Server Version#: 1.18.7.2457
Player Version#: 4.22.2
I have 4 mp4 video files that I transferred to my server. Plex has found the metadata, but the media portion where it shows bitrate, and video file details is blank. When I attempt to play these movies, Plex errors (s1001 error). If I play the file directly off the disk, it works fine. It just seems like Plex is unsure how to play it because it lacks the info it needs.
The XML Media id section is also missing most of the info besides the filename:
I have tried deleting/recopying with no luck. I have tried the Plex Dance with no luck.
Tried analyze on the Library with no luck.
There is nothing special about these files. All the video metadata is included and can be read fine with something like mediainfo. This file is a simple AVC, 4,520 kb/s video. Nothing super unusual.
General
Complete name : \\PLEXIMUS\Movies\Batman Series\Batman Begins\Batman Begins.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Codec ID : M4V (M4V /mp42/isom)
File size : 5.19 GiB
Duration : 2 h 20 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 5 302 kb/s
Movie name : Batman Begins
Album : The Dark Knight Trilogy
Album/Sorted by : Dark Knight Trilogy
Part/Position : 1
Part/Total : 1
Track name/Position : 1
Track name/Total : 3
Performer : Christopher Nolan
Performer/Sorted by : Christopher Nolan
Director : Christopher Nolan
Actor : Christian Bale / Liam Neeson / Katie Holmes / Gary Oldman / Michael Caine / Cillian Murphy / Tom Wilkinson / Morgan Freeman / Rutger Hauer / Ken Watanabe
Screenplay by : Christopher Nolan / David S. Goyer
Producer : Emma Thomas / Charles Roven / Larry Franco
Production studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Action & Adventure
ContentType : Short Film
Description : As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him--a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parents' deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate. Fleeing
Recorded date : UTC 2005-06-15 07:00:00
Encoded date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Cover : Yes
PurchaseDate : 2018-03-18 19:13:06
Title/Sort : Batman Begins
ContentRating : mpaa|PG-13|300|for intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements.
LongDescription : As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him--a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parents' deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate. Fleeing to the East, where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime and other dangerous individuals manipulating the system. Meanwhile, Bruce is slowly being swindled out of Wayne Industries, the company he inherited. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman!!!
Video #1
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 5 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2 h 20 min
Bit rate : 4 520 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 800 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.123
Stream size : 4.42 GiB (85%)
Title : Core Media Video
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC
Not sure where to look to see why this file and a few others just refuse to work. Any pointers?
That’ll get you a natural match and you won’t need any of that embedded metadata. <—that’s responsible for this in the first place 'cause the Title is wrong.
Wanna confuse Plex?
Misidentify a Batman Movie.
There are what? 80 of them?
The standard advice is to drop Local Media Assets down to the bottom of the stack of active agents under ALL tabs in Shows and Movies, don’t bother with the embedded metadata, but do name and structure your files properly.
A (YEAR) field is a required element of a movie file name.
AND the folder it resides in.
If you choose to ignore the requirements - do so at your own peril.
@ChuckPa might stop by to perform some diagnostics on a lookup - since he doesn’t have anything else to do - but if he does I’m pretty sure he’s gonna use a good file name.
You could cut to the chase and use a good file name and see what happens.
After looking at the logs, FFMPEG is failing to parse the data:
Mar 06, 2020 02:25:17.442 [0x147aad271740] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - ISO: File Type Major Brand: M4V
Mar 06, 2020 02:25:17.442 [0x147aad271740] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Unknown dref type 0x206c7275 size 12
Mar 06, 2020 02:25:17.448 [0x147aad271740] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - stream 0, contradictionary STSC and STCO
Mar 06, 2020 02:25:17.448 [0x147aad271740] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - error reading header
Searching the g88gles, someone else was having this same issue and it appears this might have been fixed:
i have a video witch can be played by players. But, I failed to decode it using ffmpeg 3.4
.
.
.
The issue was fixed in May of 2018. Update your version of ffmpeg.
[chuck@lizum movies.508]$ ll /vie/movies*/Batman*
/vie/movies2/Batman (1989):
total 14444748
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 2 2018 ./
drwxr-xr-x 503 chuck chuck 28672 Mar 1 02:12 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 14791357089 May 27 2018 Batman (1989).mkv
/vie/movies2/Batman Begins (2005):
total 16361640
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 2 2018 ./
drwxr-xr-x 503 chuck chuck 28672 Mar 1 02:12 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 16754251042 May 27 2018 Batman Begins (2005).mkv
/vie/movies2/Batman Forever (1995):
total 12032292
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 2 2018 ./
drwxr-xr-x 503 chuck chuck 28672 Mar 1 02:12 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 12321001826 May 27 2018 Batman Forever (1995).mkv
/vie/movies2/Batman Returns (1992):
total 14174940
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 2 2018 ./
drwxr-xr-x 503 chuck chuck 28672 Mar 1 02:12 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 14515071999 May 27 2018 Batman Returns (1992).mkv
/vie/movies2/Batman & Robin (1997):
total 15435968
drwxr-xr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Sep 2 2018 ./
drwxr-xr-x 503 chuck chuck 28672 Mar 1 02:12 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 15806363199 May 27 2018 Batman & Robin (1997).mkv
/vie/movies/Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice (2016):
total 19303312
drwsr-sr-x 2 chuck chuck 4096 Jan 3 01:30 ./
drwsr-sr-x 283 chuck chuck 16384 Feb 25 02:23 ../
-rw-r--r-- 1 chuck chuck 19766526308 May 27 2018 Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice (2016).mkv
[chuck@lizum movies.509]$
Regarding the header FFMPEG is failing to parse:
Show me the XML please (between <Media> and </Media> if it exists.
