[Issue]: Video decoder crashed on TCL 55C6K when TV system overlay (volume/menu) appears during streaming

Describe the bug

Moonlight crashes with a "Video decoder crashed" error (device incompatibility message) whenever a system-level overlay renders on top of the video surface during streaming — this includes the TV's volume OSD, the controller's guide/home button, or attempting to switch apps without ending the session. In most cases this requires a full power cycle of the TV to recover; occasionally it shows the error dialog and Moonlight closes on its own.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start any stream from Sunshine.
2. While actively playing, trigger any of: pressing volume up/down on the TV remote, pressing the guide/home button on a connected gamepad, or trying to switch to another app without ending the session.
3. The video freezes, and either the TV becomes fully unresponsive (requiring a power cycle) or Moonlight shows "Video decoder crashed" and closes.

Affected games

Occurs across every game tested so far. I have not yet specifically isolated whether it also occurs streaming a plain desktop/Steam Big Picture session (happy to test this if useful).

Other Moonlight clients

PC

Moonlight adjusted settings

Yes

Moonlight adjusted settings (please complete the following information)

Tried forcing codec to H264 and to HEVC (both crash identically), adjusted bitrate between 40-70 Mbps, confirmed HDR is disabled, updated Moonlight to the latest available version — none of these prevented the crash. The one change that reliably prevents it: enabling the on-screen performance stats overlay

Moonlight default settings

Yes

Gamepad-related connection issue

No

Gamepad-related input issue

No

Gamepad-related streaming issue

No

Android version

Android 14

Device model

TCL 55C6K (55" Mini-LED, Google TV

Server PC OS version

Windows 11 version 25H2, 26200.9457

Server PC GeForce Experience version

AMD Adrenaline 26.8.1 AMD Windows Driver Version 32.0.21045.5002

Server PC Nvidia GPU driver version

AMD Radeon RX 6600 Driver Version 25.10.45.05-260808a-203303C-AMD-Softwa re-Adrenalin-Edition

Server PC antivirus and firewall software

Windows Defender and Windows Firewall (default)

Screenshots

No response

Relevant log output

Additional context

On-screen stats confirm the decoder as c2.mtk.hevc.decoder, confirming a MediaTek chipset. This may be related to issue #1601 (same "Video decoder crashed" error on a TCL Smart TV Pro, also Android 14). Key finding: enabling the on-screen stats overlay is 100% reliable at preventing the crash — tested over a 2+ hour session with repeated volume/guide-button triggers and zero crashes. My guess is that rendering the stats forces Moonlight into a different video rendering path (GPU-composited rather than a dedicated hardware overlay plane), which is more tolerant of concurrent system UI overlays. Happy to help test debug builds or provide further logs.