Plex Media Server v0.9.6.1
We’re happy to announce a new release of the Plex Media Server; this is a followup to the last beta release, which was the first to support DLNA and Silverlight Smooth Streaming, and fixes a number of issues in those areas, along with some other things.
Overall the feedback for those new features has been really awesome. I’ll let our community do the talking:
Thanks so much for all your feedback, we really appreciate all the support!
Without further ado, here are the changes in the latest release. I’ve also included more detailed changes for the 0.9.6.0 release as well at the bottom. The new releases are available in the usual spot.
- NEW: Mac OSX releases are now signed with Developer ID, making it Mountain Lion and 10.7.4 friendly.
– NEW: We now allow the selection of higher quality streams over 3G with the latest iOS client.
– NEW: Show “Plex Media Server” when mapping a port via UPnP so it’s nice and pretty on the router.
– NEW: Plex Media Server is now available for ReadyNAS Duo v2 (ARM).
– NEW: (DLNA) Support matching headers by regular expression in DLNA profiles.
– NEW: (DLNA) Allow MIME types to be flexibly overridden by DLNA profiles.
- FIX: Don’t return empty Silverlight Smooth Streaming (SLSS) manifest files, crashes some clients.
– FIX: Bad transcoder regression that made remuxing produce ugly artifacts on iOS clients (purple/green).
– FIX: Transcoder regression where WEB-DL files (and others) could crash the transcoder.
– FIX: Fixed a bug where a large number of sections could make the server not show up in clients.
– FIX: Make sure media files sent back can be cached by clients.
– FIX: Speed up deletion of (especially large) library sections by at least two orders of magnitude. Fast!
– FIX: Fix for subtitles not being enabled automatically in certain cases.
– FIX: When we have *known* foreign audio, and a single unknown subtitle, enable it.
– FIX: Handle SIGTERM, this is the default kill signal and we should do a proper shutdown.
– FIX: (Linux) Plex Media Server now bundles rsync.
– FIX: Don’t allow the OS to go to sleep while streaming media.
– FIX: Crash that happened when manual NAT setting was used.
– FIX: Silverlight and Flash channel crashes on Windows and OS X. (e.g. Netflix)
– FIX: Audio transcoder fixes.
– FIX: SLSS crash fixed and support for files which claim crazy frame-rates.
– FIX: Long shutdown on Linux.
– FIX: Some videos not Direct Streaming with LG TVs.
– FIX: Crash when /etc/mtab doesn’t exist, use /proc/mounts instead.
– FIX: /search endpoint supports single quotes in queries.
– FIX: (DLNA) Fix dimensions for DLNA videos of unknown size.
– FIX: (DLNA) Don’t error out on unknown DLNA profile tags.
– FIX: (DLNA) Give up on starting the DLNA server if it fails too many times in a row.
– FIX: (DLNA) Windows setup now creates a firewall exception for DLNA.
– FIX: (DLNA) iTunes artist titles was not read correctly by DLNA.
– FIX: (DLNA) Return a better protocol info for picky clients.
And for 0.9.6.0:
- NEW: DLNA support.
- NEW: Silverlight Smooth Streaming support.
- NEW: Audio transcoder (not yet used).
- NEW: Many enhancements to generic transcoder.
- NEW: Support for gzipped replies, making mobile browsing much quicker.
- FIX: Image thumbnails are rotated according to EXIF data.
- FIX: (Transcoder) Resuming certain videos on mobile clients didn’t work.
- FIX: Crash in network detection code.
- FIX: Cases where scans can abort prematurely.
- FIX: On Lion, don’t require the more powerful GPU.
- FIX: Detect local network access via IP/netmask.
- FIX: (Linux) Crash scanning when permissions were wrong.
- FIX: Sometimes auto-generated thumbs turned out too dark.
- FIX: An issue signing into myPlex (“Plex Headers are Required”).
- FIX: Don’t return disabled build-in plug-ins (e.g. Aperture).
- FIX: (Windows) Kill phantom transcode sessions.
- FIX: A number of other crashes and minor bugs.
Since we’re detailing the changes behind not one, but TWO releases, I figured you deserved something more than a photo of Barkley, so we made you a video. No, he’s not fishing, he’s just confused by objects on the bottom of the lagoon looking closer than they actually are.
108 Comments so far
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EFFFFF YESSSSSS!!!!
Go Barkley!
Win of the year. I love you guys.
