When Plex Goes Bad

[Thorin]

Thanks Tom for the new(er) computer you gave me for video encoding / Plex Media Server (PMS) running.  OldGreyMare, that's an interesting computer name.

So I've finally gotten around to setting it up to run PMS.  I downloaded the latest PMS, installed, then set it to work on reading my entire library.  It finished a couple of days ago and we've been trying to watch shows on it.

Unfortunately, for a lot of the shows it just stops playing partway through.  If I try to restart it from that same point, I'm told the video is unavailable.  If I reset the "watched" flag and start over from the beginning, then I'm not watching the actual beginning of the show, and by the time I get halfway through (say, 30 minutes of a 60 minute show), I get to watch the credits.

The crappy part is this all worked just a few days ago with an older version of PMS running on an older computer...

[Tom]

Hm, see if downgrading to an older PMS helps? Did you copy any of the PMS data or config over to the new machine? I don't think PMS stores any metadata or anything in with the media files, but it can't hurt to check to see if theres some there you might need to delete.

Maybe see if there's anything on the pms forums? My install seems to be ok, and I think I upgraded to the latest one. I can't remember exactly why I upgraded, but I think it was due to some issue I was having...

OldGreyMare, that's an interesting computer name.

She ain't what she used to be

That computer was my old desktop for years. Bought at Frag like 6-8 years ago now, right when the price cut hit the Q6600's, The first quad core, core2 quad that was "reasonably" priced ($300, was $600 a few days before frag). She served me well. Though I think that has the newer QX6600 I was given which is a bit faster (and unlocked, so you could OC it if you want). I traded my Q6600 for some on-sale tools from Canadian-Tire, they were like 80% off or something. Really crazy deal. Dude still uses that cpu. Im glad it and the entire machine is still being used. I hate to see good hardware get junked.

Also, I tend to give my desktop's female names. And for some reason OldGreyMare seemed like a good idea.

[Lazybones]

Which client are you using that stops playing part way?

If it is a DLNA device and it is over wifi make sure your bitrate preferences are not too high.


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[Lazybones]

Thanks Tom for the new(er) computer you gave me for video encoding / Plex Media Server (PMS) running.  OldGreyMare, that's an interesting computer name.

So I've finally gotten around to setting it up to run PMS.  I downloaded the latest PMS, installed, then set it to work on reading my entire library.  It finished a couple of days ago and we've been trying to watch shows on it.

Unfortunately, for a lot of the shows it just stops playing partway through.  If I try to restart it from that same point, I'm told the video is unavailable.  If I reset the "watched" flag and start over from the beginning, then I'm not watching the actual beginning of the show, and by the time I get halfway through (say, 30 minutes of a 60 minute show), I get to watch the credits.

The crappy part is this all worked just a few days ago with an older version of PMS running on an older computer...

OK I just re-read this.. please check the servers TEMP directory setting not sure if you installed on windows or linux but I believe it defaults to the system temp directory or the same drive PMS was installed on.. This behavior can happen if the temp drive fills while trans-coding.

[Mr. Analog]

If you have a SSD kicking around attach it and use that as TEMP location

[Tom]

SSDs are getting darn cheap nowadays. the new Corsair MX100? and theres another one or two that are about the same price. the MX100 is pretty damn inexpensive while still being about as fast as their higher end M550 drive. It's insane.

[Mr. Analog]

SSDs are getting darn cheap nowadays. the new Corsair MX100? and theres another one or two that are about the same price. the MX100 is pretty damn inexpensive while still being about as fast as their higher end M550 drive. It's insane.

Heck even just speeding up windows with an SSD (ReadyBoost) is a good way to boost performance for cheap now

[Lazybones]

CPU / disk space are almost always the problem with plex.

2 cores on an i5, and enough disk space to store all the meta-data and temp trans-code files..

Disk speed doesn't become a factor until you are trans-coding more than one stream, and even then the CPU is the first bottleneck.

[Tom]

I don't have a lot of users on my nas, so I haven't noticed any perf issues. It's a core i3 dual core with ht, and 16GB ram, and a @%&# ton of disk space. Sometimes I notice it's using up a crap load of cpu, but it doesn't tend to affect anything else at all.

[Thorin]

Which client are you using that stops playing part way?

