Transcode Issues - Movie playback "buffering"

Plex Media Server
,
6

Thanks for the logs

I see one clear error.

Dec 31, 2025 22:17:37.892 [22687809637176] DEBUG - Request: [209.173.242.220:54280 (WAN)] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/session/D7920280-972B-42E8-B6A8-4DF799BD9D60/base/header (27 live) #326632 TLS Signed-in (range: bytes=0-) 
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:39.000 [22687971916600] ERROR - [Req#326506/Transcode/ec8c63c8-1558-45a6-b7f6-2bef7ca3db38-1229/85532663-1520-4d79-b181-21761e28fe33] [eac3_eae @ 0x154c59b5c040] EAE timeout! EAE not running, or wrong folder? Could not read '/tmp/pms-8ad1b322-4a57-48db-8fff-421d0927da76/EasyAudioEncoder/Convert to WAV (to 8ch or less)/ec8c63c8-1558-45a6-b7f6-2bef7ca3db38-1229_128813-0-2.wav'
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:39.001 [22687962590008] ERROR - [Req#326665/Transcode/ec8c63c8-1558-45a6-b7f6-2bef7ca3db38-1229/85532663-1520-4d79-b181-21761e28fe33] [eac3_eae @ 0x154c59b5c040] error reading output: -5 (I/O error)
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:39.001 [22688105806648] ERROR - [Req#326666/Transcode/ec8c63c8-1558-45a6-b7f6-2bef7ca3db38-1229/85532663-1520-4d79-b181-21761e28fe33] Error while decoding stream #0:1: I/O error
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:40.926 [22688397105976] DEBUG - Push: There are 0 new top level things for filter '0' (episode.addedAt>>=1767235695&sort=episode.addedAt:desc&type=2).
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:40.931 [22688397105976] DEBUG - Push: There are 0 new top level things for filter '0x14a28a77ad48' (episode.addedAt>>=1767235695&sort=episode.addedAt:desc&type=2).
Dec 31, 2025 22:17:40.935 [22688397105976] DEBUG - Push: There are 0 new top level things for filter '0x14a271b09218' (episode.addedAt>>=1767235695&sort=episode.addedAt:desc&type=2).

PMS cannot transcode the Dolby EAC3 audio.
(There are no Notify slots available for the transcoder to use – it needs 2 for Dolby)

Do you have a lot of Music or Photos? They eat up a lot of the notify slots
The transcoder temp directory is local HDD/SSD/SHM ?

The remedy for this is:

  1. For all your media, count the total (linux find will help with this)
  2. Do a little math and round that up to the next multiple of 32768
  3. Add a Linux kernel tunable parameter (sysctl.conf) to increase the table size
  4. Restart the server

Here is the FAQ about how to do it.

Please ask if you have any questions.