cmc/cleberg.net

 1#+date:        [2023-07-19 Wed 00:00:00]
 2#+title:       Plex Transcoder Errors: Subtitle Fix
 3#+description: Fixing Plex transcoder startup failures caused by subtitle errors.
 4#+slug:        plex-transcoder-errors
 5#+filetags:    :linux:self-hosting:
 6
 7* Plex Transcoder Error
 8
 9Occasionally, you may see an error in your Plex client that references a
10failure with the transcoder conversion process. The specific error
11wording is:
12
13#+begin_src txt
14Conversion failed. The transcoder failed to start up.
15#+end_src
16
17* Debugging the Cause
18
19In order to get a better look at what is causing the error, I'm going to
20observe the Plex console while the error occurs. To do this, open the
21Plex web client, go to =Settings= > =Manage= > =Console=. Now, try to
22play the title again and watch to see which errors occur.
23
24In my case, you can see the errors below are related to a subtitle file
25(=.srt=) causing the transcoder to crash.
26
27#+begin_src txt
28Jul 19, 2023 16:49:34.945 [140184571120440] Error — Couldn't find the file to stream: /movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt
29Jul 19, 2023 16:49:34.947 [140184532732728] Error — [Req#7611/Transcode/42935159-67C1-4192-9336-DDC6F7BC9330] Error configuring transcoder: TPU: Failed to download sub-stream to temporary file
30Jul 19, 2023 16:49:35.225 [140184532732728] Warning — [Req#760d/Transcode] Got a request to stop a transcode session without a valid session GUID.
31Jul 19, 2023 16:49:45.561 [140184532732728] Info — [Req#7648] AutoUpdate: no updates available
32Jul 19, 2023 16:51:23.402 [140184510081848] Info — Library section 1 (Movies) will be updated because of a change in "/movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt"
33#+end_src
34
35* Solving the Error
36
37In my case, I simply removed the subtitle file because it was not
38critical to keep. You may also avoid this by turning off subtitles if
39you don't want to delete the file.
40
41#+begin_src sh
42rm -rf "/movies/Movie Title (2021)/Movie Title (2021).srt"
43#+end_src
44
45Once the subtitle is removed from the directory or subtitles are turned
46off, try to play the title again. At this point, it should play without
47error. If not, reopen or refresh your Plex client and the Plex server:
48
49#+begin_src sh
50sudo systemctl restart plexmediaserver.service
51#+end_src
52
53* Related Discussion
54
55Looking at
56[[https://forums.plex.tv/t/subtitles-crashing-plex-transcoder-samsung-q80-tv-with-or-without-hardware-transcode/741441/2][a
57related Plex forum post]], it seems that =.srt= subtitles are the core
58issue here. However, Plex does not seem to have a resolution that fixes
59these errors.
60
61Unfortunately, I would suggest converting subtitle formats, burning the
62subtitles into the title, or simply removing subtitles when they cause
63crashes.