Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

WHAT IS PLEX
It's a media player system and software suite consisting of a player application and an associated media server that organizes personal media stored on local devices. Plex organizes all your personal media (movies, music, photos) no matter where it's kept, so it can be accessed on any screen, from anywhere � your phone, tablet, TV, PC or Mac. You even have the option to access your media remotely, outside of your home/local network. With Plex, all your media content is always at your fingertips.

HOW IT WORKS
Plex has two components:

The server � A PC or Mac that will store your media library in a central location
The apps � Players on client devices that play back media from the Server

Supported Devices
Plex is supported across a variety devices and platforms: PC/Mac, iOS/Android/Windows Phone, Chromecast, Android TV, tvOS, Roku, Xbox, Playstation, and various Smart TVs all support Plex.

A fully-functioning Plex system needs both a server and at least one app. The server includes the Plex web app (accessed via your browser) which is used to manage the Server and your media library. The Plex web app also includes a player app so a minimal Plex installation could be just be the server, but most of you are going to want to install apps on client devices around your home, like on a Roku, Apple TV, Xbox, etc. We'll go over the recommend Plex client devices later.

GETTING STARTED
Step 1 Create a free plex.tv account You can do that here: https://plex.tv/users/sign_up then go to the Downloads section and install the Plex Media Server software on a PC running Windows, Linux, or FreeBSD, a Mac, or a NAS (several specific models supported).

Step 2 Add your media. However! Before you add any of your media folders or network drives to your Plex Media Server, you'll want to make sure your media is organized properly. This is important, as the Plex Server software identifies your media according to folder structure, filename, and the type of Library to which it is assigned. Once identified, Plex fetches information like posters, descriptions, and ratings that make media selection a rich experience. For best matching results, follow the Media Preparation guides and spend time ensuring your media collection is sorted and named correctly. Although the process is quite flexible, you can avoid mismatched or unrecognized media by adhering to the recommended naming convention right from the start.

Step 3 Get apps and stream to any device. The Plex app is completely free to use on all NON-MOBILE platforms including smart TVs, Playstation, Xbox, Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV and Roku streaming devices. If you are not a Plex Pass subscriber you will need to pay a small activation fee before you can start using the app on Android and iOS mobile devices.

RECOMMENDED SERVER HARDWARE
Any PC or Mac made in the last 5 years will be fine to run as your Plex Media Server. It's best to install Plex Media Server on a PC or Mac that is on 24/7 so that your media will always be readily available. The ideal Plex hardware ecosystem consists of a dedicated PC or Mac as the server, and client devices like a Roku or Apple TV to access your content. For cheap server solutions if you don't already have a PC available to run the Plex Media Server software, check Amazon or Ebay for refurb PCs. You can usually find a decent refurbished PC that's perfectly capable of being a dedicated Plex server for $200-$300, maybe even cheaper!

IF you plan on enabling remote access to your server, I personally recommend your Plex Media Server PC have at least a Zen-based AMD CPU or a Haswell-based Intel CPU from the last couple of years and at least 4GB of RAM. These baseline specs ensure that when accessing your Plex Server remotely, likely from your phone or tablet or a device that doesn't support your media files natively, the server will be more than capable to transcode your media on-the-fly into an appropriate format that the remote device can play without any issues. The most basic thing to remember is that the more Plex apps/devices/clients you have playing content at the same time that require transcoding, the more CPU power you'll need. Generally speaking, if you have two Plex apps requiring transcoded content at the same time, that will require about twice the CPU processing power compared to if there was only one app playing content. If you want very basic, bare minimum server CPU suggestions:

No transcoding: Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz (NAS devices based on ARM or PowerPC processors should also be capable of at least one stream with no transcoding)
Single 720p transcode: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
Single 1080p transcode: Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz

If you'll need to support more than one simultaneous transcode, you'll need a more powerful processor. Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:

Single 1080p/10Mbps bitrate transcode: 2000 PassMark
Single 720p/4Mbps bitrate transcode: 1500 PassMark

To see a specific CPU model's PassMark score, try doing a search such as "Ryzen 5 1600 passmark" on Google or similar to help you find that information.

