Server Version#: QNAP 453Be
Player Version#: using as server
Hey guys I’ve got the above NAS running my Plex server. When it’s up and running everything works great and I am very happy with the device. The issue I’m running into is every 3-4 days or so I find that Plex server is no longer accessible. I have to log into the nas stop the service and start it again. Once I do that boom it’s back up and running fine again. I posted the topic on Facebook and another guy said that he is having the same problem so maybe it’s something in Plex? Any advice on what to try and do? I will be happy to supply any and all log files but I’m not sure where to get them from.
Please go to Settings - Server - General.
Verify that only the DEBUG logging is enabled (don’t want VERBOSE)
Save that change if you need to
Now, when it stops again,
Immediately after restart,
Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs
Attach that ZIP file here.
We can see what is happening.
Chuck,
Thank you very much for the reply. I came home to check to ensure the loging is set correctly and my connection was offline. Started stopped it again and it came right back online. I grabbed the logs since it seems to be setup the way you asked. Please take a look and let me know of any improvements I can make.
Thank you for the logs.
I do not see any obvious errors. I do see where logfile writing did suddenly stop as soon as the transcoder was invoked.
Is it possible Subtitles were attempted? I don’t see it in the logs but that might be below what the logs captured. Subtitle burning is the one thing Intel J3455 CPU is weak at.
Honestly I am not sure. I share my plex server with a couple friends and it very well could of been one of them using it remotely as I was at work. If it was one of them I know they would of attempted to use it via an iphone app. I can always use LTE and see if I can make the issue appear while watching the usage monitor.
So I took one of my 4K films ran it on my iPhone app over lte and turned on subtitles. Downconverting to 720p caused the cpu usage to jump up to around 48% memory around 35% used. Switching to play original quality and the usage dropped to around 28% cpu and around the same memory. I ran it for around 10 minutes and no issues yet. I know I’ve had the same issue over night also. I will watch a movie or something and when I open it up in the morning it’s not reachable.
I realize 10 minutes might not be long enough but given the fact my buddies were also at work I’m assuming he just opened up the app to show off what Plex is and what it can do. Else he may not be employed too much longer haha.
Subtitles are accounting for the CPU utilization. The processor is a quad core. Therefore 25% utilization is full utilization of one of the four cores. This is normal when subtitles are on.
The other few percentage points are the CPU reading disk, giving it to the GPU, and then packetizing the data to send out.
It does sound like the way the transcoder is running uses a second encode thread. I’m not aware of this behavior but it’s possible depending on where the resizing is being done.
Thank you for the detailed explanation. So do we think the issue now resides in the device itself? What would cause only Plex to be effected? I have had faulty cpus in the past and typically the OS will crash with it and force a restart. Anyway that you can think of to dig deeper and determine root cause?
A faulty CPU in a QNAP TS-453Be is extremely unlikely.
In all my years, I have only had one bad CPU. It only faulted when invoking the HW transcoding ASIC with HEVC HDR instead of SDR. It would reset the system.
Nobody could understand why but it seemed to be the only plausible answer. Since replacing the CPU, it has been fine.
In this case, I would first look at the client.
Chuck I am not sure what you mean by look at the client. I’ve seen it happen with cell phone, computer and Xbox one. It seems to be completely random. I watched s lot over the weekend and never had an issue. Went to watch this afternoon and boom it was down. I ensured nobody else touched my server except my pc. It’s really got me confused for sure.
Xbox is a unique animal which I don’t understand.
I also don’t understand Android
The iOS apps, I do understand.
I also have a Roku 3, Apple TV, ChromeCast 1st and current Generation.
Both the ATV and the Roku have settings. In those settings, if subtitles are Forced to be burned in, The 453Be WILL struggle.
The Intel J3455 CPU does a great job with Hardware transcoding but subtitle processing must be done by the CPU. Intel didn’t provide a capability to do that in hardware (yet)
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