Plex Plugin - problems with transcoding media

[Scott Deacon]

I installed Plex Media Server 0.9.8.6.175_p1 on FreeNAS 9.1.1-x64. I am somewhat familiar with Plex and the install seemed to go fine. I had added a directory with some media files (755) and they all got catalogued okay.

I am running into problems if Transcoding is required.

I first tested a mp3 file to Plex/Web, my Roku and my Nexus 7 and it plays fine on all 3.

My 2nd test case was a m4v video file that could be direct streamed to the Roku. It initially failed and the Plex Server log seemed to be complaining about permissions. The jail's /var/log/messages showed:

Oct 6 00:30:30 plex_1 su: setpriority 'root' (root): Permission denied

I added user plex to the wheel group and that error disappeared.

The m4v video played on the Roku and there was no transcoding:

Oct 06, 2013 11:13:19 [0x80b7efc00] DEBUG - [roku] Starting to direct play video

Playback on Plex/Web failed with a few highlights from the server log:

Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1800] DEBUG - Transcoding to hls/mpegts/h264/mp3
Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1800] DEBUG - Starting a transcode session kb1dobjseyyi7ldi at offset -1.0 (stopped=1)
Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1800] WARN - WARNING: Couldn't create directory /tmp/plex-transcode-kb1dobjseyyi7ldi-b1ae3a7f-4bb8-483
8-8065-db2eb07f9d06 Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1400] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): P
ermission denied
Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1800] WARN - Transcode runner appears to have died.
Oct 06, 2013 10:35:09 [0x8080f1800] WARN - Timed out waiting for segment.

I next tried the Nexus 7 and again the Transcoder error:

Oct 06, 2013 11:06:38 [0x807640400] WARN - WARNING: Couldn't create directory /tmp/plex-transcode-2b83e715-8b45-4c2a-a07c-eed230a1bf
96-76fad8d9-04fc-4669-a45d-1b062f8ed953
Oct 06, 2013 11:06:38 [0x807ce4000] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): P
ermission denied

My 3rd case was a mkv video file that would require transcoding to play on the Roku. Again the transcoding error:
Oct 06, 2013 11:18:29 [0x808c9f400] WARN - WARNING: Couldn't create directory /tmp/plex-transcode-13C24J002919-1e8eaa90-3ee2-4f10-8f
52-592b462553c3
Oct 06, 2013 11:18:29 [0x807ce4000] ERROR - [Transcoder] Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): P
ermission denied
Anyone got a clue what the problem is? Do I have to permission /tmp?
tks

 

[Scott Deacon]

The problem was related to /tmp. The permissions were 755 so user plex couldn't create temporary files. I have no idea why that directory is locked down so I created a separate directory owned by plex and pointed to it in settings->transcoder->advanced setting->transcoder temporary directory.

 

[dkran]

wow, this thread was awesome. Thank you all. I just did

jexec * csh
chown 65534:65534 /tmp

then went into the plex media server ui and set the directory like you said. I'm assuming in the jail the tmp directory is probably safe. That's probably a bad assumption.

 

[Robert Boutette]

I am having a very similar problem and I am brand new to freenas and unix... could you explain step by step how you created a directory and pointed to it. I made a folder in my volume called transcode using windows explorer and tried to point to it in the plex UI but still didn't work. I'm not sure if that is not the proper way to create a directory or if maybe the address I pointed to was wrong. Any help would be appreciated

 

[Jailer]

You replied to a 3 year old thread. Create a new thread with your issue.