ARM server! Please let the QNAP release come.
Excellent work!
The release notes are a little confusing with the wording. Is the top ones for 0.9.6.1? and the bottom 0.9.6.0?
@Ryan: Note where it says “I’ve also included more detailed changes for the 0.9.6.0 release as well at the bottom.” and “And for 0.9.6.0″ where those changes start
Awesome! Great release!! Thank you so much for the great support and the seamless experience
OMG, he’s so the sweetest thing
Just updated and mac client now buffers every 10 secs or so?
Also local server ip not auto found had to manually specify.
Not changed anything client side.
@Majortom: shouldn’t be anything in the release that causes that issue, but if you revert and verify it’s a regression, please contact me!
@elan: restarted client and buffering seems to have gone away
PMS still not publishing itself locally though only available if manually specified.
Looking forward to mac client update
)
Sweet. <3
Elan: restarted mac running PMS and now it does publish locally. Sorry if I wasted any of your time checking things out.
Keep up the good work
How do I update from 9.6.0? The updater doesn’t work (and if memory serves it never works for beta releases by design) but what is the manual process? I tried downloading the dmg, mounting it, and dragging PMS it into my applications folder over the old version which then asked me if I wanted to replace the existing version. I said yes, authenticated, then it said it failed because some files were locked and now plex is dead. New version won’t work, old version won’t work.
Do I need to uninstall the old version first? I didn’t want to risk losing my existing library which I recall happening last time I updated.
Shane: If you quit out of the media server, you should be able to drop the new application over the old one. Don’t worry about losing your library, it lives in a totally different place. If you can’t delete the old one, then it’s either running or portions of it are running, which you can solve by killing them in Activity Monitor or just restarting the Mac.
We will be enabling autoupdate shortly for this new release.
You guys are awesome!
Thank you to the developers and the community.
P.S. I would like to post a little fan letter about Plex and how much it has done for me.
where would be an appropriate place?
I have been passing the name around to be sure.
Enjoy,
Swiss
Is there any updated documentation about the DLNA MIME remapping anywhere?
Thanks!
Hi, DLNA will not start on the ReadyNas distro of v0.9.6.1.
Plex DLNA Server.log last line:
May 09, 2012 11:55:31 [0xf5c4e6d0] DEBUG – Reading system DLNA profiles
Neptune Log is blank.
Plex Media Server Log:
May 09, 2012 11:55:31 [0xec3c5b90] DEBUG – Job running: /c/.plex/Plex DLNA Server
May 09, 2012 11:55:31 [0xec3c5b90] DEBUG – DLNA Server exited.
May 09, 2012 11:55:31 [0xec3c5b90] ERROR – DLNA server exited 3 times in less than 60 seconds, giving up.
Removed,Rebooted and Reinstalled with the same issue.
Update has fixed my green/purple block issues on my IOS client so i will stick with it for now.
Thanks for the update!
Diego
you guys re awesome! is it possible to make dlna sort by sort name as opposed to title name?
@elan – awesome update. Now that we have ARM support for ReadyNAS is Synology ARM support just around the corner? Thanks!
You guys are ~almost~ as awesome as Barkley!
Thanks for all your work!
Now what about the still beta media client?
Can we also have a client update that fixes the optical bug problem on mac minis ? You promised this months ago, you even promised to focus on the client after the last *server* release…
PLEASE
my surround speakers are getting bored of not being used because of stereo down mixing :/
Any chance the Mac client will see any love in the near future?
@Aqntbghd: we’ve done a bunch of work on the client, please check here for a build that fixes the issue ~ http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/31479-sound-breaks-after-dts-playback-optical-out/page__view__findpost__p__256648
Amaizing Barkley !
My love for you’s is ever growing. PLEX FTW!
Keep it coming! I would really like a “better” iOS App though.
Guys, Some focus on the client would be nice. Seriously I would pay top dollar for this product but as it stands I share the pain of many others when it comes to irritating bugs.
@elan : will test tonight and close the bug (or reopen it if needed)
Come on guys…WTV metadata support! Everything else is nice. But I’d love to be able to see the recordings from my MCE box properly presented…
Since Remote Potato is horribly broken for streaming anything other than 25Hz content, Plex is my only option for decent quality. But finding content is a huge PITA without metadata.
Hey, Readnas Duo V2 ARM server now availaible? Thats cool. But where can I download it?
