Lately it seems I am getting “shaka” errors during playback quite often, and that users I’ve instructed to set their settings to allow direct play and direct stream has been reverted back to transcoding again without the users having changed their settings.
I also get “unable to play media” , and unable to re-start video if it has been paused - that requires refreshing the webplayer and restarting the video - hence restarting the (if any) transcoding, causing unnecessary load.
Has there been some untested updates to the webplayer recently in the good old fashioned “try to fix one thing, break 3-5 other things”-style?
If something cannot direct play or direct stream on the device doing playback it will transcode. Else it will do things like play audio with no video or not play at all. It may go to transcoding if network is just to slow at the time for whatever the bit rate is if auto bitrate is selected.
What version # of web app are you using? What version of server? shaka errors can be for many different things due to random issues with millions of different types of ways a file can be encoded or other various things.
Users are using the webplayer at www.plex.tv, so I assume it is the latest. Running mostly on Chrome browser.
Latest version of plex media server 1.10.1.4602.
All my media has been converted to be compatible. mp4 containers, level 4.1 video with AAC audio.
This is one of the files being transcoded atm, although I instructed the user to change settings to direct play\stream :
Media
Video Resolution SD
Duration 21:49
Bitrate 2279 kbps
Width 720
Height 400
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container MP4
Video Frame Rate 24p
Web Optimized Yes
Audio Profile lc
Has 64bit Offsets 0
Video Profile high
Part
Duration 21:49
File Malcolm.in.the.Middle.S06E17.DVDRiP.x264-.mp4
Size 355.70 MB
Audio Profile lc
Container MP4
Has 64bit Offsets 0
Web Optimized Yes
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 2018 kbps
Language English
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Color Range tv
Color Space smpte170m
Frame Rate 24.375 fps
Height 400
Level 3.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 9
Stream Identifier 1
Width 720
Codec AAC
Channels Stereo
Bitrate 261 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Is it safe to assume that devs don’t know, and that I was right about “try to fix one thing, break 3-5 other things”?
I even reinstalled plex media server.
It seems abit like the goal for 2018 is to wreck plex totally. I request that you hold this off abit, as emby is not quite good enough for me to adapt yet
I tried switching from plex.tv webplayer (Version 3.35.2) to local URL for webplayer (Version 3.31.1).
So far I’ve just watched one episode of the same show that gives me problems on every file - with flawless playback on the local webplayer.
Any feedback on my question regarding bugged webplayer, or is this not “need-to-know” information for paying customers?
I have now tried plex.tv vs local player from 4 locations, and the experience is the same:
plex.tv webplayer buffers 2-3 times during video, while local player handles the video fine.
