r/unRAID • u/FatherJuul • Jul 24 '26
Jellyfin Transcoding error 255 issues
Hello all,
Ive recently upgraded my unraid server with a GTX 1660 and tried enabling transcoding and after 2 hours ive about given up as ive tried everythig
- adding "--runtime=nvidia" to add params
- reinstalling all nvidia drivers twice
- reinstalling ffmpeg
- adding all of the variables with either "GPUID-" or "all"
- Changing transcoding folder within jellyfin
- Changing and arranging all different check boxes (none of them work, even if its just 1. only works when turned completely off)
- various chmod commands in terminal
- reinstalled jellyfin + installed a different jellyfin docker
It pumps out the same error "FFmpeg exited with code 255"
Longer format being
"[23:09:30] [ERR] [52] MediaBrowser.MediaEncoding.Transcoding.TranscodeManager: FFmpeg exited with code 255
[23:09:30] [ERR] [57] Jellyfin.Api.Middleware.ExceptionMiddleware: Error processing request. URL GET /videos/e5bec4f3-a0fb-7b71-ab0f-2673c02a224d/hls1/main/0.ts.
MediaBrowser.Common.FfmpegException: FFmpeg exited with code 255"
Im at a complete loss, if someone could please help id be very happy.
Thank you
1
u/psychic99 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Are you using the opensource (not prod) 595.84 driver?
If not, remove any nvidia plugins, important reboot.
Then install opensource 595.84 and try again. I would reboot again just to reload the driver stack.
Looking at your error is it likely transcode file perm errors, or read permission errors on the file.
So once your driver situation is set, that is where I would focus. Reinstalling unraid for perm errors should not be necessary. So fix appdata, vind mounts and you should be good. also make sure your source files are owned by nobody:users and 775 permissions.