My recordings have been failing with increasing regularity on Plex DVR. This is true of the current release (1.10.1.4561), and the previous 3 or four releases at least. In Recording schedule, I get a yellow exclamation mark and a message of “There was a transcoder error”. As far as I know, there is no transcoding set for recordings.
This has happened on a variety of recordings, although some seem more susceptible than others. There’s no clear pattern, however.
I have just done a clean re-install (uninstalled as per instructions on the Plex site) and the problem is still occurring.
When it occurs, the following appears in the logs (sanitised):
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:51.653 [0x7f478bffe700] DEBUG - Auth: authenticated user 1 as xxx@xxx
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:51.653 [0x7f477afff700] DEBUG - Request: [IPAddress:33682 (Subnet)] GET /player/proxy/poll?deviceClass=pc&protocolVersion=1&protocolCapabilities=timeline%2Cplayback%2Cnavigation%2Cmirror%2Cplayqueues&timeout=1 (10 live) GZIP Signed-in Token (roger@rnpickard.me.uk)
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:51.653 [0x7f477afff700] DEBUG - Beginning read from two-way stream.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.478 [0x7f47617fa700] DEBUG - buildLiveM3U8: min 0 max 529
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.755 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Using default transcode duration of 120 minutes
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Started session successfully: 15f57183-c24e-423c-a2e8-c0e1b422e797
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: It took 30.0 sec to start the session for http://127.0.0.1:32600/devices/compound_device072dvb%23v4l%23%2Fsys%2Fdevices%2Fpci0000%3A00%2F0000%3A00%3A14.0%2Fusb3%2F3-7%2F3-7%3A1.0%3A0013942974/media/triplet%3A%2F%2F9018%3A8197%3A8448?param=<%3Fxml%20version%3D"1.0"%20encoding%3D"UTF-8"%3F> <tunedata><tt>4<%2Ftt><dq>0<%2Fdq><dr%2F><fr>513800<%2Ffr><md>0<%2Fmd><sr>0<%2Fsr><pl>0<%2Fpl><lf>8<%2Flf><l1>0<%2Fl1><l2>0<%2Fl2><ls>0<%2Fls><pp>0<%2Fpp><hz>0<%2Fhz><in>0<%2Fin><fc>0<%2Ffc><t>8197<%2Ft><n>9018<%2Fn><s>8448<%2Fs><en>0<%2Fen><%2Ftunedata>
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: No part because session isn’t reporting one.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Couldn’t obtain a part, something went wrong.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 12 (There was a transcoder error) starting the record, shutting things down.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Asked to stop recording ‘Program name’.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - DVR:Recorder: Stopping transcode session.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Killing job.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Signalling job ID 29728 with 9
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Job was already killed, not killing again.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Stopping transcode session 15f57183-c24e-423c-a2e8-c0e1b422e797
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Cleaning directory for session 15f57183-c24e-423c-a2e8-c0e1b422e797 (/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Cache/Transcode/Sessions/plex-transcode-15f57183-c24e-423c-a2e8-c0e1b422e797)
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f478e7ff700] DEBUG - JobManager: child process killed by signal: 9 (Killed)
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f478e7ff700] DEBUG - Jobs: ‘/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder’ exit code for process 29728 is -9
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Freed a tuner (now 1 available)
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation for Program name completed with status error (There was a transcoder error)
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.756 [0x7f475efff700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 6d55c24f-d806-4cc9-9743-fa5a3e1c15b4.
Dec 08, 2017 23:10:52.757 [0x7f475efff700] ERROR - DVR:Grabber: Starting media grab failed.
This is pretty frustrating, as I would love to make Plex my main DVR, but I’m getting about a 75% failure rate on recordings, which makes it near useless.