Performance issues

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.18.9.2578

Hi all,

Every time I try to play something on Plex, regardless of whether it’s direct play or transcoding, it takes a good ~5 seconds to actually start-up.

I’ve tried the Plex client apps on Android TV (Sony Bravia), Roku, Xbox One, Android phone (Note 9) and the web client (OSX), but all face the same problem.

This happens when playing something from my media library, and when using Live TV and switching between channels.

The server

I’m running PleX on an Ubuntu 18.04 server, and have PleX Pass.

The server itself is a laptop with 8GB RAM, an Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz (8 cores).

CPU usage is very low (it “peaks” at 10% system usage), as is Memory usage (stays at a steady 25% system usage) so the server is currently being underutilized.

Currently, I’m only dealing with local streams.

The common denominator is the server, but as you can see from the above it is under-utilized so I cannot see why this would be the cause.

Can someone help me figure out why this is happening?

2

Where are the media files located? Maybe the storage medium needs to spin up first?

3

They are located on a mixture of a NAS drive and an external HDD.

I had the same thought, but it even happens when going from one episode to the next, of the same show, so the hard drive would already be up.

4

I agree there shouldn’t be a spin-up problem there…

No idea, only that a laptop is not an ideal server device :wink:

5

Ah yeah, I know it’s not ideal :slight_smile: but it wasn’t being used and I thought it would be enough with an i7/8GB RAM.

The server itself is actually really under-utilised, is there something else a proper server box would have, that my laptop doesn’t, that would make it run better?

Appreciate the replies!

Follow up question - is there a way of getting PleX support to respond, or is just luck of the draw?

6

It starts with the CPU which is optimised for lower battery drain. But it in principle this should not be the root cause for your 5 secs daily since an i7 is not the slowest CPU in town, but this is hard to tell from here. Is plex installed on an HDD or SSD? Is the laptop’s network hard wired or wireless? Which speed?

People from Plex read and answer here in the forum, but it can take some time until somebody stops by. You have to be patient.

7

It starts with the CPU which is optimised for lower battery drain. But it in principle this should not be the root cause for your 5 secs daily since an i7 is not the slowest CPU in town, but this is hard to tell from here.

That’s fair. I will probably upgrade to a proper server in time :-). I was actually going to purchase an Nvidia Shield TV to see if it would solve the issues, but as this is also happening with direct play I can’t see it making that much difference.

Is plex installed on an HDD or SSD?

SSD

Is the laptop’s network hard wired or wireless?

Wired

Which speed?

350mbp/s

People from Plex read and answer here in the forum, but it can take some time until somebody stops by. You have to be patient.

That’s fine, I wasn’t expecting an immediate response, just that I would get one at some point.

I appreciate all the replies so far.

8

Seems not so bad…
Clients wireless or wired too?

9

A mixture of both. Zero performance difference on the wired clients.

10

Bump. Anyone from PleX able to help with this?

11

Morning :slight_smile:

Wired speed: 10 Mbps - 100 Mbps - 1000 Mbps ( 1 GbE) - 10 GbE . There is no 350 Mbps speed. USB 2.0 will do about 350 Mbps avg, 400 max.

There’s no mention of subtitle usage. Subtitles, being a single-threaded task, show up pretty clearly on CPU utilization graphs. If subtitle burning is active, it’s not uncommon to see a single core fully utilized (25% for a quad core without threading, 15% with).

To diagnose any performance issues, additional info is needed.

  1. XML of the video being played (so we can see what PMS is dealing with)
  2. DEBUG logs of the playback event.
    a. Start playback
    b. Let play for 30 seconds
    c. Stop playback
    d. Allow system to quiesce
    e. Download Logs
    f. Attach ZIP
12

Morning

Hello! Thanks for responding.

Wired speed: 10 Mbps - 100 Mbps - 1000 Mbps ( 1 GbE) - 10 GbE . There is no 350 Mbps speed. USB 2.0 will do about 350 Mbps avg, 400 max.

Are you talking network speed? If so, the router I am using is 10/100/1000. The mention of USB 2.0 makes me think you may be referring to the read/write speed of the drive(s) themselves? If so, I’m actually not sure.

