# Plex has problems to decode German special characters

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925>\
**Category:** Live TV & DVR\
**Tags:** livetv-dvr, server-qnap\
**Created:** [June 16, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925 "2021-06-16T19:21:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bufandatl\_gmail\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@bufandatl\_gmail\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bufandatl_gmail_com)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925/1 "2021-06-16T19:21:49Z")

</div>

Server Version#: 1.23.2  
Player Version#: 1.23.2.4656  
Tuner Make/Model: AVM Fritz!Wlan DVB-C Repeater  
Using XMLTV?: No  
Channel number/Name: BR Süd, MDR Thüringen

Hi I’m running Plex on a QNAP TS-431XeU and I wanted to connect the server to my DVB-C Repeater. On a channel scan with “Kabel Komplett” it only found on Station and on the console  
it reported following error

```auto
[/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Resources/Tuner/Shared/scanners/dvbc/transponders] # /etc/init.d/plex.sh restart
Stopping Plex Media Server...
/etc/init.d/plex.sh: line 25: /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/etc/ld-musl-x86_64.path: No such file or directory
/etc/init.d/plex.sh: line 157: [: -gt: unary operator expected
Starting Plex Media Server...
[/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/.qpkg/PlexMediaServer/Resources/Tuner/Shared/scanners/dvbc/transponders] # Entity: line 2: parser error : Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding !
Bytes: 0xFC 0x64 0x22 0x20
y="86"/><Channel channelIdentifier="triplet://1:1101:28107" name="BR Fernsehen S
                                                                                                                                                      ^
error : xmlTextWriterWriteDocCallback : XML error 9 !
I/O error : write error
error : xmlTextWriterCloseDocCallback : XML error 9 !

```

It looks like Plex doesn’t like German special characters in the channel name it receives from the DVB-C Repeater.  
Maybe someone has a hint. how to fix it, or it can be fixed in Plex it self?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![plex-minimise](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/plex-minimise/32/4191_2.png) [@plex-minimise](https://forums.plex.tv/u/plex-minimise)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2021, 8:53am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925/2 "2021-07-14T08:53:14Z")

</div>

I have the identical issue here with Dutch television.  
I’m running the latest docker image 1.23.4.4805-186bae04e on a Linux installation.  
Using the Windows client to scan seeing that it won’t scan through the web interface.

Entity: line 2: parser error : Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding !  
Bytes: 0xE2 0x6E 0x22 0x20  
y=“64”/\>\<Channel channelIdentifier=“triplet://1536:2061:18162” name="Omrop Frysl  
^  
error : xmlTextWriterWriteDocCallback : XML error 9 !  
I/O error : write error  
error : xmlTextWriterCloseDocCallback : XML error 9 !

So far I haven’t been able to find any way around it.

In my case they seem to be the following characters. But I presume it’s not limited to these:  
0xC7 Ç  
0xE2 â  
0xE9 é  
0xFC ü

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acocalypso\_gmail\_com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@acocalypso\_gmail\_com](https://forums.plex.tv/u/acocalypso_gmail_com)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925/3 "2021-07-28T18:41:00Z")

</div>

Same issue here with cable germany

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 6:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-has-problems-to-decode-german-special-characters/722925/4 "2021-10-26T18:41:23Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.