Hi, I’ll try to keep it short, but generally:
I used to have the Plex app on my 2011 Samsung 3D tv, and was working fine, even after support and updates stopped there.
At some point I changed internet providers, couldn’t get Plex to connect and find the server on my iMac.
Even linking wouldn’t work via pin.
So I was glad I have the Xbox and downloaded the app there; works great(!) even 3D movies, but, I find that low bitrate movies and / or H.264 codec moves (ie. bitrate below 1500) will show the movie pixilated and not smooth (especially w/ fast pacing actions movements).
Tried everything and even when the movie file is 1920x1080 with a decent bitrate, I get frustrated.
When I am on the Plex app on my work PC (and through VPN) I have absolutely no issues with watching a movie and quality.
All settings on Xbox are maxed out & tried everything and I have a cat 6 ethernet from the Xbox to the router.
The only thing that seems to work is to get a HEVC version of the same movie, which in general takes up more processing power of the iMac while streaming (it’s an old one) as well as the files are usually larger, but quality: wow.
My short question: Can it have something to do with the HDMI cable, not being decent enough to process the low bitrate?
Thanks in advance.
Umm, if the file bit rate is really low, then maybe its the source file itself that is really pixellated. It’s really hard to get 1080p at a bitrate below 1.5 Mbps without using x.265. If it’s 264 then I bet the video was processed to heck and back, and all the data is lost.
Does that file play well on any other player?
Hi Divdeby0, thanks for getting back, but when I had my Plex App directly on the Samsung TV I never ever had any issues with pixilations with fast moving scenes, and that is only where is issue lies. The movie itself at 1920x1080 is fine and plays fine.
I have no issues when I play the same file on my Home Theatre app on the PC or iMac. No pixilations.
Hence my query: could it be the HDMI cable? I have no information if that is a 1.0 or whatever version.
Thanks.
I have no reason to believe it’s the HDMI cable, but I don’t have any info backing that up. I thought all cables are mostly interchangeable. As long as the signal doesn’t come through digitally scrambled, then the signal made it. If you think that may be the problem, then feel free to try a replacement. It wouldn’t hurt anything to do so (other than your wallet, if you don’t have a spare).
So by the sound of your problem is not ALL players show H.264 low-bitrate videos, but the Xbox player? The exact same file at the exact same spot does not have this issue on another player? Check playback settings, make sure that the video is being direct-played on that. I wonder if Plex might be transcoding it, causing the video to get further degraded.
Tried it all on the Xbox: Direct Play, Direct stream on and off. No luck.
But yeah, only the Xbox is giving me bother, but never thought to look at the settings for transcoding on the Server.
will try that out later when I have a minute and get back to you.
Appreciate the help.
Hilarious: Last night now got continuous playback error with every single file: “An unexpected playback problem occurred.” Really annoyed me and no answers online helped.
Rebooted iMac: No luck.
Changed settings: No luck.
I had to reset the app on the Xbox for it to work to a certain extend, but got issues after as well updating to version: 1.24.4.5081.
Now got with a lot of files on the iMac: “Playback error: This server is not powerful enough to convert video”.
I mean, what? Have never had any issues.
Tried to play a file that is 3.26Gb w/ a H.264 (part 10) codec and a 4000+ bitrate. Width 1920 Height 1040. Video frame rate of 24p (edit: which may be the problem, as I believe I have that unticked on the Xbox, but just tested this and still getting playback error).
I let Plex ‘optimise’ that movie for TV, which creates in general the same file, even larger in storage, so I’m totally confussed.
And I cannot seem to roll back a update on the iMac. Or find any info online to try this.
Try to reboot the server. Two nights back I had an issue on my shield where after playing a certain file, it would hang up. When I managed to back out to the main menu and resume the video, I would get “An unexpected playback problem occurred”. That happened for any video file. I killed off Plex player app on the shield, but it persisted. No video would play, not even trailers. Ended up rebooting the docker server to restore it. And then managed to get back into that state again when I jumped around at the end of that same video.
If playback issues persist, provide logs. I don’t know how to read them, but if they were here someone might come along and check them out, maybe provide a hint. Make sure debug logging is on at Settings > SERVERNAME > Settings > General (but not VERBOSE), reproduce either problem (playback quality issue, or playback error), then go to Settings > SERVERNAME > Manage > Troubleshooting to download logs and upload them to this post.