There’s no mention of subtitle usage. Subtitles, being a single-threaded task, show up pretty clearly on CPU utilization graphs. If subtitle burning is active, it’s not uncommon to see a single core fully utilized (25% for a quad core without threading, 15% with).

I hardly ever use subtitles, only when a film requires it (forced subtitles when it’s an English title with foreign speaking language in parts).

  1. XML of the video being played (so we can see what PMS is dealing with)

Where would I find this? I’m running an Ubuntu 18.04 server and looked in /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Metadata/TV and /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Media but the naming wasn’t clear.

DEBUG logs of the playback event.

This first attachment is when trying to play a file that takes nearly 4 minutes to play. I started the play request at 18:33 and then cancelled it around 18:36 because it had already taken 3 minutes. This isn’t a normal occurrence but thought it would be useful in identifying a potential cause.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-05_17-35-50.zip (1.3 MB)

The second attachment is when trying to play a different file, which took about ~10 seconds to play. I started playing the file at 18:39, let it play for 30 seconds, stopped it, waited 10 seconds and then downloaded the logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-05_17-40-11.zip (1.4 MB)

Edit: I turned off debug logging and ran the second file again, and saw the following errors in the console.

image
image1101×454 319 KB

From the dashboard it looks like this file was transcoding, and I turned hardware transcoding on today to see if it would help. I’m not sure if this is making it worse?

13

And here’s one more log file, where I started watching a file I know direct plays and it took 3-4 seconds to start playing.

Started at 18:45, let it play for 30 seconds, stopped it, waited 10 seconds and then downloaded the logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-05_17-47-17.zip (1.4 MB)

14

PLEASE turn DEBUG logging back on.

  1. you don’t save space by turning it off. Logs are fixed size (50 MB)
  2. There is no way to help debug issues
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.109 [0x7f5a8bfff700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.109 [0x7f5a8bfff700] WARN - Subscription: No container available for /tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud:6/metadata/plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F5cffa2f4584583001c6a4ee0
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.109 [0x7f5a727fc700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.109 [0x7f5a727fc700] WARN - Subscription: No container available for /tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud:6/metadata/plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F5e1e799cabc77e003ecf21eb
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.110 [0x7f5aa13d8700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.110 [0x7f5aa13d8700] WARN - Subscription: No container available for /tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud:6/metadata/plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F5cffa2da1c9336001d9981b6
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.111 [0x7f5a8bfff700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.111 [0x7f5a8bfff700] WARN - Subscription: No container available for /tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud:6/metadata/plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F5e34e40368af040040ba0326
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.113 [0x7f5a8bfff700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.113 [0x7f5a8bfff700] WARN - Subscription: No container available for /tv.plex.providers.epg.cloud:6/metadata/plex%3A%2F%2Fshow%2F5d79802a5842af001fed729a
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.211 [0x7f5a477fe700] ERROR - downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
Apr 03, 2020 16:26:15.211 [0x7f5a477fe700] WARN - Subscription: No container avail
  1. XML is available: Hover over the item -> Get Info -> View XML
    The portion of interest is from the top through </media> tag.

Please do it all again… There is unfortunately nothing I can do with this.

15

Is there something else I need to do, to get the logs that are helpful?

  1. you don’t save space by turning it off. Logs are fixed size (50 MB)

Ah ok. I’ll just leave it on permanently then, I didn’t realise this was the case.

  1. XML is available: Hover over the item → Get Info → View XML. The portion of interest is from the top through </media> tag.

