[BUG] PMS Can't Transcode Files with TrueHD audio and Doesn't Handle Error Gracefully

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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I have a movie with a TrueHD audio track. Direct Stream / Direct Play works just fine to play the movie, but if I turn those off or if I attempt to play the movie on a device that doesn’t support TrueHD (i.e. Plex would need to transcode the audio), the player just hangs. Doesn’t matter what player it is: Roku, Web, Plex Media Player, Plex for Android. They all do the same thing. I think the Roku eventually kicks back an error playing the file, but that’s it. Monitoring it with PlexPy/Tautulli, I never see the stream or transcode start. However, if I change the audio track to the AC3 stream, the movie immediately begins to play.

Am I correct in understanding that Plex Media Server for Windows cannot read (for transcoding) TrueHD audio streams and also doesn’t handle the fact that it can’t so it just locks up?

Is this an open bug somewhere? I would understand some audio streams not being supported, but I don’t understand the lock up. PMS should return an error to the player like “Can’t transcode unsupported audio stream” or something like that. Or better yet, change to a different audio stream of the same language and channels, if possible (or at least the same language).

Environment

Plex Media Server v1.12.0.4829
Windows Server 2012 R2

Logs: https://goo.gl/2Y5bKK

Posts I’ve Reviewed

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/224664/problem-with-mkv-file-including-true-hd-codec - says that TrueHD must be transcoded, but it appears PMS can’t transcode it?

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/281486/eae-error-cannot-transcode-truehd-audio - This may be related, but not sure. Looks like it was referred to the Android (player?) team.

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4

I can confirm the same behaviour on my PMS.
Playing a Movie with TrueHD audio in Transcode mode results in a never ending spinning wheel. Selecting the same movie but with AC3 5.1 works fine.

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I see these lines in the log while the circle is spinning:

From Plex Media Server.1.log:
Mar 13, 2018 08:29:38.002 [1700] ERROR - [Transcoder] [truehd_eae @ 0249a180] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read ‘\?\C:\Users\SVC_PlexMediaSvr\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)\9zacs1y12obqcbkdldleeq6m_4072-1-0.wav’
Mar 13, 2018 08:29:38.017 [6328] ERROR - [Transcoder] [truehd_eae @ 0249a180] error reading output
Mar 13, 2018 08:29:38.017 [6532] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while decoding stream #0:1: I/O error

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Same problem here.

Transcoding TrueHD is not working. My server is running in a docker on UNRAID.

ERROR - [Transcoder] [truehd_eae @ 0x1c18d40] error reading output
ERROR - [Transcoder] Error while decoding stream #0:1: Input/output error

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Any Plex Employee want to comment on this?

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Same problem here. Tried deleting Codecs folder which helped before (several versions, more than a year ago) but not now. I’m on Ubuntu, doesn’t seem to be platform specific.

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I have this same issue and encounter the " Conversion failed. A required codec could not be found or failed to install." error when trying to playback any files using the TrueHD sound file that seems corrected when selecting another Sound file for the video. Running on an Unraid Server. logs attached.

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I have the same problem, just seen this post.

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Yup same here

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Same here. Trying to sync MKV files that have a TrueHD audio track to my iPads fails with a generic transcoder error.

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Also having this issue with android tv on two different devices. Only effects truehd transcoding.

Server is also a docker on unraid.

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Yep, same here. Also Plex Docker on Unraid. Following for a hopeful eventual fix!

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I reported an issue that may be the same as this one. So far, crashes only occur with files that have TrueHD audio.

This was what I reported: Optimizing 4k titles causes Plex to freeze - TrueHD audio the problem?

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All I worked out a way to get it temporarily running again.

Try doing this in this order:

  1. Stop the Plex docker
  2. Delete the codecs folder.
  3. Restart the unraid server.
  4. Start the docker.

I’ve tried a lot of different methods this is all that works.

ie: just stopping the docker, deleting the codecs folder and starting it again doesn’t work. It requires a server restart for some reason.

It will eventually stop working again but it will get it going for a few days/weeks.

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What version of unraid server are you all using? Mines on 6.5.3.

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Is there any negative impact to deleting the codecs folder? You say this temporarily works. How long until it stopped working again for you?

I’m on Unraid 6.5.3

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Not that I know of, Plex just recreates the folder when the docker restarts.

First time it lasted 3 days, but I was playing around with it trying to trouble shoot the issue.

This time its 4 days and counting with normal daily use.

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I’m running plex on a 3rd gen i5 desktop. I used to be able to optimize my 4k movies so I can play them on my apple TV but they fail now. I noticed this started when the 4k movies I was getting had TrueHD audio. I just tried the above steps on mine and going to see if this works. If it does it seems like a temp solution. Anyway we can get a plex member on this thread so they can find a fix?