Plex web app error s3014/5/6 ONLY with AAC 5.1 audio

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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1

Server Version#: 1.13.5.5332 and previous 4 verions
Player Version#: 3.57.1

hopefully you can help me with this, it used to work perfectly but recently something seems to have changed.

this error happens if i connect directly by local ip, or using app.plex.tv.

the error code seems to be random, but usually picks one to start with, then more often stops at s3014, and happens exclusively with files that have AAC 5.1 audio encoded.

i believe that plex used to transcode AAC5.1 to AAC2.0 when using the web app, but it seems to have stopped doing this.

it doesnt seem to matter what browser i try and use, all of them do the same thing. server has been rebooted, and different client devices have also been tried and rebooted.

the plex chrome app doesnt seem to have any troubles, and the plex android app seems to work fine as well, as does plex media player (unfortunately this is not an option for at least one device since thanks to intel it only has a 32bit uefi - 32bit os only).

i have set the debug option under settings > web > debug to enabled, but am unsure which parts of the log to post here.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: setting direct stream to off allows the files to play, but all of my media has been encoded in advance (using handbrake) to avoid transcoding video, which works fine most of the time (i use tautulli to monitor plex, and the video stream 99% of the time says “transcode - copy”, with direct stream off it is transcoding completely).

2

I need more information please.

Linux distro & version as well as the DEBUG log files (ZIP) captured after recreating the issue.

3

hi there.

my Linux distro and version is Ubuntu server 18.04 LTS.

i was unsure which log files to include, so i enabled the debug setting and triggered the issue, then zipped them all up into one file.

EDIT:
removed the link since it was wrong

4

apologies, i managed to fidn the correct way to get the logs and im uploading from the correct option (i checked the stickied threads and i didnt see any info) i found the correct option by a google search, that linked to the plex site, although the article was outdated and pointed to the wrong location for the settings.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-08-31_16-11-58.zip (2.8 MB)

5

I’m having the same issue.

Player is on Ubuntu 18.04, and server is Ubuntu 16.04.

Playing the same item in Firefox works.

Hardware transcoding is turned off.

Attached logs taken from starting the video until a few seconds after the error.

Error (the code changes between 3014, 3015, and 3016 a few times like the OP mentioned):

Playback Error
An error occurred trying to play “Nosedive”.
Error code: s3015 (Media)

plex_log.txt (61.2 KB)

6

There have been some issues with Chrome in Linux of Chrome’s making.
The same Plex/web app is used on all OS’s. Given it works on different OS’s this is going to require more investigation than I understand.

I can only ask you to:

  1. Turn on WEB debug logging (Settings - Web - Debug)
  2. Verify server debug and VERBOSE
  3. Play the file until it fails

  4. Immediately capture the log files (Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs)

  5. Turn off Verbose logging
  6. Post the ZIP file here

I’ll get someone from the Web team to inspect

7

Attached the logs. The first one is when I tried to resume playback from the point I was last up to (after watching on a different device), and I downloaded the logs as soon as I saw the error dialog.

I noticed that the error code changed one more time after I downloaded the logs, so the second attachment is after playing the file from the beginning and waiting for the error code to stop changing. I then closed the error dialog, and downloaded the logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-12_15-25-21.zip (2.9 MB)
Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-12_15-26-00.zip (3.0 MB)

8

i did this also.

i have included a log from every broser i have installed, and observations from each as well as some info from tautulli.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-13_19-33-19-Edge.zip (3.4 MB) MS Edge - previously worked fine, now just a spinning orange circle. tautuilli says it is trying to interpret AAC 5.1 audio.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-13_19-35-18-firefox.zip (3.4 MB) Firefox - played without issue. tautulli says it is causing a transcode of the audio, from AAC 5.1 to AAC 2.0

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-13_19-31-31-Chrome.zip (3.4 MB) Chrome - Exhibited the same behaviour as my original post. tautulli says it is trying to direct play AAC 5.1.

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-09-13_19-37-17-opera.zip (3.5 MB) Opera - same thing as chrome: error s3014, s3015 and s3016 in a random order after clicking play. tautulli says opera is - like chrome and edge - trying to playback AAC 5.1 directly.

9

Thanks for the detailed logs.

I just chatted and reviewed with the Web player team.

Before even looking at the code, they have a good idea what the issue is. They definitely know what to look for.

Again, Thank you

11

Hi folks. Thanks for your help so far and sorry your running into some pain. The error codes starting with an S indicate that the video is direct streaming or transcoding.

Let’s try to find a concrete set of steps to reproduce. I’m honestly unclear which set of conditions trigger the issue. The log files so far are overwhelming and tell only the server’s side of the story.

The primary input I need is a video file which triggers the issue. With this in mind we have 3 routes:

Okay, you all and I have the same files. Nice, let’s get it figured!

  • If you uncheck Direct Play in our debug settings do working files suddenly stop working?
  • Please be specific about the OS and browser versions. For example, I’ve been able to Direct Stream all of the Route 1 files above using Edge 42.17134.1.0 on Windows 10 and Chrome 69.0.3497.92 on macOS 10.13.6.

We’ll get this sorted, thank you everyone for help finding a reproducible case!

12

hi there.

i have downloaded and tested those files you linked and my results are below

the 60fps and hevc files arent even showing in plex for some reason.

Windows 10 build 17134.228, Chrome 70.0.3538.16

24fps h264 mp4 - chrome and edge: plays perfectly, direct play
24fps h264 mkv - chrome and edge: plays perfectly, direct stream - transcodes mp4 to mkv with stream copying

both versions still play perfectly with direct play/stream turned off, the server kicks into transcode, with an audio mixdown to stereo.

to make this easier, i have managed to reproduce it in a small file encoded using the settings that i regularly use for other videos that work perfectly when using stereo sound. one curiosity is that this was encoded using the same settings as every other video i store, but the video portion gets transcoded by plex, while other videos encoded in the same way transcode the video by direct stream.

handbrake linux encoded test - triggers error in chrome, blank screen+spinning circle in edge

however, a file encoded in handbrake for windows does not trigger the same issue

handbrake windows encoded test

to my knowledge they both had the same encoder settings in every area.

i also encoded the same clip to mp4 and it played without issue (both with the windows and linux handbrake encoders)

hopefully this can help diagnose this problem.

13

Thanks a lot @kernelfergus. I can reproduce the issue with aac5.1 test.mkv. I’m diving behind the curtain to chat with the Wizard.

14

This is a really curious issue.

From what I’ve been able to tell we haven’t been transcoding AAC 5.1 to AAC 2.0 during Direct Stream as far back as 3.53.0. I’ll go back further over time to determine if there was a regression in the UI.

A mix of working and non-working files points to an issue in the encodings themselves.

I know how baffling it can be when working and non-working files are encoded ~identically but behave differently or, why some files work differently in some video players.

There are pointers in the Web app and PMS code that suggest this is the intention but neither is enforcing it. I’ll need to do some research on the non-working file and the history of the this code to determine if we’ll force AAC 2.0.

In the meantime, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can carefully remove onlyTranscodes="true" from Web.xml system profile then restart PMS. The Web app will still try to direct stream the audio but PMS will force it to transcode. The profile location isn’t advertised broadly but there is some information available. Please be aware that any edits to this file may be wiped out when updating PMS.

1 Like
15

thanks for troubleshooting this :slight_smile:

on the xml file, i took a slightly different route.

i opened the Web.xml file, and went to seek the line you specified. however, i spotted the

“”

and changed the 6 to a 2. it now it works fine.

just for testing sake i also removed "onlytranscodes=“true” and it also works fine.

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