Posts like this are not helpful for Xbox users.
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Plex down completely for ALL clients on 06/02/2020 and 08/02/2020. Apparently a bad update to authentication software. One would hope they learned their lesson on 06/02 but here we are again with the same issue on 08/02 and still down as at 19:10 GMT.
The difference in playback between the Plex X-Box One app and the Kodi Add-on is almost comical. Too bad the interface through Kodi is a bit of a mess otherwise Iād use it all the time.
Plex please fix the quality of your platform apps. We didnāt buy Lifetime Plex Passes for them not to work properly and this has been going on forever now.
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Hello,
I just want to report that as of today (February 13th 2020), the constant/periodic buffering with Plex app on Xbox One X still happens with all my 4K/HDR MKVs (especially when encoded in H265 video + AC3 5.1 audio).
The cause for this are NOT:
-
PLEX MEDIA SERVER DEVICE: as itās a Microsoft Surface Laptop with the highest power plan and always disabled sleep. It always been powerful enough;
-
PLEX MEDIA SERVER SETTINGS: both with custom and defaults settings, the buffering on X1X Plex app still ALWAYS happens with those contents;
-
HOME NETWORK: Iām on a 1 Gigabit unlimited data plan + 5Ghz Certified Wi-Fi . 7ms Wi-Fi ping response, and actual 600MBit/s in download and 300Mbit/s upload, always stable, bandwidth in Wi-Fi;
The most probable cause for this ARE:
-
XBOX ONE X PLEX APP LIMITATION/BUG: why? I have NO buffering issue with same identical conditions, but using the Plex app client on my LG B7 webOS TV, configured the same way of the Xbox version. ALL the contents that are infinitely buffering on Xbox after 5 min got a slightly longer buffer at the start of the media on LG TV, then will just reproduce smoothly for the ENTIRE time;
-
XBOX ONE X DASHBOARD BUG/LIMITATION WITH PLEX: there could be something OS wise on the console that will automatically throttle the Plex app streaming, or block it after an high bandwidth or CPU usage, or I donāt know.
CONCLUSION: the Plex team and/or Microsoft are the ONLY one that could permanently fix this issue with both an update to the Xbox Plex app and the Xbox Dashboard OS. Especially considering they already did it months ago where everything was just working perfectly on the same conditions, then they broke it again for some reason.
Why not directly using the LG Plex app? For me itās easy:
- I already use my X1X as the center of my multimedia home, as itās connected and perfectly configured for the TV, my soundbar, my wireless headphones connected through the superior Xbox Wireless protocol (much better quality and latency compared to Bluetooth);
- No āDolby Atmos for Headphonesā support on the LG TV;
- Added latency and lip sync delay on the LG TV compared to Xbox.
For these reasons, please Plex Team, fix you Xbox situation ASAP.
Especially considering the next generation of Xbox, with Xbox Series X, is really around the corner.
THANK YOU.
Plex DEVS and MS devs have gone mute on this issue even AFTER both parties acknowledged this was a bug but pointed fingers at each other for the cause.
Both companies are now trying to sweep this away and maybe hope the new Xbox console magically fixes it all.
This issue will never be fixed.
Without a proper Plex client alternative, HDR local play/streaming on Xbox is basically dead then.
- Kodi + Plex plug-in have no buffering issues, but its player does not support HDR (yet);
- In-built āMovies & TVā app does support HDR and occasionally work via DLNA or USB, but many times I found HDR colors washed out and with color banding, so somethingās wrong with it;
- (Old) In-built āXbox Media Playerā app should use the same identical player as āMovies & TVā ? Iām not so sure about this, and still need to try also via DLNA.
There are no other client alternatives that come to my mind for now.
And itās really a total shame for a machine as Xbox One X compared to much weaker and less complete devices like Amazon Fire Stick 4K, or Nvidia Shield or even in-built TV appsā¦
Yea Iāve been bugging plex devs and MS devs on and off for probably 2 years on this issue. Iāve sent sample files to Plex where they actually reproduced the issue and directly talked to MS devs and sent reports from my console weekly for months and months on end.
