Workaround: AV1 and Jellyfin on Firesticks
I’ve mentioned in my blog previously about the black magic that is AV1 and how it saves so much disk space at comparable quality levels to more traditional video codecs. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world and not everything is quite ready for AV1 just yet. I’ve noticed it extensively on our various Amazon firesticks that we have around the house.
Fortunately open source software like Jellyfin is flexible and adaptable. If the built in video player isn’t doing the trick, there is a setting to use an external media playing app. Thankfully VLC as usual comes to the rescue!
Simply install VLC by pressing the Alexa button and telling your remote “install VLC” and it will pull up the app for you! Download it and then head back to jellyfin.
Inside the jellyfin app select the setting’s gear icon in the top right corner. Select Playback and then scroll all the way to the bottom where you will see “Advanced playback preferences”. Under the “video” heading there will be a checkbox called “Use External Player”. Make sure that it’s checked!
Now you won’t have an issue with an AV1 encoded video on your firestick! Note that this similar procedure works on the android app too!