Fire TV - Plex Media - Playback Choppy and Unwatchable

Plex Media Server Remote Access
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1

Hi All,

I am very new to this, although I am tech savvy and designed computer games for over 25 years. I love FireTV, its the most useful and well designed item I have bought all year. I recently bought Plex for serving my movie collection to my FireTV stick.

Every time I get choppy playback or “cannot connect to Plex server”. My home network is 2G/5G. The router has a very powerful signal to my MSI laptop and indeed anywhere in the room I have TV etc in. The laptop is in the same room. Both have great signal from router.

I can use the Universal media Server and playback some of my movies, but it is limited in what files I can play. That’s why I read up about Plex and decided to subscribe. I just used UMS and its got great connection and am playing a movie fine.

Plex however, keeps giving me “lost connection to Plex server” or “Cannot find Plex Server”

My Laptop specs are below:

Summary
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 6700HQ @ 2.60GHz 46 °C
Skylake 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel Unknown @ 1063MHz (15-15-15-36)
Motherboard
Micro-Star International Co. Ltd. MS-1795 (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 530 (MSI)
2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (MSI) 44 °C
ForceWare version: 441.41
SLI Disabled
Storage
931GB Hitachi HGST HTS721010A9E630 (SATA ) 33 °C
1863GB Seagate Expansion Desk SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) ) 40 °C
3726GB Seagate BUP BK SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) )
3726GB Seagate Expansion Desk SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) ) 32 °C
800GB Microsoft Virtual Disk (File-backed Virtual (SSD))
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SU-208GB
Audio
NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM)
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Computer type: Notebook
Installation Date: 31/07/2019 16:35:06
Serial Number: PTRBT-79C6R-24HYH-QMVQW-YP2KG
Windows Security Center
User Account Control (UAC) Enabled
Notify level 0 - Never Notify
Firewall Enabled
Windows Update
AutoUpdate Not configured
Windows Defender
Windows Defender Enabled
Antivirus
Antivirus Enabled
Display Name Windows Defender
Virus Signature Database Up to date
.NET Frameworks installed
v4.8 Full
v4.8 Client
v3.5 SP1
v3.0 SP2
v2.0 SP2
Internet Explorer
Version 11.864.17763.0
PowerShell
Version 5.1.17763.1

I have 3 external HD’s which have the movie files and know they can serve the media easily. I don’t understand why Plex is having so many issues. Its the paid service and looks great, but fails at playing media!

Any help would be much appreciated .

Cheers - Shaun Wallace

2

Hey,
I know you tried to be thorough with those specs, but what we really need to see are some logs from when the connection stutters.
Also, I’m a bit confused. Is the issue that you can connect to the server and browse, but streaming fails entirely (as described in this thread)? Or does streaming just stutter?
Also, are you trying to stream 4K/HVEC video?

I’d check/try the following:

  • disable Direct Play
  • Insecure connections. Should be enabled on both server and client, try disabling as a troubleshooting step.
  • IPv6. Try enabling on both your router and Plex server.
  • Ensure “Enable local network discovery (GDM)” is on for the Plex server.
  • h264 maximum level in Plex client settings on Fire TV could be the issue.
  • try disabling the “new video player” in Plex client settings on Fire TV
  • check that your router isn’t the issue. Assign static IPs DHCP reservations and whitelist devices.
  • make sure your antivirus/firewall aren’t interfering with Plex; whitelist it.
3

Not the most practical choice for a computer that may be taken out of the home and onto networks with alternative addressing setups. A better idea would be to set DHCP reservations on the home router so the laptop always gets the same IP while still being configured for automatic addressing.

@angusthermopyle65_gmail_com
If the Fire Stick is connecting to the 5 Ghz network on your router, set that wireless band to channel 36. This is to make up for a shortcoming in the wireless performance on the Fire Stick’s network chipset.

Also, post info about the media you’re playing.