Use ffmpeg -i filename and show me the headers there (don’t need superfluous chapters, etc)
Use mediainfo to show me the headers as well.
Should this fail to resolve, I would like a 10 MB sample of the file (dd will sufficeto pull the headers if the file has beenweb optimized for streaming` (like MKV files)
General
CompleteName : \\bkrnserver\video\Movies\TV Format\Batman Series\Batman Begins.mp4
Format/String : MPEG-4
CodecID/String : M4V (M4V /mp42/isom)
FileSize/String : 5.19 GiB
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : Variable
OverallBitRate/String : 5 302 kb/s
Movie : Batman Begins
Album : The Dark Knight Trilogy
Album/Sort : Dark Knight Trilogy
Part/Position : 1
Part/Position_Total : 1
Track/Position : 1
Track/Position_Total : 3
Performer : Christopher Nolan
Performer/Sort : Christopher Nolan
Director : Christopher Nolan
Actor : Christian Bale / Liam Neeson / Katie Holmes / Gary Oldman / Michael Caine / Cillian Murphy / Tom Wilkinson / Morgan Freeman / Rutger Hauer / Ken Watanabe
ScreenplayBy : Christopher Nolan / David S. Goyer
Producer : Emma Thomas / Charles Roven / Larry Franco
ProductionStudio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Action & Adventure
ContentType : Short Film
Description : As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him--a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parents' deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate. Fleeing
Recorded_Date : UTC 2005-06-15 07:00:00
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Cover : Yes
PurchaseDate : 2018-03-18 19:13:06
Title/Sort : Batman Begins
ContentRating : mpaa|PG-13|300|for intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements.
LongDescription : As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of him--a trauma that leads him to become obsessed with revenge. But the opportunity to avenge his parents' deaths is cruelly taken away from him by fate. Fleeing to the East, where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime and other dangerous individuals manipulating the system. Meanwhile, Bruce is slowly being swindled out of Wayne Industries, the company he inherited. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman!!!
Video #1
ID/String : 1
Format/String : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format_Profile : High@L4
Format_Settings : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format_Settings_CABAC/String : Yes
Format_Settings_RefFrames/String : 5 frames
CodecID : avc1
CodecID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate/String : 4 520 kb/s
Width/String : 1 920 pixels
Height/String : 800 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 2.40:1
FrameRate_Mode/String : Constant
FrameRate/String : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String : 8 bits
ScanType/String : Progressive
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.123
StreamSize/String : 4.42 GiB (85%)
Title : Core Media Video
Language/String : English
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
colour_range : Limited
colour_primaries : BT.709
transfer_characteristics : BT.709
matrix_coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC
Video #2
ID/String : 9
Format/String : JPEG
CodecID : jpeg
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 8 110 b/s
Width/String : 640 pixels
Height/String : 360 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 1.85:1
FrameRate_Mode/String : Variable
FrameRate/String : 0.005 FPS
FrameRate_Minimum/String : 0.002 FPS
FrameRate_Maximum/String : 0.015 FPS
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:4:4
BitDepth/String : 8 bits
ScanType/String : Progressive
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 7.040
StreamSize/String : 7.73 MiB (0%)
Title : Core Media Video
Default/String : No
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Menu For : 2,10,11,12
Audio #1
ID/String : 2
Format/String : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
CodecID : mp4a-40-2
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
Source_Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate_Nominal/String : 160 kb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 249 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 2 channels
ChannelLayout : L R
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
FrameRate/String : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Source_StreamSize/String : 127 MiB (2%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Language/String : English
Default/String : Yes
AlternateGroup/String : 2
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Fallback From : 10
Subtitles : 3
Menus : 8,9
mdhd_Duration : 8401280
Audio #2
ID/String : 10
Format/String : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format_Commercial_IfAny : Dolby Digital
CodecID : ac-3
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
Source_Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Constant
BitRate/String : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 6 channels
ChannelLayout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
FrameRate/String : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
BitDepth/String : 16 bits
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
StreamSize/String : 385 MiB (7%)
Source_StreamSize/String : 385 MiB (7%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Language/String : English
ServiceKind/String : Complete Main
Default/String : Inherited From: 2
AlternateGroup/String : 2
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Fallback To : 2
Subtitles : 3
Menus : 8,9
mdhd_Duration : 8401280