Iāve gone through several methods to try and get 4k HDR video to play correctly on the Xbox outside of plex and each instance you run into some lame bug or issue that prevents it.
I even got hard drives and hooked it up to the Xbox to play directly from drives and only the Movie and TV app can play 4k HDR files, however it has a bug that stops reading those files on your hard drive after about 50 or so movies.
What I did after all of this is give up on Xbox for Plex, I bought a Vero 4k + and after about an hour working with their support Plexs on the Vero runs 4k HDR perfectly and has never ever had a buffer or even slight pause in playback. This unit streams 100MB bandwdith + 4k HDR streams without a sweat
@Moussa is the plex dev here that responds sometimes you can try DMāing him to see if he has an update but he doesnāt really respond anymore to this issue
Also the Xbox insider reddit is where I post about this issue you can try and post as well their to get more exposure to this problem
I also found this guy on Reddit who claims that downgrading Plex Server to v1.16.3.1402 immediately fixed all his infinite buffering loops.
I will try this evening.
I think for me the latest round of buffer issues started right at 1.16
In the spring the bug got fixed and it worked well for a few months
I want them to fix the issue though so Iām not downgrading and the Vero works great so Iām not holding out hope they ever fix the Xbox version of Plex
Thatās interesting.
I would try the last āv1.15ā Plex Server build then (PlexMediaServer-1.15.8.1198-eadbcbb45-x86.exe, dated on 2019-06-11).
You can find the complete and downloadable version history here
Iām not interested in any client device other than my Xbox One X.
Finger crossed.
Let us know how it works out
Thatās interesting.
I would try the last āv1.15ā Plex Server build then ( PlexMediaServer-1.15.8.1198-eadbcbb45-x86.exe , dated on 2019-06-11 ).
I think if you downgrade that far though you lose the ability for TVdB to match your titles within its database.
I tried to downgrade both to 1.15 and 1.16 server, leaving all at default, but with no avail.
Infinite buffering loop still happens on Xbox One X app.
Considering that everything worked perfectly with previous Xbox Plex app and/or Xbox OS, itās all up to Plex Team/Microsoft to sort this out.
I found a proper temporary workaround tho!
I installed back latest v1.18 Plex Server, then enabled its DLNA option.
Went back to Xbox One X, and downloaded the latest version of the āMovies & TVā app.
I went to the āPersonalā tab and connected to the DLNA Plex Wi-Fi folder, then found and streamed my troublesome 4K/HDR10 MKV and they worked perfectly without any buffering or problems at all.
Colors were also correct and identical to the Plex player.
It can be feasible for now, waiting for a permanent Plex fix! 
Update - Plex for Xbox One 2.48.1.70. Buffering still occurring. Less frequent about every 10 mins. Direct play still completely useless and buffering loop. Transcoding barely working.
No one from Plex or MS will even respond to this issue anymore
Plex still have Xbox One on their supported devices list. ā¦ except itās actually not supported so that is an outright lie and false advertisingā¦
I got a sony TV but cant get the built in media player to access my DLNAā¦ plays 4K HDR fine if i add ac3 audio and not use DTS (due to pass thru)
Plex App on the TV plays some 4K HDR files but most the audio doesnt work due to passthrough
Xbox one keeps buffering themā¦
Watching 4K HDR content is not an easy task unfortunatelyā¦
Right now im adding ac3 tracks then copying to usb hdd for the tvs media player to play themā¦
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Xbox just updated and I managed to watch a full 4K HDR10 DTS-HD movie without any BUFFERING!!!
Xbox OS Version: 10.0.19041.1650
Plex: 4.26.1
Plex Xbox One: 2.49.1.70
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Anyone else having luck with 2.49.1.70?
