I have the settings on my Jellyfin server mostly dialed-in, but one of the only problems I have left to fix is HDR and subtitle transcoding. My server transcodes HDR10 and DV with no problem, but often times the client devices don’t properly report their HDR capabilites. My Android TV box and my phone can’t play DV, but it tries to direct-stream Dv anyway. My desktop PC can’t display HDR at all, but it still tries to direct-stream HDR content. Subtitles don’t always work on my phone unless they’re burned-in.

There’s an option to force HDR transcoding on the Windows client, but not for Android. Workarounds like lowering the bitrate to below the source bitrate or activating burned-in subtitles work, but I don’t want to lower the bitrate, and I don’t always want subtitles.

What I’m looking for is an option on the server to force transcoding to h264/SDR and burn in subtitles regardless of client. An option to disable direct play and force transcoding for every stream would be perfect.

So far, I can’t find any way to do this on the server. Is there any way to to disable direct play or at least force transcoding based on source content and not client capabilities?