Files using the EAC3 audio codec will not play

[machinemessiah]

Server Version#: 1.18.2.2058
Player Version#: 4.8.4

Not sure exactly when it started, but sometime within the last few weeks I have been unable to play any files which use the EAC3 audio codec. Looking at the log I always get the same message:

[Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 0x15d2fc0] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read ‘/tmp/pms-f11e681c-0de2-4c0a-89f0-a818194cae48/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)/djlrbsc3edkfik8bzn7u359z_717-0-7.wav’

I have tried the various “solutions” such as deleting my Codecs folder and creating a tmp folder in my root plex folder to no avail. Unfortunately because my plex server is running on a seedbox VM I do not have the necessary credentials to try increasing the iNotify table size, so that’s not an option either.

I really don’t want to have to go through my entire library, find all the files using the codec and then re-encode them with handbrake or try to find new files to replace them, especially given that they all used to work just fine until recently.

I’ve searched around quite a bit but have not found an appropriate solution, even though I’ve seen many people having issues with the EAC3 codec. Surely the devs are aware of this bug? Is there a real, concrete, solution to this issue that doesn’t involve me running commands I can’t run without root access on my server?

Any help would be greatly appreciated since this is getting rather frustrating at this point.

[ChuckPa]

Check your log files (or you can upload the ZIP and I’ll check)

If you run out of iNotify slots (watches) from monitoring too many directories (8192 is the default Linux kernel size), EAE won’t run right (it needs 2 slots).

[machinemessiah]

Other than the log error I put in my original post, the only others that accompany it are:

[Transcoder] [eac3_eae @ 0x12b1c40] error reading output

and

[Transcoder] Error while decoding stream #0:1: Input/output error

Those 3 errors are the only ones that show up while attempting to play an EAC3 file, and they repeat endlessly, there are no other errors. If the solution is directly related to the iNotify table, what are my options if I do not have the necessary credentials to alter the size of the iNotify table?

[ChuckPa]

You have root access to the server host, correct?

If so, the process of increasing the size, and allowing for future growth is pretty simple.

Seeing the DEBUG logs ZIP first would allow me to confirm if this is the true root cause.

Increase the number of directories Linux can monitor (Notify)

The default size of the Linux inotify table is 8192 directories. When PMS is configured to update automatically when media is added, with properly organized media, especially music, this table rapidly fills and exceeds the default allocation. The solution to this is straight forward. Increasing the table size is easy. The first step is to determine how many directories to allocate, A. Determine how many directories are currently in use: sudo find /dir1 /dir2 /dir3 -type d -print…

[machinemessiah]

As I said, I do not have root access, I cannot run any commands to alter the iNotify table for my Plex server.

There are no other errors in the log, but if you would like to take a look for yourself I’ll need to know how to export the logfile if you’re willing to explain it to me since I don’t know how to do that (I just look at the “console” from within the Plex settings).

Thanks for your help btw!

[machinemessiah]

So…Any ideas for me?

[ChuckPa]

I’m afraid not.

If you can’t increase the table size, your only alternative is to run period scans of the files.

It stinks but that’s all you are allowed by the provider.