UnicornTranscoder: Getting Playback Error: This server is not powerful enough to convert video.
Hi,
I have done my best to configure my plex (running on a pi 3b+) to offload the transcoding tasks (which it obviously sucks at) to my other more powerful machine(s). I have created the following layout:
Pi: Plex server, UnicornLoadBalancer, Nginx reverse proxy to handle TLS and stuffs
Other machine: Media library (mounted to the pi), pure Debian VM for the UnicornTranscoder with the 3000 port forwarded into it from the host (so should make no difference)
The transcoder works, and is accessible via both it’s internal ip (localhost:3000 from the host, to verify the portforward would work) and it’s external domain. Gives the neat 'You did things right after spending the night setting this up` purple page.
I have dropped port 32400 on the pi, moved the /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Relay file and replaced the /usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Transcoder with the generated one.
However. When I try to start a transcode task (aka running a high-bitrate movie from a browser), I get the error:
Playback Error:
This server is not powerful enough to convert video.
Ehh what now? I am not really sure what logs to provide you with (nor really how to get them out of the software 😃), but any guidance would be much appreciated! The error would make me guess that I did in fact change the Plex Transcoder to something different; but it’s getting confused at recognizing the running transcoder? I can at least confirm that the transcoder is receiving no requests by keeping an eye on the nginx logs.
The next step would be for it to try to probe multiple machines for the transcoding tasks (e.g. multiple desktops/laptops around the house to see which ones are up); is this something unicorn can handle?
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: closed
- Created 4 years ago
- Comments: 57 (24 by maintainers)
I have the same issue on my side, it’s a tampermonkey related bug, it’s like if the 307 request was blocked
Maybe I have an idea, can you try to stream using incognito mode on Google Chrome and disable your browser plugins ?
Yes it is. At least to the right domain. I of course don’t know if the endpoint / arguments are 100% correct.
Eventually a timeout from the proxy.
If I open it in a new tab, it starts working… Yaay? I can see the transcoder actually starting the transcoding process; but on the original tab nothing happens. Eventually the transcoder stops on it’s own.
However, I also pinned this down to being only in Chrome (80.0) In Firefox it all works now all of the sudden. However, in Firefox incognito I still have login issues (it just errors out without anything apparent in the logs). But that might also be because Plex can be a steaming pile of garbage sometimes 😃 I’ve read about more people having this issue.
Hey, I see that you got only one start.mpd, it looks like you are not reaching your Plex through the UnicornLoadBalancer. In your dev tool you should first see a request on your Plex domain with a 302 answer redirecting you to the transcoder.