Samsung QN65Q8FNB Suddenly cannot play over half my Movies and Shows with 30+ streams

Plex Players Smart TVs
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1

Server Version#: 1.26.2.5797
Player Version#:5.32.1 (April 7/2022) though inside app reads 5.38.1…
TV is a Samsung 2018 QN65Q8FN8.
Receiver is a Dennon AVR-X2400H.

Issues:

  1. Suddenly over half of our movie library is unable to be watched. 350+ movies.

I’ve noticed that these are movies with DTS audio. Which we’ve been able to watch before…

Error code I can get on screen is as follows while trying to play them.
“Cannot direct play with protocol: http, codec: dca. Reason: Codec dca is excluded per setting DTS: false Cannot direct stream with protocol: dash, codec: dca. Reason Codec is excluded per setting DTS: false App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled.”

Example file info for an impacted Movie:
File size = 10.9GB
container = MKV
Video: 1920x808 - 23.976 fps - 9.9 Mbps - H.264 4.1 High
Audio: English (DTS 5.1) - 1.5 Mbps - 48000 Hz.

We have never had issues playing these movies in the past.

  1. Suddenly several TV shows we download are unable to be watched because they are exceeding 30 subtitle streams. Error to follow:

“Cannot direct play with protocol: http, codec: h264. Reason: Stream count exceeds 30 streams. App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled.”

Example file info of an impacted Show
File size = 1.3GB
Container = MKV
Video: 1280x720 - 23.976 fps - 2.8Mpbs - H.264 3.1 High
Audio: English (EAC3 5.1) - .7Mbps - 48000 hz
Subtitle Streams in file: 33 I think it was.

If I view a TV show impacted by this stream issue it does in fact have just over 30 subtitles available to be used. I can also use MKVToolkit to remove enough of the languages I won’t ever need but I should not have to.

How subtitles streams that are not even being used are counting towards the stream limit makes no sense.

  1. Ever since the latest update the menus are slow and panful to navigate. 5-10 seconds to load a shows details. Then after watching a show exiting and switching to a new one equally as painful.

In both cases of #1 and #2, Direct Play and Direct Stream are not disabled in anyway.

Should Plex also not switch to Transcode if it has problems playing back? It’s not.

Testing on the Web client and on a chrome cast ultra we have works fine. We have the Chrome Cast ultra for an even older TV that has not had a plex client update in a few years.

Being a VIP Supporter for over 10 years. Feeling kind of let down and frustrated that I now may have to re-build my movie library that’s been flawless for years… and now TV Shows I have to edit to make them playable.

Let me know if more Server side logs are needed. Or any other information.

6

Made it home and here is the logs while trying to play back the example file for Issue 1.

I have to find a different show to replicate issue 2 as I’ve already fixed the ones I new about so we could watch them.

Cheers,
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-05-30_12-09-47.zip (5.5 MB)

7

Ok found the same file for Issue 2 mentioned and recreated the problem in this set of logs. Probably better that the logs are separate for the 2 issues. Easier to find details perhaps.

For issue 3 I’m not sure that is capturable in logs.

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-05-30_12-22-26.zip (4.9 MB)

8

I have the same TV I think, or a slightly later version but got a similar issue.my plex just freeze and then quits instead though. Restarting it does the same thing again.

Tried to reinstall the TV app, doesn’t help and I have also has issues to actually uninstall it. I’ve had to unplug the TV and then plylug it back in and uninstall and then install the app again.

Plex works just fine otherwise, ie on my computer etc.

9

You might need to go to Samsung to see what the issue is with apps crashing, freezing, problems uninstalling/installing. That won’t likely be something Plex can help with. Did you purchase extended warranty? If it is a problem with the CPU/computer side of the TV that may be covered.

10

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this is suddenly happening? Can we get someone to look over the logs and help us figure this out?

11

Are these movies failing to play, or are they transcoding? It should transcode, because there’s no DTS support since Tizen 3.0, so it needs to be transcoded. These logs are from a Tizen 4.0 device, and it’s never had DTS support.

This is a limitation on the Samsung’s video player, not our limitation. We can’t do anything about this unless Samsung fixes it on their end and releases a firmware update.

We’re aware of performance issues, we’re working on improving it incrementally.

1 Like
12

The movies do fail to play completely. Never tires to transcode.

13

I am fairly certain it used to Transcode these movies as we have watched them on this TV before. For some reason, after a recent Server update, We’ve been unable to play any with DTS Audio. I understand that DTS isn’t supported, I just haven’t had time or been able to replace these with a version with non DTS audio.

