Three movies don't show in dash when playing

Mike-Denver · October 26, 2024, 4:07am

Server Version#: 1.41.1.9057
Player Version#: multiple players
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>
N100 server with JBOD. All files unmodified MKVs from disks. Most things hardwired Gbps.

Happy to provide logs if someone tells me how much to include.

My three Lord of the Rings movies (BR-1080), weren’t playing right. The Two Towers would play at all on one device (“error occurred… please check your connection…” ) and on all other devices, all three LOTR movies would play for about 9 minutes before stopping and switching to the error message about being paused too long.

If I switched to transcoding, movies show up in dash and play all the way through. If I switch back to direct stream, movies continue to show up in dash and play normally. If I force transcoding with client player settings, the problem continues.

This happened locally and remote. Tried the Plex dance. Did not help. Corrected some anomalies in file naming. Did not help.

Decided to just buy the 4k and rescan it. Same problem with both versions (or is that editions) of the extended release. Theatrical release (4k)seems to work fine.

I think these are the first movies I’ve had split across two files. Could that be related?

On the one hand, it’s a minor inconvenience for me. I have a workaround. On the other hand, if my dad or wife were ever to come across it, they’ll just be frustrated with it (and by it I mean me). Plus, it just bugs me that I cannot figure it out.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Mike

ChuckPa · October 26, 2024, 4:32am

Can you make certain the server’s DEBUG logging is enabled then recreate (re-capture) the failure?

There are a lot of things which can cause the failure. Your logs should show us which it is.

My movies are big files. I keep all movies intact to preserve the integrity of the files.

[chuck@lizum uhd.2001]$ ll -h *Lord*
The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring (2001):
total 114G
drwxr-xr-x   2 chuck chuck   81 Oct 31  2021 ./
drwxr-xr-x 413 chuck chuck  20K Oct 23 19:46 ../
-rw-rw-r--   1 chuck chuck 114G Oct 31  2021 The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).mkv

The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003):
total 128G
drwxrwxr-x   2 chuck chuck   77 Oct 31  2021 ./
drwxr-xr-x 413 chuck chuck  20K Oct 23 19:46 ../
-rw-rw-r--   1 chuck chuck 128G Oct 31  2021 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King (2003).mkv

The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers (2002):
total 54G
drwxrwxr-x   2 chuck chuck  69 Oct 31  2021 ./
drwxr-xr-x 413 chuck chuck 20K Oct 23 19:46 ../
-rw-rw-r--   1 chuck chuck 54G Oct 31  2021 The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers (2002).mkv
[chuck@lizum uhd.2002]$

Mike-Denver · October 26, 2024, 1:37pm

Plex Media Server Logs_2024-10-26_07-32-14.zip (5.8 MB)

Here are the logs. I started Two Towers from the beginning. It stalled after around ten minutes.

Should I also recreate the turning transcoding on and off to reengage the movie with the app?

Followup question to your first response - Do you have a preferred way to merge the files from the two disks? Just ffmpeg, or should I do something fancier?

Thanks for your help.
Mike

ChuckPa · October 27, 2024, 12:05am

First, I see the server’s adapter reset.
Does the server have a static IP address or a DHCP address?
If DHCP, what is the lease time? Normal lease time should be 86400 seconds.

