Plex Synology pixelation on LG and Samsung

Plex Media Server
, ,
1

Server Version#: Version 1.26.1.5798
Player Version#:5.38.1

Since about March or April this year (2022) I have been unable to watch most movies without pixelation on two different TVs (LG and Samsung) streaming at home using Plex. I have not change my NAS synology (DS218+, DSM 7.0 42281 update 3) or the TV (OLED55C!PTB). Also friends have this issue when remote streaming on brand new Samsung TV.

I am not sure how to fix this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Things that I have tried but it did not work are:

-changed setting based on suggestion for LG/Samsung smart tv problems " allow insecure connections to Always", etc

  • re-installed the app on the TV and on the NAS synology.
  • optimise file for TV
  • disabling direct play and direct stream on TV

When I play the movie on my Mac using VLC there is no pixelation so I assume it is not a problem with the files.

2

I have the same exact issue since the same timeframe as the OP and would love a response or resolution for this problem. I’ve seen other solutions to this same problem for editing/modifying the Preferences.xml file, however it did not solve my problem. My Synology 218+ is now pretty much useless…

3

I also tried the Preference.xml modification but it still didn’t work. So far have no solution.

The only unusually thing I have noticed is that when streaming at home (local) the bandwith is really high 50-100 Mbps where are files that work without problem the bandwidth is lower than 10Mbps. This for file that are about 1-2 Gb.

4

Can you please recreate this then attach the log files ZIP?

  1. Verify DEBUG logging is enabled & VERBOSE logging is disabled.
  2. Start the playback until you observe the problem.
  3. Stop playback
  4. wait 20 seconds for system to quiesce
  5. Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs
  6. Attach the ZIP it gives you here.

Apologies for the delay. I was not notified of this thread.

5

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-07-21_18-59-48.zip (7.6 MB)
Here is the zip file

6

@peter3433

I found the following:

  1. Source file: ~62Mbps
  2. Player quality limit: 4 Mbps
  3. Transcode forced.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.745 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: Testing with profile 'Main'
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.747 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 63751
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): Direct Play is disabled
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/h264
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/h264/aac
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG - video.width limitation applies: 1918 > 1280
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.748 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing h264 (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.749 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.750 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32315659 -> yuv420p.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.750 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30323449 -> yuv420p.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.750 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x3231564e -> nv12.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.751 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32595559 -> yuyv422.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.751 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x59565955 -> uyvy422.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.751 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x48323234 -> yuv422p.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.752 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58424752 -> rgb0.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.752 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58524742 -> bgr0.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.752 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30313050 -> p010le.
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.752 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: Testing with profile 'Main'
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.753 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Jurassic.World.3.Dominion.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG (2022): selected media 2 / 63751
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.754 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 63236kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 4000kbps
Jul 20, 2022 20:59:04.754 [0x7f17e9801b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Determining preferred transcode encoders through transcode only decision.

Is this the one you’re referring to?

If so, I recommend increasing the quality setting in the player. 4Mbps is VERY low for 1920x1080p

7

Hi That is one of them but the 4Mbps was trying to fix/watch the program. The problem occurred yesterday 21st July as well.

8

This one?

Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.947 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - Audio Stream: 81984, Subtitle Stream: -1
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.964 [0x7f17e9dacb38] WARN - MDE: unable to find a working transcode profile for video stream
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.984 [0x7f17e9dacb38] WARN - MDE: unable to find a working transcode profile for video stream
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.985 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session ffecb93f-4a9a-4fcc-a82f-9cbad238b890 ()
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.987 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session ffecb93f-4a9a-4fcc-a82f-9cbad238b890 at offset -1.0 (state=3)
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:28.987 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7f17eae36fd8:ffecb93f-4a9a-4fcc-a82f-9cbad238b890
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:29.004 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - [Universal] Using local file path instead of URL: /volume1/video/New TV/Star Trek Discovery/Star.Trek.Discovery.S04E03.2160p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.DV.MP4.x265-DVSUX[rartv]/Star Trek Discovery - 4x03 - Choose to Live.mp4
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:29.005 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Jul 21, 2022 02:03:29.005 [0x7f17e9dacb38] DEBUG - [JobRunner] Job running: EAE_ROOT=/var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/tmp/pms-68d64a09-b434-4120-97cf-20d61e4b7b93/EasyAudioEncoder FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/d53cb63-4323-linux-x86_64/' X_PLEX_TOKEN=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "/volume1/@appstore/PlexMediaServer/Plex Transcoder" "-codec:#0x02" eac3_eae "-eae_prefix:#0x02" ffecb93f-4a9a-4fcc-a82f-9cbad238b890_ -analyzeduration 20000000 -probesize 20000000 -i "/volume1/video/New TV/Star Trek Discovery/Star.Trek.Discovery.S04E03.2160p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.DV.MP4.x265-DVSUX[rartv]/Star Trek Discovery - 4x03 - Choose to Live.mp4" -y -nostats -loglevel quiet -loglevel_plex error -progressurl http://127.0.0.1:32400/video/:/transcode/session/ffecb93f-4a9a-4fcc-a82f-9cbad238b890/b7947283-f3f5-4de6-b56d-a43464e49439/progress
9

that looks like 2am so not sure. I watched a program last night which I know causes problems in the past and then uploaded the file. It would have been sometime after 7pm on 21st. Can I clear all the logs and do it again? if so I can do it in a few hours when I get home from work.

10

Stop Plex.
Now you can delete the logs.
Start Plex
Wait 3 minutes for it to come up and stabilize (in the logs)
Now play

11

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-07-22_19-30-57.zip (3.5 MB)
here is another example of the problem. I will try to find some more.

12

Here is another example where it pixilated
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-07-22_22-00-07.zip (762.0 KB)

13

Can you show me a screenshot please?

I’m not seeing any video transcoding occurring.

I’m only seeing the video being remuxed to stream to the player and the audio converted to MP3.

It would also help if I can see the Media Info for the file being played.

14

@peter3433 I don’t know if this is helpful for you but… I realized after doing the preference.xml modification that my player continually was defaulting to the “play original quality” option under playback settings. Once I changed it to “convert automatically” it actually solved the problem for me! I remember messing with this setting prior to the preference.xml modification and it did not help anything, but after editing the file it seems to have fixed the problem. I will also say that video files take noticeably longer to start playing once selected in the player, but I’ll live with it if I can watch movies without pixelation every 3 minutes again :slight_smile:

15

Not sure what you mean Media info for the files.
It happened again tonight.
Attached is zip file
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-07-31_19-20-17.zip (7.5 MB)

Screen Shot 2022-07-31 at 7.26.34 pm
Screen Shot 2022-07-31 at 7.26.34 pm1110×550 63.1 KB

16

The XML Info for the movie.

Save the info as .txt or zip it. The forum does not support .xml attachments.

17

Movie .xml.zip (9.5 KB)

18

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