I uploaded a copy of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” that I ripped from my BluRay using MakeMKV. The disk is ISBN 0-7806-6257-1 and UPC 883929145478. I wanted to get it up in-time for Thanksgiving, and did not have time to re-encode to HEVC using Handbrake as I normally do, so I just uploaded the MKV straight out of MakeMKV. I’ve done this a million times before with no issue, but don’t recall seeing the “VC1 3 Advanced” codec before so I suspect that may be the culprit.
I’ve never experienced this issue before where PMS gets an error trying to play the video. I’m getting the same error on the Featurette from the same disk as well.
I’m almost done re-encoding now and will have replacement “HEVC 10” files uploaded within the hour, so the issue will likely resolve itself, but I’m curious if anyone else has had an issue playing a “VC1 3 Advanced” video or specifically any issues with this particular file.
Microsoft was the primary developer of VC-1. It has mostly been displaced by H.264 & H.265. However, it was common to see that format on Blu-ray discs from the late 2000s. I have ~75 movies in my library with VC-1 video (BDs ripped w/ MakeMKV).
I’ve not had any issues with the movies. Not all clients support the format, but Plex transcodes it when necessary. It can be decoded by Nvidia and Intel GPUs, so it also works with hardware accelerated transcoding.
Almost no player device, (except bona-fide BluRay players) can play VC-1 natively. So your Plex server has to transcode on-the-fly. And AFAIK ffmpeg (and thus the Plex transcoder) is restricted to one CPU core for VC-1.
My recommendation is to avoid VC-1 like the plague.
Thanks @OttoKerner. Yes, I normally re-encode to HECV H.265 and this was one of the rare occasions where I (temporarily) uploaded a file that was not re-encoded. Everything is back to normal after replacing the file with the re-encoded version. I will keep an eye peeled for that VC1 codec in the future.
I had no issues with playing VC-1 file types for the past 5 years and only just recently have they stopped working in Plex. I can currently play the VC-1 encoded files with Windows Media Player and VLC on my old Windows 10 desktop that is running the Plex server. However, Plex will not play the videos at all. I think the issue may stem from a Windows 10 update back in July of 2023, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/resolved-issues-windows-10-22H2#some-apps-might-fail-to-playback--record--or-capture-video but as far as I can tell the issue should be resolved by Microsoft by now.
I have at least 30 VC-1 encoded MKV files and would like to get them working without having to re-encode them. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
If I have to re-encode them what should I use to do that and how do I ensure the new versions are lossless?
I have a bunch of VC1 files on my server and the Nvidia GPU handles it fine. But my 14th gen i9 with a UHD-770 is refusing to decode VC1 (even though the specs say it should) and software is hanging up and the file won’t play.