:siren:

It's important to note that in a local setup and/or a setup where all your client devices natively support the file formats/codecs of your media (even remote client devices), it's possible that your Plex Media Server will never have to transcode at all. The only limiting factor would be the internet upload speed on the network that your Plex server is on for any remote streams, as the bitrate of your media dictates just how many remote clients your Plex server can stream to simultaneously without issue. :siren:

RECOMMENDED CLIENT DEVICES
Now that you have your Plex Media Server sorted out and all your libraries set up with media, you'll want some client devices to access your content. I'll sort my general recommendations based on usage scenarios and price.

Home theater setup with audio/video receiver and 5.1+ surround sound system

Roku Premiere - $40
Roku Ultra - $100
NVIDIA Shield - $140+ (price varies based on storage configuration and optional accessories)
Home Theater PC (HTPC) - $300+ (price varies based on hardware components)

The Roku Premiere is the budget pick in this list, but at $40, it's a capable little device that can do 1080p HD, 4K Ultra HD, and HDR playback provided you have a strong dual-band WiFi connection. Unlike the $100 Roku Ultra, the Roku Premiere lacks wireless AC or ethernet, but otherwise offers similar performance and experience as the Roku Ultra. Both the Roku Premiere and Ultra support Dolby Digital and DTS audio passthrough (no DTS-HD, Atmos/TrueHD), have IR receivers for universal remote compatibility, and have a very simple UI that non-techie folk will have no problem using.

The NVIDIA Shield is unique in that while as a streaming box similar to the Roku it operates perfectly as a Plex client device, it can also work as your Plex Media Server, making it an "All-In-One" solution. It's a forked implementation of the Plex Media Server software though, and you might run into some niche issues with little support as not many Plex users have an Nvidia Shield as their dedicated Plex server. So, while the Shield is capable of being a Plex Media Server (if you do go this route, get the 500GB model for more storage), I'd still recommend getting a dedicated PC for your server. Just be aware of the limitations when utilizing your Shield TV as your Plex Media Server. See here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/221099648-Limitations-When-Running-Plex-Media-Server-on-NVIDIA-SHIELD.

That said, the Nvidia Shield can pass through DTS, Dolby Digital, DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD audio streams no problem. So next to an HTPC, the Shield TV is the best frontend/client device for Plex as it guarantees flawless native playback of nearly anything you can throw at it.

For a custom or pre-built HTPC you'll want to install the Plex Media Player app from the downloads page. It'll look and function exactly like the Plex Web App, but it runs as a native application instead of inside a browser on your PC. The HTPC is the best option if you want 100% native media playback with zero server transcoding.

Simple setup with just an HDTV and/or external speakers, sound bar, etc.

The Chromecast, Fire TV Stick 4K, and Roku Streaming Stick+ require solid WiFi to ensure solid media playback from your Plex Media Server � all three of these devices support wireless AC. The Chromecast is a super budget option, as it lacks 4K playback (there is a 4K Chromecast, but I don't think it's worth it, look to the other recommended options instead), and does not have a traditional physical remote or user interface on the TV. You browse your Plex Media Server libraries on your phone, tablet, or PC/Mac and "cast" media from your Plex Server to the Chromecast. It's a great, simple client device that might take a little bit of getting used to for some users.

I consider the Roku Streaming Stick+ and the Fire TV Stick 4K to be the "best bang for your buck" in this particular use scenario, with the Apple TV being the higher-end recommendation. The Fire TV is littered with Amazon Prime content on the home screen though, so if you or whoever don't fancy that, get the Roku Streaming Stick+ instead. I don't recommend the Apple TV 4K, because for the price you're better off getting an Nvidia Shield or putting that money towards an HTPC. I'd really only suggest the Apple TV 4K as a Plex client device if you are heavily invested in Apple's hardware/software ecosystem. Also something to note is that the Apple TV's stock remote can be a hurdle for some people to learn and handle. I suggest using a Harmony remote with the Apple TV instead of the one it comes with.

