Server Version#: 1.18.7.2415
Player Version#: Plex Web 4.24.2
NOTE: I used Plex Web to test both locally and remotely, though my observations indicate that the problem is unrelated to client platform.
In my Movies library, I have over 100 videos that originate from VHS tapes that I recorded to digital media years ago. Some of these videos refuse to play when viewing from a remote client. When I try to play, I can see the very first frame of the video in the player, but it freezes with the orange spinner, and never progresses no matter how long I wait.
This problem doesn’t occur when playing the same file from a client on the same network as the server. I suspect it is a transcoding issue. Logs provided. I have been able to reproduce the problem with a 90 second trimmed-down version of one of the movies. This 58MB video can also be provided if requested.
Plex Media Server Logs_2020-02-14_06-05-15.zip (26.4 MB)
Here is ffprobe output for one of the files affected:
$ ffprobe 20\,000\ Leagues\ Under\ the\ Sea\ \(1954\).mkv
ffprobe version 3.4.6-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Copyright (c) 2007-2019 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 7 (Ubuntu 7.3.0-16ubuntu3)
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=0ubuntu0.18.04.1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libmysofa --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librubberband --enable-librsvg --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libopencv --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
libavutil 55. 78.100 / 55. 78.100
libavcodec 57.107.100 / 57.107.100
libavformat 57. 83.100 / 57. 83.100
libavdevice 57. 10.100 / 57. 10.100
libavfilter 6.107.100 / 6.107.100
libavresample 3. 7. 0 / 3. 7. 0
libswscale 4. 8.100 / 4. 8.100
libswresample 2. 9.100 / 2. 9.100
libpostproc 54. 7.100 / 54. 7.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954).mkv':
Metadata:
ENCODER : Lavf56.36.100
Duration: 02:07:25.14, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3388 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 692x462 [SAR 154:173 DAR 4:3], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
Metadata:
_STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
BPS : 9992376
BPS-eng : 9992376
DURATION : 02:07:25.138000000
DURATION-eng : 02:07:25.138000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 183300
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 183300
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 9549137461
NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 9549137461
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
ENCODER : Lavc56.41.100 libx264
Stream #0:1: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p, 384 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
BPS : 384000
BPS-eng : 384000
DURATION : 02:07:24.960000000
DURATION-eng : 02:07:24.960000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 318540
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 318540
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 366958080
NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 366958080
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
_STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
Stream #0:2: Subtitle: subrip (default)
Metadata:
BPS : 67
BPS-eng : 67
DURATION : 02:04:30.462000000
DURATION-eng : 02:04:30.462000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 1284
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 1284
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 63207
NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 63207
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v8.2.0 ('World of Adventure') 64bit
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2016-01-29 14:14:34
_STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
_STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
