This server is not powerful enough to convert video

General Discussions
1

Hi.

I have my media stored on my Synology NAS. All media played fine up until about a month ago. Now, a folder containing some short cartoons says “This server is not powerful enough to convert video.” when trying to play them? Why? What’s changed?

2

I’m not aware of any changes that should cause this.
Would you mind sharing some more details on your setup and what you’re trying to play?
E.g.

  • what version of Plex Media Server do you have installed on your Synology?
  • what Synology model do you have?
  • what kind of media are you trying to play (some technical details… you don’t need to share what video it is)?
    https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/
  • on what client are you playing the video (e.g. browser, on a TV/mobile/… – what Plex app and version is that)?
  • are you playing the video within your home network (wired or wireless) or through a remote connection?
  • when you attempt playing the video… what information is showing in the Now Playing tile on your Plex Server’s dashboard? (this will show how the video is streamed -> local/remote/indirect and if any streams are being transcoded -> from what format to what format)
    https://support.plex.tv/articles/200871837-status-and-dashboard/
3
4

Anyone?

5

There should be no roadblocks from the video itself.
Could you please check what information is showing for that last bullet point from above? Even with a playback error there ought to be a now playing tile with what’s supposed to play.

Also… could you please download and append the logs from your server after attempting to play that video?
Settings > [Server Name] > Manage > Troubleshooting > Download Logs (just upload the entire zip file)

6

The video doesn’t play at all, so nothing is displayed in the Now Playing section.

See logs as requested: Plex Media Server Logs_2020-08-10_07-50-37.zip (8.7 MB)

7

That log file is totally flooded with networking error messages.
Do you have any firewalls or other security apps installed on your NAS (or around your home network) that could interfere with Plex obtaining proper network information?

8

Nothing that I’m aware of. Maybe just whats in-built into my router (fritzbox 7950)

9

So, can anyone suggest how I resolve my issue playing these files?

10

Simple steps

You can perform the following steps to check if they fix the network issue (e.g. if it’s only some kind of hiccup).

  1. restart the Plex Media Server running on your Synology
  2. reboot the NAS

More complex steps

If it’s not as simple you might need to dig into the system settings of your NAS (primarily Connectivity and Security on the control panel).

11

But everything plays fine, that’s what I don’t get (apart from these cartoons)?

13

That’s so weird, because they played fine about 2/3 weeks ago, and have been used for around a year, so my NAS has been capable of playing them.

I also have around 50 movies in avi format which play?

14

Maybe this will be a mystery forever. Seems like you are all stumped.

15

What you describe doesn’t need to be a conflict… your server could not be able to transcode the videos but you could still have played them fine in the past.
Hence trumpy81’s hint to check your Plex client settings to ensure you have direct play enabled. If transcoding is not an option, you need to ensure there’s no artificial bottlenecks preventing Plex from direct playing the video.

16

Direct Play & Direct Stream are already both enabled. Any other suggestions please?

17

what player / Plex client are you using? (platform/version)

18

I use either the plex web client on my PC or I use the Plex App on WebOS via LG tv

19

With Plex Web you have little influence to force it to direct play. Browsers are quite limited when it comes to media formats they can play natively – so your PMS is highly likely to transcode the content it’ll provide to your browser.

According to the LG WebOS tv… this should support AVI in combination with the following parameters.

webOS Models

Additional Direct Play video support:

  • AVI container with:
    • mpeg4 or mjpeg video encoding
    • aac , ac3 , dts , mp3 , or pcm audio encoding
    • Only available on webOS 3.0 or newer

https://support.plex.tv/articles/203810286-what-media-formats-are-supported/

20

Plex via webos on LG is what I use most often, but the videos I’m having trouble with don’t play on either. All my other avi’s do though.

21

Which brings us back to the original feedback from trumpy81… if the server isn’t strong enough to transcode it and the player cannot directly play it for some reason – you won’t get around optimizing your files.

As you say that particular video was working before…
I’m not aware of any changes on the Plex side… that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some under the hood changes – that being said it could also mean that some webos update broke/removed/limited some codec