External srt subs causing "Cannot load M3U8: No levels to play" error in Plex Web

General Discussions
1

Hi all,

Plex server 0.9.12.12 running in a docker on my unRaid NAS (updated today from 0.9.12.11). I wanted to play a movie in Plex Home theatre but it didn’t play. Tried in Plex Web and got “Cannot load M3U8: No levels to play”. Tried to play the movie (mkv) in VLC : it played fine there.

Checked the Media Server logs, saw this :

Sep 13, 2015 21:13:13 [0x2b2935600700] ERROR - [Transcoder] /transcode/plex-transcode-hy2kqbh96eu-bd0cd9bd-7957-44c3-8612-7c40cf5bc87b/temp-0.srt: Invalid data found when processing input
Sep 13, 2015 21:13:13 [0x2b2940e00700] ? - [Transcoder]
Sep 13, 2015 21:13:14 [0x2b292f200700] ERROR - Failed to start session successfully.

Seems there was an issue with some subtitles. All my movies have one external srt file with Dutch subtitles. Some movies have also internal srt files (English, …).

I tried to put Subtitles to ‘None’ in plex web : I can play the movie fine then, no more error.

Then I noticed that Plex web shows following subs for the movie :

None, English (SRT Forced), English (SRT), Nederlands (SRT), Nederlands (SRT).

So, Plex thinks there are 2 Dutch (Nederlands) subtitle files although there is only the external SRT file (there are no internal SRT subs for Dutch in the mkv container).

If I choose the first ‘Nederlands (SRT)’ and try to play the movie in Plex Web : error.
If I choose the 2nd ‘Nederlands (SRT)’ and try to play the movie in Plex Web : movie plays fine.

I removed the movie from Plex (moved that movie to another folder on my NAS and emptied the trash in the Movies folder in Plex. Then I moved the movie folder back in the Movies folder Plex checks and updated the library. After this, Plex is again showing 2 Dutch SRT files. I see this on many other movies also.

Looks like a bug? Not sure if this was the same behaviour in previous Plex versions.

Media server logs attached.

2

I also got the same issue with those SRT files, which I can play just fine on VLC

3

Is there a way to have Plex answering to this?

4

Please attach the mediainfo XML of one movie which exhibits the problem.

Also zip up the subtitle SRT and attach it too.

5

Here there are

6

The english subtitle works, I assume?

The french subtitle file has an invalid character as number for line #1.
What should be an ordinary 1 is in reality something that looks like a 1 but is not.

Try my repaired version instead.

7

@OttoKerner said:
The english subtitle works, I assume?

The french subtitle file has an invalid character as number for line #1.
What should be an ordinary 1 is in reality something that looks like a 1 but is not.

Try my repaired version instead.

Your repaired version works. But this could not be a definitive fix, I’ve this issue for 3/4 of my tv shows, and the subtitles comes from the more populars subtitle providers: Addic7ed, TvSubtitle or OpenSubtitle.

Not to mention that VLC has always been able to read them.

8

I will report this internally.
One question though: what is your setting under
Settings - Web - Player - ‘Burn Subtitles’ ?

Try to playback a defective SRT on both “Always” and “Only Image formats”
Where does it fail? On both settings or just one of them?

9

@OttoKerner said:
I will report this internally.
One question though: what is your setting under
Settings - Web - Player - ‘Burn Subtitles’ ?

Try to playback a defective SRT on both “Always” and “Only Image formats”
Where does it fail? On both settings or just one of them?

It was set on Always, I just tried Only image format, same result.
When I try to play those series with those subtitle in the Google nexus player, I get a message saying that I should restart the plex server.

10

But why does Plex show the subtitle file twice when there is just one physical file on disk for it? (See my original post at he top)

11

DEBUG - Content-Length of /Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)/._kingsman.the.secret.service.2014.uncut.rerip.1080p.bluray.x264-veto.nl.srt is 4096.
Your log shows that as the faulty subtitle file. With a size of 4096, that doesn’t look like a real subtitle file to me.
DEBUG - Content-Length of /Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)/kingsman.the.secret.service.2014.uncut.rerip.1080p.bluray.x264-veto.nl.srt is 101026.
There is the second one which looks better at 101,026 bytes. The first one looks to be some other file that is being added to your system but not a real subtitle file. I’m surprised PMS picked this up and thinks it is a valid subtitle file. Do you know what that file is?

12

There is no other file, this is what is in that directory :

root@Tower:/mnt/user/Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)# ls -l
total 13364899
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 13672191315 Sep 14 01:09 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.mkv
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 6529 Sep 14 00:59 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.nfo
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 102179 Sep 14 11:03 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.nl.srt
root@Tower:/mnt/user/Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)#

I just noticed there is a weird character at the end of the directory name. I removed it, did an update of the Movies library and went into this movie and did a Refresh. Still result is the same : Plex web shows 2 Dutch subtitle files for this movie.

New log attached.

13

The other file I mentioned starts with a . so it might be hidden. Is there a way to view hidden files in your system?

14

Just read your post again and I see now that that first srt file is hidden (dot in front of it). There is indeed a hidden file .nl.srt in that directory :

root@Tower:/mnt/user/Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)# ls -la
total 13364915
drwxrwxrwx 1 pkums users 512 Sep 15 03:46 ./
drwxrwxrwx 1 nobody users 104 Jan 31 08:45 …/
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 6148 Sep 14 11:16 .DS_Store
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 4096 Sep 14 11:14 ._.DS_Store
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 4096 Sep 14 11:14 ._Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.nl.srt
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 13672191315 Sep 14 01:09 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.mkv
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 6529 Sep 14 00:59 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.nfo
-rw-rw-rw- 1 pkums users 102179 Sep 14 11:03 Kingsman.The.Secret.Service.2014.Hybrid.1080p.BluRay.DTS-ES.x264-HDMaNiAcS.nl.srt
root@Tower:/mnt/user/Movies/Movies/Kingsman The Secret Service (2014)#

Not sure what it is or how it got there… It doesn’t contain much. After deleting it and refreshing the movie, that 2nd subtitle file is gone. Have to check my other directories. Thanks!

15

@MovieFan.Plex said:
The other file I mentioned starts with a . so it might be hidden. Is there a way to view hidden files in your system?

Yes, saw it after posting. I will check the dirs of other movies who have the same issue. Thanks for spotting this!

16

@OttoKerner said:
I will report this internally.
One question though: what is your setting under
Settings - Web - Player - ‘Burn Subtitles’ ?

Try to playback a defective SRT on both “Always” and “Only Image formats”
Where does it fail? On both settings or just one of them?

Did you got any feedback? Are they willing to fix it?

17

@Nargzul said:
Did you got any feedback? Are they willing to fix it?

If we get a collection of non-working examples, they are willing to send them in to the ffmpeg developers. As this is the place where the fix must be made.

18

@OttoKerner said:

@Nargzul said:
Did you got any feedback? Are they willing to fix it?

If we get a collection of non-working examples, they are willing to send them in to the ffmpeg developers. As this is the place where the fix must be made.

I can do that. SRT are enough I guess? How does VLC handle them? I thought it also use ffmpeg

19

@Nargzul said:
I can do that. SRT are enough I guess?

Of course. The more you find, the better though.

How does VLC handle them? I thought it also use ffmpeg

This I don’t know. They might use their own libraries for subtitles instead of using ffmpegs “burn in” ability.

20

Here is already a first bunch of non-working subtitlesw