Hey guys, i’ve had an issue for a while that i’ve been putting up with but now its starting to get a little frustrating. i run plex pass server on my FreeNAS-11.3-U2.1. its running on a AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 32gb of ram, and a RX580 8gb. its hardwired into my network which gives about 879mbps down and 841mbps up. its works wonderfully except for when i have to add subtitles to my movie library. I’ve noticed that other devices work with subtitles (ipad, iphone, xbox one, chromecast) but with my chromecast ultra which is also hardwired, whenever i add subtitles i get the “Conversion failed. The transcoder exited due to an error” without fail to every single movie i want to watch. no matter what. im attaching the logs so someone can take a look at them, they where taken shortly after the " conversion failed" error i got. i appriciate your help in advanced and thank you for your time! also sorry if this is in the wrong format or in the wrong sub-division of the forum.
ps. i tried asking around in the plex subreddit but with little avail, hopefully you guys can help out!
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-06-03_23-17-41.zip (3.1 MB)
Server Version#: 1.19.4.2902
Player Version#: 4.35.1
What type of subs are you selecting? Could it be PGS/VOB (image based)? Does it work with srt?
P.S. Can you please attempt this again and fetch logs right after the error? Its seems the logs have cycled.
Also whats the source? (device you are casting from) and are you casting to the Plex App it self (also known as companion) os the Chromecast device directly (Which would be possible from web in Chrome i.e)?
Edit: actually it the chromecast utlra so you can only cast to the device as there is no app.
alrighty, the format for subs is usually STR, but it happens when i try to use the opensubtitles search as well, i dont think i have any subs that are PGS/VOB. To cast ive tried to use chrome web browser itself from my pc as well as the plex app from my iphone xr and my ipad pro 3rd gen. the logs attached are ones i got right after i got the error once again (Armageddon movie with pre downloaded subtitles), i think i answered all that was asked but if im missing anything please let me know!
Thank you for the timely response!
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-06-04_04-30-18.zip (3.5 MB)
Thanks, just one more question, are you searching fro subs and selecting on pre-play or during actually playback?
usually when i try its during playback, but ive tried both before and during and it seems to not work regardless, i also noticed that it gives me the same " conversion failed. the transcoder exited due to an error." on my chrome browser as well.
Its seems ts burning the subs (or trying to) can you post the XML of the file in question please?
i would love to, but i have no idea what that is or how to do that…
also its for pretty much all movies and subtitles, i’ve only ever seen the subtitles work in like 2 films
Sorry my bad, in the web app click in the context menu (3 dots) for the media item in question; then Get Info, at the bottom of this screen you should see “view XML”
didnt know how to get it to you in the best format so i saved it to a .txt file, its uploaded below
XML.txt (48.7 KB)
Cool just wanted to confirm but this is a h264 video and aac 2channel audio there’s no reason for it to transcode, subtitles however, specially with chromecast are another thing, but we shouldn’t need to burn srts.
In the web app (chrome) what do you have set here (Settings -> Player):
And under settings -> Debug is “Direct Play” and “Direct Stream” checked?
This should actually not affect it if we are casting directly, but I’m still curious why its transcoding and burning subs when its just h264/acc2 and srts
burn subtitles is indeed set to automatic, direct play and direct stream are also checked
ok thanks, like I said it should have an impact in this case but worth checking:
Jun 04, 2020 04:30:10.944 [0x80bfe3100] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=1802 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=3767 part=(id=3767 decision=transcode protocol=http streams=(Subtitle=(id=9224 decision=transcode bitrate=2147483647 encoder=ass languageCode= location=embedded))))
I need to take a better look at the Profile, and see what happening here, I was under the impression it could play srt’s but maybe I was wrong
sounds good, ill do my best to reply as quickly as possible, if there is anything you need from me please dont hesitate to ask! thanks again for the responses!
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So we might us ass for sub when we do need to transcode, but the thing is we still shouldn’t be contrasting here.
Can you send me a sample of the file? (see here for help https://support.plex.tv/articles/201035968-generating-sample-files-from-media/)
hopefully i did this right, apologies for taking so long, as for the subtitles im using the first option off opensubtitles, do you need me to get those downloaded for you as well?
here is the 51mb file of the same movie i used for the logs: Armageddon
Thanks, I’m not using the Ultra but I am on FreeBSD and same PMS version:
This seems to wok fine casting from Chrome to the built-in Shield Chromecast.
But I do see odd logs related to subs in you log, namely [Subtitles] Request failed I take it this does not happen with sidecar SRT (srt file next to the file) or embedded subs?
it happens with every title i try to play, subtitles downloaded or not, i do believe its directly related to the chromecast ultra since i was able to cast to a regular chromecast with no issues, along with the fact that it works fine with subtitles on my other devices be it downloaded prior to the playback or during. as far as embedded im not 100% sure but i do know i really have tried every combination of subtitles + movies and none seem to work, this problem was also apparent on my xbox one until (from what i noticed) the most recent update of pms
i understand that it can be something far bigger then a simple debug, which is one of the reasons i kinda let it go for a while (its been going on since ~January when i put the freenas together). i figured it would be worth a shot getting some kind of feedback. Figured maybe i was doing something wrong but if its something thats going to take a lot of effort for you and your team and it seems to be a one off issue, maybe i can live without subtitles haha
Did you by any chance ever messed with Profiles? I.E. do you have a custom Profile for Chromecast in the plex Application Support dir?
The error loading the subs is odd, seems the server does not like the request (returns a 400) but whats more odd is that its even transcoding and burning subs…