Remote playback for anyone accessing your Plex server outside of your local home network

My recommended devices for this scenario are the same as what I suggested for a simple setup essentially. I suggest a Chromecast for any friends or family who are tech savvy, and either the Roku Streaming Stick+ or Fire TV Stick 4K for something more traditional and easier to use; good for parents and non-techie folk.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Plex isn't correctly matching the right metadata to my media libraries at all, what the hell?
In order to prevent any metadata scraping issues, be sure to follow Plex's naming schema and directory structure from their media preparation guide here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/categories/200028098-Media-Preparation

What is the difference between Direct Play, Direct Stream, and Transcoding?
The Plex server will re-encapsulate (remux) compatible video/audio if the codec is supported. Basically Plex has 3 methods of streaming:

#1 Direct Play: This is when file format is natively supported via http and Plex will just serve up the file as is. Low CPU usage.

#2 Direct Stream: AKA remux. If the video/audio codecs are supported, but the container is not (such as MKV), Plex will remux to HLS or MKV over http. This uses more CPU resources than #1, but a lot less than:

#3 Transcoding: If the video/audio codecs are not supported or of the file specifics exceed known Roku limits, Plex will transcode the video/audio and send that to the client device via HLS or MKV over http. High CPU usage.

Note that methods 2 and 3 are not mutually exclusive. If the video codec is supported, but the audio codec is not (such as an MKV with H264 video and DTS audio trying to be played back on an Apple TV, which doesn't support DTS audio), Plex will direct stream one, and transcode the other. So the exact CPU usage may vary.

When trying to watch content from my Plex server REMOTELY, playback sucks and constantly pauses... why?
If you or anyone trying to stream content remotely from your Plex server are experiencing buffering issues, this is could be due to:

#1 Your internet upload speed is too slow. This is the most important element when considering remote streaming, as your ISP's rated upload speed should leave enough bandwidth headroom to support streaming to one or more client devices, e.g., buffering issues will happen if you have 10Mbps upload speed and a remote client device is attempting to Direct Play a 12Mbps bitrate video file from your server. Your options to remedy this are to either limit the remote stream bitrate to compensate for your ISP's rate upload speed (a Plex Pass feature), or manually set the remote client device to stream the video at a bitrate below 10Mbps.

#2 The client device you're watching from is requesting a full audio/video media transcode as it can't natively playback the source file and it's taxing your server's resources. This is a rare situation, as most devices today support a wide variety of codecs, but depending on the specs of your PC/NAS running Plex Media Server, this could be affecting streaming performance. In order to prevent this from happening, you could have your Plex Server create OPTIMIZED VERSIONS of your media for TV, mobile, etc., ahead of time.

If neither of the above sound like the cause of your remote streaming issues, feel free to ask in this thread for help.

When trying to watch content from my Plex server LOCALLY, playback sucks and constantly pauses... why?
Is your Plex Media Server connected to your home network via WiFi? If so, try hardwiring it to your router/switch and see if that fixes any playback issues. If your server is located somewhere in your home that isn't near your router/switch, I suggest getting this Powerline Adapter kit to rule out a poor WiFi connection. Otherwise, if your server is hardwired, there could be some other niche factor at play causing local playback issues, so go ahead and post specifics about any problems you're experiencing in this thread.

