Server Version#:1.32.6.7557-7000
Player Version#:1.79.1.3984-879339ed
Most files will play on the PC app just fine but starting a week or two ago some shows won’t play. It loads the show very quickly, shows a black screen and the buffer bar begins filling but the show never plays. If I move the slider it will progress the show to the frozen scene depending on where the slider is.
If I open the plex.tv page or go to my TV the show will play fine, no issues. Most other shows will play fine. Codecs seem to all be the same. I deleted the codecs on the server and reloaded them, no change. I reset the Plex PC Application to default settings and after setting it back up…back to the same issue.
This is what’s in the info of a file that won’t play
Media
Duration 21:37
Bitrate 2760 kbps
Width 1920
Height 1080
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Video Resolution 1080p
Container MKV
Video Frame Rate 24p
Audio Profile he-aac
Video Profile high
Part
Duration 21:37
File Family.Guy.S22E01.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE.mkv
Size 427.04 MB
Audio Profile he-aac
Container MKV
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 2760 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 1088
Coded Width 1920
Color Primaries bt709
Color Range tv
Color Space bt709
Color Trc bt709
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 1080
Level 4.0
Profile high
Ref Frames 2
Scan Type progressive
Width 1920
Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Extended Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Codec AAC
Channels 2
Bitrate 127 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Profile he-aac
Sampling Rate 24000 Hz
Display Title English (HE-AAC Stereo)
Extended Display Title English (HE-AAC Stereo)
Codec SRT
Language English
Language Tag en
Display Title English (SRT)
Extended Display Title English (SRT)
Typically when I hit play on a file the circle will come up with a loading percentage. It goes decently fast depending on the resolution of the video, very fast on the PC. Right now with the files in question it immediately goes to a black screen with a buffer bar that starts growing. Like it’s bypassing part of the loading because it can’t. I agree it seems like it’s audio related. Funny thing is if I use a web browser to view my plex server it plays fine there. It’s only the PC app.
You said some shows don’t play but does that mean that some do? Can you identify the commonality between those that don’t and those that do? I noticed is the media info you posted (and the logs) a sample frequency of 24kHz which is a bit unusual. Is this common to those that don’t play?
That doesn’t seem to be the issue. There are a few files that don’t work and they are all different at 24000, 44100, and 48000. Then I have others at 24000 and 48000 that do work.
Here’s an example of a file that does play fine on my PC app:
Media
Duration 21:15
Bitrate 9802 kbps
Width 1920
Height 1080
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Video Resolution 1080p
Container MKV
Video Frame Rate 24p
Audio Profile dts
Video Profile high
Part
Duration 21:15
File The.Big.Bang.Theory.S01E07.1080p.BluRay.x264-CiNEFiLE.mkv
Size 1.46 GB
Audio Profile dts
Container MKV
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 8293 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 1088
Coded Width 1920
Frame Rate 23.976 fps
Height 1080
Level 4.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 4
Scan Type progressive
Width 1920
Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Extended Display Title 1080p (H.264)
Codec DCA
Channels 6
Bitrate 1509 kbps
Language English
Language Tag en
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Bit Depth 24
Profile dts
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Display Title English (DTS 5.1)
Extended Display Title English (DTS 5.1)
Codec SRT
Language English
Language Tag en
Display Title English (SRT)
Extended Display Title English (SRT)
Okay, well this looks like a genuine dts track found on a Blu-ray disc. Good to know that this works.
What you might also want to try is to remux a movie that is not playing but this time without the audio track and try playing back that file. Then we would know if it is audio-related or not…
perfect, now we know for sure its audio related. The option then is to re-encode the audio track. This can be done “easily” with ffmpeg. Transcode the audio to something like AC3.
This is happening to a number of files though including some movies. Is there maybe a faulty codec or something I can replace rather than re-encode every files that has the issue?
It’s worth noting removing the sound does change more than just needing to decode the sound. MPV defaults to using the audio track for the clock but if there is no audio track it will use the video track. So a worthwhile test would be to mix together the video from a broken file and the audio from a working file and see if that result works.
