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Suddenly, as of this morning (1.00am), my system can no longer play MP4 720p HD files
Dear Forum Members, especially Plex users Yesterday, Wednesday 21st December, I was happily playing my MP4 720p files without any problems, which I have done for the past 2 plus years. Then sudde...
Hi StephenB
I've re-edited and summerise my last post to show the solution and to thank you for your help in my time of dire need, now on with the solution:-
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I think I've found the reason why my system so was so suddenly and unexpectedly went belly up, the clue lays in one of our discussions, especially about the Plex app installed on my player, i.e my NowTV black box (Roku 3 clone).The morning when I was going to watch some films my bandwidth suddenly dropped, Plex responded by making some automatic changes to it's own settings. However, when the bandwidth came back up again Plex did not reset itself back to it's original settings.
When accessing the Plex app I scrolled down to the Preferences menu and found that the quality settings had been reset from 4.0mps - 720p to 1.5mps - 480p, I was stunned because I had not touch those or any other settings, also the text at the top of the screen suggested that my Internet bandwidth had dropped, at the time I had no idea this had happened.
I'm guessing that the settings dropped to accommodate the lower bandwidth and so could no longer play any files above 480p.
Anyway, I reset the quality settings from 1.5mps - 480p up to 3.0mps - 720p and I can now play 720p HD files again.
Thanks for you help because without it I would not have stumbled across the solution.
UK Bob
Did you try the plex web browser interfact on the PC?
Hi StephenB
It's been a long time since I've been here, hope you and the gang are getting on OK.
Anyway, you asked, "Did you try the plex web browser interfact on the PC?", yes I have and nothing has changed. In fact I have not changed or added anything from the time you and MGDM helped me to upgrade my hard disks, on my RN Duo V2, from WD Green 2TBs to WD Red 4TBs.
Apart from the unexpected firmware upgrade that appeared from Netgear this afternoon (5.311 to 5.3.12) my NAS has been untouched.
I just don't understand how Plex is playing my MP4 direct play 720p HD videos yoesterday, between 10.30am and 1.00pm, and at about 1.00am Thursday morning everything changes and I can no longer play my MP4 720p HD files anymore, I get this totally unexpected "Transcoding" error.
I'm completely stumped.
UK Bob
ukbobboy wrote:
Anyway, you asked, "Did you try the plex web browser interfact on the PC?", yes I have and nothing has changed.
Not sure how I typed "interfact", I meant trying to watch a 720p mp4 using the plex web browser interface on a PC.
ukbobboy wrote:
I just don't understand how Plex is playing my MP4 direct play 720p HD videos yoesterday, between 10.30am and 1.00pm, and at about 1.00am Thursday morning everything changes and I can no longer play my MP4 720p HD files anymore, I get this totally unexpected "Transcoding" error.
I don't get it either.
Plex wants to transcode if (a) the player says it doesn't support the codecs in the file or (b) if it has trouble delivering the content at the full bitrate. I don't think you are dealing with (b) - usually that will play for a while, and then stall out.
MP4s generally have H.264 video and AAC audio, and all Rokus should support that. Some might have AC3 (dolby digital) surround sound as well as AAC stereo, but AFAIK that won't confuse plex. And it worked before.
Maybe create a test share, and a test library to go with it. Then copy one mp4 that fails to the test share, refresh the test library and see if it plays in the test library.
ukbobboy wrote:
Hi StephenB
It's been a long time since I've been here, hope you and the gang are getting on OK.
Sure are, and it's good to hear from you again.
Hi StephenB
First, thanks for clarifying your first question because my answer, although correct, is not accurate for your updated question.
OK, you meant to asked: "I meant trying to watch a 720p mp4 using the plex web browser interface on a PC?". Although I can access my Plex database via my browser interface, and perform data maintenance chores (amending and updating video and music data descriptions, etc.), I have never been able to play videos via the browser interface, the RN Duo v2 cpu is not powerful enough. However, I can play and still play my music/mp3 files without any problems via my browser interface.
In fact, if I want to watch a video on my PC I then use my VLC media player, which I only do for a few seconds to check that the video file is intact.
You also suggested, "Maybe create a test share, and a test library to go with it. Then copy one mp4 that fails to the test share, refresh the test library and see if it plays in the test library", I will do that tomorrow (later on for me - being in a different country and time zone) and perform the suggested task.
However, before I do that, can you take a look at my Plex settings page and possibly suggest changes, bearing in mind that these are defaults that I have not changed.
Finally, as a thought, is it possible that Plex deliberately sent out an update to cripple older versions of PMS, ie. the last time I updated my PMS was April 2015 and I have not touched it since.
At the moment, I still have the next versions of PMS for my NAS, ie. PlexMediaServer-0.9.12.1.1079-b655370-arm.bin and PlexMediaServer-0.9.16.3.1840-cece46d-arm.bin, but I have been wary of installing either of them because Plex forum members were reporting, at the time, that upgrades were bricking their computers, that's why I've stuck with my nearly two years old PMS version PlexMediaServer-0.9.11.16.958-80f1748-arm.bin.
Please note, PMS database refreshes itself at 12 midnight, lasting 2 - 3 hours, every night and from time to time I would also refresh my TV shows section, especially if I wanted to watch a newly entered program.
Thanks in advance.
UK Bob
PS. Is there anything else on my settings pages you would like to see?
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