Remote access says it's unavailable outside my network, what did I do wrong?
Did you forward port 32400 in your router settings to the local IP of your Plex server, or enable UPnP? If not, do that and that should take care of most issues. If the message is still persisting you must ensure that the firewall on your OS is allowing the ports. 32400 is the default Port Plex listens to, so this must be opened or else you will not get a connection. You can see a list of ports that Plex uses here: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201543147-What-network-ports-do-I-need-to-allow-through-my-firewall-

How does Plex handle moving files between drives? Will it know a file has moved locations and keep the watched status?
It will so long as you make a copy first. Follow the steps below to ensure Plex maintains all metadata and watch status when moving a file from one location to another.

1) Copy original file to new location.
2) Scan library files.
3) When Plex sees you have 2 of that same file (you will see an icon on the top right of the media entry's poster saying there are two copies), split the duplicate files apart. You should now have two separate library entries for the file you are moving.
4) Delete file from original location.
5) Scan library again.
6) Empty library trash to get rid of the duplicate entry that should have a trash icon over its poster. Then you're done!

***

If you have any other questions about Plex, feel free to discuss in this thread!

teagone fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jan 26, 2020

# ¿ Mar 29, 2014 12:10

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:38

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Call Me Charlie posted:

It's worth mentioning that if you're throwing media to other PCs in your house, you'll be able to direct play instead of transcode.

My Plex server is netbook level gear but can still direct play two giant 1080p MKVs to two separate computers in my house with no problem.

True. I have my playback option set to automatic, so Direct Play/Stream/Transcode just happens when it needs to. Do you have yours set to force Direct Play?

# ¿ Mar 29, 2014 21:27

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Viper_3000 posted:

Anyone have a good solution for dealing with F1 races and the practices/qualifying/etc. that go with them?

As of right now I've just got a F1 - 2014 as a show title, and then am using seasons as different races, with episodes being the different events (practice, qualifying, race, etc.) but it isn't a perfect solution. Anyone have any ideas how to do it better?

Hmm, so your current file naming scheme is:

F1 - 2014 - S01E01 - Practice.avi
F1 - 2014 - S01E02 - Qualifying.avi
F1 - 2014 - S01E03 - Race.avi

Right?

That's honestly the best way to do it I think. I don't think Plex will be able to find metadata for specific races and whatnot, so setting the scanning agent for your F1 library should be set to "Personal Media" so you can manually enter and organize it yourself. Just making sure you have the S00E00 file name structure is the most important thing. As for folder hierarchy, I'd do something like:

code:

/TV Shows
   /Formula 1 (2014)
      /Season 01 - Australian Grand Prix
         Formula 1 - S01E01 - Practice.mp4
         Formula 1 - S01E02 - Qualifying.mp4
         Formula 1 - S01E03 - Race.mp4
      /Season 02 - Malaysia Grand Prix
         Formula 1 - S02E01 - Practice.mp4
         Formula 1 - S02E02 - Qualifying.mp4
         Formula 1 - S02E03 - Race.mp4

Which is what I'm assuming you're doing anyways, but just so people know what the hell I'm talking about

teagone fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Mar 30, 2014

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 04:54

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Viper_3000 posted:

I guess my only real question now is: Is there a way so that instead of the episode number in plex showing up it can instead say the title of the episode? "Practice, Qualifying, etc..."

You can edit the episode title manually in Plex. Just hover over the episode, click the edit/pencil icon, and change the title. I had to do that for Magpul training videos my brother wanted so he knew what episode was what.

Zogo posted:

It's odd. No matter what I've tried I can't get SRT subtitles to work on my Roku.

That is pretty strange. 100%, every SRT external subtitle file I add to a movie works just fine. Are you sure you're selecting the proper file before playing the video?

teagone fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Mar 31, 2014

# ¿ Mar 31, 2014 04:38

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

As of now, I think its best to recommend Amazon's Fire TV (should have called it the Kindle Bonfire) over Roku's line of devices if you want a solid streamer box for $99 that can run Plex and comes with a remote. Plex announced support for Fire TV yesterday (https://blog.plex.tv/2014/04/02/plex-available-amazons-fire-tv/), and the UI for the app is significantly better than the one currently on the Roku platform.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 05:08

