Decoder (codec none) not found for input stream

Plex Media Server
, ,
1

Server Version:

1.20.4.3517

Player Version:

4.46.2 (web version)

Description

Recently, I have started to have issues playing some media files through PleX. The error that comes up on the player is the following:

An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please check your connection and try again.

Reviewing the console logs, shows this error:

[Transcoder] Decoder (codec none) not found for input stream #0:2

If I use the get Info option, I can see the codec is H264, the same as other media files that play perfectly fine.

  • A nslookup to plex.tv works fine
  • The plex server hasn’t run out of space
  • restarting the server doesn’t fix it
  • Turning off “use new player” doesn’t fix it
  • Turning off audio pass through doesn’t fix it

I’ve restarted PleX on my server, played the media again (although, this time it just loads indefinitely and doesn’t produce an error), and downloaded the logs which I’ve attached below.

(File removed)

Any help would be appreciated.

2

Thanks for the logs.

I can see where the subtitles are involved and are ASS.
Do you have a file with SRT subs you could try or could you convert the ASS -> SRT and retry that one (preserve the original)?

3

Hi @ChuckPa, thanks for responding.

I can see where the subtitles are involved and are ASS.

That’s weird - I don’t have any subtitles in the media folder, only video files. But I now see PleX is showing English Forced (NONE) under subtitles and has a range of different languages…

image

Turning subtitles off results in the video playing fine.

Are the subtitle files located somewhere else?

4

There is the NONE I’m seeing.

Do you have the mediainfo package installed?
mediainfo filename.avi will show you everything in the file.

If not, ffmpeg -i filename.avi will do the same.

I suspect there’s an ASS conversion problem but let’s first see what’s in the file or if it’s adjacent (filename.ass)

5

I’ve installed it and this is the output…

$ mediainfo Emily.in.Paris.S01E05.1080p.WEB.H264-CAKES.mkv
General
Unique ID                                : 70672644879292010421439578627085632 (0xD9C6E2F91FECFE60E428E41C39540)
Complete name                            : Emily.in.Paris.S01E05.1080p.WEB.H264-CAKES.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.21 GiB
Duration                                 : 26 min 34 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 6 533 kb/s
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v49.0.0 ('Sick Of Losing Soulmates') 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.4.0 + libmatroska v1.6.1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L4
Format settings                          : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 3 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 26 min 34 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 5 763 kb/s
Nominal bit rate                         : 6 190 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 9 285 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
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)                       : 0.116
Stream size                              : 1.07 GiB (88%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 148 r2722 1b0121b
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=2 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=0 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=48 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6190 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.50 / qpmin=6 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=9285 / vbv_bufsize=12380 / nal_hrd=vbr / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : E-AC-3
Format/Info                              : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID                                 : A_EAC3
Duration                                 : 26 min 34 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 122 MiB (10%)
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Text #1
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : English [Forced]
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : Yes

Text #2
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Arabic
Language                                 : Arabic
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #3
ID                                       : 5
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Czech
Language                                 : Czech
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #4
ID                                       : 6
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Danish
Language                                 : Danish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #5
ID                                       : 7
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : German
Language                                 : German
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #6
ID                                       : 8
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Greek
Language                                 : Greek
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #7
ID                                       : 9
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : English [SDH]
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #8
ID                                       : 10
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Spanish
Language                                 : Spanish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #9
ID                                       : 11
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : European Spanish
Language                                 : Spanish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #10
ID                                       : 12
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Finnish
Language                                 : Finnish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #11
ID                                       : 13
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : French
Language                                 : French
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #12
ID                                       : 14
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Hebrew
Language                                 : Hebrew
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #13
ID                                       : 15
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Croatian
Language                                 : Croatian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #14
ID                                       : 16
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Hungarian
Language                                 : Hungarian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #15
ID                                       : 17
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Indonesian
Language                                 : Indonesian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #16
ID                                       : 18
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Italian
Language                                 : Italian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #17
ID                                       : 19
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Japanese
Language                                 : Japanese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #18
ID                                       : 20
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Korean
Language                                 : Korean
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #19
ID                                       : 21
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Malay
Language                                 : Malay
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #20
ID                                       : 22
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Norwegian
Language                                 : Norwegian Bokmal
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #21
ID                                       : 23
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Dutch
Language                                 : Dutch
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #22
ID                                       : 24
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Polish
Language                                 : Polish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #23
ID                                       : 25
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Portuguese
Language                                 : Portuguese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #24
ID                                       : 26
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Portuguese Brazilian
Language                                 : Portuguese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #25
ID                                       : 27
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Romanian
Language                                 : Romanian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #26
ID                                       : 28
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Russian
Language                                 : Russian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #27
ID                                       : 29
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Swedish
Language                                 : Swedish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #28
ID                                       : 30
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Thai
Language                                 : Thai
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #29
ID                                       : 31
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Turkish
Language                                 : Turkish
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #30
ID                                       : 32
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Vietnamese
Language                                 : Vietnamese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #31
ID                                       : 33
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Chinese Simplified
Language                                 : Chinese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #32
ID                                       : 34
Format                                   : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/WEBVTT
Title                                    : Chinese Traditional
Language                                 : Chinese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Does that help?

6

Yes… and look how interesting. Not ASS subtitles at all. Everyone is WEBVTT.

I need to recheck here real quick.
You might want to consider curating out those tracks you don’t need. Make the desired one the default.

EDIT: The online converter won’t convert to WebVTT. This will take me a few hours to figure out how

7

Yes… and look how interesting. Not ASS subtitles at all. Everyone is WEBVTT.

Sorry, is that a good thing or bad thing?

