[BUG] Intermittent transcoding on LG WebOS when direct playing

Plex Players Smart TVs
41

Thank you very much!

42

Thanks for that. This is the first downgrade Iā€™ve ever done to Plex. The last two weeks have been a disaster using WebOS. Subs not working, transcoding after a couple of minutes if srt subs are used. Iā€™m not ready to give XPlay that Ā£7 but Iā€™ll need to soon to have a normal playback experience.

43

Can anyone confirm that loading back to 1.15.1.791 has fixed this issue for them please? Also have this issue, and would really like to get subtitles working again.

44

Guys itā€™s not a good feeling having this issue, are we going to have any update to fix the problem?

45

downgrading to 1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c fixed the problem for me.

for linuxserver/plex users itā€™s as simple as setting the VERSION environment variable to 1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c

46

for linuxserver/plex users itā€™s as simple as setting the VERSION environment variable

Hi, how could we make this changes, Iā€™m a Plex Linux user.

Thank you for any help on this matter

47

I am experiencing this exact same problem on both WebOS and Chromecast Ultra on an LG OLED55B6V. The TV is able to fully direct play a 20 mbps 4K HDR movie just fine for a while, but eventually it will buffer for a moment and switch to transcoding for no apparent reason.

WARN - [ui-chrome-webos] [Subtitles] Request failed. statusCode:0 state:4 errorCount:1

The buffering in itself is pretty annoying, but the serious issue is that direct play suddenly switches to transcoding which breaks HDR content. It also seems to switch from the selected SRT-subtitles to PGS for some reason. When HDR playback breaks, the movies look absolutely horrible. Is there still not a fix for Chromecast and WebOS?

48

Looks like the only solution that I can find is using Emby, very disappointed since Iā€™m a Plex Pass member.

Last update for WebOS was on 2016, Emby has an update until last month.

Why is taking so long guys?

apparently another solution is to execute a downgrade on the server but that no make sence.

Please update!!!

49

The downgrade to 1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c does seem to fix the problem for me. But obviously it is not a satisfactory solution having to stick with an outdated version for Plex to work.

50

Last update for WebOS was on 2016, Emby has an update until last month.

Why is taking so long guys?

WebOS is updated very regularly, what your seeing on LG store is a loader. Go to your LG client settings /about to find your current version.

Last updated August 16/2019, over the air when you start Plex .

51

C8 here and this is highly annoying.

53

yesā€¦ youā€™re right, but pretty weirdā€¦ still having this direct play issue, I hope that soon we have an answer of a fix to this issue

54

@markus101 is this an issue thatā€™s being looked at? Thereā€™s been several updates to the WebOS player since this topic started yet the issue is still present.

55

Hi @Krazeh, yes the issue is still present, I just checked right now using the latest version on both side, Server and WebOS (Server: 1.16.5.1488 / WebOS Launcher : 2.1.3 / Plex for LG: 4.3.0)

After several test, the client push transcoding after 4 min using .SRT subtitle, if you turn off the .SRT subtitle everything goes wellā€¦ but if you activate the .SRT subtitle again, after 4 min it start transcoding again.

The only way that I found to reproduce the movie without transcoding is to start it from the beginning.

the most frustrating thing is that using XPLAY and EMBY this issue doesnā€™t happens.

2 Likes
56

I have exactly the same problem.
Versions: Server: 1.16.5.1554-1e5ff713d, Plex 4.3.0, WebOS 4.1.0
When playing a 4K movie with embedded SRT subtitles, the movie direct plays for ~6 minutes (with working subtitles), then it buffers and starts transcoding.
With the subtitles disabled, the movie plays fine.
Logs of both variants are in the attached file.

With XPLAY, the movie plays with subtitles and direct play without ever transcoding, but XPLAY only allows the first subtitle track to be played without transcoding, so this is also not optimal.logs.zip (160.5 KB)

57

Same problem here.
Iā€™m using the Plex DLNA server and the native DLNA player from the LG tv for direct play until a solution is providedā€¦ I hope sooner than later.

58

Same problem here. the direct transmission at 4K HDR falls back to 1080p with transcoding after 2 to 5 minutes of playingā€¦ if I stop and starts from where I was, the direct playback starts to work againā€¦ until 2 to 5 minutosā€¦ and then break again. :frowning:

Iā€™ll try to go back to that 1.15.1.791 version.

They should be block this transcoding feature for 4k HDR videos, since it is basicly useless.

59

Hi all, I am also having this issue and has been bugging me for 2 weeks now. For specifications, Iā€™m using:

TV: LG55C8PPA
OS:WebOS 4.1.3-5620 (goldilocks-glacier)
Plex on WebOS: Version 2.1.3

Server: Synology DS-218+
Plex on Server: PlexMediaServer-1.16.5.1554-1e5ff713d-x86_64.spk

As evident to most users, my issue is that the client does transcoding within 4-7 minutes of watching a movie. I havenā€™t tested with or without subtitle if this changes anything but I mostly use external .srt file for subtitles and this usually triggers it.

Another annoying thing is that I watched 2 movies (with different resolution) and at the first half or so, the intermittent issue was apparent. Once I play, it direct plays for 4-7 minutes then the screen blacks out and does transcoding. I exit the media player and play the movie again and it direct plays for 4-7 minutes. This cycle goes on for the first half or so of the film and around the last 1/4th of the film, it direct plays with no issues. It does show the intermittent transcoding/direct play but I just thought I would point it out.

I will try playing a film from beginning to end without skipping or forwarding to check if it direct plays without any problem.

Also, @pigmalion, do you happen to have the installer for Plex version 1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c (spk file) for synology? If you could share a link or something, that would be great!

Thank you.

60

@sashimimojo, this is the link for Synology x86-64, directly from Plex:
https://downloads.plex.tv/plex-media-server-new/1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c/synology/PlexMediaServer-1.15.1.791-8bec0f76c-x86_64.spk

61

My TV is LG 55SK8500 and I have same problems with transcoding after few minutes. Please fix this annoying bug. And when plex is direct playing my subtitles are big( that is my choise) and when this bug happen and plex start transcoding subtitles are small and font is changed tooā€¦
I start using Emby. But on Emby LG webOS client donā€™t have option to increase subtitle size. Very annoying situation.