Roku playback consistently fails with "Client stopped playback"

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.16.5.1488
Player Version#: 6.3.13.5830

Edit (12-26-2020): This is still a problem, and was never resolved by Roku. However, I now have a workaround. If you disable Direct Play in the Plex Roku Client, but allow Direct Stream, the Plex Media Server will remux the streams before sending it to the Roku. The remux resolves this problem.

Setup: Roku -> HDMI -> TV -> HDMI -> Receiver (via ARC) (I have plugged the Roku directly into the receiver and have seen the same problem, though, so ARC should not be the issue)

This is a pretty weird one. When I play certain ripped videos on the Roku, Plex stops playing the file within a few minutes. Any one video stops at the exact same timestamp on repeated attempts, though another video may stop at a different timestamp consistently. They always have this in common:

  • Original rip from Blu-Ray
  • MKV format
  • H264
  • DTS 5.1 (Just DTS. If a file has DTS-HD MA, Plex transcodes for compatibility)

Here is the message in the Plex logs:

Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.504 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - [Now] User is Cafe Diem (ID: 1)
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.504 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - [Now] Device is Roku (Roku Ultra).
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.505 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - [Now] Profile is Roku-7.x
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.505 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - [Now] Updated play state for /library/metadata/390.
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.505 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - Statistics: (228e985eaac38c833480b041bc984d11) Reporting active playback in state 3 of type 1 (scrobble: 0) for account 1
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.508 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Terminated session 0x7efff451d330:228e985eaac38c833480b041bc984d11 with reason Client stopped playback.
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.508 [0x7eff9dffb700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Removing session 0x7efff451d330:228e985eaac38c833480b041bc984d11
Jul 22, 2019 18:58:00.508 [0x7f000effd700] DEBUG - Completed: [::ffff:[IP Address]:36777] 200 GET /:/timeline?playbackTime=137000&time=141000&duration=6035326&state=stopped&ratingKey=390&key=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F390&continuing=0&playQueueItemID=38166 (11 live) TLS GZIP 84ms 495 bytes (pipelined: 22)

So the reason given is that the client stopped playback. I put the Roku into debug mode and also grabbed those logs.

 playerState: playing
7/22/2019 18:57:58.828 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) Player state changed to finished (hasAd=false)
7/22/2019 18:57:58.836 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) Stop requested with reason: 
7/22/2019 18:57:58.837 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) VideoPlaybackController::OnPlaybackFinished: Handling finished playback event. forceClose=false, userClose=false, isPlayed=true:0.0233637, playbackError=false
7/22/2019 18:57:58.837 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) VideoPlaybackController::OnPlaybackFinished: nextType=postPlay
7/22/2019 18:57:58.838 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) Stop requested with reason: 
7/22/2019 18:57:58.839 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (PlaybackMgr) VideoPlaybackController::OnPlaybackFinished: Going to show post play.
7/22/2019 18:57:58.840 [Cafe Diem:5b74d542-2cd7-5aad-b568-8462e06ed771] INFO (VideoPlaybackScreen) Navigating to screen PostPlayScreen, options: {roAssociativeArray}

The Roku doesn’t really say much of anything it seems.

(I have full logs if a dev is interested)

I can reproduce this on multiple files of a full TV series with the same codecs as above (Blu-Ray rip, H264, DTS, MKV).

For the moment, I currently use two methods to mitigate this:

  1. Convert the 5.1 to FLAC, then it works fine.
  2. Set the Roku HDMI to only output Dolby Digital Plus, which forces a transcode on all DTS. Then it works fine.

Has anyone else run into this problem?

2

Bump for the daytime crowd.

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This is not a known issue. Are you able to supply the original source, or a sample that replicate the issue?

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I’ll attempt to edit a small section of a video that consistently fails, then test it to make sure it’s still failing. If so, I’ll send it your way, along with full logs of the failure. Thanks for the help.

1 Like
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@Cafe_Diem thanks for the sample! Verified the issue on multiple roku models. We actually had a similar report of this happening that we gave to Roku to test. It seems the firmware is thinking the video is completed after a few seconds, which is outside of our control. As you noticed, a transcode alleviates the issue. This can also be fixed by a simple remux, copying all of the streams. There is something about the original container that Roku’s firmware is failing on.

This is not a solution, but a fairly quick workaround to fix the video for playback on the roku.
ffmpeg -i {in.mkv} -map 0 -c copy {out.mkv}. If you have ffmpeg, you can run the previous command to fix the video file and replace the original with it.

Are you OK with us sending this sample to Roku for further testing?

1 Like
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Absolutely.

Funny you bring this up, I had also just tried a remux and noticed it fixed it. My ripped shows are residing on a NAS, unfortunately (Star Trek TNG Blu-Ray is about 1 TB alone!). So that’s a lot of copying/muxing/recopying. I figure I’ll keep the Roku in transcode mode for now and see if Roku can figure this one out first, to save me some trouble.

If they need any other test files or information, let me know.

This what I get for thinking, “It seems like a waste to rip DTS-HD MA for this show, DTS will be just fine!”

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Has there been a known fix for this yet? I’m getting more and more movie files with this issue which stop right around the 70 second mark like I’ve hit the stop button. Resuming plays for another second and stops again but I can start the movie over and it will play until it hits around the 70 second mark again.

Roku 4, forced direct play, file straight from MAKEMKV

What I don’t understand is it’s not all my movies. The new Godzilla does not have this problem but John Wick 3 does which I’ve added within days of each other.

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