14

Here are the Transcode server settings:

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15

@sknudskov

Please turn off verbose logging. It adds too much information and makes the logs difficult to read. Debug logging, the default, is adequate for most situations.

The limit in the Samsung player is 30 total streams, video + audio + subtitle, not 30 subtitle streams (yeah, I’m being picky, just want to be clear about the limit).

The Plex Tizen app should mention the 30 stream limit in its log entries. To see the log entries, set the Plex app to log to the server at the debug level. They will be in the Plex Media Server.log file (rolls to .1 to .5). The setting times out after a few hours (eight if I remember correctly).


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1 Like
16

Thanks, will do if we need more logs for sure.

The 30 stream thing makes sense, I guess some people who rip shows adds more than necessary sometimes. Just annoying that its suddenly become an issue after several years.

The bigger problem is why aren’t the movies transcoding. Should I not be able to force transcode in these situations from the TV client? There are no options I can see.

17

Adjusted as recommended.
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-06-04_10-43-37.zip (5.3 MB)

Used a different sample show this time. time stamp around 10:40am.

I watched the transcode folder on the server this time and it is creating the session folder but never populates it.

A while back I was plagued by a big buffering problem that turned out to be a bug and had messed with the transcode buffer throttle and had it set to 120s. Changed it down to 30s and made no difference. probably wouldn’t anyway but forgot to reduce this after troubleshooting before.

18

Anyone had a chance to look at the updated, reduced logs, to help see if it can be determined why these movies are not transcoding?

I don’t have the option in the plex app on our tv to force transcode either.

Cheers,

19

So I was doing some more searching around for a potential solution and came across a thread that talked about downgrading to a previous version, 1.24.5.5317 but that was geared to a audio drop out issue. Anyway no effect.

I would really like to figure out why Plex will not Transcode these files it cannot natively playback. I have no option to force transcoding like I have seen some members mention before.

As I said, I have watched these movies that have DTS only on my Samsung TV before. I know that Samsung doesn’t support DTS directly so how do we get transcoding to work?

Getting frustrated…

20

Give the 1.27.1 PMS beta a try and see if that helps

1 Like
21

I did and no change :frowning:

It still won’t transcode anything, I thought there used to be an option within the app on TV’s to force Transcoding.

I had to get a Chromecast for our older Samsung TV as updates stopped a few years ago. That TV is 10 years old so not super surprised about the end to the version updates. With this TV being semi current still and receiving app updates hopefully we can get it back to “normal” and I don’t have to resort to a second Chromecast, just yet. I’m sure the day will come though. Just not sure if this limitation is server side or TV App side.

22

This affects 134 of 346 of the movies I’ve acquired over the years. All of which have been watched on either of our Samsung TV’s not using the Chrome Cast on the Older TV or natively on our newer TV. Some of these are difficult to re-acquire as they are old or niche.

23

Please turn of verbose logging. It adds too much additional info to the log files. Settings → Server_Name → General.

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Plex is transcoding the audio when you played both The Amazing Spider-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is the correct action. Notice the video is copied (decision=copy) and the audio is transcoded (decision=transcode).

Jun 04, 2022 10:28:42.668 [17024] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=51305 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=103822 part=(id=116711 decision=transcode container=mp4 protocol=dash streams=(Video=(id=218450 decision=copy width=1920 height=808) Audio=(id=218451 decision=transcode bitrate=774 encoder=aac_mf channels=6 rate=48000))))


Do you have a personal domain name, proxy, custom URL, or such in use? If so, there appears to be a typo in the configuration.

This message appears repeatedly in the log files. Note the reference to s10.128.10.100.
Jun 04, 2022 10:27:14.707 [12764] DEBUG - Request came in with unrecognized domain / IP 's10.128.10.100' in header Host; treating as non-local

It is causing Plex to treat local connections are remote.

You can monitor playback via Plex Dashboard → Now Playing. It will show if Plex Media Server thinks the connection is local, remote, or indirect.


Suggestions:

  1. Disable verbose logging.

  2. Make sure local clients appear as local to Plex Media Server.

  3. Then see how Plex treats playing one of the troublesome files.

Note: Also set the TV to log to server at the debug level. This will show what the client is seeing. The setting times out after eight hours, so you may have to re-enable occasionally.

1 Like
24

I have disabled verbose logging as you had mentioned this before. The new logs are captured as such.

No custom domains or proxy in play at all.

Plex Network settings currently.

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My Local Network is 10.128.10.0/24.

I have tried monitoring the playback via the Dashboard.

It thinks it is playing and even has the timer counting down. But as you can see it goes idle and nothing ever plays on the TV.

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There is the occasional spike of Orange, which should mean that is is considered local. And at the top there you can see it is treated as local.