ATV3/PlexConnect/PMS: channels, file lists etc correct but can't stream files (seems to time out)

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1

Hey guys! Thanks for creating this :slight_smile: long story short, ATV can access PMS (displays media lists correctly), but no files are streamed. I’ve looked around to the best of my ability and have found no solutions. Help! Here’s the template filled out:

ATV model and firmware version: ATV3 (A1469), firmware 7.2 (7512)

DNS server set on the ATV: 192.168.1.130

local IP address of the device that PlexConnect is installed on: 192.168.1.130

device and operating system that PlexConnect is installed on: my study PC, running Windows 7 SP1

device and operating system that the Plex media server (PMS) is installed on: same PC, Windows 7 SP1

PMS version number you are running: 0.9.12.19

local IP address of the device that PMS is installed on: 192.168.1.130

PlexConnect version number: 0.5-dev-231115

contents of your ‘Settings.cfg’ file
[PlexConnect]
enable_plexgdm = True
ip_pms = 192.168.1.130
port_pms = 32400
enable_dnsserver = True
port_dnsserver = 53
ip_dnsmaster = 8.8.8.8
prevent_atv_update = True
enable_plexconnect_autodetect = True
ip_plexconnect = 192.168.1.130
hosttointercept = trailers.apple.com
port_webserver = 80
enable_webserver_ssl = True
port_ssl = 443
certfile = ./assets/certificates/trailers.pem
allow_gzip_atv = False
allow_gzip_pmslocal = False
allow_gzip_pmsremote = True
loglevel = High
logpath = .

Detail on the media file: This happens with every media file I try to open. Here’s one example:

A detailed description of the issue (the clearer you can make this the better):

Followed the guide to the best of my ability; using the Trailers app I can:

  1. access my PMS
  2. get my channels
  3. browse my files
  4. access file metadata (series names, episode orders, etc)

but I can’t get thumbnails (or any kind of images to be honest, all the ATV shows is text) or actually stream any files (it just loads and loads and never works).

I’ve tried several files, large and small, and none work. The media server itself works fine both inside my network and out (I’ve streamed media from Africa and South America without issue). PlexConnect I’m not so sure, but at least the DNS part is working fine (I can access Netflix and other channels on the ATV correctly).

Need any more detail?

PlexConnect.log:

(I’m sorry it’s not on pastebin, but with the high detail option it worked out to nearly 2MB of text and I’m not sure what – if anything – I can cut out):

Thank you very much for any help you can give me!

2

Seems like aTV has issues accessing your PMS - it should get thumbnails and other media directly from there.
The media lists & metadata are proxied through PlexConnect, so poking PMS is accessing it from the same machine.

Looking through your logs, your PMS actually identifies itself being 192.168.115.1:32400 - vs .1.130 as shown. Different sub-net, probably a WIFI something, that aTV can’t access.
Work around: in Settings, disable GDM and hard code the PMS IP.

3

That’s a VMWare virtual adapter… no idea why it’s getting that address though, I’m not even running any VM’s at the moment. I’ve disabled GDM in settings and set ip_pms to the correct address:

[PlexConnect]
enable_plexgdm = False
ip_pms = 192.168.1.130
port_pms = 32400
enable_dnsserver = True
port_dnsserver = 53
ip_dnsmaster = 8.8.8.8
prevent_atv_update = True
enable_plexconnect_autodetect = True
ip_plexconnect = 192.168.1.130
hosttointercept = trailers.apple.com
port_webserver = 80
enable_webserver_ssl = True
port_ssl = 443
certfile = ./assets/certificates/trailers.pem
allow_gzip_atv = False
allow_gzip_pmslocal = False
allow_gzip_pmsremote = True
loglevel = High
logpath = .

It’s still not working, same symptoms as before. Is there somewhere else I can set the PMS IP? Looking through the log I see

19:18:11 WebServer: pms address:

is empty. Does this mean that despite ip_pms being set in Settings.cfg it’s not being read for some reason by plex connect? Does that even make sense?

(full log at https://www.dropbox.com/s/bws4za7nzdi5ame/PlexConnect%20log2.txt?dl=0 )

Thanks!

4

19:18:11 WebServer: pms address:

Looks like a bug. First I wanted to say “not necessarily”, as this line is printed whenever a request from aTV is coming in - might be even a call to PlexConnect itself without the need for help from PMS. But it actually should show a valid address whenever aTV requests something like /PMS(192…), which is does often, in your log too.

VM stuff is pretty annoying for PlexConnect, I got to say. :slight_smile:
There is so much to go wrong with the initial setup. And unfortunately I can’t help you much here, since I never dealt with it. Are you able to shut it down - just to see and understand the workflow of PlexConnect?
Anybody else to chime in on this?

Other than that, the next thing to check would be Firewall and such. Is your aTV allowed to access PMS? Does PMS require authentication, if requests come from other machines?

5

It’s working! Thanks!

I disabled all the VMWare adapters, restarted PlexConnect and the ATV, and with the PMS IP hard coded in Settings + gdm disabled it’s working. Performance isn’t spectacular but I suspect that’s more to do with my network than PlexConnect or the ATV.

It’ll be somewhat annoying in the future if I run some kind of VM and suddenly it all crashes though :frowning:

Any suggestions?