If it is a DLNA device and it is over wifi make sure your bitrate preferences are not too high.

Roku 2 XS, wired into a gigabit switch as is the new quad-core computer. that's running Plex  No wifi.

please check the servers TEMP directory setting not sure if you installed on windows or linux but I believe it defaults to the system temp directory or the same drive PMS was installed on.. This behavior can happen if the temp drive fills while trans-coding.

The new computer has a terabyte drive that is almost completely empty (890GB of 931GB free).  I knew about the temp dir setting and created a folder right off the root of C:, and gave full control to the folder to all accounts on the computer.  The file that is being read that then gets transcoded is on my network-connected Drobo, also connected to the same gigabit switch.

As I said, the new computer is a quad core 2.93GHz, 4GB RAM, 1TB nearly empty drive, strong video card, Windows 7.

I tried the latest Plex and an old copy I had laying around - Plex 0.9.7, I think it was.

I have now reinstalled this old Plex on the old computer, which is a dual core 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB three-quarter-full drive, weak video card, Windows XP (yeah yeah, I know).

On the old computer, it runs without a hitch.  Mind you, the new computer was having trouble staying connected to the network, possibly due to a driver issue.  I rolled back from the Atheros driver to the Microsoft driver and it hasn't dropped network connection since then (I'm running continuous ping to see if there's any network drops).

Really, the new computer should have no problems if the old computer has no problems - the new one is better in every spec.

[Lazybones]

I don't have a lot of users on my nas, so I haven't noticed any perf issues. It's a core i3 dual core with ht, and 16GB ram, and a @%&# ton of disk space. Sometimes I notice it's using up a crap load of cpu, but it doesn't tend to affect anything else at all.

An i3 will cut it for most operations, however if you have a vh1 codec RAW blueray rip and you try and play it on an browser or mobile device it will like die..

Likewise if you have a high bitrate mkv that needs to play remotely at a lower codec.

Plex avoids trans-coding when ever possible... Each client knows its own limits and the sever tracks what is in the files and reports them.. If only the container/video/audio need to be changed plex will ONLY trans-code the part that needs it.. Most content is releases in h264 now and most devices support it in hardware, so there is less trans-coding needed.

[Tom]

I don't have a lot of users on my nas, so I haven't noticed any perf issues. It's a core i3 dual core with ht, and 16GB ram, and a @%&# ton of disk space. Sometimes I notice it's using up a crap load of cpu, but it doesn't tend to affect anything else at all.

An i3 will cut it for most operations, however if you have a vh1 codec RAW blueray rip and you try and play it on an browser or mobile device it will like die..

Likewise if you have a high bitrate mkv that needs to play remotely at a lower codec.

Plex avoids trans-coding when ever possible... Each client knows its own limits and the sever tracks what is in the files and reports them.. If only the container/video/audio need to be changed plex will ONLY trans-code the part that needs it.. Most content is releases in h264 now and most devices support it in hardware, so there is less trans-coding needed.

I have tried streaming some higher bitrate stuff to phones and tablets. I haven't really noticed any real hiccups. But like I said, sometimes the cpu use on the nas spikes pretty good. Even just when scanning the media

[Lazybones]

Mind you, the new computer was having trouble staying connected to the network, possibly due to a driver issue.  I rolled back from the Atheros driver to the Microsoft driver and it hasn't dropped network connection since then (I'm running continuous ping to see if there's any network drops).

Really, the new computer should have no problems if the old computer has no problems - the new one is better in every spec.

If it dies at 30min predictably then dial up the plex server log level to high or debug and take a look at the Plex Media Server.log
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200250417-Plex-Media-Server-Log-Files

There should be an indication of the disconnect in the log. In fact if you know when it failed last just go back and look at the logs or post them to me..

Edit: Network could be the key issue, the Roku hates loosing contact with the server, but your ping test seems to eliminate that.

[Thorin]

I looked in the logs for quite a while last night, too.  I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact text, but I essentially saw "The transcoder appears to have died".

Maybe I should see if I can generate some crash logs: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201455336.

[Tom]

Hmm, a crash eh? Run a memtest, the new plex could be harsher on memory use and stressing memory that the old version didn't. I'm pretty sure I did a memtest on the box before I gave it to you, but it can't hurt.