Getting a "Conversion failed. Transcoder crashed or failed to start up" error.

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
81

@wkupike2000 said:
We were posting at same time. :smiley: No issues I’m aware of. What would you like for me to check with it?

I need a file that crashes the transcoder and as it is crashing on start, lets try with detailed transcoder logging

Wondering if there is some other software interacting - because it did not crash for me
A thought to look into security software / firewall rules

The extra tracing as follows

  • On the server enable both debug and verbose logging (settings / server / show advanced)
  • Add very detailed transcodering logging as follows
  • Using RegEdit (Start / Run / Regedit)
  • Locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server
  • Click on Plex Media Server in left side area
  • Right click and select New → String Value
  • Name the new string item TranscoderLogLevel and give it a value of trace
  • Click OK and exit it RegEdit

Restart the server

Test to roku with the sample file that you gave me or will give me (if different)
When transcoder crashes collect logs zip

Restore logging to default

  • Disable Verbose server logging - keeping only debug enabled
  • Delete registr item
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Plex, Inc.\Plex Media Server\TranscoderLogLevel
    or change its value to error - the default
82

I did as follows. I also tried a 2nd file, show called Wisdom of the Crowd. here’s link to short clip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17JSKA_5jBkIFBVzD4s-Si9Qr2iKb-1RH/view?usp=sharing

Two logs attached. Both crashed transcoder on Roku. Both worked on Amazon Fire TV.

I can’t see it being any software as I’ve not added or changed any. I build my own pc’s and work in the tech world so I’m pretty savvy with tracing back for changes. I’ve made none to my machine, the crashes with MKV and AVI started with a previous release. But even going back to older ones didn’t change anything so maybe something is changed in my pc I dont’ know about. It has to be somehow connected to the transcoder though as the files all play great on my Nvidia shield.

83

Odd update, now transcoder crash error is happening on my Nvidia Shield.

84

Was the trace level set on TranscoderLogLevel ?
It is case sensitive

Cannot see any extra logging - either means crashing before actually running the transcoder code or setting was not right

85

Odd I will rerun. To be safe, here’s what my Regedit shows. Also, I found out the transcoder crash on the Nvidia is not MKV, just AVI.

removed

86

Looks good - unless a space character after trace

I removed the image as it had part of your security token

May be it is crashing before actually starting

87

It must be if this doesn’t work. I checked, no spacing after trace. It crashes on the Roku, works on the Fire TV box. Logs attached

88

Thank you

The Amazon Fire TV is doing Direct Play - so no Transcoder job is needed to be started

Dec 21, 2017 15:09:50.005 [245936] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=9689 codes=(MDE=1000,Direct play OK.) media=(id=18821 part=(id=19296 decision=direct play protocol=* streams=(Video=(id=40628 decision= width=0 height=0) Audio=(id=40629 decision= channels=0 rate=0))))

I will need to discuss this with the development team. it must be crashing out on start up

I am worried about this in one of the earlier logs

Dec 20, 2017 11:01:34.137 [144632] ERROR - JobRunner: exec of C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe failed: error 0x10b.

The error number is defined as

267 (0x10B)  - ERROR_DIRECTORY	The directory name is invalid.

That is worrying

The other bit that does not look normal is 6-digit thread numbers which i see in your logs
They are normally 5 digits max - Is this because of some added feature? System not rebooted frequently?

89

I probably reboot a couple times per month. No added features that I know of. No idea why it would say directory invalid since that’s the default. Thanks for all your work so far. This is driving me nuts. 2+ years and no issues, guess I was due haha

90

@wkupike2000 said:
I probably reboot a couple times per month. No added features that I know of. No idea why it would say directory invalid since that’s the default. Thanks for all your work so far. This is driving me nuts. 2+ years and no issues, guess I was due haha

Thank you for persevering with getting all the diagnostics.
I have to look now deeper into the system to see if there are any clues

None of your files crash the transcoder for me on the roku and on windows and using the same version. So something is not right in your server environment

I would like to look next at trying SysInternals Process Monitor to see what gets logged in terms of system and application events prior to the transcoder crash logged info - such as

Dec 21, 2017 11:46:00.960 [247428] VERBOSE - JobManager: child process with handle 00000B14 exited
Dec 21, 2017 11:46:00.960 [247428] DEBUG - Jobs: 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\PlexTranscoder.exe' exit code for process 228132 is -1073741819

In addition to SysInternals Process Monitor capture and the Plex Media Server logs (verbose+debug), i would like to see the windows event logs to look for any clues there

Please download SysInternals Process Monitor - see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon
and unzip and have ready to run.