Audio #3
ID/String : 11
Format/String : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
CodecID : mp4a-40-2
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
Source_Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate_Nominal/String : 160 kb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 260 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 2 channels
ChannelLayout : L R
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
FrameRate/String : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Source_StreamSize/String : 127 MiB (2%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Language/String : French
Default/String : No
AlternateGroup/String : 2
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Subtitles : 5,6
Menus : 8,9
mdhd_Duration : 8401280
Audio #4
ID/String : 12
Format/String : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
CodecID : mp4a-40-2
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
Source_Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate_Nominal/String : 160 kb/s
BitRate_Maximum/String : 231 kb/s
Channel(s)/String : 2 channels
ChannelLayout : L R
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 kHz
FrameRate/String : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Source_StreamSize/String : 126 MiB (2%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Language/String : English
Default/String : No
AlternateGroup/String : 2
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Menus : 8,9
mdhd_Duration : 8401195
tagc : public.accessibility.describes-video
Text #1
ID/String : 3
Format/String : Timed Text
MuxingMode : sbtl
CodecID : tx3g
Duration/String : 1 s 0 ms
BitRate/String : 264 b/s
StreamSize/String : 33.0 Bytes (0%)
Title : Core Media Subtitle
Language/String : English
Default/String : Yes
Forced/String : Yes
AlternateGroup/String : 1
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Subtitles For : 2,10
Text #2
ID/String : 4-CC1
Format/String : EIA-608
MuxingMode : Final Cut
CodecID : c608
Duration/String : 2 h 20 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Constant
StreamSize/String : 0.00 Byte (0%)
Title : Core Media Closed Caption
Language/String : English
Default/String : No
Forced/String : No
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
CaptionServiceName : CC1
Text #3
ID/String : 5
Format/String : Timed Text
MuxingMode : sbtl
CodecID : tx3g
Duration/String : 1 h 37 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 0 b/s
StreamSize/String : 144 Bytes (0%)
Title : Core Media Subtitle
Language/String : French
Default/String : No
Forced/String : Yes
AlternateGroup/String : 1
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Subtitles For : 11
Full Alternative : 6
Text #4
ID/String : 6
Format/String : Timed Text
MuxingMode : sbtl
CodecID : tx3g
Duration/String : 2 h 19 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 75 b/s
StreamSize/String : 76.6 KiB (0%)
Title : Core Media Subtitle
Language/String : French
Default/String : No
Forced/String : No
AlternateGroup/String : 1
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
Subtitles For : 11
Forced Alternative : 5
Text #5
ID/String : 7
Format/String : svtt
CodecID : svtt
Duration/String : 2 h 10 min
BitRate_Mode/String : Variable
BitRate/String : 190 b/s
StreamSize/String : 182 KiB (0%)
Title : Core Media Text
Language/String : Japanese
Default/String : No
Forced/String : No
AlternateGroup/String : 1
Encoded_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:38:36
Tagged_Date : UTC 2018-01-27 05:39:54
I have a 10MB chunk of the file if you would like me to send it somewhere.
STOP. The further down you bury the file, the harder it is to get a match.
Does your Movie library being at:
/Movies ?
/Movies/Batman Series ?
or some variant of /Movies/TV Format/Batman Series
Plex will automatically make collections for you.
Have a /Movies master area (you can have multiple: /Movies1 /Movies2 if you want and list both in the library section’s definition.
Each movie is defined as Movie (Year)/Movie (Year).ext
a. Extras for that movie can be placed in the directory with it safely
b Each movie will match independently.
Plex will see the collection and create it for you. Your media naming and structure remains simple and easy to curate.
/Movies/MovieName (release year)/MovieName (release year).ext
/Movies
/Avatar (2009)
Avatar (2009).mkv
/Batman Begins (2005)
Batman Begins (2005).mp4
Batman Begins (2005).eng.srt
poster.jpg
The lesson here? Don’t try to force Plex. It will only frustrate you. It’s the same as trying to force an Apple product to do what it’s not going to let you do by design. Same development philosophies prevail.
Thanks for the feedback ChuckPa. I’ll be a good Plex citizen and I restructured all my directories.
The structure was in a docker so it wasn’t quite as deep as the posting (Movies\TV Format\Batman Series\Batman Begins.mp4 ) but I restructured to Movies\Batman Begins (2005)\ Batman Begins (2005).mp4 as requested.
I’m sure the directory structure is not the cause in this case because running FFMPEG directly on the file gives me the same error. Likewise, I reencoded the file with a different tool, and it accepted it fine even before I updated my directory structure. This is really a media analysis bug more than a metadata bug. Anytime I ran ‘Analyze’ on the file it spit out that FFMpeg error.
Like I posted previously, this seems to be a known FFMpeg bug that was fixed in 2018. Maybe Plex’s version just needs an update.
Thanks for the feedback, and going forward my structure is now more Plex compliant which should be helpful!
