obviously have to dive a bit deeper. I guess I’m wondering before I invest a lot of time, is it possible to get an experience as good as Plex, or should I expect to hit a wall at some point? I’m happy to donate to Jellyfin devs and consider this a longer term investment but I hope it surpasses Plex.
I’ve never used Plex or apple TV, so IDK. But, I have been using jellyfin for a while and it’s been quite reliable for me. You will need to invest a bit of time, but after that there’s very little maintenance needed.
What sort of video were you trying to play? Also you said you were running it through docker via CasaOS. Things to note, you need to pass your gpu into the container. Relatively simple. Then you got to make sure hardware acceleration is enabled. Make sure HDR to SDR tone mapping is correct.
Just realized the Pi no longer supports hardware acceleration :(
https://jellyfin.org/docs/general/post-install/transcoding/hardware-acceleration/#raspberry-pi-hardware-acceleration-support-deprecationI had the same problem when I tried to run it on a RasPi4. Now I have an N100 mini PC and everything runs great.
I have very limited space to run a home lab. I really love how tiny the Pi is, but I could see expanding a little at some point. But aside from this issue, a decked out raspberry pi has exceeded my expectations and definitely meets all of my needs. This is the first wall I’ve hit.
There are mini PCs that aren’t much bigger than a Pi in a case.