'bitrate' value missing in 'media_streams' table for MKV media audio streams since 1.19.3.2852 Update - Causes Content couldn't be Played in Remote Web Player

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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:crazy_face:

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Hrm. I donā€™t understand how thatā€™s connected to media being available or not. I agree with :crazy_face:!

Also, I added some upgraded .mp4 files to existing movies. They got bitrate immediately when they were added.

Then I added some .mkv files, and they didnā€™t get bitrate immediately. SO Iā€™m going to test that more deeply now.

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I added some more MP4 media. Some new, some upgraded encodings. All received bitrate immediately. All received improved estimates after deep analysis completed.

I added some MKV media. Some new, some upgrades. None received bitrate immediately. All received bitrate after deep analysis completed.

@BigWheel does this seem like a bug?

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Yeap, I also think this is a bug.

What do you say @BigWheel ? :thinking:

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Possibly not a Bug, and my initial suspicions are true.

Maybe itā€™s just a strategy to force desktop users to buy the apps. :hushed:

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Not fixed in Plex Media Server 1.20.3.3437

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Is is possible to get a sample of one of your MKVs this happens to.

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Sure.

This is a sample file that produces the described behavior:
Sample File

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If you need any help troubleshooting this issue I started a now locked thread and was able to get to the root cause with the help of @anon18523487 and @ChuckPa. They were each on the cusp of filing a bug report but unfortunately I donā€™t think it ever happened. Here is the thread:

Plex Incorrectly Estimating Required Bandwidth - Forcing a Video Transcode

The tl;dr was that MKVToolNix (and possibly FFMPEG) changed how they handle audio bitrate metadata for MKVā€™s. Older versions of MKVToolNix used:

Metadata:
BPS: 640000
BPS-eng: 640000

However newer versions simply use:

Metadata:
BPS-eng: 640000

PMS is unable to parse the audio bitrate from the new metadata format. If you attempt to play the file before a deep analysis occurs (or simply have deep analysis disabled) it can cause lots of wonky behavior on a number of clients since Plex ā€œstreaming brainā€ assumes an astronomical bandwidth requirement due to the blank field

You should be able to recreate an affected file yourself by using the following command on any old AVI/XVID file with a modern version of FFMPEG:

ffmpeg -i movie.avi -c:v libx264 -c:a eac3 movie-h264-eac3.mkv

For anyone experiencing similar issues, me and @Volts have discussed the issue further with some possible workarounds here:

PMS Canā€™t Detect MKV Audio Bitrate Info

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