Plex media server on synology having issues with remote play

Server Version#: 1.21.4.4079-1b7748a7b
Player Version#: Web version

sense yesterday or more recently sense the latest server update my users have been experiencing issues with remote play, they attempt to start a movie/show and it just endlessly spins/buffers and playback never starts.

Side note Local play works just fine, but all remote access from outside the home where the server is either nothing or super low quality. Plex is open to the web for sure not getting errors there. port is being forwarded.

Going to need DEBUG (not VERBOSE) logs which capture:

  1. Start of playback
  2. Play for 20 seconds
  3. Stop Playback
  4. Wait 20 seconds
  5. Download Logs ZIP file
  6. Attach the ZIP file please.

I have attached the logs. Let me know if you need anything else

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-02-28_19-26-41.zip (3.3 MB)

Thank you for those logs.

I see the playback setup:

  1. Detects audio must be converted: 7.1 → 2 channel for Android
  2. 30 Mbps video bit rate exceeds bandwidth requested by app ( Remote streaming quality) or set by “Remote Access” settings.
  3. Computes final bit rates:

Feb 28, 2021 16:29:29.750 [0x7f4c8cfef700] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reducing playback quality for 685kbps stream bitrate: video resolution to 480x270, audio channels to 2, quality to 18, disable video DS as 32066kbps is > the 553kbps available

What appears to be the issue? Quality ?

Let me try another movie, other users cant even start playback on small tv shows. I don’t think its a quality issue.

Do you have an upload bandwidth limit?

PMS is mentioning that it’s limiting based on “what’s available”

I just found this:

Feb 28, 2021 19:26:21.234 [0x7f4c8d2dd700] WARN - SLOW QUERY: It took 5260.000000 ms to retrieve 1 items.

Someone / something is beating on your NAS very hard.

what’s the CPU load or are the drives trashing ?

Here is another playback from a Laptop outside of home.
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-02-28_19-38-21.zip (3.4 MB)

There is no upload limit, I have an upload limit of 40 Mbps

Nothing is currently hitting the Nas it only runs plex. and there is no other playback then what I just did.

the database query should not take 5+ seconds for 1 item.

  1. Hover over the “Libraries” control (Left panel)
  2. Expose the ellipsis
  3. Optimize Database (just to make sure it’s not fragmented in any way)

I do see you’re running TrueHD 7.1 → Stereo .
That’s a hard hit (about 30% CPU) on this CPU.

Is playback not starting or jumpy?
I am not seeing subtitles listed. Are there?

I have never had playback issues even when 5-7 people are trans-coding at the same time.

I am running the optimize now.

It was a cartoon without subs. and the playback doesn’t even start.

Have you tried playing this in the web browser ?

I was seeing a feature film trying to play to a Note 10+ ?
I saw no reference to anything resembling a cartoon.

that was the first log yes it was a phone trying to play a movie at 10Mbps ish

This second log was a laptop playing a cartoon in firefox.

Is this it?

Feb 28, 2021 19:37:04.656 [0x7f4c8f605700] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Feb 28, 2021 19:37:04.656 [0x7f4c8f605700] DEBUG - [Transcode] [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /volume2/Plex Animated TV/Animated TV/Final Space/Season 1/final.space.s01e01.readnfo.1080p.bluray.x264-dxs.mkv
Feb 28, 2021 19:37:04.656 [0x7f4c8f605700] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Feb 28, 2021 19:37:04.657 [0x7f4c8f605700] DEBUG - [Transcode/JobRunner] Job running: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/volume1/Plex/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/367b3d4-3673-linux-x86_64/' X_PLEX_TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxa' '/volume1/@appstore/Plex Media Server/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:0' 'h264' '-codec:1' 'dca' '-noaccurate_seek' '-analyzeduration' '20000000' '-probesize' '20000000' '-i' '/volume2/Plex Animated TV/Animated TV/Final Space/Season 1/final.space.s01e01.readnfo.1080p.bluray.x264-dxs.mkv' '-map' '0:0' '-codec:0' 'copy' '-filter_complex' '[0:1] aresample=async=1:ocl='\''stereo'\'':rematrix_maxval=0.000000dB:osr=48000[0]' '-map' '[0]' '-metadata:s:1' 'language=eng' '-codec:1' 'aac' '-b:1' '256k' '-f' 'dash' '-seg_duration' '5' '-init_seg_name' 'init-stream$RepresentationID$.m4s' '-media_seg_name' 'chunk-stream$RepresentationID$-$Number%05d$.m4s' '-window_size' '5' '-delete_removed' 'false' '-skip_to_segment' '1' '-time_delta' '0.0625' '-manifest_name' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/rrmbtssti88b7f5lxpbqn6tc/569c5953-a981-4c79-a60b-cc0acd0c0d68/manifest?X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite' '-avoid_negative_ts' 'disabled' '-map_metadata' '-1' '-map_chapters' '-1' 'dash' '-start_at_zero' '-copyts' '-vsync' 'cfr' '-y' '-nostats' '-loglevel' 'quiet' '-loglevel_plex' 'error' '-progressurl' 'http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/rrmbtssti88b7f5lxpbqn6tc/569c5953-a981-4c79-a60b-cc0acd0c0d68/progress'
Feb 28, 2021 19:37:04.657 [0x7f4c8f605700] DEBUG - [Transcode/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 2763

Are there embedded subtitles in the video file?

Notice there is no reference to vaapi here?

TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder:

Given the machine is using HW for the other playback sessions but not this one, PMS will suppress hardware if there are image based subtitles in the file (PGS, VOBSUB, or DVDRIP).

I am concerned that your Syno is stated that no hardware was found. It should not say this – as demonstrated it does work with the other videos.

This wasn’t an issue before the latest PMS update. all videos would playback fine. and yet again I can local play all of these new problem.

Here is a local video playback. original quality like 38k kbps no stutter, no crazy cpu spikes on syno, I know it doesnt have to transcode as much but I feel like its not a hardware issue.

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-02-28_20-09-13.zip (3.1 MB)

I was able to get playback to start on a remote PC but it would buffer a lot.

Plex Media Server Logs_2021-02-28_20-25-47.zip (3.2 MB)

It has lost access to the hardware.

Did you install DSM updates?

If so, uninstall PMS.
Restart DSM
Install the same package again.

Installation will re-write the rules which grant access to the hardware.

If you haven’t gotten an update, and a restart doesn’t clear it, and the re-install of the package does not clear it,
let me know and we will use a controlled test file but it’s not looking like PMS. I’m leaning toward DSM / HW itself.

if I uninstall the PMS package will I lose all my server settings?