Server Version#: Version 1.30.1.6562
Player Version#: Latest Firestick Plex app
Hello,
I am not able to play any kind of .avi files, having HD resolution or even less. The player is just in loading state, as soon as hit play on .avi. On the other hand, mp4 plays fine.
One thing which worth mentioning is that the .avi files are having subtitles muxed using AVIAddXSub just to be able to show subtitles on PS3 (in this case .avi is played directly from usb stick).
Thank you for any feedback it might help.
Generally playback issues have nothing to do with the container format ( AVI, MKV, mp4. etc) but the streams within them. In any case would need the server logs and android logs to make a report to get looked at.
Honestly AVI is such an old format if you are going to be taking the time to mux subtitles into them I would use something like mkvtoolnix to remux them into MKVs or ffmpeg to remux them into mp4s.
I already have a lot of AVIs muxed with subtitles, I did this some years ago.
I have a huge collection of .avi files having subtitles, compatible with PlayStation 3. (I have mentioned earlier that AVIAddXSub would mux subtitles into avi which PS3 can make display them). Otherwise, PS3 cannot show subtitles with mp4 files, unless the subtitles are burn-in into mp4.
Please find attached the requested log files.
Thank you.
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-01-25_18-38-49.zip (8.6 MB)
I provided the log files as per request . Can you please offer support ?
Thank you
Looks at your logs your files just look poorly encoded. There are a crazy amount of seeking to various parts of file which is an indication that the file is encoded badly, like the video is in 1 part of the file, the audio in another, the subs in another, and the player is jumping back and forth to get the info from each.
is it possible to get a sample file?
Strange ! Because I have dozens of such .avi movies having no issues when I play them from usb drive. I can play them directly using tv, media player, PlayStation 3.
Here is the link where I uploaded a sample file :
https://mega.nz/file/1EEDwYhT#JVzN_z-Eww-PuIUGfAe7nMf8vFVKFxubRnE_bJ8x6Kk
Were you able to check the video sample I uploaded ? I think Plex Player cannot handle AVI files having XSUB embedded ,is it?
Thank you
I downloaded your sample file, and none of the media players I have on my computer were able to display a subtitle. Not even VLC which plays almost anything. There’s no indication that a subtitle even exists. Does the sample file display the subtitles on the PS3?
Here’s the output from MediaInfo, and you can see that the program cannot find a subtitle track.:
General
Complete name : D:\Video\Valerian\Alvin and the Chipmunks _edit.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 15.0 MiB
Duration : 1 min 22 s
Overall bit rate : 1 528 kb/s
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Real Time Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : DIVX
Codec ID/Info : Project Mayo
Codec ID/Hint : DivX 4
Duration : 1 min 22 s
Bit rate : 1 358 kb/s
Width : 616 pixels
Height : 320 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.925
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.287
Stream size : 13.3 MiB (89%)
Writing library : XviD 1.0.3 (UTC 2004-12-20)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Format settings : Joint stereo / MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 1 min 22 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.26 MiB (8%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Ffmpeg, VLC, etc do not show a subtitle track in the codec information, and when I tried remuxing as an MKV, there was no subtitle track.
You were right with the sample file. When I did the cut from the original file, subtitle got lost somehow. Here is another link, having the subtitle included - I´ve double-checked with MediaInfo, now the subtitle is there. Please download this one:
https://mega.nz/file/ZZ91HYIB#PJfs6_m2yArzJLyexNa1_hQG8hU2lXkXVQyY8PfYcZM
Are you able to stream this file with Plex ?
There are no subs in that download either so that doesn’t appear to be the cause of the file not playing
That AVI does not play correctly
MKVToolNix to MKV plays fine
MKV/AVI To MP4 plays fine
There are subs in the second download: 
and the file appeared to play correctly on MPC-BE but not on VLC Media Player (which really surprised me- it would not show any indication a subtitle even existed)
MediaInfo will show the file has a subtitle:
General
Complete name : D:\Video\Valerian\Alvin and the Chipmunks.avi
Format : DivX
Format/Info : Hack of AVI
File size : 702 MiB
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Overall bit rate : 1 077 kb/s
FileExtension_Invalid : divx
Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Real Time Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : DIVX
Codec ID/Info : Project Mayo
Codec ID/Hint : DivX 4
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Bit rate : 936 kb/s
Width : 616 pixels
Height : 320 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.925
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.198
Stream size : 611 MiB (87%)
Title : Video
Writing library : XviD 1.0.3 (UTC 2004-12-20)
Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Format settings : Joint stereo / MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 83.5 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms
Title : Audio
Text
ID : 2
Format : DivX Subtitle
Codec ID : DXSB
Codec ID/Info : Subtitle in AVI from DivX networks
Width : 720 characters
Height : 576 characters
Bit depth : 4 bits
Stream size : 2.07 MiB (0%)
Title : Subtitle - ro;02
ffmpeg or ffprobe show this:
[avi @ 000002bf54ce27c0] scale/rate is 0/0 which is invalid.
(This file has been generated by broken software.)
[avi @ 000002bf54ce27c0] non-interleaved AVI
Input #0, avi, from 'Alvin and the Chipmunks.avi':
Duration: 01:31:11.35, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1076 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: mpeg4 (Advanced Real Time Simple Profile) (DIVX / 0x58564944), yuv420p, 616x320 [SAR 1:1 DAR 77:40], 936 kb/s, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 23.98 tbn
Metadata:
title : Video
Stream #0:1: Audio: mp3 (U[0][0][0] / 0x0055), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s
Metadata:
title : Audio
Stream #0:2: Subtitle: xsub (DXSB / 0x42535844), 720x576, 383 kb/s
Metadata:
title : Subtitle - ro;02
Since MediaInfo reports the format as a “Hack of AVI,” and ffmpeg tells us “This file has been generated by broken software” it would seem that the software used to create the file might be the problem.
I demuxed the avi, removed the subtitle, and compiled back. Now the drawback is that I will not have subtitles on PlayStation3. PS3 does not recognize external subtitles.
As I have suspected, AVIAddXSub messed up the file.
Hello again,
Just wanted to inform you that with the latest server update, 1.31.0.6654, I am able to play AVI files having embedded XSub.
Another issue pops-up now, the subtitles encoding is wrong and I have read somewhere that Plex only supports UTF-8 encoding. Is it ?
