@DJQuad said:
This is happening to me as well. I’m using the Roku app. Attached are my logs if it helps.
@DJQuad said:
Does anyone have any ideas? This is getting extremely annoying
Is the problem you are mentioning relating to the playback between 5am and 6am on 27th May ? G:\PlexMedia\TV Shows\Lost\Season 4\Lost - S04E13.mkv ?
I can see transcoder failures, eg this one
May 27, 2017 05:47:01.004 [106156] ERROR - [Transcoder] [ac3_eae @ 0425a020] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '\\?\C:\Users\Phil\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to Dolby Digital (High Quality - 640 kbps)\21948a26524e77b7f95db9df5d79d6d6_106432-1-432.ac3'
Is the problem arising only with videos with specific type of audio ?
The folder in question does exist because later on there is reference to tidying it up
May 27, 2017 05:50:44.690 [101828] DEBUG - Deleting stale file \\?\C:\Users\Phil\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to Dolby Digital (High Quality - 640 kbps)\21948a26524e77b7f95db9df5d79d6d6_106432-1-432.ac3
@DJQuad - I have been looking further at the logs and with development team involved. Something is causing the EasyAudioEncoder.exe process to get an access error when trying to access files within this path
C:\Users\Phil\AppData\Local\Plex Media Server\Cache\Transcode\Sessions\EasyAudioEncoder\Convert to Dolby Digital (High Quality - 640 kbps)
Appears to be random.
Wondering if you have some other software running and causing sharing violation / access errors. Could be Microsoft Windows Search Indexer running. Or some backup software ? or some anti virus software ?
If the problem is easily reproducible and predictable to arise after a few minutes, then could investigate with tools such as Microsoft SysInternals Process Monitor
@sa2000 Thanks for looking into this. I don’t believe I’m using anything out of the ordinary - Windows 10, Carbonite for backup, and Windows Defender for antivirus. It didn’t seem to ever be a problem before. I’m not sure if other videos use that type of audio.
It happens enough now that I can use Process Monitor but I’d need some direction. Would it be easiest to re-encode them in another format? Is their any recommended format?
I am having this same issue. For the past 3-4 days any time I try to play a movie it stops anywhere from 5-25 minutes into it. YET, my tv files play no problem. I’ve completely got rid of the server, even getting rid of the reg files, did a complete new install and set up and same thing. The files are fine if I play them on my computer using my regular media players, but no movies can stream to my roku stick for more than 5-25 minutes. Like I said, streaming tv shows (similar and some the same type of file as movie files) and all is good.
Judging from the recent posts in other threads this is becoming more and more of an issue. It’s to the point where it never plays beyond 30 minutes. I mean people have made new accounts just to report this issue.
@sa2000 please let me know what further info I can provide that addresses this issue. It’s affecting a lot. At this point it seems like an encoding issue with that audio format in videos and the transcoder freaks out and crashes.
@DJQuad said: @sa2000 Thanks for looking into this. I don’t believe I’m using anything out of the ordinary - Windows 10, Carbonite for backup, and Windows Defender for antivirus. It didn’t seem to ever be a problem before. I’m not sure if other videos use that type of audio.
It happens enough now that I can use Process Monitor but I’d need some direction. Would it be easiest to re-encode them in another format? Is their any recommended format?
I would rather we find the problem rather than make changes without understanding why it was happening
If Carbonite does live backup ie detecting file changes then it could be the cause. You could try without it running to see if there is a difference.
Process Monitor should help give some clues. It does use a lot of system resources as it buffers all captured events in virtual memory until you stop the capture – so need to make sure it would not run for very long time. All we need is capture from start of playback until failure.
Try a video file that we know had issues before eg episode 12 or 13 of S4 of Lost.
As soon as you get the failure, stop the capture - the capture start/stop button is the 3rd icon on the ribbon at the top below the menu bar. The 3rd is the capture button and next to it is the autoscroll button which stops/start scrolling on the screen.
Once capture is stopped, then use the menu File / Save / All Events / Format: Native Process Monitor Format (PML) / and enter in the Path field the path to the PML file that you will save the captured events to
When save completes, zip the PML file.
Upload to dropbox or similar service and send me a link to it by Private Message
Get the Plex Media Server logs and attach here together with indication of the time of the failure.
@boricuajuju said:
I am having this same issue. For the past 3-4 days any time I try to play a movie it stops anywhere from 5-25 minutes into it. YET, my tv files play no problem. I’ve completely got rid of the server, even getting rid of the reg files, did a complete new install and set up and same thing. The files are fine if I play them on my computer using my regular media players, but no movies can stream to my roku stick for more than 5-25 minutes. Like I said, streaming tv shows (similar and some the same type of file as movie files) and all is good.
Synology NAS 1515+ (nothing is running on it other than plex to my knowledge)
NAS is connected to a nice Buffalo 16 port gigabit switch that supports bonding
Samsung TVs are playing but will randomly stop playing video and only play the audio until I pause for a bit and restart
Same for Apple TV 4
When watching with chrome on a computer connected with a gigabit hardwire connection to the same switch the movie just all of a sudden stops playing. Happened about 5x or more during Die Hard which was created from a DVD and isn’t very high quality.
Nothing else is going on with the network.
What logs can I gather to help diagnose?
This problem impacts all movies 100% of the time. Things were working fine until an upgrade in July sometime.
Synology NAS 1515+ (nothing is running on it other than plex to my knowledge)
NAS is connected to a nice Buffalo 16 port gigabit switch that supports bonding
Samsung TVs are playing but will randomly stop playing video and only play the audio until I pause for a bit and restart
Same for Apple TV 4
When watching with chrome on a computer connected with a gigabit hardwire connection to the same switch the movie just all of a sudden stops playing. Happened about 5x or more during Die Hard which was created from a DVD and isn’t very high quality.
Nothing else is going on with the network.
What logs can I gather to help diagnose?
This problem impacts all movies 100% of the time. Things were working fine until an upgrade in July sometime.
Oh man. This is so frustrating. It started happening this last week. Absolutely no problems till then. Now it stops after a few minutes of playing. Updated to latest server version, Media Player version etc…
I have the exact same issue and pretty certain it’s Carbonite to blame - if I pause that (manually, so a pain), no more video interruptions. The video folder itself is already excluded from backups (is on an external hard drive) - so I guess it’s the transcoder folder, something like that. I’ve just excluded “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Cache” from Carbonite backups, fingers crossed.
I am here to announce that I have finally installed a “solution” to this problem.
I was always aware of this solution but was avoiding it because I still had hope that the Plex Developers would take this problem seriously and build a solution into one of their updates.
But no, that hasn’t happened. This issue has rendered my entire media library unusable for months now.
And instead of solving bugs and issues such as this the Plex team has been spending all their time integrating new features such as “Tidal” and other such add-ons. (I’m sure somebody out there is happy about that) don’t get me wrong I always love new useful features but not at the expense of functionality.
I have been using Plex since its first development from XBMC and Kodi.
I have spent countless hours organizing and maintaining my media libraries, I paid for a lifetime Plex pass. And even convinced several of my friends to build Plex servers and get a Plex pass.
I am sad to say that I will no longer be using Plex and have moved on to “Emby”
There are many things that I will miss about plex but at least Emby works.
Maybe someday when Plex gets its s*** together I will come back.
