Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: 1.4.1.940-574c2fa7
I have Plex running on the QNAP TS-453Be NAS. Most of the functions (that I care about right now) work, but the DVR seems to try to store the recordings someplace that I can’t figure out, and won’t record because it thinks there is no space. I have a LUN defined for storing the recordings and it has plenty of space but Plex is not using it. Where is it trying to store the recordings and how do I change it?!
The error occurs in the Plex Media Server.log file beginning at Jan 20, 2020 19:00:00.429 for one instance (there are others). Graphics pictures uploaded show the structure of the filesystem on the NAS and the small bit that has been used so far compared to what is available. My experience with Plex has a server running and recording (with your help) on Windows, but am trying to move that operation to the NAS (“how hard can it be?..”). In other words, I’m fairly new. Thanks for your attention and help.
According to the logs: 08, 2020 20:01:36.050 [0x7fa19162b700] ERROR - [Transcoder] Error writing trailer of /Media/.grab/1d70f3c5f94b1561dbb596eb55d9ae1adc87e4c7/Modern Family (2009) - S11E13 - The Prescott.ts: No space left on device
Look at settings/transcoder/Transcoder temporary directory might help you here
So that field is blank. Why would it try to transcode when nobody is asking to view it yet? What would be a good value for that field that might actually work?
I hate to be the numbskull here, but where would I look for that? If I click on the “wrench and screwdriver” icon in the upper right corner of a page, I get a page that has two “library-like” choices: Settings/Library and Manage/Libraries. Neither of these choices offers a box to indicate where they might be in the file tree, and neither mentions either /Media or /share/Media. I am REALLY confused…
The /Manage/Libraries page does actually reference a Library called “TV Shows” as my only listed library and it (the library) is empty.
Once that’s done, you can open the directory in File Station (bonus, you now have easy access to the Plex logs directory too). I then created a folder named “temp” in the PlexMediaServer directory:
What’s interesting to me is the transcoding recordings never result in an actual file making it to the library. Something seems to misfire and the recording never stops. Like for this example I tried recording the end of an episode of “FBI”.
You can tell something is still going on in the transcoder directory, and if you open a few of the video clips you can tell the show “recorded”, and won’t stop recording.
If you don’t use the transcoder it’s a lot smoother. File gets dumped directly to your TV show directory, and it’s available almost immediately (as a test I recorded a short clip of “Criminal Minds” and it’s already in the library:
Thank you for posting. The root problem is obvious.
You’re using the Multimedia share. This isn’t a real / physical share. It’s 100% artificial.
In the QNAP FAQ, we expressly caution to not fall into this.
The solution here is simple but will take a few steps. It involves the same steps as if moving media to a new location. In this case, we’re not moving it but changing how it’s addressed.
As example, Assume:
TV is actually spread across 3 shares. /share/tv, /share/tv2, and /share/tv3.
/share/Multimedia was used because it does a nice job of consolidating.
However, it consolidates for READ, not for WRITE. There is no destination for when writing.
When media is added to the share, only a link is created. Nothing is actually moved. This is where the confusion starts.
We resolve this by:
Add the real sources to the list and keep the existing Multimedia reference. (EDIT the folder list for the library section).
As the sources are added, PMS will scan
Your media will show the indicator 2, which means it found 2 copies (or another path)
When all media has been so marked as duplicate (wait for the scans to finish)
Remove Multimedia from the list (EDIT the folder list again)
It will scan one final time.
Observe the 2 being removed
When complete: Scan Files (one last time), Empty Trash, and Clean Bundles.
The addressing has now been changed.
From this point forward, your DVR will be able to access the real physical shares and not the 64 MB root partition of the QNAP nas.
I thought I should reply here to let folks know I’m still in the game. However, I’ve lost track of what is being done. Remember, I’m a newbie to all this. Both to PLEX and to QNAP (which I got for Christmas…). I don’t know the in’s and out’s of either of these products (yet…). And the term “share” seems to be new to me in the way it is used, and I’m getting Dazed and Confused… I just want to get my setup working (please), but I need to understand it too so I can get out of the way sometime soon.
I love how everyone is so helpful. I am overwhelmed in many ways by the response. I was about to just start at “We resolve this by:” and do the following steps, but I discovered I didn’t really know what the “real sources” are, and what is PMS? How do I know when the scans have finished in step 4? I don’t know what or where to edit the folder list - is that in the PLEX GUI, the QNAP tools, my computer or telneting to QNAP from Windows… (you see I’ve gone off the deep end here). The closing statement seems to be what I would agree is the goal, but I hadn’t realized that we all agreed that that was the problem (running out of space by writing to the root partition).