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

FCKGW posted:

I just bought 3 Rokus last month too :/

Not saying Rokus are bad or anything, still a solid platform for streaming media

I still have my Roku 3 in my living room.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 06:45

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

FCKGW posted:

Short Plex on Amazon Fire TV video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCZNsACFJuU

The Fire TV UI is pretty slick.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 08:10

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Did they remove the small player from the Plex.tv web app? Whenever I play a video, it fills the width of the entire browser window automatically, and my only other option is to make it full screen. My web app version is Version 2.0.24

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 22:01

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

I spent an hour or so organizing about 6TB of files before I loaded them into Plex libraries. Tedious as gently caress, but worth it in the end because I barely had any incorrect matches pulled from the database agents.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 04:00

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Skeezy posted:

I thought so, just wanted to double check. For the meantime it works fine, everything will just be labeled under Season 1.

TheTVDB has the proper season/episode listings and metadata for Fairy Tail: http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=114801&lid=7 so you can match it using the TVDB agent. Just be sure your file names can be properly fetched from.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2014 00:08

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Came across this post on reddit regarding Chromecast Plex playback efficiency by replacing the default Chromecast XML profile: http://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/237vka/plex_how_to_improve_server_and_video_performance/

Just replaced my XML profile and the fix works great. Not sure why that Plex Chromecast profile isn't the default.

[edit] What it does

quote:

the issue is that almost all MKV files you get off the web are sent straight to the transcoder. This is due to the way the Plex XML limits bitrate and h.264 profile support. For example, the "max bitrate" is set to 4000Kbps. In actuality, the CC is capable of ~30 000kbps.

So when running this improved XML, you will experience better video quality (because of Direct Play) as well as reduced power consumption from the Plex server (due to no need to transcode video)

I found that post after noticing a certain video looked way better on my Roku than on my Chromecast. Now the quality is the same

teagone fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Apr 19, 2014

# ¿ Apr 19, 2014 09:02

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Here's a link to the improved XML file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/78410/Chromecast.xml

# ¿ Apr 19, 2014 09:30

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Roundboy posted:

I always suspected the cc profile was bunk. Does this affect android in general vs cc? Like, if I play a movie on my phone its one profile, then cast it its another?

I believe that profile is exclusive to the Chromecast, so I think yes.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2014 14:04

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

TraderStav posted:

Do you have the location for the file on Mac installs?

Thanks!

I think profiles are packaged inside the actual app. Right click the Plex Media Server app in whatever folder you put it in, and select "Show Package Contents". Should be somewhere in the Resources folder.

[edit] Apparently editing the XML files that way will get overwritten with each update. According to the Plex forums, in the ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server folder make a folder called "Profiles" and put a copy of the Chromecast.xml in there. The server will use the profiles you put there before it looks for one in the app package.

So the path is ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Profiles/Chromecast.xml

teagone fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Apr 20, 2014

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 01:26

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

TraderStav posted:

Interesting as I don't have a PMS directory there. If I remember though, there's two library folders in OS X. It may be under the profile library which isn't readily visible in finder... Will do some digging. Thanks!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

I don't have PMS installed on my Mac. At any rate, is there a WatchESPN plugin for Plex? My googlefu is failing.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 04:35

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Roundboy posted:

I love the Plex interface on my android device, as well as the web browser, but the roku interface sucks rear end. Has anybody edited an XML or had it use a different profile or something?

I wish. The dog rear end interface that hasn't been updated in forever is one of the reasons I stopped using my Roku for Plex.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 01:37

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

fatpat268 posted:

I've been using plex on an old roku lt, and it's dog slow... at least compared to my android devices. Would the interface be any faster on the Roku 3?

