I’m also getting the same error message, but it’s a bit of a strange one for the following reason:
Episode plays using Rasplex client happily, on my LAN
Same episode throws up the error if played on my PC via the Web App from my LAN Plex server (Ubuntu).
Server Version 1.2.7.2987 (I know it needs updating…)
Do the codecs live on the server, or on the client?
If the Rasplex client plays an episode happily, that my PC (via Web App from Server on LAN) won’t play, is this because the PC or the Server needs better codecs?
@PLEX6FC said:
I’m also getting the same error message, but it’s a bit of a strange one for the following reason:
Episode plays using Rasplex client happily, on my LAN
Same episode throws up the error if played on my PC via the Web App from my LAN Plex server (Ubuntu).
Server Version 1.2.7.2987 (I know it needs updating…)
Do the codecs live on the server, or on the client?
If the Rasplex client plays an episode happily, that my PC (via Web App from Server on LAN) won’t play, is this because the PC or the Server needs better codecs?
I’m trying to set up a plex server running on FreeNas that will eventually be without internet. It will be accessed by a few 2 year old Rokus that will also be offline. I had this working last year, but now since the update to 1.5.5.3634, I’m getting an error saying the codec is not available. I have since brought the server back to a place that has internet and run Analyze on all Libraries. Is there anything else I need to do in order for Plex to force download the codecs it needs? As ?I understand it, the codec is downloaded on first use, Does Analyze force the download of the codecs? Do I have to bring the Rokus back to a place with internet to update their app?
Analyze will not download the codecs. You’ll need to actually play the file.
For the Roku’s, if you want to update the app, you will need to bring them to a place with internet. Do you know what version of the Plex app you are running now on the Roku’s? You may not need to update them.
Is there any way to force Plex to download all codecs needed without playing all files individually? That seems like a fairly big problem if your’e not able to use it while internet is down.
I will check the version next time I have access to them.
@jimmypooh said:
Is there any way to force Plex to download all codecs needed without playing all files individually? That seems like a fairly big problem if your’e not able to use it while internet is down.
No there is not a way to force downloading all codecs. Codecs are downloaded as needed, and since transcoding depends on the client’s ability, it’s not possible to know what’s needed.
Please note that Plex was not designed to work totally offline. It is designed to be connected to the internet. There are some fallbacks put in place should internet be lost, but it is not intended to be used this way.
An option if being offline is the norm for you, is to install Kodi on the client (if available) and use the Plex for Kodi Add-on. This will direct play almost any file so you don’t need PMS to transcode anything and therefore won’t need the codecs to be downloaded.
[SOLVED]
It’s missing the decoder.dll(s) that should be in (for windows) C:\Users\Username\appdata\local\Plex media server\codecs"random numbers folder"
If there’s nothing in there then try grabbing them externally from the internet.
Mine has
aac_encoder.dll
Ac3_decoder.dll
Dca_decoder.dll
H264_decoder.dll
Hevc_decoder.dll
Libx264_encoder.dll
Mpeg2video_decoder.dll
&
Mpeg4_decoder.dll
I had installed the latest pms on another computer and I would get the infamous codec not found error. I looked in the appdata of this computer and found no dlls. So I switched back to my original pms on my other computer and every video started playing again. I took a look at the appdata of THIS computer and lo and behold I found all these dlls.
Pms does use these external .dll codec files and not pc codecs such as klite codec pack or what have you. I mean maybe it does but I have it installed and plex still wouldn’t work on that other computer that had no dlls.
@Mishta said:
[SOLVED]
It’s missing the decoder.dll(s) that should be in (for windows) C:\Users\Username\appdata\local\Plex media server\codecs"random numbers folder"
If there’s nothing in there then try grabbing them externally from the internet.
Mine has
aac_encoder.dll
Ac3_decoder.dll
Dca_decoder.dll
H264_decoder.dll
Hevc_decoder.dll
Libx264_encoder.dll
Mpeg2video_decoder.dll
&
Mpeg4_decoder.dll
I had installed the latest pms on another computer and I would get the infamous codec not found error. I looked in the appdata of this computer and found no dlls. So I switched back to my original pms on my other computer and every video started playing again. I took a look at the appdata of THIS computer and lo and behold I found all these dlls.
Pms does use these external .dll codec files and not pc codecs such as klite codec pack or what have you. I mean maybe it does but I have it installed and plex still wouldn’t work on that other computer that had no dlls.
The codecs should be downloaded on launch and when required. If there is an issue with this then logs would be needed to establish why it is not working.
Anyway, it should be great if we had a codec pack thing with all “dll” and “so” files in case someone had to use it as offline for the majority of times. I had a friend recently who was going out of town (camping) and wanted something to have a nice UI to play films on his laptop (WebUI) and I suggested Plex. He falls in love the moment he installed the PMS on the system. However, some days later he said that he can’t play anything as he was offline and there was no way to connect to the internet. If only he tried playing something before going offline he could have played at least some of his movies while offline.
This is also the case with users behind a firewall. For example in Iran since two years ago Plex.tv is censored (don’t ask me why) and therefore adding any new video or downloading any codec from Plex needs an active VPN connection. Now you don’t normally add 10 videos per day so you can connect to VPN and get the metadata, and everybody got some sort of VPN by now. But viewing videos shouldn’t need an active internet connection. That being said, the main problem is the fact that the error message is really not helping. You should add something there to inform the user about the need to connect to the internet so he/she knows how to fix the problem.