Enable Debug and Verbose logging on the server
and shut down the Plex Media Server

Lets try a repair of the installation but lets do it by actually doing an uninstall and then install
So Control Panel / Add Remove Programs / Plex Media Server and select Uninstall
At the end of the uninstall reboot
and see what we have left in terms of folders / files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\
Assuming the uninstall completes without errors, it should be safe to delete
C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\ and just leaving parent directory C:\Program FIles (x86)\Plex

Now re-install Plex Media Server 1.11.0.4633
and launch it at the end of the install

Wait 5 minutes for the Plex Media Server environment to settle

Now lets launch procmon.exe (Process Monitor) - start it with Run As Administrator right click option
Setup filter capture to capture everything
Start capture
Once you see it running and capturing events ok, start the test on the roku
As soon as you get the transcoder failure, stop the procmon.exe capture
Save ALL captured events to a PML file (the default option)
Do not filter any

Then get the server logs zip

Next open windows event viewer
Start / Run / eventvwr.exe
In left side bar, Select Windows Logs
Click on Application
Wait for the application events to show up
Note down the date and time of the top displayed event

Click on Application again in left side pane
Right Click and Select Save All Events as
Give it a filename to save to eg WinApplicationEvents_2017-Dec-22
Leave the type as default ie saving as evtx

Do the same for the System events log
Again note down the date and time of the top displayed event

Zip the PML file, and the 2 evtx files
The PML zips very well
Upload on google drive and send me link by private message
and attach zipped logs plus the two times that you noted down - i need this because windows adjusts times based on timezone and i need to make adjustments to the times i see

Please note that process monitor uses a lot of system resources so we need to minimze the time it is running for and capture needs to be stopped as soon as you see the failure

91

I got to the point of playing the first test file in your new instructions…and it didn’t crash! Not sure what changed as I had done multiple full uninstall/reinstalls with no success. But I’ve tried various Avi’s and MKV’s, all have played on Fire TV and Roku. I’ll monitor over next day to make sure it doesn’t return. Thank you so much for all your help!

92

It is good news but worrying that there must have been a corrupt install before

May be this time the uninstall steps cleared some bad files ?

Did you do manual uninstall : installs before or the web interface to update ?

And if manual uninstall / install, were you ensuring it was when Plex Media server was shutdown ?

There would be log files in temp folder for all the uninstall and installs

When you did the uninstall this time , what files were left behind in the program files (x86) folder area ?

93

I always uninstall from the Control Panel. I can’t say for sure I made sure the PMS was shutdown during previous attempts. I never thought to do that so it was probably running. I checked and there were no folders/files left in the Program Files (x86) prior to reinstalling.

94

@sa2000 said:

@wkupike2000 said:
I probably reboot a couple times per month. No added features that I know of. No idea why it would say directory invalid since that’s the default. Thanks for all your work so far. This is driving me nuts. 2+ years and no issues, guess I was due haha

Please note that process monitor uses a lot of system resources so we need to minimze the time it is running for and capture needs to be stopped as soon as you see the failure

Hi,
it is definitely an issue with 1.11.0.4633 code. it is consistent now - and I never had it before. on any DVR recorded content where transcoding is invoked for playout, it works fine if you start playout from the beginning. any attempt to move playback slider forward freezes playback, then it shows message ‘server disconnected’ if i watch from nvidia tv, or “shaka1001” for web playback.