Speed of the UI isn't really an issue on the Roku, so yes in that regard. It's just it looks and navigates worse than the Netflix/YouTube Roku channels.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 04:52

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

fatpat268 posted:

Yea, I know what you mean. Plex on everything else has a pretty similar interface, but the implementation on Roku is just not great. Honestly, I'm probably just gonna pick up a Fire TV to replace this roku lt.

Consider a Chromecast too

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 05:24

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

OnceIWasAnOstrich posted:

I've been using Plex for a while, usually either with an iPad or a Roku 3 (I have no complaints about the interface, who gives a poo poo? I mostly use my Android phone and play to Roku anyway). Plex is currently running on my really overpowered desktop and works beautifully, except when I try to use the Windows Plex client connected to the PMS on the same computer. When I connect to the server (manually my specifying localhost) it is constantly buffering. I don't understand how it could possibly be having trouble with buffering without even going over the network. Am I doing something wrong? It is definitely not a cpu power problem, as it is a very overlocked i5-2500k.

I kind of give a poo poo. The Plex Roku UI in its current incarnation is terrible compared to the YouTube or Netflix Roku channels. Once they push an update that's not exclusive to Plex Pass subscribers, I might go back to using it. The Chromecast right now is working just fine for me though.

Regarding your server woes, I had the same issue. I basically never play from Plex client on my actual Plex Server though (it's a straight up dedicated PMS), but from what I remember, I forced lowering the process of Plex on the PC PMS was installed on to "below normal" and that kind of remedied the issue when playing from the Plex/Web client. I also remember that playback from Plex Home Theater was a lot better than playing from the web client, so that's an alternative solution.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 01:31

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

The Gunslinger posted:

I had the same problem, the web player/client thing is just really loving awful. It was buffering and stuttering over my gigabit network. I played with settings for awhile and just gave up, my transcoding machine was more than up to the task so its just something weird in their player. I ended up really unhappy both with the Roku interface and the web player so I finally said gently caress it and went back to XBMC.

I'm able to play through the web player on every other PC on my network, wired or through WiFi, without issue. It's just the actual Plex Server where it runs like rear end. Were you getting stuttering playback on your Roku?

# ¿ Apr 24, 2014 03:53

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Added a new hard drive to my Plex server. Now up to 8TB. Aww yeah.

# ¿ May 2, 2014 16:50

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

I'm trying to connect to my in home Plex server from the internet. I've got port fowarding to 32400 on to the mac address of the Plex server but I still can't hit it from outside my network. Is there some setting on the Plex server I need to make so that it allows external connections?

Should just be an option to make sure is checkmarked in the server settings. This help desk article goes into a bit more detail though, regarding router configuration and what not: https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200289506

# ¿ May 5, 2014 23:29

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

Ya, I'm missing something somewhere; I'm signed into Plex on the server, and on my iPad, but when I'm not on my home network, and try to add the server I get an 'unable to add connection The server returned an unexpected response'. I'm forcing the server to the port in the settings and don't see much of anything else. I can run Air Video fine.

Do I need a plex pass for this to work? That would make sense I guess.

Plex Pass isn't required to stream remotely. The only thing I can think of is your router doing some weird things whenever you make a request to your Plex Server from like a cell network or another wifi network on another device. Have you tried manually specifying a different port to forward instead of the default one?

# ¿ May 7, 2014 00:40

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

Good - I'm at work, and I ran an open port checker against my home ip, on port 32400 and it is open. If I use a browser to go to <myip>:32400/web I get the charcoal plex background and a message in the side panel giving my server name, and telling me 'We're sorry, but we can't reach the server'.

Yup, just remoted into my home server and it's Manually Specified to be port 32400.

If I use the Plex ios client (remotely) when I try to add the server by ip/port it tells me "The server returned an unexpected response".

Several other things that are port forwarded to the same computer work fine (including Air Video). And of course Plex works perfect locally.

edit: Turned on debug logs and got the message ""message": "Unknown is unavailable at [url]http://[/url]<remoteip>:32400/ (Status 406)","

I'm really not trying to sound like a dick, but gotta ask everything. Your Plex Server is set to stay on right? Assuming it's a PC, it's not set to go to sleep after a certain amount of time is it? Have you tried remote playback in-home with your smartphone's cell/data connection?

