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Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Printable Version

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Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

I'm having an unusual issue that I've been unable to troubleshoot. I recently reprocessed some rips into HEVC to save space, but upon re-adding them to my NAS, Kodi stopped playing any of them. I thought it was a permissions/owner issue, so I made sure the owner, group, and permissions all matched, but that didn't fix it. I've added other videos since these, and they don't have the same playback issue. I'm using MariaDB to host my library database and have triple checked that the database user hasn't changed or run out of space or anything like that. I've uploaded logs in parts because it's too long (123456) and will break down the highlights (you'll have to combine all the pastes for the line numbers to match):
Line 1282 - Navigated to Video > TV Shows (source) > Star Trek > Season 1 and tried to play episode 6. (success)
Line 1686 - Scanned Star Trek show folder to library
Line 2505 - S01E06 successfully added to library
Line 9619 - Tried to play episode 6 (in the same source folder, not from the TV Shows main menu). (failed)
Line 9777 - Tried to play episode 7 (had not been reprocessed). (success)
Line 10106 - Tried to play episode 8 (reprocessed). (failed)
Can someone help me make sense of this? It plays the files fine as long as I don't scan it to my library. This is driving me nuts.

note: i had to switch to textbin.net for parts 3 and 5 of the log because pastebin flagged it as inappropriate content... I guess maybe it doesn't like some of the actor's names?


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

I should also mention that the playback issue is OS/Hardware independent. I recorded these logs on my Windows 10 install, but my OSMC (Vero 4k+) instance has the exact same issue.


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Karellen - 2021-03-18

Seems to be a problem with KodiConnect. If you disable it, can you play the episode?


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

Unfortunately, no. I disabled the plugin and tried to play it but had the same result. Tried restarting the application with it disabled and then playing it, but it wouldn't play. log


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Karellen - 2021-03-18

Ok. The log is not revealing much about the cause of the problem, it's just showing it can't play it.

Can you play the file in any other player?

Can you post the MediaInfo results to Kodi Paste Site... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=42708&pid=1707519#pid1707519


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

(2021-03-18, 22:17)Karellen Wrote: Ok. The log is not revealing much about the cause of the problem, it's just showing it can't play it.

Can you play the file in any other player?

Can you post the MediaInfo results to Kodi Paste Site... https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=42708&pid=1707519#pid1707519
Yes. I can play this video IN KODI as long as I don't scan it to my library. That's what I was pointing out in my first post at line 1282 in the logs. It plays fine on Windows and on my Vero 4k+ this way. It also plays fine in VLC. Once I scan it to the library, Kodi refuses to play any of the files that were reprocessed as HEVC. They all still play fine in VLC, and if I remove them from my library and navigate through the media source, they will play just fine again.

Here's the MediaInfo


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Karellen - 2021-03-18

Hmm, I cannot see what the problem is.

Can you go to Settings>System>Logging and enable Component Logging and choose SMB Library and FFMpeg Libraries.
Create a new log of you trying to play the episode. Nothing else.
Paste it to Kodi Paste Site

If that still shows nothing of help, I will need your MyVideos database.


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

Unfortunately, I don't think it's showing any new information: https://paste.kodi.tv/oqikupakos.kodi
Let me know the best way to get you the MyVideos database, because I'm pretty sure my MySQL database is too big for any free pastebins


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-18

Just for fun, here's the same logging when the folder is played in Kodi while not being part of the library: https://paste.kodi.tv/utodikaxol.kodi


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Karellen - 2021-03-19

I need full logs, not snippets, but it probably won't help in this case anyway, thought I would have expected to see more from SMB Library.

Forgot you were using MySQL, I can't do anything with one of those database.

I have never come across a problem like this where a video plays in files mode but not in library mode. Both entries should be linked to the same file, which is why I wanted to check the database to see if there was a discrepancy in the paths.

I am going to put it down to a MySQL issue. To confirm, can you install a Portable Kodi on your Windows PC and scrape and play the episode?... https://kodi.wiki/view/Portable_mode


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-20

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but here's an export of a section of my Episode table from my MariaDB database: https://paste.kodi.tv/jevamicemi
Every time I add those files to my library the are assigned the same idFile attributes, so there must be something going on there that's remembering some data even though I can confirm those entries disappear when I remove the series from my library.


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Pantses - 2021-03-20

I just made a portable install and moved over my sources.xml, passwords.xml, and mediasources.xml. I set up the TV Shows source the same way I have it in the MySQL database and scraped only the Star Trek folder. The episodes all play normally. I guess that cements it as a MySQL issue. Hopefully someone familiar with MySQL can help me figure out what's going wrong here.


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Karellen - 2021-03-20

Maybe @Klojum might know...


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - DaveBlake - 2021-03-20

(2021-03-20, 00:34)Pantses Wrote: I just made a portable install and moved over my sources.xml, passwords.xml, and mediasources.xml. I set up the TV Shows source the same way I have it in the MySQL database and scraped only the Star Trek folder. The episodes all play normally. I guess that cements it as a MySQL issue.
Or it just means that with a clean installation the problem that originated with re-adding media to the existing library does not exist.

I would guess that after re-ripping files and rescanning the original library entry was not correctly removed/replaced, it points to something that doesn't exist so won't play. But there is no easy way for anyone else to look at your database so no way to check this hypothesis. A clean install avoids that issue.


RE: Problem playing files once added to library (plays fine when browsing media source) - Klojum - 2021-03-20

(2021-03-20, 03:07)Karellen Wrote: Maybe @Klojum might know...

Oh really, hehe.

@Pantses I'm a fan of TL;DR , so can you tell in short what the problem is? You re-encoded videos into HEVC, but used the same file extension .mkv , right?

Files scanned into Kodi are stored with their full (network) path and their extension. So recognizing any changes to the present video's content is to either refresh that single video or fresh an entire TV show. Library updates don't work there. Partly, this is because Kodi's garbage collection is not up to par, but there may finally be coming a solution for that.

The crux here is that you (understandably) used the same .mkv file extension for the HEVC formatted videos, which is the 'officlal' file extension also for HEVC. I myself use a .hevc file extension. It's one way to tell one video type from another, and I put in a simple video-extension tag to add the .hevc extension in the advancedsettings.xml file, so Kodi recognizes them. Since those files are also basically new files to Kodi, they get scanned/scraped no problem.

If video files are not being played, as in cannot be found, then the file path to that video is incorrect. Diving into the database would be the quickest way to troubleshoot this, but you can also find the full path in the Information page of that video, the path is displayed when selecting/highlighting the last menu icon ('Refresh') at the bottom right. You'll have to scroll thru the icons/buttons to get to it. If there is a mismatch in any way to what the database says and where the actual file is, then the file cannot be found and will not be played.

If video files are not being played, because of their format or contents, then it's certainly not a database problem.