# An unexpected playback problem occurred

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972>\
**Category:** Plex Media Server\
**Tags:** server-windows, smart-tv, samsung-tizen\
**Created:** [October 7, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972 "2021-10-07T04:26:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blergen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/blergen/32/230020_2.png) [@blergen](https://forums.plex.tv/u/blergen)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972/1 "2021-10-07T04:26:26Z")

</div>

Server Version#: Version 1.24.3.5033  
Player Version#: 5.25.2

My Plex App on my Samsung TV will play some movies and TV shows, but not others. Many movies and shows won’t even start - I get the spinning loading wheel and then “Playback Error - An unexpected playback problem has occurred”. I’ve attached a log where I restarted the server, waited a few minutes, started a movie that would play and let it play for ~60 seconds, then switched and tried to play one of my movies that doesn’t play at all.

[Plex Media Server Logs\_2021-10-06\_21-11-38.zip](https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/xFjNG8C8K4o0dKbwZux0zwsFf1Y.zip) (2.0 MB)

I saw the stickied post about the need to use Insecure Connections for the Plex App and Server for some Samsung TVs, so I set those settings as appropriate but the issue with playback continues. I am able to play any file from my laptop, Android tablet, or Samsung Galaxy S7 phone; it’s only the TV that is having issues.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BioHazardousX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@BioHazardousX](https://forums.plex.tv/u/BioHazardousX)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972/2 "2021-11-30T14:55:56Z")

</div>

This could be an issue with direct play vs transcode play. Are you using hardware acceleration on your Plex Media Server (PMS)? If so, try disabling the setting under PMS \> Transcode settings menu, and let us know on my forum post around a similar topic that seems to be related to hardware transcoding and VC1 files.

> [@PMS Crashes when Transcoding VC1 Source Files with Hardware Acceleration Enabled "Playback Error - An unexpected playback problem occurred"](https://forums.plex.tv/t/pms-crashes-when-transcoding-vc1-source-files-with-hardware-acceleration-enabled-playback-error-an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/760936):
>
> Server Version#:6.9.2 unRAID - PMS 1.25.0.5246 Player Version#: Any player, tested on multiple platforms Error Messages Seen: Playback Error - An unexpected playback problem occurred An error occurred trying to play " ". - Error code: s1002 (Network) A user reported an issue to me with playback kicking out an error that started in the last week. We’re using the Binhex Plex Pass docker with unRAID to manage Plex, and it checks for updates daily and auto-updates if available. I don’t have …

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blergen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/blergen/32/230020_2.png) [@blergen](https://forums.plex.tv/u/blergen)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972/3 "2021-11-30T19:29:54Z")

</div>

I don’t have hardware acceleration turned on so I’m not sure this is the problem.

I did find a work-around (I don’t know if this is what causing the problem, but it works now). My landlord controls the network (renting in a shared house, nothing I can do about it). He set up a mesh and put us on a separate network. I don’t know enough about networking to know if we’re on the same network, but just with different names, or actually different networks. Anyway - there was an issue with Plex streaming when our devices were on the network he set up for us. When I moved our devices to the other network, the problems went away.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/an-unexpected-playback-problem-occurred/748972/4 "2022-02-28T19:29:56Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
