Plex Media Server : Version 1.9.7.4460 official docker image
Clients with this issue : Plex web on Windows and Linux, and probably any that supports auto-quality.
Files : VTT and SRT external subtitles encoded with UTF-8 and mkv files with x264 video and DTS/TRUEHD audio.
Issues : Can’t resize subtitles when auto-quality is enabled. Subtitles lose quality to the point of being impossible to read sometimes. Playback will stop and never resume no matter how long you wait.
If I select a “static” quality, everything works fine, subtitles are clear as crystal even transcoding to 160p, can be resized at any time without stopping playback, and buffering never happens.
If I select auto-quality I can’t resize subtitles, they lose quality together with the video (even PGS subtitles) and eventually playback just buffer “forever”.
All the errors I see in my logs are :
[Transcoder] [dash @ 0x2903c40] Cannot use rename on non file protocol, this may lead to races and temporary partial files
[Transcoder] [mp4 @ 0x334b200] Application provided duration: -16 / timestamp: 382952 is out of range for mov/mp4 format
[Transcoder] [Parsed_inlineass_2 @ 0x1db1a80] fontselect: Using default font family: (Arial, 400, 0) -> /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Resources/Fonts/DejaVuSans-Regular.ttf, 0, DejaVuSans[Parsed_inlineass_2 @ 0x1db1a80]
Also I noticed that whenever my quality sudden drops to very low qualities or straight up buffer, those errors show up. After some time quality goes up again. They also happen with PGS embedded subs. They also happen with static qualities, but doesn’t seem to affect anything.
I know support for subtitles with plex is notoriously bad, but I’m willing to give my logs and sample files if needed to someone over PM.
This happens with all files, using subtitles with UTF-8 or not, vtt or srt. I let plex do all the maintenance tasks, including deep scanning of my media.
Can we please fix this? I feel like a stupid person when I give plex access to someone and auto-quality keeps buffering and subtitles don’t work.
