PLEX (DSM7) the server is not powerful enough to convert the video

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
23

Good evening.

As requested I staged another resume/play from start and captured the log.

A secondary issue occured during the process which I have included; I have had this issue consistently for around a year. The secondary issue is: If I play two items, the second item always stutters and then crashes the app. I can play a 2K file for 15-20 minutes, stop it, then play something with a tiny bitrate, and the second file will always end up stuttering and the app crashes out. It is not buffering the file, rather it feels like a local processing issue on the Firestick.

After crashing/restarting the app, whatever crashed it before will play fine. Then if I play something else, it stutters and crashes again.

But anyway, timeline is below:

18:28
BROWSE TO FILM → COLLECTIONS → MARVEL → IRON MAN
IRON MAN 2K PLAY FROM START (TRANSCODING ERROR)
IRON MAN 2K RESUME (PLAYS FINE)
PRESS BACK TO EXIT PLAYBACK

18:29
SELECT HOME TAB, NO TIME TO DIE IS IN RECENT LIST
NO TIME TO DIE 4K PLAY FROM START (TRANCODE ERROR)
NO TIME TO DIE 4K RESUME (PLAYED BRIEFLY, STUTTERED, APP CRASH)

18:33
APP RESTARTED
NO TIME TO DIE 4K RESUME PLAYED WITHOUT PROBLEM

Player Log covering timestamps
Server log

Regarding the secondary issue
 I have meant to raise this as its own ticket for a while, however it started happening during lockdown. The only things that changed were I upgraded my NAS to a Synology 918+ and my library grew by magnitudes.

It’s reproducable with a high confidence rate, that basically anytime I play something for anything from minutes to the full length, the second item will struggle and crash no matter how big or small it is.

24

Good evening people.

I just wanted to post an update.

I bought a Philips 65OLED936 TV which arrived today. I set it up, installed the native Plex, and immediately thought of playing Iron Man.

It experienced the same issue as the Firestick 4K.

Issue doesn’t seem to be isolated to Firesticks, the TV runs Android and exhibits the exact same pattern and symptoms.

25

Very simple question –

May I see the XML for one of the problematic files ?
( the part from <media → </media> tags )

You can use “code” ( </> button in the reply window ) formatting.

I ask because Synology and QNAP NAS systems REQUIRE proper media curation.

You can’t just “throw” a file at it without knowing what’s in it and always expect success.

This is about knowing what the machine / hardware can do and giving it the best chance at success the first time as you give it new media.

26

Not sure what you mean by “throw” a file. These are files that have played in the past with no issue at all, and as written previously, play intermittently without issue and without any configuration changes.

Some of this stuff has been on the server for years. This problem is a fairly recent development and doesn’t seem to be as simple as incorrect XML.

If you look upwards in the thread, you will see XML provided for the Iron Man file that plays if I hit Resume, and refuses to play when I try to start it from the beginning. There are also log files from both the Synology and Firestick players.

27

Fair enough. Please understand that I frequently see complaints about “not powerful enough” when the media file has been downloaded from somewhere and the user is attempting something like HEVC → H.264 and burning subtitles on a machine which can’t do it.

Also, something to check – Maximum number of simultaneous transcodes.
(Settings - Server - Transcoder - Show Advanced)

I had a case where the number of transcodes was set to 1 and one transcode session was in the “Paused” state.

I’ve had others where transcoding “use hardware acceleration when available” became unchecked.

28

Transcoding is disabed. Everything in my library can, and has in the past, use Direct Play.

This transcoding error is a recently introduced bug either with the Android client (affecting both Android TV and Firestick 4K), or Synology DSM7.

29

May I see the XML of what you’re trying to play + the DEBUG server logs of the playback attempt ?

30

They were posted a couple of times further upthread – files are still on my Dropbox, so you should still be able to view/download them.

XML was provided for a file that was failing and one that was working.

Server logs and Firestick player logs for a failed/successful restart/resume as well.

31

@dslyon82

Do you see all the subtitle tracks ?