Oct 26, 2024 07:12:46.642 [133620798860088] DEBUG - [Req#2d24/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Session 7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android (3) is unthrottling
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:46.643 [133620819831608] DEBUG - [Req#2d2e/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Throttle - Getting back to work.
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:47.163 [133620815637304] DEBUG - [Req#2cc2/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Transcoder segment range: 83 - 149 (149)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:47.164 [133620832414520] DEBUG - [Req#2d34/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Transcoder segment range: 83 - 150 (149)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.171 [133620870163256] DEBUG - [Req#2d3e/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Transcoder segment range: 83 - 151 (150)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.171 [133620824025912] DEBUG - [Req#2d35/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Transcoder segment range: 83 - 151 (150)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.576 [133620798860088] DEBUG - [Req#2d3d/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Session 7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android (3) is throttling
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.577 [133620819831608] DEBUG - [Req#2d48/Transcode/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/4017585a-84f5-48ae-892c-80b5e0fdae78] Throttle - Going into sloth mode.
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.859 [133620861774648] DEBUG - NetworkInterface: received Netlink message len=64, type=RTM_NEWLINK, flags=0x0
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.859 [133620861774648] DEBUG - NetworkInterface: Netlink information message family=0, type=1, index=3, flags=0x1003, change=0x0
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.859 [133620861774648] DEBUG - Network change.
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.859 [133620861774648] DEBUG - NetworkInterface: Notified of network changed (force=0)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:48.859 [133620861774648] DEBUG - Network change notification but nothing changed.
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:49.381 [133620949855032] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.50.237:41936] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/7fef0390726e5138-com-plexapp-android/base/00125.ts (17 live) #2cfd TLS 3152ms 98324145 bytes (pipelined: 67)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:49.381 [133620949855032] DEBUG - Removed transcode data consumer, active count 1 => 0
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:50.582 [133620865968952] DEBUG - Request: [192.168.50.141:50138 (Allowed Network (Subnet))] GET /status/sessions/background?includeFields=thumbBlurHash (17 live) #2d1b TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (Mike-Denver) (Android)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:50.583 [133620949855032] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.50.141:50138] 200 GET /status/sessions/background?includeFields=thumbBlurHash (17 live) #2d1b TLS GZIP 1ms 350 bytes (pipelined: 82)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:52.857 [133620949855032] DEBUG - handleStreamWrite code 104: Connection reset by peer
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:52.857 [133620949855032] DEBUG - NotificationStream: Removing because of error
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:52.857 [133620949855032] DEBUG - Completed after connection close: [192.168.50.141:47534] 200 GET /:/eventsource/notifications?filters=activity,playing,transcodeSession.start,transcodeSession.update,transcodeSession.end (16 live) #1a38 TLS GZIP 420030ms 55771 bytes (pipelined: 8)
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:54.720 [133620949855032] DEBUG - handleStreamWrite code 104: Connection reset by peer
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:54.720 [133620954049336] DEBUG - handleStreamWrite code 104: Connection reset by peer
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:54.720 [133620954049336] DEBUG - NotificationStream: Removing because of error
Oct 26, 2024 07:12:54.720 [133620949855032] DEBUG - NotificationStream: Removing because of error

Second, In the above, you can see ‘Connection reset by peer’.
This is the player disconnecting.

It might have disconnected because of the server adapter’s reset. I’m not certain – or-- if you hit stop it would do that. If you hit stop, how long did you play? It didn’t look very long (the dashboard does take a bit for the playback to register in the web browser)

Questions:

Where is your transcoder temp?
How much free space is there on the transcoder temp partition?
df -h output? ( I didn’t see an ‘out of space’ error anywhere )

Regarding the playback not showing, where are you looking for it?
Plex/web on the host? Elsewhere?

Regarding putting the videos back together:

There’s always the naming option – provided the player(s) are ok with it.
If you can rip it again and keep the whole video – That’s best
If you have to concatenate them together again, use MKVToolnix. It is a known pure remux with headers properly rewrittten after the concat/remux . You’ll want mkvtoolnix and mkvtoolnix-gui.

I did a little searching for you:

Be careful / pay attention to the output name

Mike-Denver · October 27, 2024, 4:09am

Server IP is assigned by the router DHCP, and lease time is 86400.

The player in this case is a Firestick 4k Max, but I was seeing similar behavior from Android tablet and Android phone with the original files. I don’t remember if I tried the web player at work. I have tried the tablet with the 4k, but it lags too much to keep playing. However the movie does not show as playing in dash.

For the logs I sent you, I played the video until it errored out – about nine to ten minutes.

I just thought of another odd thing that started recently. When watching TV shows, when I press play on the firestick, the screen blanks and looks like it’s about to play, but then it pauses the video and I have to press the ok button again (maybe twice) to get it to actually start. That matches with your thinking it stopped playback, but it only happens on the firestick, not any other devices.

