Probably depends if you have it set to Hardware/Software/Hybrid?
No transcoding going on if that's what you mean? I do have it set to Hardware but stats on the client are showing Direct Play.
No not transcoding. I mean under playback, advanced.
Deinterlacing Mode set to Hardware
Video and Audio Driver set to Default
Decoder Quality set to High
Just looked back on your previous posts and I see you're using an Android box - that's probably the difference.
Change from hardware to the other choice(s) and see if it will properly Direct Play.
Ya I've found playback to be goofy and hit & miss among many different file types with Hardware, Hybrid, Software, etc. Starting the file in Landscape versus Portrait mode then rotating the device. Sometimes it plays back with black screen, sometimes correct screen. Sometimes the image ratio is correct, sometimes it's not. My devices are primarily the Pixel 8 or 9 Pro and onn 4k streaming boxes.
Just did some testing on a onn 4K streaming box with AV1 file. On "Hardware" it's black screen with just sound. With both "Hybrid" and "Software" it shows the video but it's choppy/dropped frames with sound.
With Emby, it plays smooth.
I think the Apple TV is doing it on the client side - it has a fair amount of power to decode, even in software.
Ya the onn 4K streaming box, FireTV, and Pixel 8/9 all have AV1 decoding built-in which are the devices I use. All those devices Direct Play AV1 files with Emby smoothly. Channels DVR does not properly play them on the same devices which is unfortunate.
Yeah just tried on my Amazon Echo Show 15 (which runs Fire TV). Just get audio but no video.
Interestingly enough, Plex will direct play the same video.
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AV1 is becoming more and more commonplace. Hope the Channels team understands this.
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Start voting folks if you want this. The more people vote, the more devs see this as important and will most likely implement it
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Voted. Starting working on my dream virtual music videos channel, mimicking a couple of my favorite Pandora "stations". The videos I've checked so far have all been AV1 -- serious bummer. 
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AV1 with opus audio in an mkv container plays fine on my iPhone and AppleTV.
For me the only missing thing is generating thumbnails for videos that I have in channels-personal/videos. Currently all my AV1 videos have no thumbnail or the broken thumbnail icon, so it's not a great UX.
FWIW, anecdotally AV1 seems to suddenly be a lot more common on youtube. I've always downloaded with the --prefer-free-formats flag with yt-dlp, and have almost always gotten VP9. However in the last 2 months or so I've usually been getting AV1.
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I find my Apple TV just does not have enough juice to play 2160p60 videos encoded with AV1. Tried recently to play with Emby on Apple TV(2nd Gen 2021 A2169) 11Mbps AV1 2160p60 video downloaded from youtube and it was a freeze frame. Youtube app plays vp9 version at 23Mbps of the same video.
My LG CX plays the same video AV1 2160p60 no issues in the youtube app.
Try new beta:
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Not seeing this. Are there errors in your log?
Quick question - where can the beta be downloaded from? I assume it has to be sideloaded? If so, unfortunately I probably can't test as I have it installed on an Echo Show 15 (which doesn't allow sideloading).
Thanks.
Unfortunately I am not seeing any error logs. For example here is all the logs I see for one AV1 video that is not displaying thumbnails:
2025/02/16 08:25:35.224824 [IDX] Generating video index for file-3814: Music Videos/Benson Boone - Beautiful Things (Official Music Vi
deo).mkv
2025/02/16 08:25:35.228997 [SCN] Imported video #3814 Music Videos/Benson Boone - Beautiful Things (Official Music Video).mkv
2025/02/16 08:25:35.611038 [IDX] Finished video index generation for file-3814 in 0s
Working great in my limited testing thus far with 2nd Gen onn 4K streaming box. Thanks @tmm1
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