Can't cast from Plex/Web to Plex Home Theater for Linux

[vnenov]

I have updated to PHT ver 1.3.5 and PMS ver 0.9.11.7.803-87d0708 on Ubuntu 14.04 and using Google Chrome with Plex/Web ver 2.3.8.

I have both Plex Media Server and Plex Home Theatre running on an Ubuntu machine called "htpc" with local IP address 192.168.0.222.

 

When I try to connect from Plex/Web to the "htpc" PHT player I get an error "There was a problem connecting to this player."

Plex/Web used to work fine with the previous version PHT 1.3.2, but I am unable to find the binary package to revert back.

 

I tried deleting the PHT from Plex/Web Settings -> Devices, but it did not fix the issue.

After I signed in to my Plex Account in PHT I see the "htpc" player listed in Plex/Web Settings -> Devices, but still the problem persists.

 

https://plex.tv/pms/resources.xml shows the PMS and other PHT players on Android phones and Windows machines, but not the Linux PHT "htpc" player:

 

http://192.168.0.222:32400/clients shows the PHT:

 

Chrome console log shows (not sure why the IP address shows 127.0.0.1 instead of 192.168.0.222):

 Casting to htpc

plex.js?hash=af06682&version=2.3.8:563 OPTIONS http://127.0.0.1:3005/player/timeline/poll?wait=0&commandID=0 net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

plex.js?hash=af06682&version=2.3.8:742 Stopped casting to htpc

 

I checked and in the PHT settings it is selected Allow control of PHT via HTTP and Allow control of PHT from Plex Clients. The device name is the same as the name of the PMS -> "htpc".

 

I have attached the verbose debug log from Plex/Web when replicating the problem.

 

[vnenov]

Weird. I have just restarted the PHT again and it works now  :huh: I have restarted it several times before and the problem was still happening.

Now I see that the proper IP address is used in http://192.168.0.222:32400/clients

<MediaContainer size="1">

<Server name="htpc" host="192.168.0.222" address="192.168.0.222" port="3005" machineIdentifier="e7a24aa2-9a74-4fa7-be32-545409681213" version="1.3.5.dev-git" protocol="plex" product="plexhometheater" deviceClass="HTPC" protocolVersion="1"protocolCapabilities="navigation,playback,timeline,mirror,playqueues"/>

 

Also, see PHT here https://plex.tv/pms/resources.xml

 

<Device name="htpc" product="Plex Home Theater" productVersion="1.3.5.dev-git" platform="Plex Home Theater" platformVersion="" device="PC" clientIdentifier="e7a24aa2-9a74-4fa7-be32-545409681213" createdAt="1420735974" lastSeenAt="1420737110" provides="player"owned="1" presence="0">

<Connection protocol="http" address="192.168.0.222" port="3005" uri="http://192.168.0.222:3005/" local="1"/>

[vnenov]

Okay, I was able to replicate and resolve the issue. It happens only during restart of my Ubuntu server and when PMS and PHT are loaded automatically at startup.

If I close PHT and then restart it again from the plexhometheater.sh script the IP address is correct (192.168.0.222 instead of 127.0.0.1) and Plex/Web cast to PHT works fine.

The delay in the plexhometheater.sh startup script was 5s and it was sufficient for the previous PHT releases. Now with PHT 1.3.5 I had to increase this delay to 30s to make it work.

Hopefully this helps someone else with the same issues.