I’ve been having issues with both direct streaming and transcoding all of my high bitrate 1080p movies. I can usually watch them transcoded to 720p on the XBox 360 app without issue (only some buffering before I upgraded the CPUs), but almost never @1080p on the XBox One app or the new Roku 2 I just bought, even after beefing up the processors.
I’m desperately looking for a streaming solution for 1080p video / advanced audio formats. Basically something as close to a 1:1 replacement for my Blu-rays and HD-DVDs as possible. I’m trying to avoid loss of fidelity in both the audio and video encodes, which is why my entire library uses MKV containers. I realize that all clients don’t support all formats, but I’m trying to avoid transcoding when possible.
I’ve finally captured some DEBUG logs in hopes someone can pinpoint the problem. This example was a 1080/PCM transcode to the Roku 2.
My system
PMS: 1.0.3.2461 OS: unRaid 6.1.9 CPUs: dual Intel Xeon 5345 quad core (8 total cores) RAM: 20GB (~10GB free while transcoding) Network: wired gigabit, end-to-end Client: Roku 2 (4210R)
Media info summary
Source: Blu-ray Container: MKV Video: H.264 / High@L4.1 Video bit rate: 22.1 Mbps Res: 1920x1080 Audio: PCM, 5.1 Audio bit rate: constant 4.6 Mbps @ 48KHz
Log summary
Streaming starts: Sep 10, 2016 12:53:xx (Plex Media Server.1.log) Stream renegotiation?: Sep 10, 2016 13:49:38.191 (Plex Media Server.log) Transcoder killed: Sep 10, 2016 13:49:38.609 (Plex Media Server.log) This is also where my stream stopped, obviously. The result on the Roku was a spinning wheel.
Please let me know if there’s something else I can look at or provide that could help.
I checked your log and it looks like the Roku had issues playing the file so it stopped and told PMS to stop. I’ll need to see the Roku logs to see why it stopped. Check my signature for a link to how to get logs from the Roku.
I started the same movie from the Roku after enabling logging. It began from roughly the same point where it had died previously (probably a few seconds prior) and ran about twenty minutes with no issue. So I backed up the video to a few minutes before the same starting point and the video ran to the end credits - well over an hour.
I typically don’t see issues early in the playback of any movie, so having only 20 minutes of log data probably isn’t going to help. Is there any way around that limitation?
Don’t use the remote logging, follow the steps for the local logs. Wait for the problem to show up then grab the logs locally, save it as a text file and post that file.
I was able to reproduce the problem on the first full playback of the same movie. Started it from the beginning and the error this time was a couple of hours in. The Roku app did not recover - spinning wheel eventually gave way to a network error dialog.
Roku and PMS logs attached. Note that the time on the Roku is about 1-2 minutes behind the PMS box. The approximate time of the event was 11:55 CDT, I would guess.
Your Roku log indicates that it (the Roku) lost network connection so the playback failed. It tried to recover and reconnect, but it still couldn’t find the server so you get the spinning circle. Unfortunately there is nothing I can see to indicate why it lost the network connection.
The only things I can suggest are to make sure all your devices are on a static IP and that your router has an IP lease time set to the highest possible setting it can so it won’t try to change IP’s on you.
