Weird PMS and Plex NVIDIA Shield issue

General Discussions
1

So I’ve recently discovered this weird issue with Plex on Shield and I’m trying to work out where the problem is and thought maybe someone here might have an idea.

So I have this file on my Plex server, its a MKV of a DVD I own (its a PAL music concert DVD). Anyway despite it playing on every other Plex client I have tried (web, Android Phone, iPad, AppleTV) my ShieldTV refuses to play it. Every time I try I get this error:

“Error - Playback has stopped because the connection to the Plex Media Server has been lost. Please ensure that the server is available”

Now the shield can play every other file on my server so thats not an issue, and all the other clients (including an android phone) on the same network play it fine.

And installing KODI on the Shield, and using the plex server as a source kodi plays the file fine.

I thought there might be something in the video thats causing issues for the Shield client specifically, so I tried doing some transcoding of the video but all my attempts so far been unsuccessful.

Not sure what to do at this point. I’d actually like to see if another Shield owner has the same issue. I could provide a small snippet to try out.

2

Do you have the setting enabled to automatically adjust the refresh rate? If your TV doesn’t support 25 Hz, then the player will fail and give you that message you mentioned. Turn that setting off and see if that helps.

3

I do. And I’m in a pal region so my TV does. Plus plex plays other pal videos fine. I did actually wonder if the shield client just could not handle pal videos till I tested it with others.

Plus I had that enabled in Kodi which plays it fine on the shield. I could try disabling it in plex though just to see.

4

Please do not compare playback to Kodi. They use their own video player so the results will never be the same and wouldn’t mean anything to Plex.

Can you recreate the issue then provide the log from the Plex app on the Shield for me to review?

5

Yeah. I recreate the issue.

Here is the log.

Looking at it exoplayer seems to been failing to handle the audio the file has for some reason.

6

Yup, I read it the same. Can you provide a 30s sample of one of these files for me to test? Make sure you get the same problem first.

Another thing I see is that you have Refresh Rate Switching enabled. I have seen reports where having this and audio pass-through both enabled was causing problems. Can you turn off the rate switching and see if the problem still exists? If so, get me the sample.