Nvidia Shield Plex client attemtpts transcoding (and fails) on some media with SRT subtitles

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Server Version#: 1.32.5.7349
Player Version#: 9.28.0.3162 (75a3f28)
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-08-07_17-01-48.zip (4.2 MB)

Hi all, encountered a bit of an issue that have me stumped.
For some reason the Plex client on the Nvidia Shield is deciding to transcode some MKV files with SRT subtitles, although far from all. And more annoyingly it doesn’t get the transcode right and just ends up sitting on a black screen loading endlessly.

Specifically I have upscaled and re-encoded my Scrubs DVDs to HEVC. I have the original VobSub subtitles and an SRT subtitle track embedded in the files, I also have the SRT subtitles externally.

When I try to play one of these files on the Nvidia Shield it just sits and loads endlessly, spinning the loading animation on a black playback screen. I can see the server is transcoding the media and Tautulli is telling me the transcode reason is the subtitles. Sure enough, if I disable the subtitles it plays just fine using Direct Play. If I select the VobSub track it also transcodes, but the transcode actually works and the files play with subtitles displayed.

So in other words it is only the SRT subtitles that don’t work. But I have plenty of other MKVs with SRT subtitles that works just fine, no transcoding needed.

If I play the same episode in a browser (on a PC) or using the iOS Plex client the episodes works fine as well, displaying the subtitles.

I have tried removing the embedded subtitles in case those were causing an issue, despite the fact I have other media with embedded subs that work. I have tried not having the external SRT file. Nothing works, I simply can’t get Plex to play these files with SRT subs enabled on the Shield.

Edit:
Done some more testing and this only appears to be an issue with the first gen Nvidia Shield TV. Tried a second gen model and it worked much better. It could play the files mentioned above without transcoding and with working subs and generally seems to function much better with Plex. It doesn’t (in my tests) transcode VC1 either for example, the first gen model did.

2

Since 9.29 I have the same issue for basically every file on my 2019 Shield.

In the logs, I get:

MDE: <media> Direct Play is disabled
MDE: <media> media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
MDE: <media> selected subtitle cannot be converted to a compatible format, burning into video stream
MDE: <media> avoiding video remux due to burned subtitle stream
MDE: <media> no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations

If I disable the subtitles, I get:

MDE: <media> Direct Play is disabled
MDE: <media> media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
MDE: <media> no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
MDE: <media> no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/eac3

Downgrading to 9.28 fixes it.

3

I have the same as Knifefed…

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is it possible to get both the server logs and the android tv logs after it happens

5

Same here. Issue is with 9.29 on Nvidia Shield, I rolled back to 9.28, it fixed falling back to transcode. Mine was doing it for DTS audio. It would transcode to aac and I would get no audio.

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