Transcoder Error During TV Recording

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.13.9.5456
Player Version#: 3.69.1

|Distributor ID: Ubuntu
|Description:|Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS|
|Release:|18.04|
|Codename:bionic

HDHomeRun PRIME
Model: HDHR3-CC
Device ID: 131946A3
Firmware: 20180817

I am running into random errors when recording from my HDHomeRun to my Plex Server. Some shows and/or movies work fine, but I run into issues with Transcoder errors pretty much daily. I’ve ensured all of the directories are owned by plex:plex and there is over 4TB of free space on the drive. The most recent one was “Christmas in Love.” Also an episode of Bob the Builder of which I’ve attached the XML below. I’ve attached the logs as I’m at a loss here…

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-15_22-36-17.zip (5.4 MB)

bobthebuilderXML.txt (3.4 KB)

image
image.jpg649×584 134 KB

2

Here is another error on recording ‘Love You Like Christmas’

I followed the instructions in this post: Failed to Record TV show and let it run for two minutes as suggested direct to my Mac and that worked.

Link to file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7q6owlempspin4/v272%20(1).mpg?dl=0

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-16_14-27-21.zip (6.0 MB)

Specific error log details:

Summary

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.831 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Starting operation for ‘Love You Like Christmas (2016)’.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.833 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity 3cc36f13-7005-4b45-ae28-71b3104c5a28 - Recording

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.833 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/131946A3 (Silicondust HDHomeRun PRIME, supported) tuner 0.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.840 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Failed to resolve subscription for movie ‘guid: com.gracenote.tms://movie/MV009349850000 thumb: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/xFKOHH2VfldS9zBy8UqAAkU42S9.jpg title: Love You Like Christmas type: 1 year: 2016’ to library item

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.860 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Saving recording to “/media/MediaDrives/WD8TB/Recordings/Movies/.grab/2e7e09563b703abd5795830486bcd9580de1b248”

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.861 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.200.33/lineup.json

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.872 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.200.33/lineup.json

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.875 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Going to record for 7200 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.200.33:5004/auto/v272

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 16:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Waiting for a tuner (2 available).

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 3 (The recording was aborted) starting the record, shutting things down.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 14:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Freed a tuner (now 2 available)

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 3 (The recording was aborted) starting the record, shutting things down.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 14:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation for Love You Like Christmas (2016) completed with status error (The recording was aborted)

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.876 [0x7f90cf3e7700] DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity 3cc36f13-7005-4b45-ae28-71b3104c5a28.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 14:00 :00.877 [0x7f90cf3e7700] ERROR - DVR:Grabber: Starting media grab failed.

3

I’m just going keep providing examples. Hopefully this will help Plex get to the bottom of these issues. It’s very frustrating.

Here is another transcoder error:
image

XML File:
PAWPatrolErrorXML.txt (3.5 KB)

Logs:
Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-16_14-48-16.zip (5.7 MB)

4

Is it just a few shows affected, or are all of them affected?

5

It’s hit or miss (but very frequent), many of the recordings work fine, but the same series or movie could work one time and then fail the next.

I just got this one when trying again (I did not abort the recording):
image

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-16_16-43-52.zip (5.4 MB)

Relevant log lines:

Summary

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.691 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Starting operation for ‘Crown for Christmas (2015)’.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.692 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - Activity: registered new activity aae0336b-dd8c-49c3-b729-497dce21f006 - Recording

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.693 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: HDHomerun starting a media grab on device device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/131946A3 (Silicondust HDHomeRun PRIME, supported) tuner 0.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.693 [0x7f90c03fd700] DEBUG - Activity: updated activity 9219fb1b-700c-4bf3-9d83-79a28f778697 - completed 100% - Recording

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.702 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Subscription: Failed to resolve subscription for movie ‘guid: com.gracenote.tms://movie/MV008001760000 thumb: https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/qg76bZR9PaHq0On5g25jycjflfw.jpg title: Crown for Christmas type: 1 year: 2015’ to library item

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.703 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Saving recording to “/media/MediaDrives/WD8TB/Recordings/Movies/.grab/fd1fbd4cae30a8ffeae6a05ede7e57e1a618c93d”

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.703 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - HTTP requesting GET http://192.168.200.33/lineup.json

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.715 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - HTTP 200 response from GET http://192.168.200.33/lineup.json

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.717 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Going to record for 7200 seconds, final URL is http://192.168.200.33:5004/auto/v272

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.718 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 18:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.718 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Waiting for a tuner (2 available).

