Plex won't play specific files

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.22.3.4523-6000
Player Version#: plex.tv

I get this error no matter if I try to play localy over 1gbps or remotly:
This server is not powerful enough to convert video.
the file data is:
General
Unique ID : 91492524754939653546774018927713713017 (0x44D4D1BE62DE07E791EAA764E035FB79)
Complete name : \DS920\video\DL_TV_Shows\Godfather of Harlem\Godfather.of.Harlem.S02E06.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[eztv.re].mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 565 MiB
Duration : 52 min 48 s
Overall bit rate : 1 496 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf58.64.100
Writing library : Lavf58.64.100
ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L4@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 52 min 48 s
Bit rate : 826 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 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 : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.017
Stream size : 312 MiB (55%)
Writing library : x265 3.4+27-g5163c32d7:[Windows][GCC 10.2.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings : cpuid=1111039 / frame-threads=4 / numa-pools=16 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=1920x1080 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=0 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=1 / no-allow-non-conformance / no-repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=23 / keyint=250 / gop-lookahead=0 / bframes=3 / b-adapt=0 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=5 / lookahead-slices=6 / scenecut=0 / hist-scenecut=0 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=32 / min-cu-size=16 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / no-signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=2 / limit-refs=0 / no-limit-modes / me=0 / subme=0 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / no-weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=2 / selective-sao=0 / early-skip / rskip / fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=23.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=1 / aq-strength=0.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=1 / transfer=1 / colormatrix=1 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / hist-threshold=0.03 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / no-hdr10 / no-hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / no-scenecut-aware-qpconformance-window-offsets / right=0 / bottom=0 / decoder-max-rate=0 / no-vbv-live-multi-pass
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : E-AC-3
Format/Info : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID : A_EAC3
Duration : 52 min 48 s
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)
Bit depth : 32 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 20 ms
Stream size : 242 MiB (43%)
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text
ID : 3
Format : ASS
Codec ID : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration : 52 min 29 s
Compression mode : Lossless
Title : English
Writing library : Lavc58.114.100 ssa
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

2

Well… is you server powerful enough to transcode that video if the client cannot play it as-is? NAS devices are known to be less powerful… if your browser cannot deal with those ASS subtitles or the HEVC video, it’ll need to be re-encoded – in particular the subtitles can be a pain as burning those into a video cannot be offloaded to the iGPU.

Edit:
If this is about a DS920+, your CPU will be an Intel Celeron J4125 with a PassMark score of approx. 3000 points. That’s good enough to transcode a h264 1080p video (which requires a PassMark score of approx. 2000). Keep in mind decoding h265 requires significantly more power – same goes for the EAC3 audio.

3

  1. In Settings → Transcoder, make sure you have both Use hardware acceleration when available and Use hardware-accelerated video encoding selected. Disable video stream transcoding and Enable HDR tone mapping should not be selected.

  2. If you are watching on a PC or Mac, use Plex for Windows/Macintosh instead of Plex Web. Plex for Win/Mac is a more capable client. It will direct play HEVC video, including scaling & tonemapping 4K HDR for SDR displays. Plex Web is limited by the web browser. HEVC will most likely transcode, as will EAC3 audio.

  3. As @tom80H mentions, burning subtitles is problematic when running PMS on a Synology NAS. The video is transcoded using hardware acceleration. However, subtitle burning is performed in software and is single threaded. The Celeron CPUs in most Synology NAS have low single thread performance. They struggle to burn subtitles.

Try playing the video with subtitles turned off and see if that helps.

4

This settings doesn’t help, I transcoded the video, but I noticed that videos which are coded with
Writing application : Lavf58.64.100
Writing library : Lavf58.64.100
always produced that error.

5

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