Here’s if the XML for the video that takes minutes to play:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionTitle="TV (HDD)" librarySectionUUID="c17db74b-5d6b-48f8-80c8-56f0729d4eef" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1585174144">
<Video ratingKey="3468" key="/library/metadata/3468" skipParent="1" grandparentRatingKey="2656" guid="plex://episode/5e646c7c64ca88003c781293" parentGuid="plex://season/5cffa2e5a09dbf001ebf7a1d/14" grandparentGuid="plex://show/5cffa2e5a09dbf001ebf7a1d" type="episode" title="First Dates" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/2656" librarySectionTitle="TV (HDD)" librarySectionID="4" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/4" grandparentTitle="First Dates" parentTitle="Season 14" summary="A number of men and women looking for love attend a blind date." index="5" parentIndex="14" viewOffset="2123369" lastViewedAt="1586109874" year="2020" thumb="/library/metadata/3468/thumb/1584659111" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/2656/thumb/1582239908" duration="4979318" originallyAvailableAt="2020-03-19" addedAt="1584659110" updatedAt="1584659111">
<Media id="4838" duration="4979318" bitrate="4197" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac_latm" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080" container="mpegts" videoFrameRate="PAL" audioProfile="lc" channelIdentifier="104" mediaGrabBeginsAt="1584655200" mediaGrabDevice="device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/12525589" mediaGrabPartialRecording="1" mediaGrabPartialRecordingReason="The recording was cancelled" mediaGrabStatus="complete" origin="dvr" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="4843" key="/library/parts/4843/1584659108/file.ts" duration="4979318" file="/media/sdb/TV/First Dates (2013)/Season 14/First Dates (2013) - S14E05 - First Dates.ts" size="2832721208" audioProfile="lc" container="mpegts" deepAnalysisVersion="4" packetLength="188" requiredBandwidths="9416,8945,7772,6509,5445,5282,4764,4232" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="13057" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="4056" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="25.000" hasScalingMatrix="1" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="9239,9108,9108,9108,9108,9108,9108,9108" scanType="progressive" streamIdentifier="256" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (H.264)"/>
<Stream id="13058" streamType="2" codec="aac_latm" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="105" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="257" displayTitle="English (AAC_LATM Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="13059" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac_latm" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="24" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="he-aacv2" requiredBandwidths="40,40,40,40,40,40,40,40" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="258" displayTitle="English (AAC_LATM Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="13060" streamType="3" codec="dvb_subtitle" index="3" bitrate="13" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="17,17,17,17,17,17,17,17" streamIdentifier="259" displayTitle="English (DVB_SUBTITLE)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Genre id="4873" filter="genre=4873" tag="Other"/>
<Genre id="4304" filter="genre=4304" tag="Reality"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>

And here are the logs again (requested video started playing at 19:39). At 19:48 the video still wasn’t playing, so I cancelled it and downloaded the logs at 19:49, hopefully that was enough time.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-05_18-49-29.zip (1.4 MB)

Here’s the XML for the show that was transcoding and takes about ~5 seconds to play

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="TV (NAS)" librarySectionUUID="7a491548-5489-4e41-b884-3781cfb975c1" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1585174144">
<Video ratingKey="3747" key="/library/metadata/3747" parentRatingKey="3707" grandparentRatingKey="3706" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://248682/2/12?lang=en" parentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://248682/2?lang=en" grandparentGuid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://248682?lang=en" type="episode" title="Cabin" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/3706" parentKey="/library/metadata/3707" librarySectionTitle="TV (NAS)" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" grandparentTitle="New Girl" parentTitle="Season 2" contentRating="TV-14" summary="Jess and Sam go on a weekend getaway with Nick and Angie. But this might not be the trip they expected when Jess starts to party and trouble begins. Could jealousy get in the way of a good time?" index="12" parentIndex="2" rating="7.5" year="2013" thumb="/library/metadata/3747/thumb/1584867900" art="/library/metadata/3706/art/1584867902" parentThumb="/library/metadata/3707/thumb/1584867902" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/3706/thumb/1584867902" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/3706/art/1584867902" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/3706/theme/1584867902" duration="1303872" originallyAvailableAt="2013-01-08" addedAt="1584798415" updatedAt="1584867900">
<Media id="5107" duration="1303872" bitrate="4131" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="eac3" videoCodec="hevc" videoResolution="1080" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="main">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="5112" key="/library/parts/5112/1584794408/file.mkv" duration="1303872" file="/nas/TV/New Girl/Season 2/New.Girl.S02E12.Cabin.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H265-SiGMA.mkv" size="673227538" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="4" requiredBandwidths="8130,7513,7513,7513,7513,7513,7513,7513" videoProfile="main">
<Stream id="13926" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="4131" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codedHeight="1080" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" height="1080" level="120" profile="main" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="7489,6913,6913,6913,6913,6913,6913,6913" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p (HEVC Main)"/>
<Stream id="13927" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="eac3" index="1" channels="6" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="638,638,638,638,638,638,638,638" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (EAC3 5.1)"/>
<Stream id="13928" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English (SDH)" displayTitle="English (SRT)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Writer id="6704" filter="writer=6704" tag="J.J. Philbin"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>

