Problems transcoding files with EAC3 sound

[Thrawn]

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639-7000
Player Version#: Apps on IOS and apple tv, newest versions. webapp
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

I run plex on a Synology 1019+ NAS. Not as a docker container.

I have problems transcoding all files that use EAC3 sound (Dolby Digital+). On web plex I can not even play the original version but on apps I can play the original without issues, as soon though as I try to transcode the app just keeps buffering until it finally crashes.
I have tried transcoding everything else (dts, dts-hdma, AC3, Dolby TrueHD AAC) and they all work just fine, but every file with EAC3 fails when trying to transcode.

In the console i get follow error when trying:

“Req#38b5/Transcode/61A2EC1A-4FA9-4D77-9C35-C4417E0C73AC/eb04ab18-8b23-4288-82f9-94ea745a3ad4] [eac3_eae @ 0x7f625a9fa040] error reading output: -5 (I/O error)“

I am of course not sure this is caused by the EAC3 but its the only difference I can spot.

I tried deleting the codec files without any luck.
I tried installing reset server version again, this worked until I restarted my server.
I tried turning off hardware transcoding without any luck.

I hope someone can help me out, as this is frustrating me so much.

Thank you all in advance!

/Thrawn

[ChuckPa]

Can you please do the following?

1. Confirm DEBUG logging is enabled
2. Recreate the failure
3. Download the server logs (ZIP file)
4. Attach that ZIP file here.

[Thrawn]

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-01-02_18-30-12.zip (4.6 MB)
Thank you so much for your time!

Here you go!

[ChuckPa]

@Thrawn

Thank you for this. The failure was easily found.

Jan 02, 2024 18:26:24.000 [139701501410104] ERROR - [Req#5e65b/Transcode/B30A5E58-1DEE-46A3-A813-13732A120F64/5a005382-3b76-4ecc-a1ae-2f5b9b237aa0] [eac3_eae @ 0x7f798eab7040] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '/var/packages/PlexMediaServer/shares/PlexMediaServer/AppData/tmp/pms-035f0dde-fac7-4218-943d-239d182b9f98/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)/B30A5E58-1DEE-46A3-A813-13732A120F64_4775-0-0.wav'

This error, “EAE not running, or wrong folder?” will occur when there are more folders being watched than the Linux kernel table can monitor.
(your media is well structured and you have a lot of it )

The problem occurs because DSM Linux doesn’t allocate a big table by default
(Most systems ship with only 2GB of RAM so they keep the table small)

You add your media and ask PMS to monitor/watch for changed automatically.

The table fills

If you look at PMS Logs, about 3-4 minutes after you restart it, you’ll see “No space left on device” while it’s setting up inotify. This is the table overflowing.

Later, when you want to transcode anything with Dolby (needs the EAE), there aren’t any free slots for the transcode & EAE to use so they fail (they need 2 slots)

The solution is simple; Increase the number of folders PMS can monitor WITHOUT filling your memory. ( I don’t know how much memory you have installed – 8GB is a great memory amount for Synology NAS systems )

Here’s the procedure.

Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To's

FAQ 16: Increase the number of folders Plex can monitor Applicable to all supported versions of DSM. When the Linux ‘inotify’ table fills up, this will cause when Plex to stop automatically detecting new media you add to the server. It will also manifest when there are transcoder problems with Dolby audio codecs. Linux has a default table size which is static. We can increase this at will. On some versions it’s 8192. On newer kernels, the default is 65536 folders. This is easy to in…

Each ‘slot’ you allocate is 540 bytes + Pathname (length in bytes) ~= 668 bytes each.
(128 byte path length)

The process is simple.

1. use the above procedure to count up how many directory slots you’ll need / allocate
2. Multiply NumberOfSlots * 668 ==> Total amount of memory used.

If this isn’t a concern then continue.
If you only have 2GB in the NAS, or you need a really big table size, you might want to consider increasing memory to 8GB.

Please feel free to ask questions. This is that ‘freaky linux kernel’ stuff

[Thrawn]

Great I will look at this

but…um my numbers keeps going up should I add something?

(I have 8 gig on that server :))

[Thrawn]

wow 635987 folders

[ChuckPa]

Got you some Music, HUH?

How much memory in the machine?

MAKE CERTAIN — you’re checking your media and NOT Plex.

(If your media is in the PlexMediaServer directory — lol)

[Thrawn]

Yes but not much music.

most if it is tv shows. 1 folder pr show 1 folder pr season.
Yes not checking plex folder…at all and now the media is in 3 different shares + music

8gig on the machine

[ChuckPa]

@Thrawn

most if it is tv shows. 1 folder pr show 1 folder pr season.
Yes not checking plex folder…at all and now the media is in 3 different shares + music

you have your TV as?

TV Main Folder1/
  Series1/
    Season 1/
       Series1 - S01E01 - optional title.ext

This structure ?

You can set the max_user_watches to 720896 (481 MB table size)

That’ll hold you a while!

[Thrawn]

Just like that yes except i use . instead of -

[ChuckPa]

All good.

After you run the Task Scheduler task and restart DSM,
Everything should be back to normal for EAE

[Thrawn]

so like this?

ops missing part of it

[ChuckPa]

Remove the space!!!

s2s_watches_max=720896

No spaces!!! lol

Have it send you the job run log to your email as confirmation

[Thrawn]

ops

and thank you!!

[Thrawn]

what about the ‘

i only changed then numbers from the post you linked

[ChuckPa]

the complete change (both files) should read:

echo 's2s_watches_max=720896'  >> /etc/synoinfo.conf
echo 's2s_watches_max=720896'  >> /etc.defaults/synoinfo.conf

the quotes ensure it’s written as one ‘thing’ to the file.

[Thrawn]

[Thrawn]

I can not thank you enough for all your help! This has messed me up for days !!

[Thrawn]

Well

I DID mess up with the folders I had a backup of a drive on my PC with a LOT of folders in it I had counted too (Not being monitored by plex though) just in the same share.

Would I need to change the task again?

is it in anyway bad having it this large? I don’t use memory for all that much and the 8gig is more then enough even with 400MB used for this.

I have been watching console to see if other errors comes up and it keep showing:

“Req#13ed60] Unknown metadata type: folder”

together with it I get a lot of warnings saying:

“Req#13ed5e] QueryParser: Invalid field ‘contentDirectoryID’ found, ignoring.”

and

“Req#13ed5e] QueryParser: Invalid field ‘sectionID’ found, ignoring.

I don’t see anything not working though…

Can I get help for that in this post? or do I need to make a new one?

Thank you again!