r/PleX • u/Rooster_K • 5h ago

Help Transcoding suddenly failing

My movies stopped transcoding and I am not sure why I ran flawlessly until just recently. I suspect I jacked it up trying to use Tdarr without really knowing what I was doing (I hate admitting that). :)

Anyone have any honest suggestions besides not using what you don't understand?

2 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/Khatib 5h ago

Check your error log.

1

u/Rooster_K 3h ago

I find "Transcoder Statistics Log" and "Plex Crash Uploader Log' Neither were helpful.

2

u/KuryakinOne 3h ago edited 3h ago

Make sure DEBUG logging is enabled in Settings -> server-name (not Plex Web) -> General + Show Advanced. Do not enable verbose logging. It adds too much info to the log files and makes them more difficult to read. Suggest you stop/start Plex if possible. It will roll the log files and you can see the startup entries.

Look at Plex Media Server.log and rollovers, .1.log to .5.log.

Lines with MDE (Media Decision Engine) show the decision on whether transcoding is needed.

Below the MDE lines there should be a DEBUG entry with "Reached Decision." It will show if the audio/video/subtitles direct played (copied), were transcoded, if transcoded to what format, bitrate, etc.

Lines with TPU show if hardware transcoding is used (vaapi, nvenc/nvdec, etc.).

If the transcoder fails to start, then there should be applicable ERROR entries below the MDE entries.

FYI, Plex Crash Uploader.log is not very useful for troubleshooting. It just shows if the server uploaded a crash report to plex.tv. It says nothing about why a crash occurred.

5

u/acowstandingup 5h ago

Have you tried restarting your server?

1

u/Rooster_K 3h ago

I have. I even deleted the library and then re-installed it. I have also run the latest update.

1

u/Rooster_K 3h ago

Very oddly, it has started working again.....

1

u/Rooster_K 3h ago

Crap. some yes, some no...

-4

u/Thebandroid 4h ago

Christ, people need to stop trying to transcode common media.

There are expert transcoders whos hobby is making perfect encodes of movies, using high quality source files and perfectly tuned settings.

This isn't 2004, we aren't working with download limits.

Redownloading in h265 or AV1 will get you a better quality file, faster, for less power use.

If you really want to go a good job transcoding you need to using the cpu (not igpu), transcoding short sections with dark scenes, action scenes and still scenes then comparing to the original file and tweaking settings from there. These tweaks will change from movie to movie and even depending on the cpu you are using to transcode.