Server Version#: 1.16.5.1488
Player Version#: 1.0.0.792-d4adb056
On my Surface Go running Windows 10 and the new Plex Player for Windows, when I try playing a downloaded video that was in the mkv format, I get an error message stating “Playback failure: Conversion Failed. The transcoder failed to start up.” I navigated to the folder where the video was downloaded and was able to play the video using the built in Windows video player, so I know the video downloaded correctly.
I also tried downloading a video in the m4v format and it played just fine. Is the player not able to handle mkv videos? If so, why does it allow it to download them without transcoding?
If there is additional information I can provide (logs, additional details on the video, etc.) let me know.
Check the playback quality. There is a bug where it will allow you to change the quality, but that shouldn’t be possible. The file should direct play so for now, make sure the quality is set to original.
I don’t see an option to change the quality on the playback page for the download. I also checked the “Quality” section under the settings menu and it shows “maximum” for both Internet and home streaming.
Any video that you download should be able to be played without the transcoder.
That sounds like for some reason the video didn’t have up to date analysis before being downloaded. This is something that should happen automatically, which we’ll look into.
I think if you try to play the video before downloading, that might also fix the problem.
I tried deleting the download, manually hitting “Analyze” from the menu for that video, and then re-downloading. That did the trick and it plays fine now.
Looks like you probably just need to force an Analyze before the download starts.
