I’m getting similar problems as OP
server: 1.18.5.2309
os: ubuntu-server 18.04
cpu: Intel Core i3-8109U
In the logs i saw the server reporting that the cpu isn’t strong enough to handle transcoding. Thats od cause it worked fine on previous versions. On 1.18.2.2058 its working perfectly fine for example.
I’ll start logging if required. Currently downgraded to 1.18.2.2058.
I’m still working on little issues that are popping up not all are related to the topic but I thought I would share it just for the benefit of any persons viewing the thread.
It appears that devices that are configured to “Automatically adjust” are the culprits here. I believe that there’s some miscommunication between the client and server. The result of this is that the video on the client just “freezes” and on the server the video appears as paused but switches to “direct play”.
Fix: Disable auto adjust and use an appropriate fixed bit rate in the quality setting.
This is a weird one in which one of my friends has his own Plex server (local LAN) and he also has a share from me. When connecting to my server he would frequently receive Playback errors indicating that the volume is not mounted blah blah. I had another friend with a Roku stick test in parallel and his stream continued without issue.
Fix: Shutdown the local Plex server! Once this fix continues we’ll tweak the settings on the server. Perhaps it’s one of those “discovery” type settings that’s throwing things off. 
The adventure continues!
I’m getting lots of Windows crashes with version 1.18.2
Blue screen “System Threading Exception not handled”.
I swapped out all of my hardware except for the HDD and I still get the error.
Upgrading to 1.18.4.2171 to see if it helps.
Just keeping this thread alive: the automatically adjusting clients appear to have issues calculating the correct available bandwidth.
Similar behaviour in other user’s logs here.
The Blue screen issue was apparently linked to my video card drivers. I changed my drivers to 392.58 and Windows hasn’t crashed as yet but Plex has. My CPU util was really high so I’ve changed my transcoding profile to auto and reduced the throttle buffer to 60. So far so good.
Interesting to note is that Plex is no longer HW decoding with these drivers only encoding. I read on another thread that I require a dongle to fool the video card into thinking there’s a monitor attached for it to allow for decoding. I have said dongle on order. I also have a new P5000 on route as well.
P5000 installed and I am still encountering Windows crashes when using HW Decoding. If my CPU does the decoding then the Plex app crashes and Windows doesn’t. If my GPU does both decoding and encoding Windows blue screens and crashes.
I think my issue might be related to this.
Can you come up to the latest nvidia driver and see if you’re still blue screening?
I experienced crashes with driver version 442.19 which was the most recent driver at the time. I’m still using that driver at the moment.
Another day and still no crashes using the solution above.
Okay, I’m also using that workaround (screen attached with auto-login) and it ensures the GPU transcodes, otherwise it’s software only. Are you still having issues with the random freezes with auto-adjust enabled?
I have stopped using the Auto-Adjust feature but I will revisit it after one week of testing with the existing solution. I don’t want to be presumptions but the solution as described above is working quite well.
Over this weekend in particular I expect that there will be the most activity. I’ll ask all my friends and family to connect to help me do a stress test.
Just to update the thread using the “No RDP” technique
My server (using 1.18.4) crashed on Fri 21st. I took the opportunity to install 1.18.7 beta however the server crashed again within 2 hours.
I reinstalled 1.18.4 and the server worked fine holding up to a stress test with 20 streams.
The server crashed twice this morning in close succession.
All of the incidents of crashes involve receiving a blue screen and an error about threaded exception not handled dxg…
@Plexstaff is it possible to get a toggle to switch to the legacy transcoder, the one that was in use in 1.14? In light of the TV artwork announcement we’re recommended to use 1.18.2 and greater, for some of us this isn’t an upgrade.
In Plex Agents I’ve added enabled the Movie DB as a source of information to add to the TV DB and prioritised it ahead. I’m getting series artwork on 1.17. Does this work for you too?
I had two crashes again tonight.
@Danwil I have not tried what you’re suggesting but it sounds like a good plan-of-action. I installed 1.17.0.1841 since the last crash. I’m hoping for better stability with this version.
Hopefully it will also allow me to use RDP again. I will keep the thread updated with my findings.
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-02-27_19-25-00.zip (5.3 MB)
I got a “soft” crash @ ~7:02pm. Plex Media Server.2.log has the lead up to the crash in the final few lines.
I’m making a general call for help; if there’s anyone out there who can read these logs and help me identify the source of the crashes please lend a hand. I’m hoping it is some bad media.
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-02-28_13-44-51.zip (6.2 MB)
Another crash, this time a full computer crash between 12-12:30pm. Logs attached.
I downgraded to 1.14 however this version does not support HW decoding. Essentially my CPU will be bogged down with decoding and should my CPU util get too high audio transcodes will become choppy.
I’m trying 1.18.8 (beta) and hope that it helps. I once again make a plea for assistance.
Crashes galore, 2-3 times a day.
I downgraded to 1.16.5.1554. It is my assumption that the new transcoder has poor handling of HW decoding operations. Version 1.16.5.1554 utilizes the old transcoder that doesn’t HW decode.
The artwork workaround, works so downgrading is not an issue anymore.
Sorry I should have said 1.16 in my message. Totally agree; the changelog for 1.17 is a massive transcoder upgrade and moving up to this version or beyond leads to failures. Glad the artwork is appearing now.
Your message is assuring, I thought that it was just me having issues with the new transcoder. I can appreciate the challenges with decoding especially under the hood of a GPU, Plex is probably at the mercy of Nvidia in this case .
So far so good with 1.16, I will keep the thread updated after prolonged use.
It’s not just you. I too have a P5000 (previously a RTX 4000) and both are/were extremely unreliable for the past 8 months. Prior to that the RTX 4000 was rock solid!
I’ve disabled hardware transcoding until we get a resolution.
Have you tried just using your videocard for HW encoding only vs both encoding and decoding? It will put an ease on your CPU.
