Watch Later: New YouTube encoding crashes Plex on Roku HD

General Discussions
1

I have a Roku HD (model #2500), an XD (3000) and a 3 (4200). I’m running the most recent versions of PMS (1.0.0.2661-a17e99e) on an older laptop (dual core 2.0GHz per, 6GB RAM) and the latest Plex Roku channel (4.1.18). I also updated all the Rokus’ firmware and restarted them before testing the Plex Roku channels, below.

The Roku HD & Roku 3 are running Plex Roku channel 4.1.18 and also have the Plex Pass Roku channel and Plex Classic Roku channel. The XD is running just Plex Classic as it’s attached to an SD TV.

I also understand that Plex needs to transcode new YouTube videos because of a change last spring when YT/Google changed the way they encode their videos. I also understand that this is a Roku firmware issue and not a PMS/Plex Roku channel issue (that PMS is doing what it can by transcoding the new videos to show them to me on my Roku.)

So, what I’m running into is that the Plex Roku channel (both 4.1.18 and Plex Pass) crashes (completely leaves Plex and reverts back to the Roku Home screen) on my Roku HD whenever it plays a new YT video but plays the older videos fine. The new videos play okay on the Plex 3 (after PMS transcoding) on both channels. When the HD, Roku 3 and XD run the Plex Classic channel, they get the “Video Unavailable” error on the new YT videos but it doesn’t crash the Plex Classic channel (they all run the older YT videos fine).

Attached are my server logs. You should be able to see me testing the three Plex channels last night on the Roku HD and 3 with old (played fine) and new YT videos (crashed Plex Roku & Plex Pass Roku channels) that I have queued, as well as with the Classic channel. This morning you’ll also see I tested the Plex Classic channel on the XD.

Why is the Roku HD’s Plex Roku channel crashing when it plays new YT watch later videos but the Roku 3 does not?

Thanks!

2

Tested XD on HDTV: New YT videos in Watch It Later queue work fine after Plex transcoding (like the Roku 3 does above). So this is solely a Plex/Roku HD issue.

3

You could move this to the Roku section of the forum, since it is an issue that is specific to Roku. But, understand that ultimately it sounds like an issue with the Roku HD, not the Plex player app for Roku, since it is only happening on your Roku HD device.

And if the model number of your Roku HD is on the list of “unsupported devices,” there is most likely no fix for your issue. See What models are supported for the Plex for Roku channel?

As stated in the link above, the unsupported models do not support the Roku firmware necessary to work with the current Plex app for Roku. If Roku no longer supports that device with updated firmware, then the Plex app for Roku that runs on that Roku software cannot work.

Plex provides the Plex Classic version for users of older unsupported Roku devices, but it is no longer developed. So the Plex Classic version is available as is and as a result will have limitations.