Server Version#: 4.54.5 (Synology 1.22.3.4392)
Player Version#: 5.14.1 (LG WebOS version 03.21.18)
When trying to play several movies I get the message that ‘An unexpected playback problem occured’. It happens with several movies. Logs say Direct Play is disabled but both Direct Play and Direct Stream is enabled in LG WebOs. Then the NAS tries do transcode but ofcourse there is not enough CPU-power… Have I put settings wrong?
I’ve uploaded the logs and the XML of the video. The error happens at May 07, 2021 17:53:04.
PGS subtitles were enabled. The Plex LG app cannot direct play them, so it has to transcode the video to burn them into the video stream. You have transcoding disabled on your server. Therefore, playback fails.
The message is rather cryptic, but what is happening is normal. Sometimes you may see “Not enough CPU for conversion of this item.”
This is how the Plex LG app behaves with subtitles:
Enabling image based subtitles, PGS or VOBSUB, results in a video transcode.
If audio is transcoding, enabling any subtitle results in a video transcode.
If audio is direct playing, text subtitles, SRT & VTT, direct play.
For ASS/SSA subtitles:
If Burn Subtitles = Automatic in the Plex LG app, enabling ASS/SSA subtitles results in a video transcode.
If Burn Subtitles = Only Image Formats, ASS/SSA subtitles, direct play, but formatting information (color, location, etc) may be lost.
Your TV does not support TrueHD or any dts audio format. These audio types will be transcoded by Plex Media Server to a supported format.
Therefore, when using the Plex LG app, do not enable any subtitle format when playing media with TrueHD or dts audio tracks or the video will be transcoded.
That indeed seems to be the problem. It plays fine when disabeling the subtitles. Really hating LG for removing DTS-supprt from this tv. Should have gone for Sony. Thank you for your support.
But is it normal that when I select AC3 Mono or AAC Stereo this error also occurs? Are these formats also not supported by LG CX? Thats why I didn’t figure out the links with DTS…
If you’ve PGS subtitles enabled, then yes. Enabling PGS or VOBSUB subtitles forces a video transcode, irrespective of any audio format.
With subtitles disabled, AAC 2.0 should direct play (it does on my B7). I don’t have any AC3 1.0 with which to test, but seems like it would direct play as well.
Monitor playback via Plex Dashboard → Now Playing. That will show you if the audio is transcoding.
I am having the same exact issue after the last update. I would agree it is a TV issue but it is happening to all my TVs and Rokus. I have never gotten a playback error before the update and none of the settings on the server have been changed in a year. Even on media I had watched in the past is doing it now. I get playback is too fast lower it down. So do that and then I get playback is too slow go to original speed. I get a lot of CPU can’t transcode it which I never had an issue with my CPU with 8 cores handling any of it.
A not very helpful “me too” here - went on holiday for a week, returned, and content that played find before does not now - in fact, as far as I can tell, none of my server content plays on my LG TV now, all reporting the same “unexpected playback problem”. I’ve reset the Plex app on the TV and logged back in, but the problem persists.
Media plays fine on the web client and, as far as I can tell, the LG client hasn’t updated since it last worked. Running server 1.23.2.4656. Will get some logs from client and server later tonight when I have a second.
ref original suggestion, “disable video stream transcoding” is unchecked, as it always has been on my server.
