Plex server on slote - mkv problem

General Discussions
1

Hey, so I got a slot from ultraseedbox and I installed plex on it.
I have some mkv files that I added to the library but form some reason, it gets stuck on loading when I try to watch them.
I think its a transcode problem but I dont know what and how to fix it.
I connected the slot via SSH and ran the command: “ps -ef | grep plex” and one of the services i got was this(the transcoder service):

/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder -codec:0 h264 -codec:1 ac3_eae -eae_prefix:1 2mjrb7hc0xxlpsnrg6f8lp9z_ -ss 209.222 -noaccurate_seek -i /home18/brolix/Plex/Series/The.Magicians.US.S02E01.720p.HDTV.x264-KILLERS.mkv -map 0:0 -codec:0 copy -map 0:1 -codec:1 aac -ar:1 48000 -channel_layout:1 stereo -b:1 217k -f segment -segment_format matroska -segment_format_options live=1 -segment_time 1 -segment_header_filename header -segment_start_number 0 -segment_list http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/2mjrb7hc0xxlpsnrg6f8lp9z/seglist -segment_list_type csv -segment_list_size 2147483647 -avoid_negative_ts disabled -map_metadata -1 -map_chapters -1 chunk-%05d -start_at_zero -copyts -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/2mjrb7hc0xxlpsnrg6f8lp9z/progress

Is it possible the url at the end is the problem?( http://127.0.0.1:32400/video**/:/**transcode )
I tried restarting the PMS few times. One time I got it to play the file but when I closed it and open it up again, it just got stuck…
Maybe its because of the cpu usage? If so, what can I change in the options to make it work?

CPU(s): 48
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-47
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 12
Socket(s): 2
NUMA node(s): 2
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 63
Model name: Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2676 v3 @ 2.40GHz

my PMS suppose to have access to 3 threads on the cpu.
I also ran the “top” command while loading an episode, the transcoder takes 99%+ CPU.

Also, it says that i’m direct streaming the video & transcoding the audo from AC3 to AAC.
I have 500Mbit/s upload/download so the internet speed it fine.

2

If you look for the MDE line in your logs, you will see the reason as to why it has to transcode. The Speed value will tell you if the transcode is going OK or not, a value below 1 is a clear sign of the CPU not being able to keep up with the transcode.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201575036-Why-is-my-video-stream-buffering-

3

@Peter_W said:
If you look for the MDE line in your logs, you will see the reason as to why it has to transcode. The Speed value will tell you if the transcode is going OK or not, a value below 1 is a clear sign of the CPU not being able to keep up with the transcode.

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201575036-Why-is-my-video-stream-buffering-

Thank you for your answer, I got to say that its strange that it cant keep up. Could it be a problem with the transcoding from AC3 to AAC and not the cpu?
I did check the log files and the speed was at 0.2. It means that the problem is 100% the cpu?

4

Yes, that is the issue then. Your CPU isn’t good enough to handle the task. And yes, it is strange that an audio transcode creates such havoc on a CPU. But then again, we (on this forum) often argue against using a shared server like this for Plex use. Since it is so CPU heavy it isn’t advisable, so I’m not wholly surprised - just slightly that just an audio transcode would cause it.