Plex Transcoder broken after PMS 1.24.5.5173

Plex Media Server
1

I’ve been stuck running PMS 1.24.5.5173, because every version after that has an issue with the transcoder, even on Direct Play media, for some reason. On 1.24.5.5173, everything works perfectly on all devices I use, and my friends and family use, but after 1.24.5.5173, some Playback device, mostly Plex Desktop for Windows on any version, Plex on Shield, Plex on iOS, and Plex on macOS will fail to play back certain library items. Reporting a transcoder error, even if the item is going to be direct playing.

As of 1.25.6.5577, this problem still exists. I have attached a screenshot of the error message below. Logs also attached.

image
image954×352 51.8 KB

1.25.6.5577.zip (200.8 KB)
1.24.5.5173 after rolling back.zip (204.3 KB)

I would love to continue using the latest version of Plex, but this is a critical issue preventing me from doing so as it is a breaking update. Please fix this.

2

i9-10900 in a docker container.

Did you add --device:/dev/dri in the container definition when recreating?

Feb 24, 2022 15:48:09.202 [0x7f456fbe3b38] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Feb 24, 2022 15:48:09.202 [0x7f456fbe3b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/JobRunner] Job running: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/config/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/62cc2bc-4226-linux-x86_64/' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:#0x100' 'h264' '-noaccurate_seek' '-analyzeduration' '20000000' '-probesize' '20000000' '-i' '/mnt/HomeServer/Public Media/DVR/Judge Judy (1996)/Season 18/Judge Judy - S18E127 - Yoga Gym Merger Mess ; Ex-Fiance Fight.ts' '-map' '0:#0x100' '-codec:0' 'copy' '-map' '0:#0x101' '-codec:1' 'copy' '-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/y2e555acg8texsypzwhay2xi/3a343f3b-3034-4ad4-aaba-953dba61599b/manifest?X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite' '-segment_list_type' 'csv' '-segment_list_unfinished' '1' '-segment_list_size' '5' '-segment_list_separate_stream_times' '1' '-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/y2e555acg8texsypzwhay2xi/3a343f3b-3034-4ad4-aaba-953dba61599b/progress'
Feb 24, 2022 15:48:09.202 [0x7f456fbe3b38] DEBUG - [Transcode/JobRunner] Jobs: Starting child process with pid 812

vs

Feb 24, 2022 15:51:22.025 [0x7f308546bb38] DEBUG - [Transcode] TPU: hardware transcoding: final decoder: , final encoder: 
Feb 24, 2022 15:51:22.026 [0x7f308546bb38] DEBUG - [Transcode/JobRunner] Job running: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/config/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/be22e26-4019-linux-x86_64/' X_PLEX_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' '/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder' '-codec:#0x100' 'h264' '-ss' '554' '-noaccurate_seek' '-analyzeduration' '20000000' '-probesize' '20000000' '-i' '/mnt/HomeServer/Public Media/DVR/Holmes on Homes/Season 07/Holmes on Homes - S07E10 - Gut Ache.ts' '-map' '0:#0x100' '-codec:0' 'copy' '-map' '0:#0x101' '-codec:1' 'copy' '-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/lhs7z0r1kkobtc5lmm8sot8k/6f78db97-c909-42b8-9bd1-5054233ccc85/manifest?X-Plex-Http-Pipeline=infinite' '-segment_list_type' 'csv' '-segment_list_unfinished' '1' '-segment_list_size' '5' '-segment_list_separate_stream_times' '1' '-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/lhs7z0r1kkobtc5lmm8sot8k/6f78db97-c909-42b8-9bd1-5054233ccc85/progress'
3

Yes. It’s there. Sorry for the long response.

4

Last thing to check for…

Intel Compute Runtime modules for release version 21.49.21786 is currently required for all CometLake and above CPUs which need to do tone mapping.

Speaking to that point, there is a problem (discovered & recreated last week) where the transcoder faults when tone mapping with those library versions.

Engineering is working on that now

5

Not really tone mapping anything. I can’t speak to how Plex works under the hood, but the problems lie solely with DVR recordings which are SDR. They play fine in the WebUI, but error out on everything else, literally, even on devices where the media should be Direct Playing.

6

I unfortunately don’t have any way of using DVR (I have satellite tv which is encrypted).

I will see if I can get someone to help with this.

8

Thank you. :slight_smile:

9

Alternatively I can give you the problematic files and you can try them yourself.

10

Delete the content of the Codecs folder an let them re-download.

It is possible that Xteve is formatting the stream in an unexpected manner.

11

Can you explain why this would matter with different versions of Plex? A codec is a codec

13

Except when Plex does the linking and compiling to which we users have no insight.

14

@Cyberpower678

Sure, please link me a sample file to check. I would very much like to see what you have there.

As for codecs,

  1. Free FFMPEG has all codecs compiled into itself when you build it yourself.
  2. Breaking out the codecs into discrete files saves a lot of memory and allows PMS to run on the memory-limited (1 GB) systems like NAS boxes.
  3. Breaking out the codecs also satisfies licensing for Plex.
  4. Each PMS release recompiles all the modules (codecs included) so all version tags match.
  5. The codec source code only changes if there are bug fixes to the codec (rare) or if the transcoder (FFMPEG core) is updated.
15

I decided to try and upgrade to 1.26.2.5797 and it seems everything is working again so far. I will report back if I encounter a video that will throw this error.