If after that you try to start playback again, from the saved spot ‘resume playback’ - it crashes again. if you choose to watch from the beginning - it works fine, until you try to fast forward - and that kills it immediately. it was never doing it before version 1.11.0.4633. I run it on CentOs, nothing changed in the setup, so it is not environment driven. I see transcoder files created for the request to play from the saved spot.

it starts:

Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.366 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - We're going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.366 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - Selecting best audio stream for part ID 75488 (autoselect: 0 language: en)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.367 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - Audio Stream: 45735, Subtitle Stream: -1
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.367 [0x7fa205ffd700] VERBOSE - It took 0.0 sec to serialize a list with 1 elements.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 75486
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: Direct Play is disabled
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264/ac3
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264/ac3
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - MDE: NFL Football - Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers: selected media 0 / 75486
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.368 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7fa20f010560:xc4ear2gehky57lvjiz4vp0j
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.371 [0x7fa205ffd700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=73348 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=75486 part=(id=75488 decision=transcode container=mp4 protocol=dash streams=(Video=(id=45734 decision=copy width=
1920 height=1080) Audio=(id=45735 decision=transcode bitrate=256 encoder=aac channels=2 rate=48000))))
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.375 [0x7fa205ffd700] VERBOSE - It took 0.0 sec to serialize a list with 1 elements.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.376 [0x7fa2107fe700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.10.51:57686] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F73348&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&protocol=
dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=lan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=1&directStreamAudio=1&session=h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry&subtitles=burn&Accept-Langua
ge=en (18 live) TLS GZIP 18ms 1636 bytes (pipelined: 6)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.437 [0x7fa210fff700] VERBOSE - Auth: We found auth token (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx), enabling token-based authentication.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.437 [0x7fa210fff700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as utkinpol73
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.437 [0x7fa210fff700] VERBOSE - Auth: Came in with a super-token, authorization succeeded.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.438 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.10.51:57686 (Subnet)] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/start.mpd?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F73348&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&proto
col=dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=lan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=1&directStreamAudio=1&session=h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry&subtitles=burn&Accept-La
nguage=en (18 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (utkinpol73)
......
it continues:
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.444 [0x7fa20dbff700] VERBOSE - [IDLE] * transcoder - 3255914e-e895-4504-9f99-440c7abd883e - 1 active item(s)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.444 [0x7fa20dbff700] VERBOSE - [IDLE] * transcoder - 911c0402-ca09-4665-8663-af917df28318 - 1 active item(s)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.444 [0x7fa20dbff700] VERBOSE - [IDLE] * transcoder - h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry - 1 active item(s)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.444 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry ()
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.444 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.445 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.445 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /6tbdrive/Shows/NFL Football (2017)/Season 2017/NFL Football (2017) - 2017-12-23 00 00 00 - Minnesota Vikin
gs at Green Bay Packers.ts
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.445 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.445 [0x7fa20dbff700] VERBOSE - Sufficient disk space: 77.19MB source file, 207.21GB capacity, 188.31GB available on /tmp/transcode/Transcode/Sessions
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.445 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT='/tmp/pms-24bf4a3e-bd08-4929-97ae-8f2c3093222c/EasyAudioEncoder' FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Su
pport/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/b077134-1269-linux-ubuntu-x86_64/' XDG_CACHE_HOME='/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/' XDG_DATA_HOME='/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resou
rces/' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:#0x100' 'h264' '-codec:#0x101' 'ac3' '-ss' '0' '-noaccurate_seek' '-i' '/6tbdrive/Shows/NFL Football (2017)/Season
 2017/NFL Football (2017) - 2017-12-23 00 00 00 - Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers.ts' '-filter_complex' '[0:#0x101] aresample=async=1:ocl='\''stereo'\'':osr=48000[0]' '-map' '0:#0x100' '-codec:0' 'copy
' '-map' '[0]' '-metadata:s:1' 'language=eng' '-codec:1' 'aac' '-b:1' '256k' '-f' 'dash' '-min_seg_duration' '3000000' '-skip_to_segment' '1' '-time_delta' '0.0625' '-manifest_name' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/vi
deo/:/transcode/session/h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry/567c3f24-0448-44c3-a300-3ee907264ac1/manifest' '-avoid_negative_ts' 'disabled' '-map_metadata' '-1' '-map_chapters' '-1' 'dash' '-start_at_zero' '-copyts' '-vs
ync' 'cfr' '-y' '-nostats' '-loglevel' 'quiet' '-loglevel_plex' 'error' '-progressurl' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry/567c3f24-0448-44c3-a300-3ee907264ac1/progress'
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.447 [0x7fa20dbff700] VERBOSE - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 31111
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.463 [0x7fa2107fe700] VERBOSE - Auth: We found auth token (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx), enabling token-based authentication.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.464 [0x7fa2107fe700] VERBOSE - Auth: Came in with the master token, authorization succeeded.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.464 [0x7fa20cbfd700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:56982 (Loopback)] PUT /video/:/transcode/session/h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry/567c3f24-0448-44c3-a300-3ee907264ac1/progress/stream?index=0&id
=256&codec=h264&type=video (18 live) Signed-in Token (utkinpol73)

