Plex (not docker) playback stops exactly 2hr mark


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So I submitted this question on the Plex support forum weeks ago but haven't gotten a single reply.  Wondering if anybody here has any advice on troubleshooting this issue.  UnRaid is my media storage server.  Plex server is a hotter Windows machine and accesses the files via LAN.  Almost without fail a movie that is over 2hrs long will stop playback at the 2hr mark just as if the file was cut short.  You can go back in, restart the movie, fast forward and continue.  It happens at EXACTLY the 2hr mark.  As in 2:00:00.  This has been happening for a long time now.  Like 2 years or so.  Multiple UnRaid versions, dozens of Plex Server versions, lots of different movie files.  I don't know where to begin to even try troubleshooting other than store movies on the local Windows machine and test to eliminate UnRaid as a variable. 

 

My initial thought was the disk spin down time.  I set it to 4 hours months ago (it was set to 2) and it made no difference. 

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

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Sorry but I'm not familiar with the new plex player? Or I've just gotten used to it and forgotten a change.  I'm using an Xbox One and I know I'm not exaggerating when I say this has been going on for at LEAST a year.  Xbox One app version is 2.55.0.70.  Maybe I need to try to find another client device to use to test for a while.

 

 

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First thing I would do is test it out on different clients on your network. Watch a movie in a browser or a different TV... just not XBOX. If still having the issue I would then consider setting up Plex on your Unraid server to see if you have the same issue? Even if as a test. This would eliminate it is a network connection issue causing the problem. 

 

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8 hours ago, stepmback said:

First thing I would do is test it out on different clients on your network. Watch a movie in a browser or a different TV... just not XBOX. If still having the issue I would then consider setting up Plex on your Unraid server to see if you have the same issue? Even if as a test. This would eliminate it is a network connection issue causing the problem. 

 

Ill see what I can throw together as a different client.  I know its not a network issue.  I'm a network engineer and I know the network part is good.  Both the server, Xbox, and Unraid are on the same layer 2 VLAN via a Cisco 3750x switch.  The UnRaid server has a 4 member 802.3ad bond.  Ive done bandwidth testing at each endpoint, saturated the 1GB links as tests etc.  I'm 99.9% certain this inst network related.  What I am not certain of is if I have something miss-configured in UnRaid or Plex.  I used to run Plex as a Docker in my UnRaid server but slowly I ran out of horsepower and now with other smaller dockers, dual parity, etc I know my box doesn't have the horsepower to run Plex as a docker.  I am getting ready to rack a dual CPU Gen 8 dl380p so I could probably use it for testing as another Plex Server.  As far as another client Ill figure something out.  Maybe Ill cast to a chromecast ultra from the phone app as a test. 

 

The smoking gun here has the be the fact that this occurs at exactly 2 hrs in and I mean exactly.  Like somebody flips a switch at 2:00:00.  I just cant figure out the cause. 

 

PS. the current Plex server is a desktop with a 12 thread 5820k CPU and 32GB of RAM.  Not latest gen stuff but certainly no slouch. 

 

 

Edited by allischalmersman
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  • 6 months later...

Sorry to bump an old thread, but did you ever figure out the cause of this issue?  I'm having the same exact trouble: anything longer than 2 hours will stop playback at exactly 2:00:00.

 

In my case, it's the Samsung Tizen client playing back from my WIndows Plex server, which grabs data from an unRaid storage server over LAN.  I've bumped the transcoder throttle buffer down to 15 seconds.  The spindown delay is set to 1 hour for my drives... but things are playing well past the 1 hour mark and the drives would not be spinning down while being accessed, anyway.  The Windows server never sleeps.  Not sure what else to check.

 

I've attempted to look through the logs for clues, but I am not seeing anything so far that would help.

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2 hours ago, allischalmersman said:

No never did. And the Plex forum wasn't helpful either. Ive stopped using Plex and switched to Emby. So many problems resolved. Playback issues, 1 second jitter, inability to fast forward or rewind, chapters work, subtitles work better, etc.

 

Thank you for the response!  Interesting that we both have the same unRaid -> Windows Plex setup.  Maybe after the Plex people get done perfecting their second-rate Tubi clone and ultra-useful VR clients, they may discover the cause...

 

Well, been putting off the move to Emby for a few years now.  No time like right now to move forward!

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Thank you for the response!  Interesting that we both have the same unRaid -> Windows Plex setup.  Maybe after the Plex people get done perfecting their second-rate Tubi clone and ultra-useful VR clients, they may discover the cause...
 
Well, been putting off the move to Emby for a few years now.  No time like right now to move forward!
I spent some time on the Plex forum and found numerous reports of bugs and problems for YEARS that haven't been fixed and lots of people complaining about the same issue. Combine that with the fact that I'm a paying subscriber yet has no way of receiving any official support....I decided to jump ship. Emby is different and takes a little getting used to but the quality so far is far superior. I still run Plex on the same machine as I still need to get my remote users to switch over. But my eventual plan is to completely ditch Plex

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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  • 1 year later...

I've been looking for an answer to this off and on for years - lots of people see the issue, and there never seems to be a solution. Finally came across a post[1] that claims to be from a Plex employee(?) that says that if Plex needs to do any transcoding on a file, and if it can't determine, at the beginning of playback, how long the media is, then it sets the media length at 2:00:00. Apparently, situations where it can't determine the length of the media fast enough(?) include the media drive not being spun up.

 

Seems to me, since people have been noticing this for years, they could fix 90% of the cases just by changing that default to 3:00:00, since most movies aren't that long. Or wait a little longer for the hard drive to spin up.

PS: I've always been confident that it wasn't a configured timeout, whether in networking or server inactivity or whatever, because if I'm watching a movie that's 2:15:00 long, and after an hour I pause the movie for 10 minutes to make popcorn, playback doesn't stop 2 hours after I started it, it still stops at 2:00:00 in the indicated time played of the movie.

[1] https://forums.plex.tv/t/playback-stops-at-200/719988/5

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