When will the RPM repo be updated?
Client, client, Client, Client
@elan> optical bug fixed in the release from the forums. more details in the forums
THANKS
Ok, so I updated to v0.9.6.1 . Running Windows 7. Videos with aac sound still not without audio in 5.1 surround system with digital optical from computer to Marantz receiver.
Am I the only one?
I just downloaded the latest update v0.9.601-en-us.exe and Norton Antivirus has found WS.Reputation.1 threat. Anyone else with this problem?
Kevan: Norton is a giant piece of camel dung ~ http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/WS-Reputation-1-is-this-the-best-they-can-come-with/td-p/616601
New to PLex and wow what an awesome product. This latest release has resolved the stuttering in both iOS and PS3 playback from a Win7 based server. Thanks guys! Keep up the good work
i have been having issues with mp4 files encoded using handbrake on the last two releases, i had to revert to prior server versions to get videos that played perfectly before that now stutter or freeze on a frame as the audio continues. im not sure if the problem lies on the ios app or the server side, but it has been a real drag that videos that played with very slight to no issues now dont play at all.
otherwise, u guys have done very fine work, i extol the virtues of this software, but i feel all michigan j frog when i try to show my parents how this can revolutionize how their home entertainment center can work, and the newer versions conk out…
@ry: happy to work with you if you can provide samples/logs!
ummmm….how…how do i do that?
@ry: Upload a sample which reproduces the issue. Send me (elan at plexapp dot com) an email with a link and a Plex Media Server.log after you’ve played back one of the files.
well it doesnt appear to have any issues on the computer itself, it seems like it may be an issue with the ios app. i’m going to try it again on ios hoping maybe it just needed time to refresh? (kind of a blowing the NES cartridge kind of logic but still..)
Just updated to the latest client and media server, and locally they are working great! However, the latest iOS apps no longer can connect to plex or be used as remotes. Anyone else having this problem and/or have a solution?? Thanks, and keep up the great work guys!
@ry: you can try toggling Direct Play in the iOS settings and see if it makes a difference, that would be an excellent data point. Egggggcellent.
i just sent a copy of what i think ur looking for. i apologize for my ignorance haha
noobHAMMERED
toggling direct play and direct stream off fixes her! um….y is that?
@ry: Direct Play ON means that iOS is being asked to play the file directly, without PMS getting involved (except serving it). If the file is dicey, it can cause crashes.
Direct Stream ON means that PMS is being asked to remux the file if possible. Again, if the file is dicy, it *can* cause crashes, but much less likely to.
With both of them off, the media server does a transcode, which is the “safest” option.
If you’ve found a file which crashes with Direct Play on, and Direct Stream off, I’m very interested.
thanks a lot! i’m relieved that its probably just my poor transcoding skills and not the app itself per se!
ya, turning direct stream off does the trick, its even letting me play hd files i was having problems before on the new iPad. it looks great!
i will definitely forward any files that don’t work with this method for the greater good.
…the greater good.
thanks a lot for your help and your promptness. the iOS app is the reason i switched from android to iOS. gladly pony up another 5 bucks (please don’t do that)
I upgraded my PMS to 9.6.1 now my Plex clients (Mac Desktops and iOS) can’t see my server. The PMS is in a different network than my clients, but located locally on my LAN. This worked perfectly before the upgrade. I’ve rebooted everything multiple times. I’m a network engineer by day, so I know my network (Cisco switches, routers and firewalls) is rock solid. What happened?
@Ray: I honestly don’t think anything changed in the network code. Happy to work with you to figure out what happened, especially if you downgrade to 0.9.6.0 and it starts magically working again
I can do that! Will report back shortly.
Same result after going back to 0.9.6.0, PMS is nowhere to be found. I should also say that I’ve manually added it in the “Network” screen.
I’m “repairing permissions” on my Mac server … just in case.
@Ray: So it’s not a new issue, or were you upgrading from 0.9.5?
I’m pretty sure I was running 0.9.6.0 because I like o keep my software up to date. I can go back to 0.9.5 and give that a try. Which ever version I was running, I can honestly say that it worked.
Fer crying out loud! I like to listen to the music I like to listen to! Please don’t bog my computer down with vimeo again! Stuttering Vangelis is not good!
Otherwise, thank you for the update!
SC
Finally – this update fixed my missing channels – i’m using Windows 32-bit client and i haven’t been able to see any channels since I installed in November… now I can watch the video channels! woohoo!
