Nearly 100% Transcoder Errors with Build 1.13.5.5291

This build has been giving me almost 100% failures with the message:

There was a transcoder error

I tried restarting the server. I tried reconfiguring my plex tuners. It just seems to fail.

Even attempting to watch live TV has a high failure rate. I have “CONVERT WHILE RECORDING” turned off. Because in the past I found turning it on will cause a high failure rate. (Never this high…) Watching live TV with the HDHomeRun software is working normally…

The general pattern is recording starts, I get under a minute, and then the error occurs.

This is on my Windows 10 machine.

The following is what was logged for the most recent failure:

Edit: Removed because Plex Token displayed

I also see the following error in the log file repeatedly, but it is hard to know if it is at all related:

2018-07-25 23:37:44,003 (1f50) :  DEBUG (runtime:924) - Response: [200] InitiateUpdateResponse, 969 bytes
2018-07-25 23:37:44,015 (3ed0) :  DEBUG (services:362) - Loaded services
2018-07-25 23:37:44,020 (3b0c) :  DEBUG (services:438) - No shared code to load
2018-07-25 23:37:44,023 (2bb8) :  DEBUG (runtime:717) - Handling request GET /system/agents/update?mediaType=2&force=1&guid=com%2Egracenote%2Eonconnect%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F9810285&id=6297
2018-07-25 23:37:44,025 (2bb8) :  DEBUG (runtime:814) - Found route matching /system/agents/update
2018-07-25 23:37:44,025 (2bb8) :  CRITICAL (core:579) - Exception in update request handler (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-6fa5e50a8\System.bundle\Contents\Code\agentservice.py", line 297, in update
    version = self.agent_get_version(libraryAgent or identifier, 'Artist' if media_type == 'Album' else media_type)
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-6fa5e50a8\System.bundle\Contents\Code\agentservice.py", line 1172, in agent_get_version
    for agent in self.agent_info[identifier]:
  File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Resources\Plug-ins-6fa5e50a8\Framework.bundle\Contents\Resources\Versions\2\Python\Framework\code\sandbox.py", line 108, in <lambda>
    _getitem_           = lambda x, y: x.__getitem__(y),
KeyError: 'com.gracenote.onconnect'

Tuner rejected the request by Plex to stream the station:

] ERROR - [Transcoder] http://172.31.248.141:5004/auto/v51.1: Server returned 5XX Server Error reply

I would also suggest that you turn off the option: Allow Plex Media Server tokens in logs. I have edited your post to remove the log text you posted that has your Plex Media Server Token included.

Would you advise against this update then? Recently i have begun to have to be very picky regarding pms updates.

Always your decision whether to install an update or not. I am normally running the latest versions while they are still in Alpha before being released to Beta. I have had no issues with the release.

Here is another example failure…

Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.118 [2444] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.13.5.5291-6fa5e50a8 - Microsoft PC x64 - build: windows-i386 english - GMT -04:00
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.118 [2444] INFO - Windows version: 10.0 (Build 17134), language en-GB
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.119 [2444] INFO - 8 3093 MHz processor(s): Architecture=0, Level=6, Revision=14857 Processor Identifier=Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9, GenuineIntel
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.119 [2444] DEBUG - C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server.exe
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.101 [14952] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] ac-tex damaged at 34 8
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.105 [2380] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 5 22
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.109 [13012] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] Warning MVs not available
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.117 [8400] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 13 10
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.118 [18076] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 36 8
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.118 [15728] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 15 21
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.119 [2012] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] skip with previntra
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.120 [14908] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Usage: 0kbps of WAN bandwidth, 0 streaming transcode slots, and 1 static transcode slots across 5 sessions
Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.120 [14952] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 32 17

Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.799 [15728] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 0 407
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.803 [8400] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 7 408
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.807 [13012] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 1 281
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.811 [2380] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 12 282
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.815 [2012] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] 00 motion_type at 5 283
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.819 [18076] ERROR - [Transcoder] [mpeg2video ] Warning MVs not available
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.881 [14344] INFO - Library section 1 (TV Shows) will be updated because of a change in C:\Videos\TV Series\Batman (1966)\Season 03\Plex Versions\TV720P 15
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.884 [14908] INFO - Library section 1 (TV Shows) will be updated because of a change in C:\Videos\TV Series\Batman (1966)\Season 03\Plex Versions
Jul 26, 2018 15:01:15.957 [15728] DEBUG - Transcoder segment range: 0 - 63

I notice I see blocks of pure red for most of yesterdays recordings. A few videos have succeeded today. But also happen to discover, some recordings disappear from the recording page all together. For example the Leverage example I should earlier, disappeared as if it was never scheduled after the 8AM recording for the same series but different episode started…

I’m guessing what has happened is problems that probably were previously ignored have now become errors. As there are programs where I typically will see a few glitches in the recording. But this is strictly a guess on my part.

