Just installed Plex Arcade and I’m trying to play games on an android tablet. When I select any game, I get the screen below. None of the buttons seem to function but they light up when I touch them. The screen below is the only screen I get, it just does nothing. Help?
can you give more details about server host, OS, etc., what game(s) you’re trying to play, and upload logs?
Thanks for your help. Here’s the info you requested. If you need more info let me know.
SERVER - Current Plex server ver 1.21.2.3943 - running on a Win7 HP Intel i core5 that’s been operating flawlessly for 2 years. (Plex server was updated during my attempts to get Plex Arcade to function, and the Arcade failures were the same before and after update.)
GAMER - Android 10 operating on a Lenovo Tab M10 tablet (model TB-X606F) using Plex app ver 8.12.1.22702
I’ve tried maybe 10 different games on the tablet, and all result in the screen you see in my orig post. 3D Tic Tac Toe, Asteroids, Millipede, Centipede, Super Breakout & more. All the buttons you see on that screenshot light up when I touch them, but nothing happens. Regardless of touching the buttons, I usually (not always) get an error msg after some time that either says “Error-Unknown Error” or “Error-The game transcoder exited unexpectedly” and generates same error message when I hit retry.Plex Media Server Logs_2021-01-28_11-54-56.zip (2.0 MB)
Try opening up Task Manager on the PC, finding “Plex Game Transcoder” in the list, and closing it. I’ve found the software likes to hang and crash quite a bit, in its current incarnation, and this has helped fix black screens on my end.
Shoot, somehow I deleted my post confirming the same issue here.
Plex server running on Windows-10 machine. I tried playing games on Android TV, Google Pixel Phone, and directly on the Plex Sever via Chrome Browser, all with the same result of a blank black screen, and sometimes after a while, on the phone, the message “Unknown Error”.
I do not have a ‘Plex Game Transcoder’ running within apps or services when viewing the Task manager. The first attempt at launching on Android TV, did, however, state a ‘transcode’ error message.
I’ve done the obligatory server reboot with no change.
Attached are ‘Plex Game Transcoder’ Logs.
Plex Game Transcoder Logs.zip (9.8 KB)
No “Plex Game Transcoder” running in services or processes on my Plex server either. Should it be running?
I just tried to run a game on the android tablet while watching my server processes at the same time, and a process started that’s called “Plexscripthost.exe *32”. That’s the only one.
Yo, jsortino…here’s your original post:
Same exact “problem” / “symptoms” here. On my Android TV I’m not even seeing the controller buttons, On my Google Pixel 3 XL, I see the controllers, etc, but in both cases the rest is just a blank black screen (my Plex server is running on Windows 10).
On my very first attempt at launching a game (Android TV), I indeed saw a message about transcoder failing. I rebooted my Plex server and now I don’t receive this message, nor see it running as an app/service via the ‘Task Manager’ either, and still just a blank black screen.
i believe this is the issue: https://support.parsec.app/hc/en-us/articles/115002702331-Setting-Up-Hosting-On-Windows
Parsec cannot support Windows 7 as a host. It will not happen any time in the future due to Microsoft deprecating the operating system and not adding important features, like this, to Windows 7.
the logs look sane…the only thing i can think of is perhaps your video card isn’t supported 
can you hear any audio in any of the cases?
we’ll work on doing a better job capturing more of the failure cases for sure.
Thanks for the reply. No audio or video in my testing. I think the concept is pretty cool. I already run a retro-pi and love it, but figured it would be fun to check this out since I’m in Plex so often. Perhaps when I eventually upgrade my machine running Plex I will look to re-try / re-subscribe.
Okay. Thanks for the info. Win7 finally failed me. It’s been so darn reliable, easy to manage, and all it does is Plex and some media utils. I might try running a second session of Plex server on my Win10 laptop with only a Games library. My laptop is plenty powerful and runs games well, but I have to check video hrdwr.
Same issues here, running HP Win 10 with all the latest versions. No audio or video.
Set up a separate server for only games as all other files are on a synology server.
I got the Arcade to run using my Win10 laptop as server and an android tablet as gamer, but it’s not great. It crashes frequently and even when it works, it’s very clunky. The controls are poorly designed, poorly placed, and are slow to respond when touched. When it works, I have no problems with the audio or video.
I have NEVER seen these old games work correctly on a PC or android. I think the translation of controls to current game platforms doesn’t work. As far as I can see, you’re not missing anything…the game functions suck.
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