I would just like to add a +1 to Jaime’s comment. I run digital optical to a Sony receiver and still don’t get any sound to AAC 5.1 AAC 2.0 is fine though as before update.
@elan – OK, I went back to 0.9.5 and it works as it did before. Any thoughts?
@Ray: You must have private networks on different subnets (as you alluded to earlier). 0.9.5 did a bad check for “is incoming connection on private network?” just checking to see if both ends were on private networks. 0.9.6 does a more correct check to see if both ends are on the *same* private network. That’s what you’re running into.
@elan: I’m probably crazy for asking this, but why would someone design a client/server application that has networking capabilities require that the client and server be on the same IP network?
Is there a way to turn off the DLNA server. I have no need for it.
@Ray: Ha
The media server doesn’t currently have the concept of accounts/authentication, so there are two ways to connect to it. (1) on the local network, without auth needed (2) from anywhere, with our myPlex centralized service handling the authentication. This may change in the future, but that’s the way it is now.
OK, I understand. I guess I can continue to run 0.9.5 on my internal PMS and 0.9.6.1 on my external PMS. I can also move the internal PMS to a box in my client network so I can run the latest code. If you’re wondering why I’m running 2 PMS boxes, it’s because I like to keep servers off my client network and I didn’t want a publicly accessible box on the trusted side of my firewall … can you say “overkill”. Thanks for all of your help and responses. You have an awesome product.
BTW – I have a Control4 home automation system and it would be great if there was a Plex device that seamlessly integrates into a home automation setup. Someone has written a Control4 driver for XBMC, but I think your product is better
Oh, maybe since your application is mostly run on private IP networks (RFC 1918), you can lock it down to only RFC 1918 addresses without a need to create an accounts/authorization method. You already have that functionality in MyPlex for public accessibility. Just a thought …
Ray: That was roughly what we were doing, but people were segmenting private subnets and didn’t want people from one subnet getting to their servers, and then people had public subnets they were running the media server on, and it just got super complicated. Hence the “if you’re on the same subnet, you can get in without creds” simplification.
I see. Thanks again for your patience and responses.
Why is 0.9.6.1 considered newer than 0.9.6.3? I already had the latter installed, but the automatic updater decided the lower-numbered version was somehow newer.
@Ray: my pleasure, thanks for taking the time to engage
@Stormchild:There is no 0.9.6.3, unless you have a time machine, it would have been 0.9.5.3
A retro fix for better usability in XP would be nice,how about it plex team?
Can this new version run as a service yet ?
@wout: Not yet, no. It’s been discussed, but there are certain complications which makes it non-trivial.
Also, I know that NEW mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, your fancy shmancy tablets) all have the clients with built in automatic stream quality (bitrate) adjusting depending on the connection. How about something like that for those of stuck with these antique cinderblocks we call laptops? Also for a desktop at a friend or relatives, it would be nice to have the stream quality auto adjust. Instead I have to go in and pick a quality, and move it down if it stutters (with no way to know the connection may have improved). Lets see the bread and butter client get updated soon!
Excited thanks for the blog, really keeps me interested.
Since the update my computer won’t sleep anymore as programmed. I use the system to control the sleeping and not the Plex client. With the PMS off the computer sleeps als expected. Anyone else experiencing this?
I’m currently running 0.9.5.3 as a package on my Synology NAS DS 710+. Works like a charm.
However, can I upgrade this package pointing to the Linux version from within my Synology ?
Or is there going to be a separate Synology package ?
This is great news but was really hoping for a client update for windows, the delay in SD content is driving me nuts but the server was fine.
Bombs away…
Great job. Many thx
Nobody talks about the last updates on DLNA server features?
Normal, as it still does not work with my Sony Bravia
Serviio remains in first place for me.
Wait and see progress hopefully.You are on the way
Since the update of PMS to 0.9.6.1 I can’t open the media manager on my server (running Windows 2008 R2 Standard). It ran on all versions of PMS I’ve been running from 0.9.5.2 to 0.9.6.0 OK. The server runs ok in the system tray and the encoder and DNLA processes run, but I just can’t open Media Manager. The error I get is:
Plex Media Server has stopped working….
