I ripped some stuff (VLC 3.0.6) and put it on the Plex (1.14.1.5488), and everything shows up in my library just fine.
But I can’t play any of the new files. They’re all MP4s. I researched this and found “How to diagnose” and got the message (on the command line) “unknown decoder ‘h.264’.”
The files play on the Windows machine and on every other machine, but not through the Plex. How do I fix this?
Good. Can you post the XML for one of them.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="18" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="bba8000b-079f-4550-a1b1-2f8c9e058f16" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1544815262">
<Video ratingKey="9355" key="/library/metadata/9355" parentRatingKey="9354" grandparentRatingKey="9353" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72658/1/1?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="18" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/18" type="episode" title="Beginnings" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/9353" parentKey="/library/metadata/9354" grandparentTitle="Spaced" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-MA" summary="Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) and Daisy Steiner (Jessica Stevenson) meet each other in a cafe and are soon planning on moving in together. The only problem is the advert for the flat they're planning on renting is for a professional couple only. Tim suggests they pretend to be a couple. They do this and are soon living in the flat below the Landlady and above the strange man in the basement." index="1" parentIndex="1" rating="7.3" year="1999" thumb="/library/metadata/9355/thumb/1549172521" art="/library/metadata/9353/art/1549172524" parentThumb="/library/metadata/9354/thumb/1549172524" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/9353/thumb/1549172524" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/9353/art/1549172524" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/9353/theme/1549172524" duration="1443943" originallyAvailableAt="1999-09-24" addedAt="1549151575" updatedAt="1549172521">
<Media videoResolution="480" id="9790" duration="1443943" bitrate="1044" width="720" height="480" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="mp2" videoCodec="h264" container="mp4" optimizedForStreaming="1" has64bitOffsets="0">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="10154" key="/library/parts/10154/1549150181/file.mp4" duration="1443943" file="D:\TVShows\Spaced\Spaced-s01e01.mp4" size="188423342" container="mp4" deepAnalysisVersion="2" has64bitOffsets="0" optimizedForStreaming="1" requiredBandwidths="1334,1267,1267,1267,1267,1267,1267,1267">
<Stream id="21318" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="11" language="English" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="1" chromaLocation="left" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="12" pixelAspectRatio="853:720" refFrames="1" streamIdentifier="1" width="720" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>
<Stream id="21322" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="4" bitrate="650" language="English" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="1" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" frameRate="29.980" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="30" pixelAspectRatio="853:720" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="950,887,887,887,887,887,887,887" streamIdentifier="5" width="720" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>
<Stream id="21319" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="mp2" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="21320" streamType="2" default="1" codec="mp2" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="3" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="21321" streamType="2" default="1" codec="mp2" index="3" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="4" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Director id="19689" filter="director=19689" tag="Edgar Wright"/>
<Writer id="19687" filter="writer=19687" tag="Jessica Stevenson"/>
<Writer id="19688" filter="writer=19688" tag="Simon Pegg"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
Looks like you have to videos streams
<Stream id="21318" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="11" language="English" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="1" chromaLocation="left" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="12" pixelAspectRatio="853:720" refFrames="1" streamIdentifier="1" width="720" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>
<Stream id="21322" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="4" bitrate="650" language="English" languageCode="eng" anamorphic="1" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" frameRate="29.980" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="30" pixelAspectRatio="853:720" profile="high" refFrames="4" requiredBandwidths="950,887,887,887,887,887,887,887" streamIdentifier="5" width="720" displayTitle="480p (H.264)"/>
And three audio tracks
<Stream id="21319" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="mp2" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="21320" streamType="2" default="1" codec="mp2" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="3" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="21321" streamType="2" default="1" codec="mp2" index="3" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" requiredBandwidths="128,128,128,128,128,128,128,128" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="4" displayTitle="English (MP2 Stereo)"/>
And that’s bad, I take it? I don’t get why there’s two video streams, though I presume the audio streams are for commentary.
Yes, two video streams, and the first one doesn’t seem to have a frame rate, and only 11Kbps. Because it’s the first video track and, without that important information, it likely to fail.
Not sure I have seen that before. It might be a subtitle stream of some sort, maybe an embedded image, but I don’t know. How did you create that file? I would probably run it thru MKVToolnix, and leave out that first video track, as well as any audio you might not really want.
I guess VLC has some type of ripping feature.
somehow I missed that in the first post. 
I think I tried the VLC ripping thing once or twice, but the videos didn’t work in anything but VLC.
I never knew they had it other then the capturing online stream thing…
I just ripped the track from a DVD using VLC. Track 4. Nothing exciting or unusual. And they all seem to be like this. Like, every file I’ve ripped has two video streams and one audio stream, at least.
@dsbw
I think @leelynds makes a good suggestion about running them thru MKVToolnix.
That way you don’t have to re-encode them.
I’ll give it a try.
At lease one or two. Refresh metadata and check.
Just a guess, but I doubt that VLC removes any sort of copyright protection from a DVD when you rip. The first video file is likely a fake, part of the encryption. VLC and some other software can probably deal with the encryption, particularly if the can play a regular DVD, but Plex needs files that have had that removed
I doubt that VLC can rip having any sorts of copyright protection. Heck, I don’t even think they would want to go down that road cause all the grief that goes with it. Look what happened to SlySoft.
And, so… RedFox(Formerly Slysoft) AnyDVD was created…
I guess it could be that. I have some films that are probably public domain that ripped just fine.
Huh. When I drop that file on the Matroska, it only shows one video stream. Is it…being smart?
HA! I was bit fascinated that VLC can rip DVD’s so I checked. VLC can rip certain copyright protection with libdvdcss. The world we live it…
Right, I think you drop the library into the right place. I think I did that.
Get yourself a copy of MakeMKV, it works very well. Then convert them to mp4 files with handbrake or some other software to covert to h263 (Edit: I meant h264/x264) if you want. You’ll probably have fewer problems.
A bit old…