And the logs are below. Started playing video at 19:52, let the video play for 30 seconds, stopped it and downloaded the logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2020-04-05_18-54-05.zip (1.5 MB)

Hopefully these are more helpful?

16

Thanks, Now I can see what’s happening.

  1. You’re playing a HEVC stream
  2. Transcoding is being required: target doesn’t support HEVC video
  3. Transcoding audio is required: target doesn’t support EAC3 audio
  4. CPU doesn’t have HEVC capability (it’s an i7-4xxx). i7-7xxx / -8xxx is required for HEVC hardware acceleration.
Apr 03, 2020 16:25:57.903 [0x7f5ac3b08700] INFO - Plex Media Server v1.18.9.2578-513b381af - Ubuntu PC x86_64 - build: linux-x86_64 debian - GMT 00:00
Apr 03, 2020 16:25:57.904 [0x7f5ac3b08700] INFO - Linux version: 18.04.4 LTS (Bionic Beaver), language: en-US
Apr 03, 2020 16:25:57.904 [0x7f5ac3b08700] INFO - Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz

This is being slow because the CPU is doing all the lifting.

You are getting hardware assist on the H.264 encoding.

Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 5107
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Cabin: Direct Play is disabled
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Cabin: media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Cabin: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Cabin: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Cabin: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Codecs: testing hevc (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.458 [0x7f5a727fc700] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - libva: /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so init failed
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.459 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Codecs: Testing with profile 'Main'
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.474 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 18589Kbps based on 4.500000x fudge factor.
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.474 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to codec eac3 when profile only allows aac
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.475 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - MDE: New Girl - S2 E12 - Cabin: selected media 0 / 5107
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.475 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Adding session 0x7f5a3c114010:qlfd278mwyggunscvhvqywle which is using transcoder slot.  Used slots is now 1
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.475 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7f5a3c114010:qlfd278mwyggunscvhvqywle
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.475 [0x7f5a727fc700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=3747 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=5107 part=(id=5112 decision=transcode container=mp4 protocol=dash streams=(Video=(id=13926 decision=transcode bitrate=18589 encoder=h264_vaapi width=1920 height=1080) Audio=(id=13927 decision=transcode bitrate=256 encoder=aac channels=2 rate=48000))))
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.476 [0x7f5abaa92700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.86.84:49634] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F3747&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&protocol=dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=lan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=0&directStreamAudio=1&mediaBufferSize=102400&session=v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9&subtitles=burn&Accept-Language=en-GB (9 live) TLS GZIP 40ms 1619 bytes (pipelined: 2)
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.566 [0x7f5abaa92700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as simondrake1990+plex@gmail.com
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.567 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.86.84:49634 (Allowed Network (Subnet))] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/start.mpd?hasMDE=1&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F3747&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&protocol=dash&fastSeek=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&subtitleSize=100&audioBoost=100&location=lan&addDebugOverlay=0&autoAdjustQuality=0&directStreamAudio=1&mediaBufferSize=102400&session=v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9&subtitles=burn&Accept-Language=en-GB (9 live) TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (simondrake1990+plex@gmail.com)
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.567 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Found session GUID of v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9 in session start.
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.567 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - TranscodeUniversalRequest: using augmented profile Web
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.567 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Downloading document http://127.0.0.1:32400/library/metadata/3747?checkFiles=1&includeBandwidths=1&offset=-1&X-Plex-Incomplete-Segments=1&X-Plex-Session-Identifier=qlfd278mwyggunscvhvqywle
