No Picture or No Sound on HD broadcast recordings (sometimes)!

Live TV & DVR
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1

Got an infuriating problem which is not repeatable in any way but seems entirely contained within Plex. I have RPi TVheadend/tvhproxy combo to receive the TV using Pi DVB-T2 hat. All works fine and all channels work reliably when link to stream is used directly in e.g. VLC, every time.

However in Plex (latest, Windows) everything goes entirely unpredicable with HD channels. SD channels seem to work fine, though I dont really use them so that doesn’t help me. In UK there are 5 main OTA HD channels, broadcast on the same mux hence exactly the same format. I cannot reliably watch any of them on any client. Sometimes fine, sometimes no picture sound only, sometimes sound only no picture. I also occasionally get “An error occurred trying to play %name%. Error code: s1001 (Network)” before the stream even connects

I reinstalled a fresh copy of windows and started with a new Plex server from scratch, and the same issue still presents itself, on hardware which worked fine for this exact task a few months ago when I last used it before moving house.

Has anyone had issues like these?

1 Like
2

Hello,

I am also have the same problem as you have described.
I am also in the UK.
Not sure when this started happening but it used to work ok probably one of the latest updates.
using Unraid and official Plex docker. Tvheadend /Xteve/Plex.

But now I change to BBC 1 HD and I get no picture and sound is fine if I keep re tuning it will work it only fails intermittently . When it is failing I can watch the stream from Xteve fine in VLC (2 tuners).

U

3

Are these problems on Plex Web only ?

Is there a difference between the hosted Plex Web app (via https://app.plex.tv/desktop) and the bundled Plex Web app (via http://local-ip-of-PMS:32400/web) ?

If it is on Plex Web only, is this Plex Web setting ticked?

Settings / Plex Web / Debug / Show Advanced / Use alternate streaming protocol for video playback

Does changing this setting and saving the changes make a difference to the Playback?

Does playback on other plex clients eg on Plex or iOS on iPhone or iPad have issues?

I have tried HD channels 101 - 104 and I had some tuning issues in Plex Web with that setting

4

This problem occurs on all Roku, plex Web and IOS app (these are the only ones I use).

But an update on mine. I have now received a new HDhomerun and this works absolutely flawlessly.

So I have one tuner on HDhome run working fine and one tuner using:-

Hauppauge WinTV-dual HD > TVHeadend > Xteve this gives the problems as the first post above with the exception as when the error occurs it happens on both HD and SD channels.

I am using official Plex docker (in Unraid). This setup used to work a couple of months ago not sure when it started but about June time. It is very intermittent.

Tried rolling Plex docker to an older version and that made no difference tried a different docker for xteve and that made no difference.

Just to mention it is not just playback. If I set a recording occasionally I will get a recording with just the audio stream no picture.

The setting below was not ticked on mine.

Settings / Plex Web / Debug / Show Advanced / Use alternate streaming protocol for video playback

Ticking it made no difference.

5

@gary5669 - so in your case an HD Homerun works ok with Plex Media Server but the Hauppauge DVR which is driven by the Plex Tuner Service fails

When scanning channels for the Hauppauge DVR in Plex Media Server DVR Setup - are you using the UK Full Range of frequencies transponders file or a specific regional one ? The regional ones may be using out of date frequencies. The Full UK one would have all frequencies

Could you run with the latest beta for Plex Media Server and debug logging enabled on the server and go through setup and then after that try BBC 1 HD on a plex app other than Plex Web and get me the zipped server logs and outcome - at what time / what happened

Thanks

6

Do you know if the DVR is being managed by the Plex Tuner Service or directly by Plex Media Server?

Could you run with debug logging enabled and capture server and client app logs when it fails and upload the logs and indication on time of test / outcome

Thanks

7

Hi,
I am not using the Plex Tuner.

tune
tune1031×413 104 KB

TVheadend tunes the channels then passed to Xteve and picked up in plex.
At 13:25 deleted all DVR’s
13:29 add 1 Tuner
Used Freeview guide selected only BB1HD BBC
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-08-22_13-35-50.zip (5.0 MB)
2HD ITVHD CH4HD CH5HD
all downloaded fine
13:31 selected BBC1HD (played Fine)
selected BBC2HD (played fine)
Selected ITVHD Failed Black Picture but Sound ok.
Download logs

BTW ITV1HD played fine after selecting channels again.

8

Thanks

The logs do not show any issues or errors in tuning

I can see that the tune for this was at 13:32:16 and it was successful - tuned within 4 seconds and streamed until you stopped it at 13:32:43

If the issue of loss of picture or audio persists and it does not arise when using other players eg vlc - then would need to look into more diagnostics and to capture the channel stream that is being returned to Plex Media Server and also what is being sent to Firefox in .ts segments

There are now internal advanced server settings that are available through editing the Preferences.xml (or regedit for windows) that allow us to retain and capture the channel stream and transcoder segments

You would need to locate the Preferenes.xml and edit it manually whilst Plex Media Server is not running to add these internal settings and enable them/disable them

When these settings are enabled, we stop purging and deleting transcoder temporary files and it is important that when set, that it is done for a short period and only until the diagnostics are captured and then the settings disabled / remove and server restarted so they would get purged.

