[FFmpeg-user] Problems with old TV - Can I decode a new file and re-encode to an older version of a codec?

[bbb]

Five years ago, I've bought an inexpensive Samsung TV (ue55nu7099) and 
I'm using it to watch from minidlna server. I'm not very happy with the 
firmware player, but it's bearable and I don't want to use an external 
player. The TV can access the local network but is blocked from internet 
access.

 From the beginning, the TV was very picky about the encoding of media 
files but I found out, that I can make just any file playable when I 
re-encode it with this command:
> ffmpeg -i INPUT.mkv -c:v h264 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a ac3 OUTPUT.mkv

This stopped working a few weeks back. The TV started to skip frames and 
sometimes even froze without being able to recover. I was able to solve 
that by installing an older static version of ffmpeg.
> /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg-6.0-amd64-static/ffmpeg -i INPUT.mkv -c:v h264 
> -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a ac3 OUTPUT.mkv

Again, it's working perfect when I'm re-encoding any file that isn't too 
new. I am still having some (less severe) problems with some very new 
files. I am not sure, but I suspect that this older version of ffmpeg 
can't decode those new files perfectly.

Is it possible to use an updated and new version of ffmpeg for decoding 
a media file and then re-encoding it with an older version of the 
codecs, so that my TV can handle it?