Server Version#: 1.32.6.7557
Player Version#: 7.9.3.8721-780c139bf-Plex
Roku Version#: 12.5.0 build 4172-46
I’m running Plex on Ubuntu Linux 20.04LTS. I have a large number of home videos (MOV files) taken with an iPhone in portrait orientation. When I play the videos with the Plex app on my family room Roku, they take about 15 seconds to load, and are shown in portrait orientation but garbled. When I play them with the iOS Plex app or in the Plex web client or my bedroom Roku, they work fine. Note that on the bedroom Roku, it still takes about 15 seconds to load, but on the iOS and Plex web client, it loads almost instantly.
Both the family room and bedroom Roku are using version 7.9.3.8721-780c139bf-Plex of the Plex app. But the family room Roku (the one with the issue) has software version 12.5.0 build 4172-46 and the bedroom Roku (the one that works) has software version 12.0.0 build 4184-46. It appears the newer version is the one with the issue.
If I play the video on the family room Roku with the Plex setting of Direct Play set to force, it will play without being garbled, but will be sideways.
I tried to use ffmpeg to transcode the video and rotate it ahead of time so it wouldn’t have to do it on the fly. My server has ffmpeg version 4.2.7 installed. Here’s the command I use to rotate the video:
ffmpeg -i InputVideo.MOV -vf “transpose=1” OutputVideo.MOV
I also used exiftool to set the EXIF rotation=0 since once the video is rotated by ffmpeg, there is no longer a need for it be rotated again.
When I load the video into Plex, the video plays in portrait orientation and garbled on the family room Roku, just as it did with the original file. However, now it is in portrait orientation and garbled whether I set the “Direct Play” Plex setting on the Roku to auto or to force. The video plays fine on the iOS Plex app and the Plex web client and the bedroom Roku.
I thought that maybe the problem is an old version of ffmpeg, so I downloaded ffmpeg 6 and compiled it, then used ffmpeg 6 to rotate the video as described above. When I load the resulting video file into Plex, it plays properly on both Roku Plex clients as well as the iOS Plex app and Plex web client, although the ffmpeg 6 video file is about half the size of the original and is noticeably lower quality.
Any other suggestions of things to test?