says this:
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.532 [0x7fa20dbff700] DEBUG - Started session successfully: h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.532 [0x7fa20d3fe700] VERBOSE - We want 180 seconds ahead, last returned was -1.000000 and max is -1.000000.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.532 [0x7fa20d3fe700] VERBOSE - It took 0.0 sec to serialize a list with 0 elements.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.533 [0x7fa210fff700] DEBUG - Completed: [127.0.0.1:56994] 206 PUT /video/:/transcode/session/h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry/567c3f24-0448-44c3-a300-3ee907264ac1/progress?duration=11520.532278
(20 live) 0ms 326 bytes
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.534 [0x7fa210fff700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.10.51:57686] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/start.mpd?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F73348&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&protocol
=dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=lan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=1&directStreamAudio=1&session=h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry&subtitles=burn&Accept-Langu
age=en (20 live) TLS GZIP 95ms 1027 bytes (pipelined: 7)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.541 [0x7fa20ebff700] ERROR - [Transcoder] [dash @ 0x1c3c740] Cannot use rename on non file protocol, this may lead to races and temporary partial files
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.542 [0x7fa20fffd700] DEBUG - Request: [127.0.0.1:56998 (Loopback)] POST /video/:/transcode/session/h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry/567c3f24-0448-44c3-a300-3ee907264ac1/manifest (20 live) Signed
-in
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.542 [0x7fa20fffd700] VERBOSE -  * Transfer-Encoding => chunked

and then this:
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - We're in a seek: asked for 2771, min/max available was 0/1
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Segment #2771 WON.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Killing job.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 31111 with 9
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.762 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.763 [0x7fa2087ff700] VERBOSE - JobManager: child process with PID 31111 exited
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.763 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session h8qtwa9w37wczo83vee0vwry at offset 8313.0 (state=3)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.763 [0x7fa2087ff700] DEBUG - JobManager: child process killed by signal: 9 (Killed)
Dec 24, 2017 09:34:03.764 [0x7fa20d3fe700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found

And as i get it - it means when we are in seek mode - transcoder does not start at chunk 2771? Or what is that?

95

just installed back 1.10.1.4602, recorded tv show, it plays from any position, no issues.

96

I’m on Version 1.10.1.4602 and have this issue as we speak. Anyone have a fix?

97

and they want to charge for plexpass without at least addressing this issue/

98

I’m currently having this issue as well. Program was working fine until I reinstalled on a fresh windows install, then this error. I looked into the log and it looked like Plex wasn’t downloading the codecs. I manually downloaded them and then tried again. I then got a different error, shaka1001, which I stopped pursuing after seeing how many others have had this issue.

99

So are they working on a solution. I just got my Plex back up and running due to losing a hard drive, I have not had plex in 8 months. Every file I try and play, even on the computer fails transcode. What gives?

100

@gravelunit said:
So are they working on a solution. I just got my Plex back up and running due to losing a hard drive, I have not had plex in 8 months. Every file I try and play, even on the computer fails transcode. What gives?

EMBY. Try it, Love it. I have already moved on myself.