I need to recheck here real quick.

Of course, no rush. I appreciate you helping.

You might want to consider curating out those tracks you don’t need. Make the desired one the default.

I just downloaded a .srt file, for the episode but I now don’t see that in the subtitle list which is weird…

8

Put the file in with the movie,
go to the movie

Hover over it - Ellipsis - Analyze

If still not there – Agents - Local Media Assets (make sure it’s enabled and at the bottom of the stack) then Analyze again

9

Put the file in with the movie, go to the movie

I did all the analysing and checking the agents, but it still doesn’t show.

How weird… Is there anything else I can try?

10

Ah ok - I had to refresh the metadata and analyse and it showed up :slight_smile:

Thanks!

11

I checked ASS and WEBVTT. it is all working here.

I will next put the AVI’s with the subtitles.

12

Sorry, I’m not exactly sure what that means… does that mean I’ve done something wrong?

13

No.

  1. I started with AVI files – played ok
  2. I added SRT external subtitles – played ok
  3. I converted SRT external to ASS, added, — played ok
  4. I converted SRT external to WEBVTT, added, – played ok
  5. Now to complete the loop and add WebVTT to AVI and verify

If that all works correctly, then I will need to recreate a very specific test case with you

14

Ah right, I understand, thank you for explaining.

Is there a way I can find the WEBVTT file so I can convert it to a srt file? I did search but it looks like it’s buried in the Media folder somewhere, but there are hundreds of subfolders.

15

For you, there is no external file.

The subtitle is included in the file .

I suggest getting a tool like mkvtoolnix (gui) to extract the subtitle stream.

It’ll take a bit to figure it out but it’s a very powerful too.

  1. Open mkvtoolnix-gui
  2. Drag file into top pane
  3. See list of streams populate in bottom left
  4. deselect those not wanted
  5. Change the output file path & name to be what is needed
  6. REMUX
16

Ah ok, that makes sense.

I’ll have a look for a CLI alternative, as I’m using a headless Ubuntu server.

Really appreciate all your time.

17

even easier!

18

Would you still recommend mkvtoolnix as a CLI tool, or is there a better one if I don’t need a gui?

19

In case this is relevant to why PleX is unable to play the subtitle file…

  • I extract the srt file from the video file (weirdly the track is 3, but it seems to be offset by one so I had to use 2 to get the English version):
mkvextract tracks Emily.in.Paris.S01E05.1080p.WEB.H264-CAKES.mkv 2:sub.vtt

Inspect the file to ensure it’s populated:

cat sub.vtt

WEBVTT

NOTE Netflix
NOTE Profile: webvtt-lssdh-ios8
NOTE Date: 2020/08/17 01:29:43

NOTE SegmentIndex
NOTE Segment=518.351 454@273 3
NOTE Segment=406.448 452@727 2
NOTE /SegmentIndex



1
00:05:00.383 --> 00:05:01.634 position:50.00%,middle align:middle size:80.00% line:84.67%
<c.bg_transparent>Yes, that's true.</c.bg_transparent>

2
00:07:11.514 --> 00:07:12.515 position:50.00%,middle align:middle size:80.00% line:84.67%
<c.bg_transparent>Very well.</c.bg_transparent>

3
00:08:20.833 --> 00:08:22.919 position:50.00%,middle align:middle size:80.00% line:84.67%
<c.bg_transparent>Get it? Goodbye, and thank you.</c.bg_transparent>

4
00:08:38.351 --> 00:08:41.521 position:50.00%,middle align:middle size:80.00% line:79.33%
<c.bg_transparent>Two million. Do you understand,</c.bg_transparent>
<c.bg_transparent>or shall I spell it out for you?</c.bg_transparent>

5
00:15:20.502 --> 00:15:24.798 position:50.00%,middle align:middle size:80.00% line:10.00%
<c.bg_transparent>DURÉE APPOINTS @EMILYINPARIS</c.bg_transparent>
<c.bg_transparent>AS NEW BRAND MANAGER</c.bg_transparent>
  • Run ffmpeg to convert from vtt to srt 
ffmpeg -i sub.vtt sub.srt
ffmpeg version 4.2.4-1ubuntu0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 9 (Ubuntu 9.3.0-10ubuntu2)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1ubuntu0.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --arch=amd64 --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --disable-filter=resample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libaom --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libcodec2 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libjack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librsvg --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-lv2 --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opencl --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-nvenc --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
  libavutil      56. 31.100 / 56. 31.100
  libavcodec     58. 54.100 / 58. 54.100
  libavformat    58. 29.100 / 58. 29.100
  libavdevice    58.  8.100 / 58.  8.100
  libavfilter     7. 57.100 /  7. 57.100
  libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0
  libswscale      5.  5.100 /  5.  5.100
  libswresample   3.  5.100 /  3.  5.100
  libpostproc    55.  5.100 / 55.  5.100
Input #0, webvtt, from 'sub.vtt':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
    Stream #0:0: Subtitle: webvtt
Output #0, srt, to 'sub.srt':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf58.29.100
    Stream #0:0: Subtitle: subrip (srt)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc58.54.100 srt
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (webvtt (native) -> subrip (srt))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
size=       0kB time=00:00:00.00 bitrate=N/A speed=   0x
video:0kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
Output file is empty, nothing was encoded (check -ss / -t / -frames parameters if used)

Note how the output is empty. I’m not sure if I’ve done something stupid or if the actual subtitle file is corrupt, but that could be why PleX is having an issue…

20

mkvmerge is the CLI tool. It is every bit as good as mkvmerge-gui :slight_smile:

I am suspecting problems with those files.

Let me create an example for you