Impossible to say. It could be a change on my end… I’ve had handbrake running non-stop for the last couple of days on the same machine. Maybe they are interfering. Previously I found if I use hardware acceleration they will interfere. e.g. Running handbrake with hardware acceleration will crash if plex records with or without hardware acceleration. Running plex with hardware acceleration will crash plex and handbrake… So I don’t use hardware acceleration anymore in either. But maybe the processes still interfere with eachother, now. Or maybe it is an update to my vpn software. Or perhaps my firewall?

Who knows. Looking through the logs, I notice plex is now trying to use IPv6. And that could be the problem, since I have disabled IPv6 on this machine.

And it becomes even stranger. It is 6:03 PM and this is what I see… Why is Judge Judy for 7PM already recording? The start time is set to 0 minutes before… Why isn’t Murdock Mysteries done recording?

Possibly this is related to the bug in thread: “2 HDHomeRun units (4 tuners) Different channels enabled. Plex DVR tries to record from wrong tuner”

I have pretty much the same symptoms as you. I’m on the same version and almost every recording is failing and playing live tv only lasts for 1-2 minutes before I get the “there was a transcoder” error.

Very frustrating. I used to love plex but it just seems to be endless problems these days with no end in sight.

As a partial workaround I changed all my recordings to allow Partial recording.

I really do not want partial recordings. But for some strange reason when I allow them, I have far fewer of these transcoder failure errors, and most of the recordings do not end-up being partial recordings.

Thanks for the suggestion. I already had partial recordings on. I think I’ll look at downgrading to a previous version when I get a chance.

Do either of you have full logs from an error? I see partial logs posted above with entries out of order, jumps from Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.119 to Jul 26, 2018 14:55:28.101, then jumps again to a later time with what appears to be small gaps in the time display. Full logs would always be best. Please ensure Debug logging is enabled, verbose logging is disabled, and Allow Plex tokens in logs is also disabled.

Thanks Johnm - I’m happy to send some logs. I’ve never done it before though, are you able to point me to some detailed instructions on how to gather them and send them through?

Settings / Server - Verify:
Enable Plex Media Server debug logging is enabled
Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging is disabled
Allow Plex Media Server tokens in logs is also disabled

Restart Plex Media Server

The next time an error occurs go to Settings / Server / Help and click the Download Logs link. Once downloaded you can drag/drop the zip file into a new post.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-08-01_21-55-14.zip (4.4 MB)

Thanks for the detail. Good news, I already had those settings on and I found an error from last night - this is in the Plex Media Server.log file - that was when I was trying to watch live tv. I’ll also keep an eye out for another failed recording:

Aug 01, 2018 21:54:24.205 [20220] ERROR - Caught exception trying to stream file: D:\Plex\AppData\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\plex-transcode-b175fcba-ae21-4992-b14f-511e7a194d64\media-00237.ts: write: A request to send or receive data was disallowed because the socket had already been shut down in that direction with a previous shutdown call!

[EDIT] - this might be useful, hopefully the logs I sent will have details on all these failed recordings from last night.

Failed_Recordings|180x499

You have some entries in your log that exhibit some of the same signs as an issue with a recent Windows Update:

Aug 01, 2018 21:52:23.333 [22164] ERROR - [Transcoder] av_interleaved_write_frame(): Unknown error
Aug 01, 2018 21:52:23.338 [30004] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error writing trailer of media-%05d.ts: Invalid argument

Please verify you have the following Windows Updates installed:
July 10, 2018 - KB4338819 (OS Build 17134.165) - which introduced the issue

July 16, 2018 - KB4345421 (OS Build 17134.167) - First fix

July 24, 2018 - KB4340917 (OS Build 17134.191) - Second update Microsoft released fixing issues

Some other users have found they needed to uninstall the KB4340917 patch, install the KB4345421 patch then reapply the KB4340917.

Oh you champion – I did indeed have the first update, but not the subsequent ones (even though my computer is set to auto update!). I am forcing an update now and I can see that it is busy downloading KB4340917. Once it’s installed I’ll do some testing and see how things go.

Well it’s looking much better so far. I’ve managed to watch live tv for the last 40 minutes with no issue. And I recorded a program without any issue.

Will keep an eye on it tonight, but thank you very much, this is looking better.

I’ll have to see if windows updates makes any difference. I’m still seeing massive failures. I think somehow it works sometimes for no apparent reason, and my change to allow partial recordings was no more than a pseubo effect.