Could I please get some help with diagnosing poor remote playing performance. I was hoping the latest PMS update would solve it but I can’t seem to track down the cause of unstable remote playing performance.
Remote server on wired gigabit fibre, via ‘green’ PMS remote access, via 100Mb fibre to LG plex player over wifi.
Looking at the PlexPy logs, the LG player on consecutive attempts to plays of the same file cycled through all the different streaming modes trying to play the file, and was still buffering and pausing even when Direct Playing. The server, while not uber powerful, shows throttled when it was trying transcoding.
The LG Player eventually shows a timeline state error and stopped playing:
Apr 02, 2017 15:33:25.106 [0x700000f6b000] DEBUG - Client [gj9mbhf9wwm4fbyg2j723rx8] reporting timeline state error, progress of 343410/2560155ms for guid=, ratingKey=83582 url=, key=/library/metadata/83582, containerKey=, metadataId=83582
It plays on the server’s local network perfectly well (via Plex Web which is direct streaming). I’m away from where the LG Tv is at the moment (but where the server is, so able to easily access logs and attempt to diagnose server behaviour), but have had similar problems with other players (Roku, PMP and web) on that remote network whilst remote playing.
As an aside, how is that playing the exact same source file is being reported in PlexPy as a different file type depending on when it is played?
Sometimes it plays everything without a hiccup. Others, it is hit and miss like this episode was.
From the family’s feedback and the PlexPy logs, they played an episode flawlessly immediately before this. It Direct Played with no buffering. They then started the next episode and it fell over.
Since you have an LG, let’s open the door for it a little wider.
Find the IP address of your TV. It’s either in your router/modem’s DHCP table unless you assigned it manually.
Once you have this address, open Settings - Server - Network.
Add that IP address in the list of hosts allowed to use PMS without authorization.
Save it.
If this solves the problem, then we have it definitively. The LG is falling on its face when trying to authenticate. This is one thing LGs are known for. While you get partial success is unknown as they usually are quite absolute Yes or NO.
The LG TV is geographically remote from the Plex server and they are on seperate LANs. Confirm you want me to add the TV’s LAN IP address to the PMS host list?
I’ve had a bit to ponder this and discuss with others.
On your local server, set networking to “Preferred”. This will allow it to back down to unsecure if needed but stay secure when it can.
On the remote TV, disable ‘secured’. Let it be open in the app network connection settings. (I don’t have a LG reference to guide me with this… hope you have it / know where it is?)
I prefer this method over hard IP because being a remote location, subject to the remote ISP changing to the IP address, setting a IP address
Before we decide further / move forward, There’s another user here who has some experience. I’m going to ask him to jump in and take a quick look.
Let’s run a quick diagnosis to eliminate other factors.
Can you play back this same media from the same network the LG TV is located in via a web browser?
So in other words play this back on your computer instead of the TV. What happens? Any problems or does it play perfectly?
