I thought this was because of the new server I’m spinning up, but I am beginning to suspect that this is an issue that I have been seeing for months now in my other Plex Server. Regularly, I’m seeing playback spontaneously stop for MKV files (my preferred format), with the above error. I’ve already perused the forums looking for similar issues, and I have seen bugs repaired for ffmpeg, and fstab configurations correct to add an exec flag to a mounted disk. I’m hoping someone can help with this. MP4 files and AVI files appear to work perfectly. I’ve made my NFS shares set to exec, and the version I’m using is the most current one (I installed it today).
Any ideas?
New Server Config:
- FreeNAS 11 VM Running Ubuntu Server 17.04
- 1 CPU (possibly 2 with hyperthreading, I’m not sure yet)
- 4 MB RAM
- 20 GiB disk
Here is the log I’m seeing when playback ceases:
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.075 [0x7f223bbfe700] DEBUG - Auth: Came in with the master token, authorization succeeded.
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.075 [0x7f222c3ff700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:44998 (Loopback)] PUT /video/:/transcode/session/bg93ykvcdn26j60365o7ztef/82367405-cad9-4ca7-a228-f057a536a9a3/progress?progress=74.9&size=-22&remaining=56&speed=33.8 (20 live) Signed-in Token (knightsword)
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.075 [0x7f223b3fd700] DEBUG - Completed: [127.0.0.1:44998] 206 PUT /video/:/transcode/session/bg93ykvcdn26j60365o7ztef/82367405-cad9-4ca7-a228-f057a536a9a3/progress?progress=74.9&size=-22&remaining=56&speed=33.8 (20 live) 0ms 326 bytes
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.086 [0x7f222bbfe700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:45000 (Loopback)] POST /video/:/transcode/session/bg93ykvcdn26j60365o7ztef/82367405-cad9-4ca7-a228-f057a536a9a3/manifest (20 live) Signed-in
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.088 Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223d3ff700] ERROR - JobManager: child process returned: 1 (Operation not permitted)
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223d3ff700] DEBUG - Jobs: ‘/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder’ exit code for process 1890 is 1
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223d3ff700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7f2227957d20:f4f2asj73ttavle51sexnnit with reason Conversion failed. The transcoder crashed or failed to start up.
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223e3ff700] DEBUG - Killing job.
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223e3ff700] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 1890 with 9
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223e3ff700] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223e3ff700] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session bg93ykvcdn26j60365o7ztef
Aug 27, 2017 23:55:08.504 [0x7f223e3ff700] DEBUG - Transcoder: Cleaning old transcode directories.
I should add, this appears to happen for MKVs of particularly long length. Shorter videos don’t appear to have this problem usually.
Please check the partition / disk you have your PMS Library installed on, specifically the mount options. If the noexec mount option is specified (or doesn’t have exec specified for some), you will not be able to use the codecs.
That was the first thing I checked. I added the noexec option (I have every indication that this is actually the default setting for NFS mount points in fstab) and it was still occurring.
I can reapply it and try again. Anything I can do specifically to test this? Other than just rebooting and trying the same video again?
So I have done as you suggested, just to make sure, and it still doesn’t work. I am including the portion of the fstab that mounts my NFS shares for my library. Is there another place I can check?
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:mnt/nas/music /nas/music nfs defaults,nofail,nolock,intr,tcp,exec 0 0
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:mnt/nas/pictures /nas/pictures nfs defaults,nofail,nolock,intr,tcp,exec 0 0
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:mnt/nas/shared_videos /nas/shared_videos nfs defaults,nofail,nolock,intr,tcp,exec 0 0
Specifically where Library is. It’s default is /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library. If this partition is mounted with noexec, you’ll get ‘not permitted’ because it can’t load and execute the shared library (codec)
I’ll check that out, but I changed that partition to also have exec permissions. And it’s still happening. And it’s not a separate partition or a share, it’s just the standard disk mount.
It’s mounted like this:
UUID=4de068e1-904a-4d0c-9094-ed7b118e89b3 / ext4 errors=remount-ro,exec 0 1
And it still doesn’t work.
One quick note to add to this, the playback error only pops up when I use the plex.tv website. When I use the Plex web app, it just dies, and sends no error at all. And when I use my PS3, I get complete playback, no errors at all.
Any ideas?
On a hunch, I changed the quality, away from original to 8mbps 1080p, and seeing if it will fail. I know that there was transcoding going on in the PS3 playback, and I am wondering, if it’s DirectPlay playback that is actually causing it to fail.
Which is what I don’t get, why would the transcoder need to be called in for a DirectPlay video?
You may have selected DirectPlay but unless forced, it will fall back and transcode what is needed. Without seeing any log files and metadata (XML), it’s impossible to tell what specifically happened.
What can I send you? I’ll gladly do it.
The best way to proceed is:
- With the system otherwise quiet.
- Begin playback
- When you get the error, wait 10 seconds
- Go to Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs
- It will present you with a ZIP file.
- Upload that here with your next post.
- Also with your next post, paste the XML of the file you attempted to play (Hover over item - Get Info - View XML)
I uploaded the XML I thought it would be easier to read.
Curiously enough, when I force it to transcode, it appears to playback without crashing. The instant I set it to playback in Original, it crashed again.
Just to add additional information on this, I’m noticing that when the video begins playback, there is a gray bar filling ahead of the playback cursor (I assume that is a buffer indicator). It doesn’t load entirely, rather, it buffers for a few minutes head, and then stops. When the playback cursor runs over the end of the gray bar, that’s when the error occurs. Does that help?
Thank you for the log files.
I see where 'The Big Short is selected to play and, without any error from the transcoder other than it complaining of the frame rate, there are no errors reported. Not reporting any errors and simply ‘killing’ the job is very unusual.
I see other instances where the file plays. This is a tough one due to the lack of information.
I would like to ask for a sample of the file so I may test it here. About 60 seconds worth should be more than enough.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201035968-Generating-Sample-Files-from-Media
I’m also wondering if you might just have a problem with the MKV decoder or one of the other encoders but again, without any error messages, it’s very difficult to determine.
I’m not aware of any Plex apps which show a progress buffer filling but I’m also not versed with all (don’t own all the devices)
I also prefer MKV files and use them exclusively. My bitrates are typically above 30 Mbps
If I do not see anything in the file sample I to cause this error (indicative where the the root problem is), we will need to take a few more options.
- Process the file through HandBrake to re-encode the timestamps (which PMS did complain of) and test the output file.
- Run the server, in isolation, with Verbose logging on so we can capture everything possible.
I had to be clever with the sample file, and I couldn’t get any of my samples to cause it to fail. One thing I’m wondering, could it be an issue with Handbrake when I generated these files? If I pass my video file through MVKToolNix and try that, it may playback without issue. Incidentally, I ripped three new disks today, and saw the same issue again, all MKVs and all of them encoded through Handbrake.
I saw the crash occur at around 12 minutes into playback, so I am wondering if that could be a factor as well. And the buffering is through the Plex Chrome App, if that helps.
Thank you so much for looking into this.
So I reprocessed the original MKV file through MVKToolNix and it still caused the playback to crash. Even faster this time. I can reprocess the source video but I need to dig it out of some boxes tomorrow to do that. I’ll report back what I see when I do.
MKVToolnix (mkvmerge) is a pure remux. it doesn’t alter the actual encoding / bitstream at all. It does rewrite the container format correctly.
Okay, so that sounds like something I’ll need to try next once I find the original disk in my boxes.
