Plex Media Server Version#: 1.20.1.3252
Plex for Windows Version#: 1.19.0.1399-31d8c803
Plex Media Player Version#: 4.29.2
Server Hosted on: Windows Server 2016
Media Playing on: Windows Server 2016
Hi,
I’m having issues getting EAC3 audio to play on the new ‘Plex for Windows’ app on Windows Server 2016. The same audio plays without issue on the older ‘Plex Media Player’ app.
I’ve dug into the logs for both programs and can see where the issue is happening in ‘Plex for Windows’, however I don’t know how to fix it.
Here is the ‘Plex for Windows’ log, where the audio decoder ‘could not find MFT for the given media type’, resulting in no audio playback.
2020-09-22T19:08:12.032 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Codec list:
2020-09-22T19:08:12.032 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: eac3_mf (eac3) - EAC3 via MediaFoundation
2020-09-22T19:08:12.032 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: eac3_eae (eac3) - EAE EAC3
2020-09-22T19:08:12.032 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Opening decoder eac3_mf
2020-09-22T19:08:12.033 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_mf: could not find any MFT for the given media type
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_mf: could not create MFT
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Could not open codec.
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ WARN ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Decoder init failed for eac3_mf
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Opening decoder eac3_eae
2020-09-22T19:08:12.036 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
2020-09-22T19:08:12.037 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_eae: EAE watchfolder is not writable: \\?\C:\Users\TV\AppData\Local\Plex\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)\frame-4064-0-test.tmp
2020-09-22T19:08:12.037 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Could not open codec.
2020-09-22T19:08:12.037 [ WARN ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Decoder init failed for eac3_eae
2020-09-22T19:08:12.037 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Failed to initialize a decoder for codec 'eac3'.
And this is the log for ‘Plex Media Player’ when playing the same file (which works perfectly):
From my research MFT refers to the ‘Media Foundation’ which Plex uses to decode audio. I have double checked and this is installed on my OS (it actually comes by default on Windows Server 2016). All other audio plays without issue (AC3, DTS, AAC).
I believe that the eac3_mf messages mean your system can’t play EAC3 audio natively. That’s pretty normal for Windows unless you’ve installed hardware/licenses/codecs for it.
This log message looks interesting:
2020-09-22T19:08:12.037 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_eae: EAE watchfolder is not writable: \\?\C:\Users\TV\AppData\Local\Plex\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)\frame-4064-0-test.tmp
folder is not writable sounds like a permissions problem.
When Plex tries to fire up the EAC3_EAE decoder that comes with Plex, it tests that it can write to that directory. That’s failing on your system for some reason.
Is your Windows user named “TV”? If you installed Plex as that user, it should be able to write there. It’s strange that it can’t. Have you moved directories from another user, anything like that?
If you stop Plex and rename Cache to Cache.old, I believe Plex will recreate the Cache directory when it launches.
Alternatively you could make sure that the user Plex is running as has “Full Access” to the directory and all subdirectories.
I’m almost certain that the writeable folder error is a result of the the earlier error during initialisation. Here is the log for the same file, on the server’s Administrator account - same error about write permissions, yet the Administrator account has permissions for everything.
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Codec list:
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: eac3_mf (eac3) - EAC3 via MediaFoundation
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: eac3_eae (eac3) - EAE EAC3
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Opening decoder eac3_mf
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_mf: could not find any MFT for the given media type
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_mf: could not create MFT
2020-09-25T17:18:10.543 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Could not open codec.
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ WARN ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Decoder init failed for eac3_mf
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Opening decoder eac3_eae
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ DEBUG ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Requesting 1 threads for decoding.
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ ERROR ] [mpv] ffmpeg/audio: eac3_eae: EAE watchfolder is not writable: \\?\C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Plex\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)\frame-10508-0-test.tmp
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Could not open codec.
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ WARN ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Decoder init failed for eac3_eae
2020-09-25T17:18:10.544 [ ERROR ] [mpv] decode_wrapper/ad: Failed to initialize a decoder for codec 'eac3'.
For what it’s worth, I had also already tried modifying write permissions on that folder. Another forum thread (Link) I found suggested the same thing (but it also did not fix the issue for the other poster).
In regards to renaming the Cache folder, I had also tried that prior to posting here with no luck, unfortunately. After becoming frustrated I even uninstalled the app entirely, manually cleared all it’s data from my AppData locations, then reinstalled. Still the same behaviour.
Needless to say, I did my research and attempted many fixes before posting here. But hey, I’m open to trying any suggestion so let me know if anything else comes to mind.
I’m starting to wonder if perhaps my Windows Media Foundation pack is out of date or something…? I’d love a technical Plex expert to chime in and provide some help. I would like to move to ‘Plex for Windows’ on this system to get the new benefits (i.e. skip intro) that are not available on Plex Media Player.
I’m pretty sure the eac3_eae errors aren’t related to the eac3_mf errors.
It tries to play using eac3_mf first, and can’t. That’s pretty common, most Windows systems won’t have an EAC3 codec installed systemwide.
One possible solution would be to install EAC3/AC3 codecs so there was a system MediaFoundation decoder available. There are some links in the forum, I’ll look in a second.
Edit: Here, try this. There’s a link to current LAVFilters in this thread.
In your log, it falls back to trying to play using the eac3_eae codec, which has different errors.
Ah, thank you for pointing this out. I didn’t comprehend this correctly. So it’s trying and failing to initialize two different codecs for decoding eac3.
I definitely still think something is strange; The Plex app should be able to write to directories and the EAE mechanism should ALSO work. But I saw at least one “that fixed my issue”, so it’s worth a try.
So I’ve installed the LAVFilters and it still has the same error.
Referring back to the ‘Plex Media Player’ logs in my first post, I note that it can initialise the ‘eac3_eae’ decoder. This indicates to me that I have all the requirements on the system for this decoder to run without error. Whereas when ‘Plex for Windows’ attempts to initialise the same decoder, it errors due to the watchfolder is not writable error.
I wonder why, when encountering this error, the folder path starts with \\?\? Is this why the folder is not writable? Shouldn’t the path just start with C:\?
Have you changed the transcoder temp folder in settings?
Edit: I came back to edit this, to say something like what you said in the next message. There’s a very similar component on the server, and I wasn’t paying enough attention. I’m assuming that path is a default.
I have the transcoder temp folder on ‘Plex Media Server’ set to a custom location (‘D:\Plex Media Server’), if this is what you are referring to? I don’t see a setting for transcoder folder in ‘Plex for Windows’ (am I missing something?).
EDIT 17-Feb-2021
A solution has been found. Thank you to Plex user erkston, who emailed me. The fix is to manually install the Dolby decoder file to windows. This solution is taken from an Adobe support forum thread. To perform the fix, follow the instructions below:
Copy it to C:\Windows\System32\ and to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\.
Register the codec by running the following commands in an Administrator CMD window: regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\DolbyDecMFT.dll regsvr32 c:\windows\syswow64\DolbyDecMFT.dll
Reboot the PC and EAC3 audio will play from ‘Plex for Windows’.