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Allocated a tuner (1 left)

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 3 (The recording was aborted) starting the record, shutting things down.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 16:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Freed a tuner (now 2 available)

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] ERROR - DVR:Recorder: Error 3 (The recording was aborted) starting the record, shutting things down.

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - MediaRecorderVirtual: setting stop time to 2018-11-16 16:00:00

Plex Media Server.log: Nov 16, 2018 16:00 :00.719 [0x7f90b27fe700] DEBUG - DVR:Grabber: Operation for Crown for Christmas (2015) completed with status error (The recording was aborted)

6

Tried recording ‘Christmas in Love’ again. It errored out after 48 minutes of successful recording… Below are the logs. Someone please help! @dane22 I noticed you trying to assist in the other thread. Do you have any thoughts?

@ChuckPa I followed your directions here: Automating Linux permissions using inheritance (Helps DVR) to ensure that I was doing everything possible, but I had already ensured that all directories were plex:plex.

image

ChristmasInLoveXML.txt (6.9 KB)

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-17_17-07-58.zip (5.5 MB)

7

There is nothing I can do. Dvr/LIveTV is beyond my knowedge. It functions internal to PMS. That’s unfortunately solely in Engineering’s hands.

8

Not into recording stuff, so no idea…
All I did was made some epg channel once

9

Last night 2 of 3 movies worked successfully. The third failed. All three had the exact same settings… I would love to have someone from Plex weigh in here. I’m a Plex Lifetime Member and loyal user of the product. I got rid of my cable box to consolidate to Plex and I’m having a lot of issues.

image

LetItSnowXML.txt (5.6 KB)

Plex Media Server Logs_2018-11-18_13-01-34.zip (5.6 MB)

10

I am getting the same error all the time, i am also using HDHomerun Prime, I was beginning to think content from HDHomerun could not be transcoded. When you say "I’ve ensured all of the directories are owned by plex:plex " what do you mean.

11

I am referring to linux permissions. It means that the user plex owns the directory and the group is plex.

12

Have you changed your transcoder directory? I found that was my issue. I had the recording file location and the transcoder temporary directory pointing to the same location. I pointed the transcoder temporary directory to the fastest drive possible on the server and ensure correct permissions in both locations and it has been working since.

13

Thanks, regarding permissions & ownership, should Owner be Plex and Group be Administrators; regarding Permission should it be Read Write and Execute.

14

If you have added the user plex to the group Administrators, you could set it up as you mentioned. Otherwise, plex typically will create its own group also called plex. So you can have the directories owned by plex in the group plex (plex:plex). If you set it up like this, you should only need rwx for the directory/file owner (chmod 700). I recommend that you allow all users in the group plex to be able to read/write/execute the files you would issue chmod 2770. The 2 in this command will set the setgid bit which causes files created in the directory to inherit the group assigned to the directory. I found this useful to insure that all recordings were able to be modified by plex. Hope this helps!

15

Alexh07,

I created a folder under Plex directory called Transcoder, Owner is ‘Plex’ Group is ‘User’, no option to make Group also ‘Plex’. Both permissioned for rwx, still get transcoder error, see images. I am using a Synology NAS.

Thanks

16

You may want to attempt the commands that I was mentioning via the CLI. You can find information on how to access that below. Then you can issue “groups plex” to find out what groups the user plex is in. If you navigate to the parent and issue “ls -lah” this will let you know the permissions currently set on the directory.

https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/AdminCenter/system_terminal

17

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