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.567 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as simondrake1990+plex@gmail.com
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.572 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - We're going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.572 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Selecting best audio stream for part ID 5112 (autoselect: 0 language: en)
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.572 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Audio Stream: 13927, Subtitle Stream: -1
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.573 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Found session GUID of v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9 in session start.
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.573 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9 ()
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.573 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9 at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.574 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using hardware decode accelerator vaapi
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.574 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /nas/TV/New Girl/Season 2/New.Girl.S02E12.Cabin.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H265-SiGMA.mkv
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.574 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: zero-copy support present
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.574 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: using zero-copy transcoding
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.574 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.575 [0x7f5a297fa700] ERROR - [FFMPEG] - libva: /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so init failed
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.591 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: vaapi, final encoder: vaapi
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.591 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Job running: EAE_ROOT='/tmp/pms-619be310-93c6-478c-b28c-0aadade1d3c3/EasyAudioEncoder' FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/99c90e0-3084-linux-x86_64/' XDG_CACHE_HOME='/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache' XDG_DATA_HOME='/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:0' 'hevc' '-hwaccel:0' 'vaapi' '-hwaccel_fallback_threshold:0' '10' '-hwaccel_output_format:0' 'vaapi' '-codec:1' 'eac3_eae' '-eae_prefix:1' 'v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9_' '-analyzeduration' '20000000' '-probesize' '20000000' '-i' '/nas/TV/New Girl/Season 2/New.Girl.S02E12.Cabin.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H265-SiGMA.mkv' '-filter_complex' '[0:0]hwupload[0];[0]scale_vaapi=w=1920:h=1080:format=nv12[1];[1]hwupload[2]' '-filter_complex' '[0:1] aresample=async=1:ocl='\''stereo'\'':osr=48000[3]' '-map' '[2]' '-codec:0' 'h264_vaapi' '-b:0' '13941k' '-maxrate:0' '18589k' '-bufsize:0' '37178k' '-r:0' '23.975999999999999' '-force_key_frames:0' 'expr:gte(t,0+n_forced*1)' '-map' '[3]' '-metadata:s:1' 'language=eng' '-codec:1' 'aac' '-b:1' '256k' '-f' 'dash' '-seg_duration' '1' '-init_seg_name' 'init-stream$RepresentationID$.m4s' '-media_seg_name' 'chunk-stream$RepresentationID$-$Number%05d$.m4s' '-window_size' '5' '-delete_removed' 'false' '-skip_to_segment' '1' '-time_delta' '0.0625' '-manifest_name' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9/780c8c4c-e36f-40ff-9fd0-5f3d0d4412c8/manifest?X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite' '-avoid_negative_ts' 'disabled' '-map_metadata' '-1' '-map_chapters' '-1' 'dash' '-start_at_zero' '-copyts' '-vsync' 'cfr' '-y' '-init_hw_device' 'vaapi=vaapi:' '-hwaccel_device' 'vaapi' '-filter_hw_device' 'vaapi' '-nostats' '-loglevel' 'quiet' '-loglevel_plex' 'error' '-progressurl' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/v14whcanfq2g7th7c2tagrq9/780c8c4c-e36f-40ff-9fd0-5f3d0d4412c8/progress'
Apr 05, 2020 18:52:35.591 [0x7f5a297fa700] DEBUG - Jobs: Starting child process with pid 31082
17

Thank you

The first one is HEVC but the second isn’t, is it? Do you have any idea why the second one is taking ~5 seconds to start playing, when it is direct playing?

Should I turn hardware acceleration off? Is that making things worse, do you think? Or should I be looking to convert the HEVC format into MP4 or something?

18

Which specific file was it please?

(I apologize for the delay. I was pulled off to prepare for PMS being released – corrections & changes to my Linux packaging)

19

Which specific file was it please?

Which file, sorry? The HEVC one that took minutes to start, or the one that took ~5 seconds?

No need to apologise or explain :slight_smile: we’re probably in different timezones as well, so I don’t expect immediate responses.

20

Also, i just tried another HECV file and it played in ~5 seconds, not minutes