We think we found the problem. Working on a fix.
Any updates on this @anon18523487 ![]()
Should be fixed in latest beta, 1.30.0.6486. We missed the release note. Let me check about adding that.
Wonderful. Thanks ![]()
11 posts were split to a new topic: Videos not playing
@anon18523487 With the latest version 1.30.1.6497 either still broken or broken again. Could you please ask the devs to have a look again?
This happens with all files, also own phone recordings canāt hardware transcode.
Thanks

Logs please.
@anon18523487 Having the same issue with two different Shield PMS servers on 1.30.2.6563. On one attempt while watching the dashboard, the HW icon flashed for a half a second on the screen then disappeared.
hereās a portion of the log where it happened
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.044 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 39
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Direct Play is disabled
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264/mp2
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Audio Direct Streaming is disabled, so video's audio stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: TV Animal Farm - Episode 01-01: selected media 0 / 39
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Required bandwidth unknown (media requires deep analysis) Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 1500kbps
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.045 [22408] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Determining preferred transcode encoders through transcode only decision.
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.046 [22408] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reducing playback quality for 1428kbps stream bitrate: video resolution to 720x406, audio channels to 2, quality to 20
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 39
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Direct Play is disabled
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/h264/mp2
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - Episode 01-01 - video.width limitation applies: 1920 > 720
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Episode 01-01: Audio Direct Streaming is disabled, so video's audio stream will be transcoded
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.047 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - MDE: TV Animal Farm - Episode 01-01: selected media 0 / 39
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=43 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=39 part=(id=39 decision=transcode container=mkv protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=110 decision=transcode bitrate=1290 encoder=libx264 width=720 height=404) Audio=(id=111 decision=transcode bitrate=128 encoder=libopus channels=2 rate=48000))))
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Transcode Session: Going to restart at offset 0.000000 with segment number -1
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Killing job.
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 22481 with 9
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session b00e17873316ddeb-com-plexapp-android
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.048 [22408] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session b00e17873316ddeb-com-plexapp-android at offset 0.0 (state=3)
Jan 28, 2023 20:56:16.049 [22408] DEBUG - TPU: hardware transcoding: enabled, but no hardware decode accelerator found
Full log attached
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-01-28_21-01-14.zip (4.4 MB)
That shows that it tried to use HW transocding and it failed so it switched over to software, thatās the āflashā you saw. Does this happen for all videos? This one looked like a mpeg2 DVRād video. Please try an h264 video to see if hardware fails for that too.
@anon18523487 Thanks - it does happen will all video. Have tried with h264 and h265 video with the same results.
Just upgraded the server to 1.31.0.6654, still same thing happening.
@anon18523487 Also wondering if what is going on is related to the problems being seen in Linux right now
No, those are driver issues. They donāt apply to the Shield.
@anon18523487 - any update?
@anon18523487 Any update?
Just tested running the latest beta Version 1.31.1.6716 for NSTV
Plex hardware transcoding doesnāt work.
Iāve tried on all my surviving devices that cannot playback HEVC (i.e. Roku 3, Fire TV Stick (2017) model, and Raspberry Pi 3B+ using Plex for Kodi) and they all buffered right at the beginning of the playback.
PS: added logs
Plex Fire TV - NSTV Server.zip (2.9 MB)
@hbbs Interesting. Your logs indicate that your Shield is unable to load the HEVC decoder.
Decoder failed: OMX.MTK.VIDEO.DECODER.HEVC
This is used to playback HEVC so your device canāt direct play HEVC. This then tells PMS to transcode the file. The PMS part of the Shield then tries to transcode the HEVC and also fails so it switches to software. Transcoding uses the same decoder so this is expected if direct playing doesnāt work.
I think there may be an issue with the firmware on your Shield so that the HEVC decoder isnāt working. You might need a factory reset.
That might explain some things. When it was only falling when the target device was my old Roku 3, which is still around after all this time.
First Iāll try to completely uninstall and then reinstall Plex Server.
Factory Reset It will give me a lot of work.
Iāll let you know, @MovieFan.Plex
Well, here we go. I factory reset my NSTV.
There is nothing on it besides Plex and Plex Server. (and the necessary updates) with some movies in a folder in my plex library.
Iāll retain my NSTV in this state for a while until I can get the best out of it or a bit of advice to give up. ![]()
Unfortunately, the same pattern persists.
I tried to playback using Fire TV Stick (2017) that doesnāt support HEVC 10 bit and it went straight to software decoding. I tried two different files.
One with HEVC+AAC and the other HEVC+Opus
I tried to log everything and upload the logs. See below.
I also tested using the Roku Plex Client. This one showed the same old behavior. On Plex Dash, it shows the HW enable icon (see image below) but on the TV screen, it tries to load and stops at 33% and after a while, it fails.
I did also test using P4k (LibreELEC) but since it is not officially supported by Plex I havenāt logged in to anything. I can tell though that it showed the exact same behavior as the plex fire tv client mentioned above. It did even start to buffering at the very same scene.
Here are the logs:
Plex Logs - Fire TV Client.zip (599.6 KB)
Plex Logs - Roku 3.zip (692.2 KB)
Please, let me know if there is something else I could test.
I believe the latest major update to the Shield caused itās hardware decoders to break. There are talks about this on Reddit. You can notice this using some basic features which the Shield can no longer do fluidly. My own experiences are:
PIP causes the UI to stutter.
Using anything that plays 2 videos at the same time causes stutter.
Steam Link causes stutter on the entire Shield UI and the stream. Shield reports itās using the hardware decoder but itās clearly not.
Using the broadcast to Twitch feature (Nvidia Share) does work but if you enable microphone passthrough it will cause the entire Shield UI and the stream to stutter.
I was watching this thread as I wondered how the Shield would handle hw transcodes in its current version. Clearly it does not. Sadly Nvidia doesnāt seem to care so Iām not sure this will ever get fixed. It has been like this for a long time now.
Iām still seeing the message about transcoding failing. Do you have tone mapping enabled? The Shield cannot handle that and will revert to software. Turn that setting off and try again.
