Server Version#: 1.32.3.7162
Player Version#: 4.100.1
Today, one of my friend that remote stream on my server told me that some files would not play on Web Plex (Windows Chrome up-to-date). From what I understand the video would not direct stream and since video transcoding is not enabled on my server, it would just throw an error.
I tried to play the file on Chrome on my Mac and I could play it no issue. I tried in Safari I was having the same issue as him. I looked at the logs and found this :
It actually seems like shaka-player “crashes” while decoding the video stream so it defaults back to transcoding (which throws an error since transcoding is disabled on my server). The direct video stream actually plays for 1 or 2 second before it switches to transcoding which proves it can actually direct stream.
I am able to play multiple other 4k HEVC(x265) files on Safari without an problem, even some which are really similar to the problematic one:
You would probably have to upload a full set of logs after you can reproduce it failing so they can see the actual reason it’s trying to transcode
I can tell if you’re looking to completely avoid transcoding, you’ll be much better off with the Plex for Windows app instead of trying to use the browser
Sorry, I actually failed to upload a screenshot of the logs, I just added it. It’s actually not transcoding at first since it plays the first second or two of the file, then the error seen in the post occurs and it falls back to transcoding (shaka player error)
I get that the Plex app is the best to avoid transcoding. The thing is that it actually doesnt need to convert with very similar files…
You are getting decryption and decoding errors. This is likely caused by the browser no being able to play the content. For encrypted content, this may be the license server returning the wrong keys. Otherwise, this is probably caused by those users having problems with their hardware decoders or using different browsers/versions.
3015 and 3016 are basically the same error. Both are caused by the browser being unable to play the media content.
As @JaysPlex mentioned the 3016 error code corresponds to a media decode error from the browser. Generally when the browser reports an error trying to decode the content it doesn’t give us any information about why it failed (we pretty much just get the error code).
In this case your content is HEVC which requires hardware decoding support. This is very dependant on the user’s hardware, in particular the GPU and drivers. The browser believes there’s hardware support but an error is thrown somewhere in the system OS → GPU chain. They can try ensuring their drivers are upto date or checking if certain hardware features are disabled in their system, but unfortunately there’s not anything the player itself can do to get around the error other than falling back to a transcode.
Thanks for your answer, that gives me a bit more info. Since I posted this, I checked up with my friend that had trouble playing this file on Chrome. I got the following logs which seem to say a bit more info : log - Pastes.io.
It’ll be a combination of hardware and software support. That error message suggests that their browser is built for that OS without a build flag that adds support for Dolby Vision. It’s likely it’s not supported on Windows in Chromium.
An alternative would be to use our standalone Plex for Mac/Windows or Plex HTPC for Mac/Windows apps which offer much greater video support.
An alternative would be to use our standalone Plex for Mac/Windows or Plex HTPC for Mac/Windows apps which offer much greater video support.
That is indeed a good option for Windows (And that is what my friend will use from now on). On M1 Mac though, the experience is awful. (It literally takes 2 minutes for the app to just launch…) I heard that the iPad Plex app was fantastic on M1 Macs but it seems like it’s not possible anymore to download it from a Mac. Do you know why by any chance ?
I know it’s better for me to use another player, but why 90% of my HEVC Dolby Vision content can play without an issue? I’m mainly curious about what could be different in those files that makes the decoding fail ?
Native Apple Silicon support for M1/M2 Macs is coming soon. I do not know why the iPad app is no longer available on the macOS App Store.
There can be a lot of reasons why very similar looking files can differ in playback behaviour. Small differences in the way the files were encoded, the way they were muxed into their container, or just particular settings used in the encode process. It can be difficult to say why, as I said generally browsers just tell us that they failed to decode the content without much detail.