Transcode files – /disks/TC Dedicated SSD connected to SATA in server.

tvdvr@TinyBasement:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs           1.6G  5.8M  1.6G   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p2  468G   77G  368G  18% /
tmpfs           8.0G  4.0K  8.0G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  8.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
efivarfs        192K   89K   99K  48% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/sda2       129G  2.8G  120G   3% /disks/OBD
/dev/nvme0n1p1  1.1G  6.2M  1.1G   1% /boot/efi
/dev/sda1        90G   44K   85G   1% /disks/TC
/dev/sdb1       5.5T  4.7T  749G  87% /disks/c
/dev/sdf        7.3T  1.1T  6.1T  15% /disks/d
/dev/sdd        5.5T  449G  4.8T   9% /disks/dvr2
/dev/sde         13T  9.4T  2.7T  79% /disks/tvshows
/dev/sdc         13T   10T  2.1T  84% /disks/movies
tmpfs           1.6G  120K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000
tvdvr@TinyBasement:~$

c is original plexmedia disk. Includes DVR.
dvr2 is new dvr after c filled up
d, tvshows, movies are media files

Playback is not showing in the dash on the web UI. (screenshot attached - currently playing Two Towers on two players) It is not showing in the PlexDash app. It is not showing in tautulli. I had been checking via the web UI from an upstairs computer. Just checked on the host machine. The dash is the same as the photo.

For the merging - I forgot about mkvtoolnix. Thanks for the reminder. I cannot rerip them as a single file because it is spread across two disks.

Thanks again for your help. What else do you need from me?

Mike

moderator edit: readability of code output

ChuckPa · October 27, 2024, 4:47am

This is VERY weird.

I’m playing, LOTR now. and it works – In Chrome on PMS 9057

I have app version 10.22.1.1607

Which version do you have ?

I’m looking at two issues here:

Not showing in the dashboard
Not playing normally.

Dependent on your version, I’ve got some ideas.

(I had to hard power-cycle my FireTV.. Let’s see if I can recreate your problem)

Mike-Denver · October 27, 2024, 5:12am

Firestick and Tablet are both 10.22.1.1607 although the letters at the end are different.
Firestick d108dc3f
Tablet f8f7bc73

I will merge the split files tomorrow when I get home from work and see if that does anything.

My file structure has a separate directory for each of DVD, BlueRay, and 4k. Any chance that could be connected?
Thanks again.
Mike

ChuckPa · October 27, 2024, 5:26am

As for not displaying Dashboard,

Let’s strip this down and test.

Close browser windows
Open browser
Open Incognito window
Close original window
Log into Plex with incognito
Now play

Wondering if a plugin is interfering (that dashboard is a popup window)

I store everything as :

/movies/
   Movie (Year)/
      Movie (year).ext
      --other extras here--

Mike-Denver · October 27, 2024, 5:42am

If I understood you right, you were saying use the incognito browser for monitoring while playing on a different device. Although the pop-up theory seems odd if it’s also not showing up in the plex dash app on my phone. Also it works fine for every other movie. Is there a way to find all movies with the same codec and such as the problematic three?

In a fresh Firefox incognito window, playing on tablet, dash shows bandwidth used, but claims nothing is playing. When I go to playback setting and switch to any transcode (HW), it shows up in the dash immediately. When I switch back to direct play, it continues to show in dash. Also tested Fellowship. Similar outcome.

ChuckPa · October 27, 2024, 6:01am

I’m suggesting to try the incognito so as to rule out any possible interference from plug-ins

I am suggesting this because I can’t yet repro your problem.
I’m trying to eliminate possible bad actors.

My movie is still playing without issue.

I did forget to force the transcode. Running that now.

Mike-Denver · October 27, 2024, 12:31pm

To clarify – If I just hit play they do not show up in the dashboard, whether direct streaming or if it’s transcoding because player settings limit bandwidth. When I force transcode in playback settings, that’s when they do show up in the dashboard. But if I switch back to direct, everything continues to work fine.

Also, I just remembered that I can search for stuff and quickly discovered two other movies in my collection that are split between two files. Deathly Hollows and Lawrence of Arabia. Just checked them out and they both do the same thing. I know I have not yet watched LoA. I’d be shocked if I had not watched the HP or LOTR extendeds all the way through, but I suppose it’s possible.

I’m up early, so I’ll get the files merging before I head to work.

