“If any of you have “Use alternate streaming protocol for video playback” checked under Plex Web - Debug then turn it off because it doesn’t work correctly.”
This actually fixed the problem for me. With it off, I get the stopping after a couple minutes of playing.
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I think you may be focusing on the wrong thing here. Bitrate does not seem to be the issue. For instance the movie below is 11.5 Mb/s 720p, and completely unwatchable. It always stops 80-120 seconds in regardless of the browser or client OS I try. Even if I skip forward it will only play from that point+about 90 seconds and then stop.
If I change the playback settings to anything other than ‘original’ (and cause transcoding on the server), then it works fine.
Its not every movie that has the problem though, but I haven’t figured out the common trend. Maybe its something dumb like ‘movies with forced subtitle’, I’m not sure.
$ mediainfo The.Godfather.1972.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PTer.mkv
General
Unique ID : 321528902630915310630906183859896641369 (0xF1E436D2F23F517525ABFF6BC72CE759)
Complete name : The.Godfather.1972.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PTer.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 14.2 GiB
Duration : 2 h 57 min
Overall bit rate : 11.5 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2020-08-10 10:45:10
Writing application : mkvmerge v48.0.0 (‘Fortress Around Your Heart’) 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.0 + libmatroska v1.6.0
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings : CABAC / 9 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 9 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate : 10.4 Mb/s
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.473
Stream size : 12.9 GiB (91%)
Writing library : x264 core 160 r3009 4c9b076
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=9 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.04:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=100 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.30 / pb_ratio=1.20 / aq=3:0.80 / zones=248969,254843,crf=20
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 811 MiB (6%)
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 243 MiB (2%)
Title : Original Mono Track
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Audio #3
ID : 4
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2 h 57 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 243 MiB (2%)
Title : Commentary by Francis Ford Coppola
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Text #1
ID : 5
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 1 h 23 min
Bit rate : 3 b/s
Count of elements : 74
Stream size : 2.05 KiB (0%)
Title : Forced
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : Yes
[…cut…]
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Do you have “Use alternate streaming protocol for video playback” enabled?
Do you have “Use alternate streaming protocol for video playback” enabled?
No
Yeah, happens to me as well even at ~2 Mbit/s quality, changing quality to “Convert automatically” seems to help. (If that is the case, how come it is simply not the default…?)
I wonder if this thread is about the same issue I am facing (Web Player out of buffer).
So far we pointed out that it has to be a problem on PMS 1.25. Downgrade to 1.24 is a workaround. @ChuckPa I can tell you also that it has nothing to do with the updated Web App since PMS 1.24 is also working well with newest Web App on app.plex.tv.
In the last year @anon18523487 tried to help and investigate but since then we get no reactions anymore.
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I have this problem. Using Ubuntu 20.04 server on 11th Gen Intel NUC (which was a PITA to get working on it’s own). Recently upgraded server so thought this issue was related to new hardware/server install. I downgraded to the latest 1.24 and now Chrome (Edge) playback works.
Same issue here, I have been tearing my hair out. Downgrading to 1.24 indeed fixes it. I have found no rhyme or reason, I have some movies that freeze up 60 seconds in, and some that freeze up 5-10 minutes in and some that never freeze up. Bitrate is definitely not the issue, I’ve had higher bitrate shows that don’t freeze up and lower bitrate ones that do.
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Having the same issue here. Videos refuse to play on any browser but play on on Apple TV and nvidia shield. Happens regardless of video bitrate and downgrading from 1.25 to 1.24 fixes the issue.
Use app.plex.tv not the web player in the server.
How can I downgrade to 1.24? When I click downloads I am only able to find 1.25
awesome wow! any idea if linux-x86_64.debian releases will work for synology?
Same problem here, probably going to downgrade. No issues before, hopefully they fix it.
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I’ve been having the same issues. Plex Web stops playing every few minutes for no reason. Very annoying. Even happens when watching directly from my Plex server… Going to downgrade to 1.24.5.5173. Following this thread and will upgrade once this is fixed. Please let me know if you need any logs or anything.
Was going to roll some updates today and wanted to check in here to see if this is still an issue. Short answer is yup.
1.24.5.5173 has been rock solid for me, but as soon as 1.25.x is installed, I start getting buffering a few minutes after playback begins in Plex Web.
Guess I’ll check back next month to see if it’s safe to upgrade.
Just downgraded to 1.24.5.5173, I can also confirm that Plex Web works perfectly now. Plex needs to compare source code from 1.24.5.5173 to 1.25 and see what they broke. I really wish this was an open source project. It would make finding and fixing the issues so much easier.
Accessed using https://app.plex.tv/desktop, with both versions.
I have the same issue with an 17 Mbps file. It works fine once I switch to automatic quality determination. Then I can see that the Server starts to transcode which wasn’t neccessary before.
With 1.25.x mine is doing it at any bitrate. The mp4 file I was playing earlier was only 2 Mbps.
It was only transcoding audio from 5.1 down to stereo but kept stopping every few minutes. Here is the Media Info.
Codec H264
Bitrate 1356 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Closed Captions true
Coded Height 1088
Coded Width 1920
Frame Rate 29.97 fps
Height 1080
Level 4.0
Profile high
Ref Frames 4
Stream Identifier 1
Width 1920
Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Extended Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 640 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Extended Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
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Latest web app (app.plex.tv) is also affected. The issue is PMS, not web app.
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Just tried the new beta release. 1.25.4.5468. Issue remains.
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