# ¿ May 8, 2014 08:45

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

withak posted:

Roku tells me that my plex trial has ended and I can't play stuff any more. I wasn't aware that I was on trial.

Yeah, they started charging for the app recently. Unless you installed before a specific cut-off date (not sure what it was) your app wouldn't be grandfathered in for free. If you have a Plex Pass account though, you get the Roku app for free.

# ¿ May 11, 2014 04:12

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

withak posted:

I deleted and reinstalled the app and it works now. What was the cutoff for when they started charging? I've been using this for ~1.5 years.

Oh weird. No idea. Maybe an update just broke the grandfathered accounts for a bit?

# ¿ May 11, 2014 05:20

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

jonathan posted:

It's an LG Smart tv and it doesn't really have any settings. I think I have to do it server side.

Are you sure it's a bandwidth issue and not a server issue that's preventing you from streaming 1080p content? What are the specs of your Plex server and is it connected to your home network through WiFi or ethernet? Is your router a wireless B/G model only?

# ¿ May 11, 2014 23:08

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

sellouts posted:

I'm thinking of getting them either a roku 3 or a fire tv. Any recommendation on what plex version is better between those two?

Fire TV has the better app, definitely. The Roku Plex app UI is pretty garbage in comparison (which isn't Plex's fault, it's all on Roku).

# ¿ May 24, 2014 06:41

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

bagina posted:

Is there any way to increase the font of the web interface? Running it to my television is awesome but some of the text is so tiny you need to squint.

Why are you running the web player on your TV? If you're doing so from a connected computer/laptop, install Plex Home Theater and use that instead. It's free

[edit] Other alternatives include buying a Chromecast for $35 and use your phone/tablet as a remote to browse your Plex server, or get a Fire TV and install the Plex app.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 14:19

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Pinball posted:

Now I get the option to choose English subs on most of my media, but when I do, nothing pops up. This is making me want to rip my hair out. I've asked the Plex redditors, since they might be more responsive than the guys on the official forums, who are saying nothing. Ugh, I just want a media center that can fetch and play subtitles automatically, why is it so difficult?

I mean, you could grab external SRT files. That's what I do if I really need subtitles in Plex.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2014 03:18

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Maneki Neko posted:

Ordered one, THIS BETTER BE GREAT OR ELSE

What are the specs of your Plex server?

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 19:30

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Maneki Neko posted:

i7-3770, 8gb ram, ssd for os and mirrored WD red drives for media. Probably the biggest bottleneck is my MoCA run between the living room and office, but that's a pretty reliable 100mbps.

Yeah, a Fire TV running the Plex App will be pretty great then

. Not sure where it is in the settings, but be sure to set the Plex App on your Fire TV to always try and Direct Play with transcode as a fallback.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 20:52

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Maneki Neko posted:

Looks like that is pretty much the default settings. I did get bit by the "lol plex on fire tv doesn't decode dts/dolby digital" bug, so pretty much all audio has to get transcoded, we'll see how annoying that gets.

Huh, its just a bug though right? The Fire TV should be more capable of decoding DTS/Dolby D. The Roku 3 is able to, but its Plex app is hot garbage in comparison.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2014 23:41

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

The Gunslinger posted:

Man the Plex app on Roku really sucks. My girlfriend has a Roku 3, we installed the Plex app and threw in my server info. I only have a 2mbit upstream at home but she watches stuff via Plex on her tablet with no issues and fast loads (2-3 seconds). The Roku plex app is hot garbage, laid out like poo poo and videos take 1-2 minutes to load. I tried giving it the lower profiles even but same story. When the video does start it will randomly skip around after awhile too. Transcoding shouldn't be an issue because my server is pretty powerful, is it buffering half of the damned file before it starts or something?