I know filenames are often an issue. Do you see a problem in my naming?

from 4k directory…
│ ├── LOTR
│ │ ├── The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
│ │ │ ├── The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)-pt1.4k {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ │ └── The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)-pt2.4k {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ ├── The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) .4k {edition-Theatrical}.mkv
│ │ ├── The Return of the King (2003)
│ │ │ ├── The Return of the King (2003)-pt1.4k {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ │ └── The Return of the King (2003)-pt2.4k {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ ├── The Return of the King (2003) .4k {edition-Theatrical}.mkv
│ │ ├── The Two Towers (2002)
│ │ │ ├── The Two Towers (2002)-pt1.4k {edition-extended}.mkv
│ │ │ └── The Two Towers (2002)-pt2.4k {edition-extended}.mkv
│ │ └── The Two Towers (2002) .4k {edition-Theatrical}.mkv

│ ├── Lawrence of Arabia (1962) {version=Restored}
│ │ ├── Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - pt1 {version=Restored}.mkv
│ │ └── Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - pt2 {version=Restored}.mkv

and from Bluray directory…

│ ├── LOTR
│ │ ├── The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
│ │ │ ├── Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)-pt1.1080 {edition-extended}.mkv
│ │ │ └── Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)-pt2.1080 {edition-extended}.mkv
│ │ ├── The Return of the King (2003)
│ │ │ ├── The Return of the King (2003)-pt1.1080 {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ │ └── The Return of the King (2003)-pt2.1080 {edition-Extended}.mkv
│ │ └── The Two Towers (2002)
│ │ ├── The Two Towers (2002)-pt1.1080 {edition-extended}.mkv
│ │ └── The Two Towers (2002)-pt2.1080 {edition-extended}.mkv

│ ├── Harry Potter
│ │ ├── Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).mkv
│ │ ├── Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010)
│ │ │ ├── Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010) - pt1.mkv
│ │ │ └── Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010) - pt2.mkv

OttoKerner · October 27, 2024, 2:37pm

Yes.

That won’t fly. The -pt2 must be the very last part of the file name, before the file name extension. Otherwise it won’t get recognized as a multi-part video.

That is no supported syntax for a version.

My personal recommendation would be not to mark the “normal” edition as an edition at all.
That way, at least this edition can appear in Discover Credits. https://support.plex.tv/articles/discover-credits/

All [technical] information which doesn’t serve as a matching hint for the Plex scanner/agent should be collected between a pair of square brackets.
e.g. The Return of the King (2003) [1080] {edition-Extended}-pt2.mkv

Mike-Denver · October 27, 2024, 3:30pm

Thank you. I did not realize the pt1 went at the end.

I will make your suggested changes and try it when I get home. But really I think I just need to merge them and call it done. I hate wasting Chuck’s time. Although I still find the behavior I’m seeing perplexing.

Can you tell me more about the square brackets? I was trying to mimic the plex support page which make no mention of them.

/Movies
      /Blade Runner (1982)
         Blade Runner (1982).mp4
      /Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}
         Blade Runner (1982).1080p.h264 {edition-Director's Cut}.mp4
         Blade Runner (1982).1080p.hevc {edition-Director's Cut}.mkv
         Blade Runner (1982).4k.h264 {edition-Director's Cut}.mp4
         Blade Runner (1982).4k.hevc {edition-Director's Cut}.mkv

OttoKerner · October 27, 2024, 3:35pm

Make that

/Movies
      /Blade Runner (1982)
         Blade Runner (1982).mp4
      /Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Director's Cut}
         Blade Runner (1982) [1080p.h264] {edition-Director's Cut}.mp4
         Blade Runner (1982) [1080p.hevc] {edition-Director's Cut}.mkv
         Blade Runner (1982) [4k.h264] {edition-Director's Cut}.mp4
         Blade Runner (1982) [4k.hevc] {edition-Director's Cut}.mkv

Everything between the first pair of square brackets in a file name is ignored by the scanner.
It is mentioned for instance in here, among the “Important Notes”: https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/
(no, the bit about square brackets does not apply only to series)

Mike-Denver · October 28, 2024, 3:56am

Hooray!

Thanks Chuck and Otto!

I don’t know if it was the naming or joining the split files, but everything seems to be working. I haven’t run for more than a few seconds, but they all pop up on the dash app instantly, so I think it’s promising.

And Otto - I used your naming instructions for the LOTR files that are now fixed, but those Blade Runner files I used above are not mine. They are copied and pasted from the Plex site on how to name files. So if you’re right, it seems like someone ought to correct or update that.

And Chuck – It still seems weird that it was not acknowledging that it was playing. If you need me to test anything on my end, I saved the old split files and am happy to spend time trying things.

Mike

system · January 26, 2025, 3:57am

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Three movies don't show in dash when playing

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