This is in the event log:
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 14/05/2012 22:46:12
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: VS1.cg.local
Description:
Faulting application name: Plex Media Server.exe, version: 0.9.6.1, time stamp: 0x4fa77120
Faulting module name: Plex Media Server.exe, version: 0.9.6.1, time stamp: 0x4fa77120
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x0016f562
Faulting process id: 0x33ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd321af5ea94be
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server.exe
Report Id: 38edb91e-9e0e-11e1-aed4-0017a4f8869e
Event Xml:
1000
2
100
0×80000000000000
407682
Application
VS1.cg.local
Plex Media Server.exe
0.9.6.1
4fa77120
Plex Media Server.exe
0.9.6.1
4fa77120
c0000409
0016f562
33ac
01cd321af5ea94be
C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Server.exe
38edb91e-9e0e-11e1-aed4-0017a4f8869e
Help please as the streaming is far better in 6.1 so I’d hate to have to revert to 6.0 just to manage my media.
Thanks and keep up the amazing work!
Mark
[quote]Since the update my computer won’t sleep anymore as programmed. I use the system to control the sleeping and not the Plex client. With the PMS off the computer sleeps als expected. Anyone else experiencing this?
[/quote]
I have the exact same simptons. My Windows 7 won’t sleep ever after the latest update.
@Mark: Can you visit this link http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/23320-enabling-automatic-crash-dumps-on-windows/ enable crash reports, and send us a crash report?
> where is the ReadyNas v2 ARM package?
I took a look at http://www.plexapp.com/linux/linux-pms-download.php and only saw the i686.bin download. Is there another link pending that will reveal the ARM package?
@elan: I have enabled crash dumps and have some output. Can you let me know where to send it please?
Thanks
Since the update adding new TV episodes won’t get picked up by media manager. I have added two new episodes. I can see media manager scan it when i hit update but the new episodes won’t show up as new. They have the same file name and all as the others so nothing new there .. it just won’t update with new episodes.
@Joel: I just tried scanning and new episodes scanned in just fine and showed up. Any chance you can provide more details, I’m not quite sure what you mean by “won’t show up as new”.
Hi.. u just deleted my whole TV section and created a new one and none of my TV shows showed up.. hmm this is wierd as it has worked just up until i updated.
Must be something else. Will try a couple of things and come back
When i press the update section button it runs and then stops and says last update 01011970.. i press the update kog thing down in the left corner and it updates and the same date is presented again. I do a full media update and still it says updated 1970. I reboot the machine again same thing. I delete the section add it again and update and it finds nothing as above and the date for last update is 1970
Joel: any chance you can share a scanner log?
Hi all,
Plex is amazing I use it to run my media through our house !
A couple of questions though ?
We have an LG tv and I wanted to know if the client is ever going to get an update ? As I feel I’m missing compared to the normal ATV client.
Also will the iPad software ever allow me to create custom collections on the media server ??
Cheers
Dan
Also, one quick question can someone point me to the link for the x86 version of 0.9.6.1?
I need it for my Ready NAS ultra2
Great update guys. DLNA support is awesome. You just completed the package imho. I’ll share profiles on the forum! ^_^
Sorry to ask this silly thing, but what is the breed of Barkley, I really love him!
@leonardo – Barkley is american staffordshire x bullmastiff with possibly some ridgeback.
thanks, I will try the same!
Log
May 22nd, 2012: Flex is still awesome! Thx guys
Wanted to drop a remark and let you know your Rss feed isnt working today. I tried including it to my Yahoo reader account and got nothing.
Latest build still not working in Sony Bravia KDL. Using Plex Server in iMAC Lion OSX, external FW 800 drive with exFAT FS.
Plex constantly freezes/crashes while playing videos. I have already upgraded to the most current PMS 0.9.6.3, and have Windows XP. My Roku is the XS. Is there a remedy or patch for this? I would really like to enjoy this! Thanks for your time!
@elan: Hi Elan, can you share any road map intel when Plex will be made available on ARM-based Synology NAS-servers? Can’t wait to try it out! Thx
Looks great but hoping to get on ARM based QNAP 419P II. Would this be far off? Thanks for all your teams have done.
Hi, when ARM package will be available to Synology ARM?Where is?
Hi, My family loves the plex media player for Roku. Is there a way to make a secured channel. We have placed most of our DVD library on our home server. But our son is 10 and he accesses the R rated movies is there a way to secure folders or channels and leave access to kid friendly material?
Ok nice work
But why is yahoo now trying to become homepage and preferred search engine every time the media manager is opened?