I hope someone can talk me off the ledge here. Thanks for your patience.
I think Chuck was replying to the issue about when I try and use “transcode” on the DVR, the files never end up “muxing” (combining from short clips) into a full episode. And the recording never ends, going on for hours if I’m not paying attention.
In this case I don’t think that advice applies to me because I don’t use any of Qnap’s built-in media features, and that makes the Multimedia share just a regular folder.
It stopped happening in the last update, so I’m not sure of the cause. But I’ll consider moving my media to a different folder just in case if it happens again.
Really IMO if you’re using Plex then Qnap’s Multimedia Center and apps are a waste of CPU/memory that cause unnecessary HDD churn because it’s always trying to index your media and create thumbnails you’ll never use.
You seem to be storing your media in a folder named “Media”, so that specific piece of advice wouldn’t apply to you.
To be clear, if you open “FileStation”, is all your media in a folder named “Media”?
Open an app named “FileStation”. That’s your Finder/Windows Explorer program for the NAS.
On a Qnap NAS a “share” is just a folder, except it’s one you can share on your network. Meaning anyone who can connect to your network/NAS could theoretically access that folder and the files within it.
You can technically create folders that AREN’T shares, but for simplicty’s sake I won’t get into that now.
Here’s a screenshot of my FileStation, next to the “Shared Folders” area of my NAS (you can find either one by typing those names into the search box on your NAS):
See the folders that are “greyed” out under “Shared Folder”? Those are shares that the Qnap NAS itself manages. Because I’ve disabled the Multimedia Center, my Multimedia folder isn’t greyed out, kind of like if you disable “home directories” you can then even delete the directories.
So when someone says to create a “share”, they’re basically saying to create a “top level” folder in FileStation (in my example, Books, plexdocker, etc. are all top level/parent folders).
Earlier you asked two questions:
For question #1, why is it trying to transcode, I recommend checking your DVR settings.
From the server settings area, click “Live TV & DVR”. Then click “Device Settings”:
If so, then that’s why your DVR shows are being “transcoded” on the fly. Because you’ve enabled that setting. So what Plex does is convert your recordings to h.264 as it’s recording, which saves space but uses more CPU.
If you don’t have any interest in that, you can just choose “off”:
The answer is a directory that you have permission to “write” to. There are some system directories that you can’t save files to on the NAS. Think of it like how there are some Windows directories you can’t delete or save items to (or if you manage to, it causes issues).
I believe Trexx was suggesting you type “/share/Media” into that blank field.
The way Qnap treats shares/directories sometimes they can be something like:
/share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/Multimedia/Movies - Blu-Ray
But if you use:
/share/Multimedia/Movies - Blu-Ray
or
/Multimedia/Movies - Blu-Ray
Those could all just be different ways to point to the same directory, depending how things are setup.
tl;dr:
Type:
/share/Media
Into the “Transcoder temporary directory field”.
And potentially disable DVR transcoding if you don’t want your shows converted to h.264 (sometimes people call it x264, basically a specific type of video/video compression).
And then it’s not longer a “meta” folder/share. It starts being a regular share the same way Home folders just become regular folders if you disable that functionality.
If just telling folks to never use it is simpler to explain to folks, that makes sense, but it feels like you’re badgering me on something I know works, have explained works, and can prove it works. Whatever the problem with the transcoding DVR that started in 1.18, 1.16/1.17 wasn’t affected, and that all together makes it extremely unlikely it had anything to do with it.
I apologize if i sound harsh. It’s been one of those days.
In this job all different skill levels are present.
Some understand & remember to keep the Multimedia Console turned off.
There are those who keep turning it back on for it’s aggregation capabilities.
Where everything will go totally sideways is when the Codex Pack is installed.
At that moment, all pathnames in the Multimedia share, whether real files or constructions, are changed.
PMS throws an instantaneous and absolute fit because every piece of media indexed through there is Unvailable.
It is for those reasons, making a traditional share and adding that share name to both the multimedia indexing list and to PMS is the simplest approach (IMHO) .
Again, I’m sorry if I’ve seemed harsh. Thank goodness it’s after 5pm somewhere
To all who have been following this thread and contributing, I would like to send out a hardy THANKS!!! I have gotten enough info to finally make my QNAP NAS record my TV shows. It has been performing flawlessly for a week and a half now and it’s all because of your friendly help.
I was able to create my shares on QNAP so that they now reside at the following Plex path: /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/Media/TV Shows and it works! Of course, I have a way to go before my libraries are flawless, but at least I don’t feel that I have wasted my money on this project (baby steps…).
