Watch in original quality
JellyRock tells your Jellyfin server exactly what your Roku can play. When your Roku can play a file as it is, the server sends it untouched: the full picture and sound quality, and no work for the server. When it can’t, the server converts only what it has to, and JellyRock shows you why.
How a file plays
Section titled “How a file plays”Your server picks one of three ways for each file:
- Direct playing: your Roku plays the file as it is. This is the best quality.
- Direct streaming: the server repackages the file without changing the picture or sound, for example when your Roku can play what’s inside but not the file type.
- Transcoding: the server converts the picture, the sound or both, because your Roku can’t play them as they are, or because a setting asks for a lower quality.
See how something is playing
Section titled “See how something is playing”While a video plays, press Up or Down to show the player controls, and select the info button at the right. Playback Info shows:
- whether the video is direct playing, direct streaming or transcoding;
- the reason the server gave for any conversion, and the JellyRock setting behind it when there is one;
- the video, audio and subtitle tracks, and what the server converts them to when it says;
- where the stream comes from.
Take a photo of this screen when you report a playback problem.
Lower the quality for one video
Section titled “Lower the quality for one video”On a slow connection, select the gear button next to the info button and set a Maximum Bitrate or a Maximum Resolution. The video reloads where you were. Your pick lasts for this video and the rest of what you queued with it; the next thing you play uses your settings again.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”- Maximum Bitrate, turned on with Enable Limit, and Maximum Resolution: caps for every video. For the original quality, leave the bitrate limit off and set Maximum Resolution to Off. Auto, the default, limits video to your Roku’s video mode, and never below 1080p.
- Text Subtitles Only: shows only text subtitles, because picture-based subtitles make the server transcode the video to draw them in.
- MPEG-2 and MPEG-4: whether your Roku plays these older formats itself.
- H.264 and HEVC profile levels: try a file your Roku might not support directly before falling back to transcoding.
- Force Transcode Anamorphic Video: turn it on if the picture looks squished or stretched.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”- A video transcodes and you expected it not to. Open Playback Info: it names the reason. If it names a JellyRock setting, change that setting.
- No sound, no picture or stuttering. See Playback troubleshooting.
Sound and HDR have pages of their own: Surround sound and HDR and Dolby Vision.