Excuse my ignorance, but how come Plex can play a movie in Avi format, but not a 7 minute cartoon in avi format?
Out of interest, I just setup the same libraries on Emby and they play perfectly, using the same files, on the same server.
I don’t know…
Could be a number of things from Emby including additional codecs while Plex might rely on local ones (as it leaves the heavy lifting to the server).
Technically it doesn’t really matter if it’s a full movie or a 7-minute clip. If there’s some incompatibility in the mix-up of container (AVI) and video/audio/subtitle codec and their technical parameters (max bitrate, h264 level, # of channels, resolution, color space…).
I am also having this exact same problem! I have a Synology DS1812+ that played pretty much everything without any issues (after disabling transcoding and using DirectPlay, etc.) on a LG WebOS TV (and through Chrome browser) and then a few weeks ago older AVI files that 100% played without problems stopped working. I suspect the issues started after installing update 1.19.4.2935, but I can’t be sure.
I looked at a few forum entries that suggested stopping the service and deleting the codecs folder as some people had success with that - no such luck for me.
I uninstalled the package and installed an earlier one. Same thing. Tried a much older one and Plex wouldn’t work properly after that. So I then did a clean install - including removal of the library and metadata information. Created a small library and added a few things that I was no longer able to play, and they worked! This was only last night, less than 24 hours ago.
So, I created the libraries again and left things running overnight. Come back this afternoon and guess what - things are broken again!
All I’ve done this time is stop the service and delete the codecs again to see if that made a difference, but it did not. I have not attempted a roll-back of the program and would prefer to avoid if possible.
From what I’ve read a lot of others are having this issue where AVI files that once worked are suddenly not working anymore. Converting the entire library over to a newer container format is an impractical option given that the problem is clearly to do with some change within the PMS program and not the capabilities of the Synology’s CPU.
Happy to provide technical details and logs if requested.
Please do include the Downloaded Log ZIP file.
I suspect you’re reaching the point where the CPU in the DS1812 is no longer strong enough to handle all the media you have stored.
Given you’ve reloaded it, are you 100% certain that all metadata downloading and analysis is complete? I ask because, given the CPU in that unit, the tasks of analyzing media and getting metadata is enough to cause problems if you try to play video.
The CPU in the DS1812+ is a D2700 Atom. It only has 500 Passmarks of performance. The recommended minimum is 700.
You can DirectPlay video with it but there is no way it can handle any appreciable trancoding tasks.
You state you have AVI files. Are you 100% certain the TV can accept AVI files in DirectPlay format or must they be remultipliexed (DirectStream)?
Regarding the issues of others, your logs will allow me to see if your issue is related to theirs
Hi, thanks for replying!
The library metadata, etc, is still being sorted out, so I will try this again later and post and update. However, as I mentioned, when I created a small library last night I was able to play an AVI file (via a Chrome web browser window) before all the metadata, etc, had been sorted out, so I don’t think this is the issue. Also previously when I was able to play these AVI files it did not add much load the the CPU (a few %, if that), which adds to my gut feeling that the CPU is not the issue here. Just now when I tried again (and failed) the CPU was sitting at ~17%.
The TV was definitely able to accept the files before (for years), and as part of troubleshooting this issue I have also tried different combinations of enabling and disabling DirectPlay and DirectStream and what audio standards are used but the end result is the same - no playback.
I’ve also read in other postings that AVIs containing XviD encoded video won’t work at all, but this is not the case in this situation: MPEG4 is the video codec (see attachment for details)
avi_file_codecs.txt (705 Bytes)
Will try again once metadata and other tasks have completed and will update this post.
May I have the DEBUG log files ZIP I requested?
Hi ChcukPa,
Please find attached the requested logs. No difference when attempting to play the file this morning from either Chrome browser or the LG WebOS TV.
Interestingly it also refuses to play another file that was working fine yesterday which is a H264 within a MKV.
I agree - issues only started happening after a recent update
I have encoded a few of the files in question and they can now be played (as expected). The fact remains, though, that up until a few weeks ago I had no problems playing these these AVI files, during which time the workload on the Synology had been more or less the same as it has been for years. Someone else on this thread has also reporting having the same issue - surely this is due to a change in the program made after a recent update.
Regarding the Use hardware acceleration where available option, I figured if it was enabled and my device didn’t actually have hardware acceleration ability then this wouldn’t have made any difference, nor should it have caused a problem. I have now turned it off, and of course it has made no difference to not being able to play AVIs.
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Totally agree. The Plex update has forced this. Hope they can fix with a future release, but I’m testing Emby at the moment and it’s working really well, so tempted to move across.
On the bright side, converting these old AVIs to H264 MP4s has resulted in a significant reduction in file size without any noticeable loss of quality, so there’s that. But still, I’d prefer not to have to go and convert all the things that used to play just fine until recently!
I’ve seen a few different “AVI used to work, now it doesn’t” comments around the forums.
For all that AVI is “old”, I haven’t seen any announcements that AVI is no longer supported.
I wonder if you identified a version of PMS where it stopped working, if Plex would treat that as a bug/regression.
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Maybe-related complaint about AVI:
https://forums.plex.tv/t/cant-play-avis-on-samsung-tv-client-5-1-2/
This server is not powerful enough to convert video.
I also receive this, however I’m on a seedbox that’s configured for 4K streaming, and I cannot sometimes perform basic 720p directplay/directstreams, at times I will disabled/re-enable remote access and it works…
I also seem to have the problem of random files not being able to be played. For what it’s worth, the files seem to have subtitles imbeded. I use a Visio tv w/ the plex app, ipadruning the latest os and app version and then chrome on a windows 10 laptop (turning every combination of options on and off) to play the file. I finally had to use VLC on either the ipad or laptop when none of plex could play the file anymore. 6 months ago, the same file played fine on all of the plex apps.
I also have noticed different things:
A file plays on Plex.TV MAC APP, but does NOT play on chrome plex browser. Sometimes plays on LG Plex app. Some files will play on one player, and not another.
I also noticed subtitles affects sometimes, Forced AAS loads with 5 episodes of Tehran, does NOT load the 6th.
There are many inconsistencies since a few of the last few updates.
I updated to 1.20.4.3508 and one of the “fixes” is * (Transcoder) Playback could fail on certain files with very large subtitle events. This seems to have fixed most of the files that reciently started to not be able to be played.
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