Thanks, but I indeed had tried to reboot the server, the iMac and even my Diskstation to no avail.
The issue seems to be with random files, but first I thought it may be with files with .srt attached to them (not the issue).
I have several logs received in a .zip format, not sure which is the right one, but I have at least one of the 18th October last night, when I started having issues:
Plex Media Server.1.log (189.4 KB)
This is a Service Log:
Plex Tuner Service.1.log (3.6 KB)
And perhaps this has some more info:
com.plexapp.system.log (78.8 KB)
Thanks in advance for all help.
Include the entire zip. We can then pick and choose which log to browse.
Glancing through, I see an error trying to play Beverly Hills Cop 3, I think. It seems you are unable to direct play, so the codec is incapable of being played on the xbox. That’s fine, the server would go on to transcode it to a form that it CAN play. But it then just states that there is not enough CPU to transcode. Is your server busy? What is the CPU usage at when this happens?
Edit: Looking at the CPU I spotted in the Tuner log. That log, btw, is if you have a DVR tuner to record over-the-air TV. But it states the CPU of the server is an i3 - 530. Looking at the Passmark, it is a pretty weak ~1400. From what I hear, transcoding (which uses CPU) is pretty intense. To do a video in real-time, you need approx. 1000 passmark to transcode a 1080p video. If ANYTHING else is running on the server when you start to transcode, then the CPU likely falls behind (buffering), or does a lower quality transcode (pixellated visuals).
Edit edit: I see subtitles are trying to play. The xbox doesn’t seem to be able to handle them, so the server has to burn the image into the video in real time. That’s like twice-as-hard to do, since plex transcodes the video and THEN does another pass to burn the subtitle. This combo may make you incapable of viewing the video. Disable subtitle viewing when using the Xbox or any player that cannot direct-play subs.
Yeah, that was when the fun started, and every file gave troubles. However, after resetting the Plex app on the Xbox, things started to go back to normal, and Beverly Hills Cop 3 can be continued again, but certain files, like ie. Ice Age 2, became troublesome.
My iMac is from mid-2010, but had never ever issues transcoding.
macOS High Sierra / 10.13.6. 16Gb of RAM and 3.06Ghz Intel Core i3 processor
And before I had no issues w/ using internal of external subtitles file via Xbox neither, so I really have no clue what went wrong and where.
I already converted Ice Age and Ice Age 3, but not looking forward to convert all files that give bother, especially if nothing really changes, when I compare the Media Information via VLC. These both have internal subs and thought that may have been the problem, but found other files as well, with only external .srt file, that give error on the Plex Media Server on the iMac, which it never did before.
It seems to be real random with H.264 and H.265 files.
Recently added files as well, like HEVC version of 2012, The Day After Tomorrow cannot be played, as they could be played a few days ago, especially before the latest update. I have now server version: 1.24.4.5081, which is really giving bother.
This is the complete zip file:
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-10-19_17-01-19.zip (761.8 KB)
Well, I’m trying to solve the current problem based on what I understand of your setup. It doesn’t sound like some of these things should have worked flawlessly before the update. The reason I’m pointing blame all over BUT at the update is… I don’t think the update really did anything that would cause this. But I’m not a dev and don’t know what they did in the back-end in it, and the update has been out for a few weeks/month now so I’d have expected more reports about this before now.
Well, let’s hope some dev can look into this. I just wanted to help you provide more troubleshooting steps to hopefully help a dev get it solved quicker. We’ve got logs, let’s hope that’s enough to get started.
I do appreciate the help. I’m never one for checking on certain times for updates. This one was available and I updated after which things really went weird.
Perhaps it is a combination of old iMac; latest update and not compatible anymore. I do not know.
All I know is: On the iMac Plex Media Server I get the transcoding error and never had that before.
On the Xbox for that same file: An unknown playback error has occurred, but seems to be fixed after your suggestion of checking and turning off subs, which does work. And even switching then to external .srt files.
So, I’ll just fumble along, occasionally optimise a version or decode it via handbrake.
Really appreciated your time and efforts.
Okay. I had backed up my Mac and decided to use Time Machine to go back to the previous version of Plex Server (before the update) and all is working fine again. So, I am defo skipping version 1.24.4.5081 and stay on version 1.24.3.5033 for now.
If I decide to update to a newer version, I’m sure to back up first, as to be able to restore again, if I run into difficulties.
