Okay - so I have posted this before but thanks to some guidance from the plex folks - I think now i’ve corralled all the information I need to get help.
“Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost. Please ensure the server is available and retry.”
Here is the background and process -
Please keep in mind that for all of the following devices, operating systems, and applications - they are all running the latest versions and are completely up-to-date.
Also - this deals with a series of Boardwalk Empire episodes - all are encoded the same way, so from a logical standpoint - i would expect all episodes to play without trouble if one plays without trouble. Now maybe something is messed up in the encoding but I’m not inclined to think that’s the problem.
My server is a custom built rig running Unraid.
Watching S01 of Boardwalk Empire on an Android Shield TV - no problems at all on Episodes 1-5. Get to episode six and get the message. The shield TV is hardwired into the device.
Open up PMP on my high-sierra Macbook - navigate to the file. It plays fine.
Open up the web interface on my Macbook - it plays fine.
Then go and downloaded all the various log files (which are attached).
HERE IS AN IMPORTANT NOTE: this is the first time that a file has played on one device but not on the other. Every other time i run into this problem - it will not work on any of my hardware.
I have also checked these files through VLC on multiple devices and it plays without so much as a whiff of trouble. After capturing the logs - i have check the remaining episodes from the season on PLEX and they all work just fine. Thoughts?
[SIDE NOTE: how do i disable these pesky “you’ve got questions that now have answers” popup that shows up every 30seconds it seems - i want to go in and mark ever post in every topic i’ve started - they get hijacked and it’s a waste of my time. Can i just turn these stupid notifications off. they keep blocking my text box for typing. it’s a god-awful feature of these forums]
hi there, just wondering if anyone could help. thank you
So are you saying that all your other media runs fine EXCEPT the Boardwalk episodes after #5? What about other TV shows and/or movies that you have? Do any of them have the same issue? If not, then it is probably the video files themselves that have something weird with them. Try running them through something like Handbrake and re-encode them, or if you’ve downloaded them, try a different file of the same show that is causing you grief. It a different version of the same file fixes it, you know for sure it’s the actual file that is encoded wrong somehow. Perhaps you have tried this already, but that’s all I can think of right now for you. Good luck.
@Verminator14 said:
So are you saying that all your other media runs fine EXCEPT the Boardwalk episodes after #5? What about other TV shows and/or movies that you have? Do any of them have the same issue? If not, then it is probably the video files themselves that have something weird with them. Try running them through something like Handbrake and re-encode them, or if you’ve downloaded them, try a different file of the same show that is causing you grief. It a different version of the same file fixes it, you know for sure it’s the actual file that is encoded wrong somehow. Perhaps you have tried this already, but that’s all I can think of right now for you. Good luck.
So most other media runs fine - it does happen intermittently and without any rhyme or reason as to what device won’t play and what will play - it seems odd that my shield would have a problem when a wirelessly connected device wouldn’t but i dunno … would it help if i posted a sample of this file? I can also post logs when/if this happens again with other media files.
Here’s another datapoint - so playing another episode of boardwalk empire via my shield and decided to turn on ASS subtitles - it kicked me and gave me this same message. So I logged in via web - disabled subs on that episode - went back to the shield and it played again without trouble.
