Plex + Roku = Playback error

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Server Version#: 1.19.4.2865
Player Version#: Most recent on Rokus
Hey all. I’m hoping I can get some help. I’m losing my damn mind. I don’t personally use Rokus (although I have a couple for our guest rooms that have been seeing no use), but for the last month or so, my remote users who do use Rokus are having issues with Plex. For some reason, Roku users seem to be getting a playback error. It seems to happen at least once while watching something. It’s the playback error that says something along the lines of not having access to the file. Backing out and then pressing play again works fine, but eventually the error will happen again. And it seems to ONLY be Rokus. It seems that it doesn’t affect Rokus that are direct playing the file, but if a file needs to be transcoded, even if video is direct streaming and audio is transcoded, the error happens. Its incredibly weird and frustrating. I was on the phone with a friend while they were watching something and video was direct streaming and audio transcoding and the error occurred. I looked at Tautulli when it happened and another friend on a Roku was watching something that required transcoding of video, and their stream ended at the SAME EXACT TIME. But my other users not using Rokus at the same time didn’t have an issue. Even if the other clients need to transcode, they don’t seem to have issues - it’s JUST Rokus. I’ve tried changing the transcoding directory, turning hardware transcoding off, and even rolling back to an older version from months before the error started. I’m THIS close to wiping my machine, but I’m afraid that won’t help because I plan on migrating my Plex data because I REALLY don’t want to curate everything again. Any thoughts?

Here’s a portion of my server log file from when a similar incident happened. It makes no sense to me because it looks like a transcoder issue, but I’ve seen stuff being transcoded to non-Rokus at the same time as this, and they don’t get terminated.
https://pastebin.com/ij8WLgzq

EDIT: I went to transcoder settings and remember that maybe around all this started happening, I had changed the transcode from like 60 to 300. I just switched it back to 60 and changed the preset speed from ultra fast to super fast… Hopefully that fixes it? I’ll have to wait and see.

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This article references the transcoder error you are getting. According to the article it can be cause by Malwarebytes. Do you use that?

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Nope! I saw that article as well, but I only use Windows defender.

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It appears from this thread that on Windows large library scans can be a problem, and some people were having success by reducing the frequency of library scans or simply making them manual. I’m not positive that this is what is happening to you, but the errors (both av_interleaved_write_frame and curl) look similar enough that it is worth checking out if you haven’t.

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Interesting. I’m not sure if I changed that settings recently but I suppose my library is kind of large… I wouldn’t say huge, especially compared to many. But I’ll look into that.

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Yeah I gifted Rokus that should be able to direct play plex to my family for Christmas and they all buffer every 4-5 minutes of playback from my content that I share to them remotely.

Chromecasts can direct play just fine (at least off of android), but streaming stick pluses can’t.

My own Roku Streaming Stick Plus can’t direct play on some remote shares. Local network content plays just fine.

I got a Shield TV Pro (2019) and that can play anything. The Rokus just don’t direct play right now.

I am awaiting the Chromestick w/ remote that may be coming out soon too.

I was loyal to Roku for 10 years. Since the first one.

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