Hi, after some research I figured out why 4k movies in my Samsung TV are paused & buffering every 10 seconds & cause of these problems are Subtitles! If I disable them, problem disappears, but enabling them causes buffering. This doesn’t relate to 1080p movies though. I’m asking Plex developers why this happens and if they can fix this issue? I use subtitles when watching movies in English all the time, as English isn’t native language and they help me. I don’t know if it will be helpful, but my TV is Samsung MU6100, Plex is installed in my PC which is quite powerful and both TV & PC are connected via cable in local area.
4 Likes
The issue is known.
When adding subtitles to a video Plex will transcode the media.
This implies your server is not powerful enough to transcode HVEC.
I have the same issue. How can we know if our server is powerful enough to transcade HVEC, and what can we do about it, when it’s not powerful enough.
CPU: Intel Core I7 3770k, 4.2GHz overclocked
MOTHERBOARD: MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming 8GB
RAM: 16GB G.Skill Trident X
STORAGE: Crucial M500 SSD 120GB + 2TB HDD + 4TB HDD + 4TB HDD
PSU: XFX PRO1050W Black Edition (80+ Gold)
COOLER: Thermaltake water 2.0 (liquid cooling)
CASE: Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus
MONITOR: Philips 298P4 29" UltraWide
KEYBOARD: Corsair Vengeance K70
MOUSE: Red Dragon Mammoth
SPEAKERS: Microlab Solo7C
OS: Windows 10 64bit
This is where my Plex is installed.
1 Like
@JonasCisum said:
I have the same issue. How can we know if our server is powerful enough to transcade HVEC, and what can we do about it, when it’s not powerful enough.
@“j.chutlashvili@gmail.com” said:
CPU: Intel Core I7 3770k, 4.2GHz overclocked
MOTHERBOARD: MSI Z77A-G45 Gaming
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070 G1 Gaming 8GB
RAM: 16GB G.Skill Trident X
STORAGE: Crucial M500 SSD 120GB + 2TB HDD + 4TB HDD + 4TB HDD
PSU: XFX PRO1050W Black Edition (80+ Gold)
COOLER: Thermaltake water 2.0 (liquid cooling)
CASE: Cooler Master HAF 912 Plus
MONITOR: Philips 298P4 29" UltraWide
KEYBOARD: Corsair Vengeance K70
MOUSE: Red Dragon Mammoth
SPEAKERS: Microlab Solo7C
OS: Windows 10 64bitThis is where my Plex is installed.
Use external .srt subs and you should be fine.
Also take a look at https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/186575/release-sub-zero-2-5-0-2287-subtitles-done-right#latest
I only have a need for foreign part audio in my case and the plug in just grabs them when relevant, names them accordingly and they direct play just fine. I don’t use the Plex app on my current Samsung however I did previously run Orca’s app on an earlier model without issues regarding direct playing with subs enabled.
I don’t know how to use external srt subs and also don’t know how to install that subzero plugin. Why developers can’t fix this problem and make it easy for users?
1 Like
I have the same problem, but symptoms are worse:
If I’m playing 4k/HRD content from mkv files with embedded subtitles with setting “subtitles none” on my TV the TV shows 2016/HDR, however if I selected either embedded subtitles or external ones, the PKEX server immediately starts transcoding them to 1080/normal and shows subtitles on the screen.
I does not matter if subtitles are embedded in to the track in mkv container or they are located as external files with any accepted extension (str in my case).
I did not see any error in the plex server log files.
I’m having similar issues with both PGS and SRT in HEVC source files; as soon as I enable a sub stream the stream is reencoded and no longer direct play or direct stream (a recent Tizen version on a 2017 model Samsung TV), but transcoded to H264.
Hello,
I’m having the same issue with Plex’s latest version. How is possible that this bug has not been fixed yet?
It happens both with SRT and PSG subtitles…
Please help!
Thanks
1 Like
I would like to point out that I am having similar issues related specifically for PGS subtitles with 4K HEVC content.
4k HEVC Direct Play with PGS subtitles -> works
4K HEVC with forced transcoding -> works
4K HEVC with forced transcoding AND SRT subtitles -> works
4K HEVC with forced transcoding AND PGS subtitles -> constant buffering.
Simply enabling subtitles drops my transcoding rate from 4.5 to 0.6.
I remember reading on a different thread that it was related to PGS subtitle burning being a single threaded process. Hence the significant drop in transcode rate.
So the issue isn’t that my processor isn’t powerful enough to transcode the movie, but it’s that one single core cannot burn the subtitles on the fly while transcoding is happening.
1 Like
Seeing the same thing for PGS vs SRT. I can burn SRT in 4k content just fine, but not PGS.
Here’s a good thread explaining what’s going on: Plex 4k transcoding "not powerful enough" only on some files
Basically comes down to plex not being able to utilize ffmpeg the same way you or I could via the CLI due to licensing. Hopefully Plex can negotiate better terms.
Same issues. I got 32 core processor and 128gb ram, so I know it ain’t my PC.
When is this going to be fixed?
1 Like
I am also having the same issue. Not my rig because I have a ryzen 2700x and it can handle multiple 4k transcodes at the same time and not buffer.
It appears that you’re using Kodi - could that be why you don’t seem to have the same issue.
It’s happening on my setup as well.
I have an AMD 2700X, 32GB of Samsung B-Die memory at DDR-3200, an RTX 2070, USB 3.1 enabled external storage drive, and this all buffers with Plex given full processing priority and hardware acceleration enabled for all cores.
“It’s a known issue” isn’t a solution. I’ve paid for Plex Pass for years. And years. I’ve never posted because I’ve never had a problem with Plex across multiple platforms, multiple installs, multiple use cases, multiple builds. I finally upgraded to 4K this summer, and have been rapidly upgrading my library.
I can’t convey how infuriating this is. I use subtitles for nearly everything. Why? It doesn’t matter. The subzero addon link no longer works, and frankly, shouldn’t be needed. There’s a clear breakage in this software when it comes to HVEC with subs requiring transcode.
“Known issue” doesn’t mean anything other than “we know but don’t care enough.”
Does the Plex team actually Google bugs? Like how many places this issue has been brought up? Dozens and dozens of Reddit threads, tons of threads here, Cord Cutter enthusiast sites, it’s incredible. And “known issue” is the only explanation.
Not. Good. Enough.
Existing threads:
Blog about subtitles changes! One year ago! Which exacerbates the problem!
https://www.plex.tv/blog/subtitles-and-sunsets-big-improvements-little-housekeeping/
These are just here. Imagine how many more there are, from users who have been trying to get support in the last 30 months, elsewhere. We are way past ridiculous.
9 Likes
i play 4k hevc movie with ass subtitle is tips me “your server is not powerful enough to transcode” so i change my cpu (g4560 with hd610) to (g5500 with uhd630) it still can`t work. then i buy emby
and it work fine .
euhm hellooo? I got this problem too and I would like a fix! Looks like after a few years, it still isn’t fixed… This is very annoying! Fix it! hup hup!
1 Like
I also have this problem… And like many others, English is not my native language so this should be pretty far up on the to-do list for subtitles to work …
1 Like
Hi. I am new to Plex and have started using it, and my 1080p movies with PSG subtitles doesn’t work while streaming on my tv using Plex, but only works on my PC. It look like this have been a problem for ages, so I wonder, why is it so hard to fix this problem? Is there any sollution at the moment? It is very frustrating that a small thing like this should ruin the great experience that Plex has to offer.
