Plex & regular issue with it.

dan958

JustAnotherSaver said:

dan958 said:

Have you checked your plex debug logs?

Whoa, easy tiger!

What??

What are they when they're at home, how do i check them and when would i check them?

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/

If you check the logs for the time that you've had the issue, and see if there is anything in the logs that gives any indication on why it is happening

JustAnotherSaver

Sandtree said:

As a random thought, if you reset the movie to Unwatched and watch a film until it crashes does Plex mark it as Part Watched or Watched? Assuming its the former then there’d be another way to see if it got to the end without crashing or not if the idea of checking at the appropriate time sounds like too much hassle. 

Fair point.

Yes, it marks it as part watched (thankfully!) so i just resume. Then when it switches to HDMI1 and i have to go back to it yet again, it again marks it as part watched.

Out of interest for the rest of you reading this - how is YOUR setup? Does it direct play or transcode? And if it direct plays, how are you watching it? As in I have been using the in built Plex app on my Panasonic TV and i will be trying the Plex app within Kodi on my fire stick next. How is yours?

dan958

I use plex libraries within Kodi, as I found the plex interface pretty limited. It works great that way (but my plex server is doing the transcoding and a rasp pi s just the kodi client)

but doing that probably wont fix your original issue, as that is down to most likely down to the server

Sandtree

JustAnotherSaver said:

Out of interest for the rest of you reading this - how is YOUR setup? Does it direct play or transcode? And if it direct plays, how are you watching it? As in I have been using the in built Plex app on my Panasonic TV and i will be trying the Plex app within Kodi on my fire stick next. How is yours?

Ours is dead right now but until recently we had a 2010 iMac running Plex Server with files stored on an external drive connected via Firewire. Files range are 1080p and 4k in, AVI, MP4 and MKV format from both Bluray and Bluray UHD with sound in 5.1 DD/DTS or higher.

iMac connected to a Linksys Velop tri-band mesh network via wifi. Network connects to internet via a 1Gb FTTP connection. 

Playback via AppleTV 4k on wifi via an Arcam AVR to an LG OLED TV or Epson projector. When out and about playback via various iPads or iPhones. 

Transcoding depends on exactly which file and playback device etc. As mentioned previously, I’ve found the AppleTV’s streaming to be much more reliable than any of the built in apps in the LG TV plus it obviously gives the choice of watching on TV or projector

CoastingHatbox

JustAnotherSaver said:

Out of interest for the rest of you reading this - how is YOUR setup? Does it direct play or transcode? And if it direct plays, how are you watching it? As in I have been using the in built Plex app on my Panasonic TV and i will be trying the Plex app within Kodi on my fire stick next. How is yours?

Media stored on Debian Server
Debian server runs a Debian VM with Jellyfin (opensource alternative to Plex) installed
Couple of Raspberry Pis dotted around the house running Kodi with the Jellyfin plugin

I think I have the transcode setting set to `auto` on the Kodi boxes. I think it then direct plays if possible and only transcodes when it needs to. Seems to just work.

JustAnotherSaver

Some of you clearly know what you're talking about.

I was warned on another forum by a very well respected member there that this is an endless rabbit hole that will eat up a lot of your time and money if you let it. He'd been building for years and even now was tweaking. It was this chap who first mentioned this thing i'd never heard of - Raspberry Pi. Thought it was a wind up at first.

Right now i've only ripped movies in their original quality. I haven't yet done anything beyond that because i don't want to make a mistake - convert to one format or quality when it ends up being a bad idea down the line.

Then we get in to the realms of audio which is different still. What is original quality? Do i rip to .wav or FLAC. Will .mp3 suffice and if so then what bitrate do I settle at?

These aren't necessarily questions i'm asking you guys, just things i'll end up going over at some point that i'll need to decide on. I find it to be a fun hobby as sad as that may sound to some. Along the way i've found what that original guy meant by endless rabbit holes though.

JustAnotherSaver

Well first testing done tonight as Saturday is movie night

Plex via Kodi. Watched Mission Impossible 4 - so just over 2 hours long and certainly length enough to do what it's been doing.

I watched in full quality - so 7.1 audio (even though i don't have a 7.1 setup), full 30mbps video or whatever the highest/original setting was (i usually select 12mbps) and also subtitles as per usual.

The entire movie went without a single blip.

So long as Plex on Kodi keeps working, that'll be the way I have to do it from now on.

Uptown_Boy

That's the method which plays without transcoding - yes? That seems to spotlight where the issue lies.  

JustAnotherSaver

Uptown_Boy said:

That's the method which plays without transcoding - yes? That seems to spotlight where the issue lies.  

Yep.

I've been in touch with a guy who helped me out at the very beginning with Plex. He actually put me on to Plex. He's suggested I try a movie without subtitles as he suspects that may be triggering the transcoding and is worth a try to see if this is the case. He's also commented on the type of subtitles i have (PGS i think he said) and then started going over my head a bit with these possibly having issues and i should look at SRT. New term to me.

I do hope that ripping my audio library is easier

Uptown_Boy

https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/53gx0y/pgs_vs_srt_subtitles_whats_the_difference/

Quick search yielded that - no idea if it'll help though.  

Edit: the fact PGS subtitles seem to be images may account for the higher workload in handling them. SRT are simple text files. (Timestamp / Subtitle ... so can be easily edited if there are minor timing issues).