Playback Error - Error App: Error in ffprobe

[hofnop 3]

Hi there, Emby has been working great for me for years. To my surprise I have a video file that does not seem to work in Emby, neither the browser nor the Android app. It does work in VLC.

I've attempted to remux it a bit, removed audio streams and subtitle streams that I don't need but no dice. Does anyone have a suggestion, is my hardware insufficient?

Emby server version: 4.9.1.90 (had this issue also a few months back though)

Attached the codec info from VLC, the emby server log and the transcoder log. An excerpt:

2026-01-10 07:12:21.677 Info MediaProbeManager: ProcessRun 'ffprobe' Execute: C:\Users\hofnop\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\ffprobe.exe -i file:"\\hofnop-nas\Media2\Children Movies\Frozen II (2019)\Frozen II (2019).mkv" -threads 0 -v info -print_format json -show_streams -show_chapters -show_format -show_data
2026-01-10 07:12:21.839 Info MediaProbeManager: ProcessRun 'ffprobe' Process exited with code 1 - Failed
2026-01-10 07:12:21.841 Error App: Error in ffprobe
	*** Error Report ***
	Version: 4.9.1.90
	Command line: C:\Users\hofnop\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system\EmbyServer.dll
	Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10.0.19045
	OS/Process: x64/x64
	Framework: .NET 8.0.21
	Runtime: C:/Users/hofnop/AppData/Roaming/Emby-Server/system/System.Private.CoreLib.dll
	Processor count: 4
	Data path: C:\Users\hofnop\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\programdata
	Application path: C:\Users\hofnop\AppData\Roaming\Emby-Server\system
	Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Unified.Ffmpeg.FfRunException: Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Unified.Ffmpeg.FfRunException: ffprobe failed - streams and format are both null: -i file:"\\hofnop-nas\Media2\Children Movies\Frozen II (2019)\Frozen II (2019).mkv" -threads 0 -v info -print_format json -show_streams -show_chapters -show_format -show_data
ffprobe version 5.1-emby_2023_06_25_p4 Copyright (c) 2007-2022 the FFmpeg developers and softworkz for Emby LLC
	  built with gcc 12.2.0 (Rev10, Built by MSYS2 project)
	[dvdsub @ 00000202c299da80] [IMGUTILS @ 000000b7a99ff4f0] Picture size 0x0 is invalid
	[matroska,webm @ 00000202c2996940] Failed to open codec in avformat_find_stream_info
	[dvdsub @ 00000202c299e680] [IMGUTILS @ 000000b7a99ff4f0] Picture size 0x0 is invalid
	[matroska,webm @ 00000202c2996940] Failed to open codec in avformat_find_stream_info
	Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'file:\\hofnop-nas\Media2\Children Movies\Frozen II (2019)\Frozen II (2019).mkv':
	  Metadata:
	    encoder         : libebml v1.4.5 + libmatroska v1.7.1
	    creation_time   : 2025-10-05T08:21:44.000000Z
	  Duration: 01:43:14.02, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 8462 kb/s
	  Stream #0:0(eng): Video: h264 (High), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x808, SAR 1:1 DAR 240:101, Level 41, 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn
	    Metadata:
	      BPS             : 6299870
	      DURATION        : 01:43:14.021000000
	      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 148508
	      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 4877691422
	  Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s (default)
	    Metadata:
	      title           : English
	      BPS             : 1508999
	      DURATION        : 01:43:14.017000000
	      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 580689
	      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 1168346268
	  Stream #0:2(dut): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s
	    Metadata:
	      title           : Dutch
	      BPS             : 640000
	      DURATION        : 01:43:14.016000000
	      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 193563
	      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 495521280
	  Stream #0:3(eng): Subtitle: dvd_subtitle (default)
	    Metadata:
	      BPS             : 11216
	      DURATION        : 01:42:26.130000000
	      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 1930
	      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 8616955
	  Stream #0:4(dut): Subtitle: dvd_subtitle
	    Metadata:
	      title           : Frozen II
	      BPS             : 6749
	      DURATION        : 01:41:34.077000000
	      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 1008
	      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 5141351
	[dvdsub @ 00000202c2ca6700] [IMGUTILS @ 000000b7a99ff730] Picture size 0x0 is invalid
	Could not open codec for input stream 3
	
	
{
	

	   at Emby.Server.MediaEncoding.Probing.MediaProbeManager.GetMediaInfoInternal(String inputPath, String primaryPath, MediaProtocol protocol, Dictionary`2 requestHeaders, Boolean extractChapters, String probeSizeArgument, Boolean isAudio, Boolean hasMixedProtocols, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
	   at Emby.Providers.MediaInfo.FFProbeVideoInfo.ProbeVideo[T](MetadataResult`1 metadataResult, MetadataRefreshOptions options, BaseItem[] collectionFolders, LibraryOptions libraryOptions, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
	   at Emby.Providers.Manager.MetadataService`2.RunCustomProvider(ICustomMetadataProvider`1 provider, MetadataResult`1 itemResult, String logName, MetadataRefreshOptions options, BaseItem[] collectionFolders, LibraryOptions libraryOptions, RefreshResult refreshResult, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
	Source: Emby.Server.MediaEncoding
	TargetSite: Void MoveNext()

 

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-transcode-8eb7769a-0da2-4a21-af42-ed2230066905_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-b60036d1-2e37-458b-94f4-032b1e26ec30_1.txt ffmpeg-transcode-f5aa2491-5a86-4e7d-84a2-6f2a8541aa1b_1.txt

[hofnop 3]

Managed to resolve the issue on my own. ChatGPT read the error and found a similar topic here on the forum, the problem was with the embedded DVD subtitles. It recommended me to OCR them to srt format with SubtitleEdit or remux and remove them. I opted for the latter and added some matching external srt files. Problem solved.

[Luke 42077]

HI, thanks for following up.