At this point I'm ready to return this thing and get a FireTV but I'm worried I'll have the same issue there. Where should I start on troubleshooting? Her tablet plays stuff from my server with no issue, very fast loads and no buffering.

As much as I like to poo poo on the Roku Plex Channel UI, I find it's actually pretty great for quality playback, local or remote. How low of a bitrate did you set it to on your GF's Roku? You should start from the lowest and work your way up. For reference, my upload is 5Mbps and one of my friends is able to stream stuff at 480p, sometimes at 720p if my internet isn't under load.

teagone fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Jun 16, 2014

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 23:33

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Kung Fu Jesus posted:

I'm not technically inclined so I can't help you. But I can say that I have not had your issues with my Roku 3 and Plex setup. It plays just about everything and loads in a couple seconds. I don't think I changed any settings anywhere as I am new to all this. I don't even know what transcoding is. So your issue should be fixable unless you got a lemon.

From what I understand, he's trying to access his Plex server remotely at another location (his girlfriend's place). There's more variables involved, such as internet speed on both ends, server specifications, and some other stuff that I'm probably not aware of that would be causing remote playback to have issues.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2014 01:40

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

prom candy posted:

So, two questions:

1) Is there any way to tell Plex to just run an update for a single show? I used to use this frequently in XBMC to get around slow library updates.

2) Failing that, how much of a speed increase would I see if I were to move my library to some internal drives on the machine that's running Plex Server? Are library updates generally fast for people who have their hardware set up that way?

1) Are you referring to new media added and metadata population? If so, just hit the refresh button on the selected show's sidebar to update it/fetch metadata after any changes/additions to your library (see below):

2) I have a dedicated Plex server with 8 hard drives (5 internal, 3 external USB). Whenever I add new media and update the library manually, the process is pretty fast. Sometimes metadata will take a few seconds to populate, but typically the changes/additions are instant.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 07:04

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

bbcisdabomb posted:

I can cast from Youtube and from my browser, I was hoping I could do the same from Plex/web on my phone. Thanks!

Yeah, to my knowledge you can only cast from the Plex Web app via a PC or notebook. From the phone you're going to need the actual Plex app, which you get free if you subscribe to Plex Pass (for Android/Roku users only). If you don't subscribe to Plex Pass or have an iOS device, you're going to need to purchase the app via Google Play or the App Store.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 06:04

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

kri kri posted:

Looking to replace my parents HP Microserver with something that can transcode for Plex. I see from earlier this spring the Dell t20 would be a good deal, is there anything similar or better than this?

I prefer to not build it myself. I would like 4-6 hard drive bays if possible.

The Lenovo TS140 with a Core-i3 can be had for around $250-$300. Has 4 HDD bays I believe.

[edit] http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-TS140-70A4000HUX-Computer/dp/B00F6EK9J2 $262 shipped fulfilled by Amazon.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 17:35

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

Playlists are now available to everyone (finally!). I made a playlist with all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order that's playing right now in the background.

Plex also added some new Movies Library features. PlexPass subscribers now have the option to play trailers (either upcoming releases or trailers from movies in your library) before a movie you choose to watch. Trailers are streamed via metadata agents. Again automatically streaming trailers is a PlexPass feature only. If you want this feature, but don't have PlexPass, you have to manually add trailers for movies in your library.

You can also now include extras (behind the scenes, trailers, deleted scenes, etc.) to all the movies in your library. So far I haven't been able to get this feature to work with local media, as have a few others I've read online.

Read full update release info here: https://blog.plex.tv/2014/07/31/frankly-trailer-dont-give-playlist/

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 23:35

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:38

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

MycroftXXX posted:

Do you need to update the plex server to do playlists?

Yeah, you need to be running Plex Media Sever version 0.9.9.13

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 16:55

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Plex Megathread: Your .ASS Is Getting Transcoded

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