Hello, forum users! It’s time again for an update to Plex’s transcoding and analysis backend. This is a special forums-only preview release; the changes in this build will be included in an upcoming regular release once any new issues are handled.
Please test this version with a variety of different media file formats and clients.
If you notice any new issues (specifically ones that don’t also happen on the current mainline public or beta release), please respond to this discussion instead of starting a new one, and include your Plex Media Server logs and a sample file that reproduces the issue.
Note that regular releases’ version numbers may share the same first 3 components as this release. The fourth component (the build number) will differ.
If you’re running Windows, you should always uninstall preview releases before installing another preview release or an official release. This won’t affect your library or personal data at all, and it will work around some Windows installer-related quirks.
To test in a Docker container, open a shell in the container (using docker exec), download and dpkg -i the Ubuntu package, update the version number in /version to reflect the build number you’re testing, and restart the container.
NEW:
(Transcoder) Update to newer upstream ffmpeg
(Subtitles) New font package and default styles for server-side subtitle rendering
(Transcoder) Architectural changes to provide future support for hardware transcoding on additional NAS devices
(Transcoder) Architectural changes to provide improved support for remuxing some HDR formats
(Transcoder) Support for hardware transcoding on Intel Xe/Gen12 (TGL, RKL) GPUs
(Transcoder) Support for hardware transcoding of H.264 Constrained Baseline media
Over the last few days, I’ve been experiencing this error with some FLAC files in versions prior to this beta, and those files won’t play in Sonos (Sonos error: ‘connection to plex lost’):
Old files played fine, and the only thing I can think I’ve had the issue with was in files ripped recently using OSX Big Sur 11.6, although I then convert M4A to FLAC using ffmpeg so not sure if that’s relevant.
Just wanted to let you know that this beta seems to have fixed this issue for me running in Docker on Ubuntu.
One observation: Live TV/DVR using a HDHomeRun produces two Plex Transcoder sessions for viewing one stream on a Mac (Intel). It does not appear affect performance playback. Virtual tuners do not render two sessions.
This release does not contain the new drivers and libraries that will be required for Tiger Lake support; some of the upstream packages have changed their build systems which has made updating more difficult than it had been previously. This is known and will be addressed in a future release, but I don’t have any timeline information at this time.
Huh, not sure why this would be tbh, but sure, I’ll take it!
This is a normal part of the Live TV/DVR design; you’ll see the same behavior on previous releases.
Have been running this on Windows for a few days now with no major issues. I did notice there seemed to be less CPU usage when doing HDR to SDR tonemapping but might be completely unrelated!
Been running for a few days now. Here are some new observations:
When playing a show or movie, the playback just stops unexpectedly. If it’s a show, it will stop well before the end of the show and play the next in series. I noticed this roughly some where 25min-45min of uninterrupted playback.
If playback is paused for an extended period of time, 5+ min, then playback starts it is more likely to have an unexpected stop in playback within a few min. I have my pause set for 15min before terminating the session.
The sound/audio cuts out shortly before the unexpected playback stop. This behavior is also noticeable within the last 10-15 seconds before the end of the tv show. I mostly wouldn’t notice this behavior, but I was watching a show where the narrative continues through the end credits.
I can resume playback from an unexpected stop and it picks up where it left off. The audio is present and I can skip back a little to pick up where the audio cut out before the unexpected stop.
I am trying to find more details to make this issue easier to replicate.
Been testing this preview now for 5 days solid, various files of audio (EAC-3, AC3, mp4,mp3, AAC) video (720p,1080p), container (mkv, mp4, avoid avi) and compression H.264 and Hevc.
I must say I’m very happy with play back on my 3 types of clients.
MacOS 11.6 Plex for Mac
iPadOS 15.1, iPad pro 11" 2021 model
WebOS 4.4.0 on a LG 65OLEDB8
Sound with EAC-3 has improved, much clearer sound. Have not noticed any Video issues, yet to try different 4K content.
Network is Ethernet, Server seems to be functioning as normal on my iMac 27" 2020, no crashes. Has been running solid for over 5 days almost none stop. Other than one forced shut down due to a electrical storm.
Installed this couple days ago, for me it has been inconsistent, seems that plex will crash, the only specific instance, was using a iPad (Apple IOS 14.7.1) (Plex Version 7.24) with auto quality on, I was in a hotel at the time, and after installing this test version, Plex would crash regardless of file I would watch. Even when specific quality/bitrate was selected, was hit and miss. It is possible it was tied to crappy hotel internet.
However, After returning home, seemed more stable, but still have had instances where Plex will crash and have restart program. But I can’t directly associate what is causing the crash.
Note: My server is remote located at family member house who is lucky to have gigabit internet. and flexible bandwidth cap. Attached Logs
Plex Server:
Windows 10 Pro Vers: 2004 - OS Build 19041.1237
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v3 @ 3.20GHz
Ram - 16.0 GB - ELC
Clients:
iPad As described above
Android:
Plex 8.23.1.28053
Shield Pro: Current client, (don’t know specifically)
I just spent a long time tracking down my Sonos problems to this same issue in the logs. The workaround with the current release is to disable the internet upload speed setting (make it 0). I’m THRILLED that it seems to be fixed in this beta,.
It is pretty nice to see improvements made to the transcoder! I just tried it on a linux machine (ubuntu) and it worked without issues so far. But one thing is still an issue. Decoding h264 constrained baseline files is still not done on the gpu, even though they support it. Here is a post I made a month ago that explains it in a bit more detail. => Support H.264 constrained baseline for hw-decoding when transcoding
It would be awesome if this could be fixed with the new transcoder!