<Stream id="320495" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="2" bitrate="0" language="Chinese" languageTag="zh" languageCode="zho" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Chinese Traditional" displayTitle="Chinese (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Chinese Traditional (Chinese SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320496" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="3" bitrate="0" language="Chinese" languageTag="zh" languageCode="zho" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Chinese Simplified" displayTitle="Chinese (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Chinese Simplified (Chinese SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320497" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="4" bitrate="0" language="Czech" languageTag="cs" languageCode="ces" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Czech" displayTitle="Czech (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Czech (Czech SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320498" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="5" bitrate="0" language="Danish" languageTag="da" languageCode="dan" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Danish" displayTitle="Danish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Danish (Danish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320499" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="6" bitrate="0" language="Dutch" languageTag="nl" languageCode="nld" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Dutch" displayTitle="Dutch (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Dutch (Dutch SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320500" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="7" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320501" streamType="3" forced="1" codec="srt" index="8" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English [Forced]" displayTitle="English Forced (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English [Forced] (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320502" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="9" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English [SDH]" displayTitle="English (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English [SDH] (SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320503" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="10" bitrate="0" language="Finnish" languageTag="fi" languageCode="fin" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Finnish" displayTitle="Finnish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Finnish (Finnish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320504" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="11" bitrate="0" language="French" languageTag="fr" languageCode="fra" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="French" displayTitle="French (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="French (French SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320505" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="12" bitrate="0" language="German" languageTag="de" languageCode="deu" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="German" displayTitle="German (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="German (German SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320506" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="13" bitrate="0" language="Greek" languageTag="el" languageCode="ell" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Greek" displayTitle="Greek (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Greek (Greek SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320507" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="14" bitrate="0" language="Hungarian" languageTag="hu" languageCode="hun" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Hungarian" displayTitle="Hungarian (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Hungarian (Hungarian SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320508" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="15" bitrate="0" language="Icelandic" languageTag="is" languageCode="isl" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Icelandic" displayTitle="Icelandic (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Icelandic (Icelandic SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320509" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="16" bitrate="0" language="Italian" languageTag="it" languageCode="ita" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Italian" displayTitle="Italian (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Italian (Italian SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320510" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="17" bitrate="0" language="Korean" languageTag="ko" languageCode="kor" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Korean" displayTitle="Korean (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Korean (Korean SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320511" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="18" bitrate="0" language="Norwegian" languageTag="no" languageCode="nor" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Norwegian" displayTitle="Norwegian (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Norwegian (Norwegian SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320512" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="19" bitrate="0" language="Polish" languageTag="pl" languageCode="pol" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Polish" displayTitle="Polish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Polish (Polish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320513" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="20" bitrate="0" language="Portuguese" languageTag="pt" languageCode="por" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Portuguese" displayTitle="Portuguese (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Portuguese (Portuguese SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320514" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="21" bitrate="0" language="Portuguese" languageTag="pt" languageCode="por" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Brazilian Portuguese" displayTitle="Portuguese (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Brazilian Portuguese (Portuguese SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320515" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="22" bitrate="0" language="Romanian" languageTag="ro" languageCode="ron" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Romanian" displayTitle="Romanian (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Romanian (Romanian SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320516" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="23" bitrate="0" language="Slovak" languageTag="sk" languageCode="slk" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Slovak" displayTitle="Slovak (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Slovak (Slovak SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320517" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="24" bitrate="0" language="Spanish" languageTag="es" languageCode="spa" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Spanish" displayTitle="Spanish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Spanish (Spanish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320518" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="25" bitrate="0" language="Spanish" languageTag="es" languageCode="spa" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="European Spanish" displayTitle="Spanish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="European Spanish (Spanish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320519" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="26" bitrate="0" language="Swedish" languageTag="sv" languageCode="swe" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Swedish" displayTitle="Swedish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Swedish (Swedish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320520" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="27" bitrate="0" language="Turkish" languageTag="tr" languageCode="tur" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Turkish" displayTitle="Turkish (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Turkish (Turkish SRT)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="320521" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="28" bitrate="0" language="Chinese" languageTag="zh" languageCode="zho" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Mandarin (Guoyu)" displayTitle="Chinese (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="Mandarin (Guoyu) (Chinese SRT)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>

Do you need them?

If not. MKVToolnix (GUI) allows you to remove them without changing the audio or video tracks.

When you do this, you can leave only those tracks you need.

Look here at the English SRT track.

<Stream id="320501" streamType="3" forced="1" codec="srt" index="8" bitrate="0" language="English" languageTag="en" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="English [Forced]" displayTitle="English Forced (SRT)" extendedDisplayTitle="English [Forced] (SRT)"> </Stream>

This is a Forced subtitle track.

TEXT based (SRT) do not require burning UNLESS the player doesn’t support it but most do.

My recommendations are:

  1. Remove all the subtitle tracks you don’t need (Curate your media).
  2. Check the player settings -
  • Try automatic first
  • Set for burn “Only Image formats” if automatic doesn’t work.

Why do this?

  1. The CPU can handle the video easily with HW transcoding
  2. It cannot burn subtitles – NONE of the Synology machines can UNLESS Xeon CPU.
32

From the previous symptoms and reports, this is quite plainly not a subtitle issue.

Is this going to be treated as an actual bug or ignored as a “affected user is clueless and doesn’t know how to work Plex” issue?

33

@dslyon82

While this is going to sound patronizing, it is not.

