Thank you for the update !
Thanks for the response. Any idea why following the suggestions in the post is not remedying the issue for many of us? It let’s me play some files, but many still do not play.
I’m seeing the same… I watched a bunch of stuff last night with no issues, then when I tried to watch one particular show it kept giving playback errors.
I’ll need logs to debug further. Go to the app and go to Settings → Advanced → Log to Server and reproduce the issue, then send me the logs.
Family members on Samsung TVs were getting the same issues mentioned here, some videos work fine, others don’t work at all. Ended up getting them Google TVs chromecast things as I was tired of troubleshooting for my parents and such =/
Sent in a DM
I am unable to transcode video files on the Samsung Plex app sourced from a Synology DSM 7 server or Windows 8.1 server. They are OK from a Mac Server. All servers are Version 1.24.4.5081 (a video file that uses Direct Stream Video, EAC3 5.1 > AAC Transcoded Audio fails) I used the Dashboard details from the web App for this info.
The Samsung Certificate workarounds make no difference and from the TV I can only Direct Play the videos, with or without secure connections allowed.
The Web, Mac and Windows Apps all work perfectly from any Server source as Direct Play/Stream/transcoded (even Direct Video, Transcoded Audio).
I hope that this helps to problem solve?
There are 2 different issues I feel, one is the older TV set cert issue announcement on Sept 30th. But newer sets are effected also just in a different way. The older sets see my servers as being down and they can’t connect. New Samsung TV’s can see my servers and see content but get a playback error. Are they all related to the LE issue? I tend to think not judging by what people are seeing. It’s easy to loop all Tizen’s into that one known issue and pacify the masses with that answer. The reason I say this is because even on an unsecured connection newer sets still exhibit the same playback issue, while older sets can connect and play just fine. Even the forced Subtitles workaround some utilize won’t work on the newer Samsung’s. It’s easy to point the finger at the other guy, but by doing so you point three back at oneself. I feel the issue fire newer Samsung’s is a Plex app related issue.
It’s not a universal fix as the issue with newer TV sets isn’t cert related. It’s playback related. Cert issues for older sets see the server as down and can’t connect. Newer Samsung sets can see the server and the content but get an unexpected error during playback. Two very different symptoms. The always allow insecure “universal fix” doesn’t resolve the ongoing issue with the newer Samsung units.
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Same im noticing the same issue with the new samsung TVs. I can connect to the server fine and see all the movies that are available. However as soon as I try to play the movie, i get a playback error.
Everything works fine on the Apple TV plex app however.
Completely disabling secure connections on the TV - obviously not a preferred solution - seems to have resolved this completely for me. I would call it a workaround more than a fix, however.
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I’ve the same issue on a Samsung tv,for just one mkv that is played on other devices…
I am coming in to say, I too have issue in playback on a smasung smart TV. I am local to my network so the other announcement doesnt apply to me.
heres some info I found. while bashing my head on my keyboard for 3 days.
All my media played fine, 3 days ago. all the sudden things started giving me the “error during playback” screen.
So I started diving into it, reading forums ( this one ) and reddit and others. A GREAT deal of tips are to convert your files. NO THANKS. they worked fine days ago.
So, I went in and changed a few things. Direct stream, Direct file playback IN THE TV APP. no fix.
I changed the level of quality, and if any conversion is happening. ( tried both ways, NO conversion, and some conversion of quality ) no change. still errors.
From more reading it seems that the samsung TV got an update that dropped 5.1 dts surround capability. now my question to someone that may have dived deeper, is this stopping all DTS sources on these tvs? like other platforms 5.1 content doesnt play either? I dont know as I dont have any other sources to test.
this is frustrating, so I changed some things in the settings and would test the file. it would give me the error, I would then try a lower res file, or a lower audio codec file. it would also ERROR.
I WOULD HAVE TO QUIT AND RESTART the app, retry the lower res file and it worked fine.
so be careful when you are debuggin at home. if you get the error it seems whatever the error is gets the player/ server connection stuck. and needs to be reset or restarted to check playback.
hope this gets sorted, cause man… my 4k content is sitting there doing nothing.
**** most if NOT ALL of my content is MKV ***** other file types didnt change it for me
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This exactly
Sooo… I’ve been using playing content on my xbox one x as my workaround. Guess what happened today? It quit working and is giving me the same error the samsung tv is giving me. My phone still plays the content fine. I’m getting the unexpected error, not the one others are referring to that allowing unsecured content works around.
I’m too tired right now to check if there was an auto update to the plex app there. The only thing I know changed is I flashed new firmware to my samsung q850t sound bar to fix the issue that started with their tv firmware update… And I give up on samsung at this point. Hopefully plex can figure something out.
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Ok…I had more time to deal with this tonight. On my xbox one x unchecking allow direct play fixed it.
Samsung tv remains broken. So now it plays fine with the x box through the tv and sound bar. It fails with the tizen app. Key difference I noticed… The theme music doesn’t play at all in the tizen app on shows.
When the error happened on x box one x, I still had theme music, but got the error when I tried to play an episode.
Something odd though I noticed. I have two different friends sharing plex content with me. The one guys content seems to not encounter the error like the other guy’s… And everything about the files look the same. Server side setting? I don’t have a plex server to play with to see.
That makes a lot of sense to me, and also along the lines of what I was thinking.
3weeks ago, disabling Direct Play was my first work-around, until a week later a Samsung Plex app update meant Direct Play was the Only way to watch videos from 2 server OS versions, but the other (Mac) was OK. My thought was also that the server was significant.
I still have some videos that require transcoding where Direct Play will not work, so I create Plex “Optimised” versions on the server as another workaround. (Even the setting as “Original Quality” seems to work, but it usually converts MKV to Mp4 files and transcodes the audio or Video part that fails)
I asked my friend whose is working what he is running server side. He’s running Windows 1.24.4.5081 Plex Server version. By the way, I confirmed with him i’m transcoding nothing. His encryption is set to preferred, not required. I had him make it required. We tested and it still worked. So definitely not the cert.
I’ll check in with the friend’s whose isn’t working to see what I find out.
My Windows server is the same version and if I Direct Play, then all is good, however if from the Samsung Plex app on the same file I Select a different Video Quality to (Original) and force transcoding, then it fails with the Playback Error. (Disable Direct Play gives the same result)
One file format that I know that has had trouble Direct playing is an MKV 4k 6Mbps h265 Codec file (also other h265 files). I converted this file using the Plex Optimize menu to an Mp4 1080p 20Mbps h264 and can direct play. Before the first Playback problem occurred I have had success playing some 4k files. Now none that I have tried have played.
We’ve added a fix in 5.25.3 to address these issues. The LetsEncrypt certificate was indeed the culprit.
