Remote Streaming only working partially (NVIDIA + Intel iGPU)

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: latest beta
Player Version#: Any (remote)

Hey guys,

I noticed as of PMS version 1.40.4. remote streams often won’t work, resulting in error messages (Either “Transcoder has closed” or “s1001 (Network)” errors.

I’m not quite sure what’s the issue behind it, but I’ve tested 2 things:

  • I have my Intel GPU transcode everything on Plex. If I select it in the settings as transcoding hardware, the issues come up. They do not happen if I select my RTX 3090 as transcoding device.
  • Rolling back to latest stable version (1.40.3) solves the issue as well. The same streams, the same remote devices will work then - even with my Intel GPU.

As I can’t provide anything more than this, because I’m back on the stable channel, I just wanted you guys to take note of that issue and - if more people experience this - iron it out.

Best and have a great day!

2

Things like this can only be diagnosed with log files.

  1. activate debug logging (not ‘verbose’ logging!)
  2. quit Plex Server
  3. wait 1 minute
  4. start Plex Server
  5. wait 2 minutes
  6. (try to) Play a movie which requires transcoding
  7. wait 3 minutes
  8. fetch log files and attach them here
3

Hey there Otto,

sadly, I currently don’t have a lot of users and it seems to have to do with some particular thing about my setup. All streams work flawlessly on the Public build, a lot don’t on the latest Beta build.

If I do it myself remotely from my mobile without WiFi, it’s working as well, so I currently don’t have much of a chance to test (The friend I have who’s struggling the most (for her there’s barely a single stream working without transcoder or network error printed) is very, very un-tech-savvy and I don’t want to bother her with testing stuff too early.

However, I’m pretty sure it is related to either Intel iGPU/transcoder or iGPU+dGPU setup and is likely related to this topic I created earlier: VPT (Video Preview Thumbnails) not generated automatically upon adding media

Seems to be an issue with the transcoder, because on 1.40.4 neither VTP are generated sufficiently, nor do the remote streams work sufficiently.

However, I’ll be glad to provide logs the way you outlined as soon as I’ve found a reliable test dummy who doesn’t mind testing.

Best and have a great day!

4

It’s best you perform steps 1 – 4 right now.
When the issue occurs, you only need to fetch the server logs immediately after it.

5

I just downgraded to 1.40.3 again as it’s unplayable for that said user on 1.40.4. I grabbed the logs after downgrading, are they sufficient? I can later grab logs again as soon as she’s stopped streaming.

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-07-04_15-20-41.zip (4,3 MB)

6

The issue must be recorded in the logs. If you go to a version where the issue doesn’t occur, the logs don’t contain a clue about it.

1 Like
7

Okay, makes perfect sense :smiley: Alright, I’ll try to grab them as soon as I’ve found somebody willing to help, sorry

8

That said user played something which was then errored out in that logs I think. Or are the logs purged as soon as another server version is installed?

9

Yep, I think I’ve found something in the transcoder logs:

Jul 04, 2024 15:11:06.102 [8424] ERROR - [Req#163/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Error initializing an MFX session: -3.
Jul 04, 2024 15:11:06.108 [8424] DEBUG - [Req#163/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred
10

Such short a snippet could be both something completely normal, or a hint about the issue.

11

If the logs don’t get deleted upon installing a new server version it should be in there, as it then was logged as she tried to stream.

You could have a look yourself then, as you’re much more familiar and trained :smiling_face:
If they’re deleted upon installing a new server, I’ll come back later with fresh logs :smiling_face:

Ah okay, nvm. I just saw the logs were printed on 1.40.3. That’s what it says at the very top :smiley: :man_facepalming:

I’ll come back in a bit then :heart:

12

There you go @OttoKerner :slight_smile:

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-07-04_16-49-27.zip (2,7 MB)

13

Could I get a hint about the time or the title of the played item?

14

Yeah of course! Should be all within the past 5-8 minutes, so ~16:50-16:42.

I really presume it has to do with Plex not being able to open the transcoding device, my Intel iGPU, don’t you think?

I’ve had the exact same error message as I’ve stated earlier with another app that does transcodes. Tdarr to be precise.

Those exact same errors:

Jul 04, 2024 15:11:06.102 [8424] ERROR - [Req#163/Transcode] [FFMPEG] - Error initializing an MFX session: -3.
Jul 04, 2024 15:11:06.108 [8424] DEBUG - [Req#163/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: opening hw device failed - probably not supported by this system, error: Unknown error occurred

Which I was able to resolve by bumping ffmpeg from v5 to v6 manually

16

Thank you! I’ve filed this as well.

1 Like
17

Thank you Otto :raised_hands:

18

Hey there @OttoKerner. Is there anything I can do to help? Or to test? Would love to be a part of the bug fixing (builds) :see_no_evil:

19

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