I personally have ordered a Fire Stick TV 4K Max to have here for testing.

I have a DS1815+, DS418, TVS-1282-i7, TS128+, and NUC8-i7-HVK system here as servers.

I have AppleTV 4K (2017), Nvidia Shield Pro (2019), ChromeCast Ultra, Roku 3, Onkyo TX-RZ AVR, and LG C1 (OLED48C1) as the display.

If there is an app bug, I will find it.
If this is a media curation issue, I will prove it.

34

Issue is ongoing. As mentioned before, DSM7 is a more likely culprit as both the original poster and I use that.

Unless you have a Synology with DSM7 and a Firestick 4K, it’s unlikely you will see the bug.

35

@dslyon82

I now have a FireStick 4K Max and a Roku Ultra (also 4K).

What do I need to do to recreate?

Screenshot from 2022-02-17 19-57-22
Screenshot from 2022-02-17 19-57-221004×941 34 KB

36

FYI, I see the same error when I enable soft subtitles through my AppleTV 4K (for all movies).
The movie — with the subtitles — plays fine though.

Corentin

37

How do I reproduce what you all are seeing so i can diagnose and address it please ?

38

For me it’s easy: I take any mp4 movie with soft subtitles embedded, play it on Apple TV, then enable the subtitles.
Every time, I get the warning (BUT, the video plays just fine).
FYI, my 2021 AppleTV 4K is connected to a Synology DS1513+ through Ethernet and the video is in a format that doesn’t require re-encoding, so there should really be no reason to re-encode anything.

39

ChuckPa, this thread is littered with posts showing how I created and recreated the issue in detail, with log files from both the server and client included and exactly what process I followed in each case.

The issue is ongoing. I will summarise what I have posted before, however I would encourage you to read the previous posts:

There are files that, if I try to play them, Plex tries to transcode despite being able to Direct Play. I have a suspicion EAC3 files are particularly affected, however I am not certain. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, after failing 9-10 times, it will suddenly play the file without issue.

These are files that have been on the server for years and Direct Played on this device without any problem at all. The problems started around the release of DSM7.

If I resume the file after playing it on a different client, it works every time. To be clear: Playing from start tries to transcode. Resuming the EXACT same file seconds later works reliably via Direct Play.

If I enable transcoding then suddenly these files work fine, however they play using Direct Play, not transcoding. I have no wish to have transcoding enabled on my server.

Given that the regular Firestick does not experience this issue, I have no idea if the Firestick 4k Max or Roku will allow you to reproduce it. Myself and the OP both have a 2018 Firestick 4k on Synology DSM7.

40

@dslyon82 (and anyone else with playback issues on DSM 7)

Please do the following for me?

  1. Create a “Test Videos” library (other videos type)
  2. Add this file:
  1. Verify DEBUG logging on and, as always, VERBOSE logging off.
  2. Make certain Hardware Acceleration is enabled.
  3. Disable tone mapping. Synology doesn’t have hardware support yet.
  4. Play the file.
  5. If it faults, do not resume.
  6. Download the Logs ZIP file and attach.

What I want to establish here is where we all have the same file.
By doing so, with my knowledge of the Synology products, I will know what it should and shouldn’t be able to play.

41

It played beautifully for me. Nice, smooth etc, No error or warning. Obviously the setup I have was powerful enough to play it and the network fast enough to deliver it.
The file didn’t have embedded subtitles though so I couldn’t test that aspect of the issue (but I suspect that at this point you mostly wanted to make sure our setup was indeed powerful enough to play complex high res, high bit depth files).

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-03-17_20-24-08.zip (1.7 MB)

42

The purpose of the above test is:

  1. Confirm HW transcoding works if player is not 2160p-capable.
    – The J3455 ApolloLake can HW transcode up to about 500 Mbps
    – The J4xxx GeminiLake can HW transcode up to about 600 Mbps

  2. Network is fast enough to support the bandwidth
    – The DS1513/DS1813 can DirectPlay up to 4 Gbps @ 4x1Gbps (I owned one)
    – 802.11n can carry 150 Mbps easily.

  3. Player does not fault.

I deliberately left out subtitles

  1. Text based subtitles directly supported by the player will be streamed as the 3rd stream.
  2. Image based subtitles (PGS, VOBSUB,DVDRIP) MUST be burned into the video. and will cripple any Synology which isn’t a Xeon CPU.

As you can now see;

We can identify where the issue is:

  1. The media itself
  2. The server’s ability to transcode as required to meet the player’s requirements.
  3. The network’s ability to deliver it.
  4. The player.

This is why controlled test cases must be performed.
I have quite a bit of equipment and content here in my office.

Once we identify where the problem is, I can then utilize my resources and time to investigate.