If you still have the issue and happy to proceed with this approach, I will give you the details of what to add to Preferences.xml for reproducing the issue and capturing the diagnostic files - the files may be a few Gb in size - could be less if it happens soon after starting tune. You would need to zip the directories and upload to Google Drive / Dropbox etc and send me a link

9

Hi,

I run a similar config with tvhproxy and tvheadend and too experienced that seemingly randomly HD channels would be typically without sound, sometimes without picture.

What fixed it for me was a setting in tvheadend, Configuration → Stream → Stream Profiles

Ensure for the profile that Plex uses (I created a new one just for Plex) that “Rewrite Service ID” is 0 and then tick the 4 boxes below

image

This does seem to be an issue with Plex, I never had to do this with any other DVR software, VLC etc.

Anyway worth a try for you.

10

Thanks for the feedback. I have mentioned it to our development team

@gary5669 please try this change

11

@e10kstarfire I discussed your findings with the development team and we would like channel stream capture with debug server logs

Please could you reproduce the loss of picture and loss of sound issues on HD channels with debug server logging enabled and also with the settings that allow for capture of the channel stream and transcode segments

Please locate the Preferences.xml for Plex Media Server - For docker there is information here Where is the Plex Media Server data directory located? | Plex Support
Other relevant support article is Advanced, Hidden Server Settings | Plex Support - however the specific settings needed to capture the channel stream are not actually listed there

When editing the Preferences.xml file, please do that whilst Plex Media Server is shutdown and process not running

The advanced diagnostic settings to add in the Preferences.xml file are:

TranscoderPersistSessionDirs set value to be 1
TranscoderInputTracing set value to be 1
TranscoderPruneBuffer set value to be 0
TranscoderLivePruneBuffer set value to be 0

With these values, the transcoder temp files would not get purged and also there would be a DVR TV channel stream capture file.

Please remove the changes you made to the tvheadend configuration to circumvent the problem.

You would need to locate the transcoder temp directory and copy out and zip all the Transcode\Sessions directories/sub-directories after you reproduce the problem. Server would need to be running with debug logging enabled and to also capture the server logs after reproducing the problem

Note that the transcode sessions directories may be large and so do not leave these diagnostic settings enabled for long period of time

Once the diagnostics are captured, shutdown the Plex Media Server and remove the settings that were added, deleting:

TranscoderPersistSessionDirs
TranscoderInputTracing
TranscoderPruneBuffer
TranscoderLivePruneBuffer

Please note down the channel name and number that you repro the problem on. Also what time the test started and how many seconds / minutes from start before the problem arose - or just note down actual times.

As the captured diagnostics will be large, please upload to dropbox or google drive etc and send me a link to download. Please make sure we have the associated server logs also

Thank you

Edited to replace the settings of “true” with “1”

12

Hi,

I’ll have a look and see if I can do this.

However, if Plex added code to set the PLP for dvb-t2 transmissions then it could find my HD channels on a channel tune and I wouldn’t need tvheadend or tvhproxy. That’s the only reason I use this setup as SD works fine natively on Plex.

13

@gary5669 Which HDHomeRun tuner do you have? I have three HDHomeRun Dual tuners on Plex myself. I am experiencing a similar persistent issue with my ABC affiliate, in the St. Louis US market, most often not recording audio, though not always. Live TV also doesn’t have audio, and recorded TV doesn’t have audio. However, when tuning the same channel using HDHomeRun’s software always tunes in the audio as well. This has made the DVR functionality for ABC useless, as well as LiveTV watching. I’ve had a similar thread going https://forums.plex.tv/t/debugging-lack-of-recorded-or-livetv-audio-on-a-single-station-in-my-market/808558

@sa2000 I’d be thrilled with any debugging efforts, etc. that could help figure this out, as I’d love to be able to rely on Plex more fully. My issue’s been ongoing for months.

14

Done , messaged you.

15

It does show this error though, same a I get :

Aug 22, 2022 13:32:20.392 [0x14963b08bb00] DEBUG - [Req#b459/Transcode] MDE: video has no video stream but does have an audio stream

16

Will get this reviewed by the development once we have the channel stream captures and associated debug logs and transcoder segments

1 Like
17

Thanks - there appears to be a problem with this TranscoderInputTracing - does not appear to have been actioned. Please double check the edit to the Preferences.xml

18

I think the 2 settings that were to be set to true should be set to 1

I have amended my instructions above

19

New data uploaded

20

Thank You

This has now been referred to the development team