Jellyfin Media Server 12.4

Jellyfin is the volunteer-built media solution that puts you in control of your media. Stream to any device from your own server, with no strings attached. Your media, your server, your way.

This app runs Jellyfin natively on the NAS (no Docker), with VA-API hardware transcoding on the Intel models' built-in GPU.

• Jellyfin's web interface is on port 8096.
• Its data, configuration, cache and logs are kept next to the app, e.g. /mnt/HD/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/_jellyfin, and survive reinstalls.
• Jellyfin's own output is in jellyfin.log in the app's install directory, and its logs (incl. one per transcode) in _jellyfin/log.
• Like Plex on the NAS, it runs as root.

How it works

The app combines Jellyfin's portable release (with its own .NET runtime and web client) and the portable jellyfin-ffmpeg. Both are built for newer Linux systems than the NAS (Debian Bullseye, glibc 2.31), so a few libraries are replaced with copies built on Bullseye by static/jellyfin:

• libe_sqlite3.so (Jellyfin's database engine) - the same SQLite version and build options as Jellyfin's own copy, which needs a newer glibc.
• libva, libva-drm, libdrm - newer than the NAS's, which jellyfin-ffmpeg needs for VA-API. bin/ffmpeg and bin/ffprobe are small wrappers that run jellyfin-ffmpeg with them. They still use the NAS's own Intel i965 driver.
• vainfo - lists what the GPU can decode and encode (see Hardware transcoding).

libe_sqlite3.so must match the SQLite version bundled with each Jellyfin release, so when updating Jellyfin, also update VERSION (and SQLITE_VERSION if it changed) in static/jellyfin/build.sh.

Only the Intel models are supported: Jellyfin 12+ and jellyfin-ffmpeg have no 32-bit ARM builds.

Management page

Jellyfin's page in the NAS dashboard (Apps → Jellyfin) shows whether Jellyfin is running and healthy, its version, and a link to it. It can restart Jellyfin, and set up hardware transcoding (see below). Only NAS admins can use the page (see Management pages).

Hardware transcoding

The app sets up Jellyfin's transcoding settings (Playback → Transcoding in Jellyfin's dashboard) for the NAS's own GPU. transcoding.sh asks vainfo (built by static/jellyfin) what the GPU can decode and encode, and picks the settings from that:

• On a fresh install, before Jellyfin's first start.
• Afterwards from the management page, which compares Jellyfin's current settings with the recommended ones and can apply them (Jellyfin restarts; all other settings are kept).

For the PR4100 / PR2100's Pentium N3710 that means:

• Hardware acceleration: VA-API, with the device /dev/dri/renderD128.
• Hardware decoding: H.264, HEVC, MPEG-2, VC-1 and VP8 - with HEVC 10bit (and VP9 / AV1) off. Jellyfin turns HEVC 10-bit on by default, but this GPU only decodes 8-bit HEVC, and Jellyfin fails to transcode such files if it's told otherwise.
• Hardware encoding: on, with HEVC and AV1 encoding off (this GPU only encodes H.264).

10-bit HEVC is then decoded in software and encoded on the GPU - about 1.3x real time for a 1080p file on a PR4100, so starts and seeks take a few seconds. 8-bit files are decoded on the GPU too, and clients that can play a file as-is (e.g. Jellyfin's TV / mobile apps for HEVC) avoid transcoding entirely.

The detection can also be run over SSH: sh /mnt/HD/HD_a2/Nas_Prog/jellyfin/transcoding.sh detect.