You guys are awesome! Saved me a lot of headache! I thought I was the only one facing this problem!
I’m using Windows 10 Pro PC (not using docker or anything, just purely windows installation of Plex)
And I can confirm the main cause of this and can re-produce this exact problem.
The main culprit here is the ASS subtitle, PMS has a memory leak on CPU from ASS subtitle for me anyways, I’ve posted my problem here.
The one’s that got affected are:
- Samsung TV OS that can not handle external SRT subtitle, so it converts to ASS subtitle
- And Plex Web App (using google chrome and Firefox). But here’s the catch!..
If you let Plex Web App convert your audio from 5.1 to stereo, it will also convert your SRT subtitle to ASS (causing CPU Leak).
If you also play direct stream with audio 5.1, plex will also convert your SRT to ASS (causing CPU Leak)
If you use Plex Web App by choosing audio stereo (if your media has stereo and NOT let plex web app convert it) it will play SRT subtitle successfully, and hence, not cpu leak.
ASS Subtitles causes the CPU leak, and will slowly rise, up to its max peak until you terminate it, or when the media is ended.
A temporary fix if you do not have stereo as audio in your media or you want to play audio with 6 channels or more (5.1 or more) is to use plex media player that can handle this without converting SRT to ASS.
But you prefer to use the web app, then change your subtitles to always burn.
Other players I’ve personally tested that are not affected by this and can successfully play SRT subtitle with 5.1 audio without converting to ASS are:
- LG TV OS
- Nvidia Shield TV
- Apple TV (it converts SRT to WEBVTT which is still good)
I have also reverted to an older PMS version to 1.14, as the recent versions of 1.16 still has the cpu memory leak of using ASS subtitle.
TL;DR:
ASS encoded Subtitles are the main culprit to CPU leak for the recent versions of PMS, version 1.14.1.5488 (the last 1.14 version of PMS before 1.15) handles ASS subtitle well without any leaks.
