I invited a friend to access my Plex server and he said that he was unable to access a few of my movies (Resident Evil series - they are MP4 files) using the Firestick. He can play other movies and he can play the Resident Evil ones on his Mac.
I am unsure how to help diagnose the problem. Is it a transcoding problem? I can access the movie locally on my big screen so unsure if transcoding is even needed.
thank you in advance for any suggestions.
What model Synology NAS?
Can he see the movies in the library when using the FireStick? It would be strange if they are not visible, since he can see them on the Mac.
If they are visible, and he tries to play one of the movies, what happens - spinning orange circle, blank screen, app crashes back to home page, etc?
In the Plex app on the FireStick, check the remote streaming bandwidth setting. The default is 4 Mbps. Make sure it is set appropriately given the uplink speed from your server and his download speed.
If the movie has ASS subtitles, be sure to play the movie with them turned off. The Plex Android apps cannot direct play ASS subtitles. Enabling them results in a video transcode and Plex burning the subtitles into the video stream. The CPU in most Synology NAS is not powerful enough to burn subtitle. Depending on the CPU, the user may experience buffering or the movie may just fail to play.
If all else fails, then time to examine the log files.
Make sure your server is set for debug, not verbose, logging.
Settings → Server_Name → General
With no other activity on the server, have your friend attempt to play one of the Resident Evil movies, with subtitles turned off.
If the movie plays, let it go for ~20 seconds, then stop playback.
If anything else happens - blank screen, spinning circle, etc - let it go for ~1 minute before stopping. If there is an error code note exactly what it says.
After stopping playback, wait one minute for the server to log everything. Then go to Settings → Troubleshooting. Download the logs & attach the zip file to the thread. Drag the zip file into the message window. It will insert at the cursor location.
I am using Version 1.25.9.5721
what was strange is he could access everything with the Firestick but was unable to view a few movies. I was curious if the version of Plex on his Firestick was not current with the updated server so I asked him to check if an update was available in the Firestick
has since told me he changed some settings in the Firestick Video and changed a few items (but not exactly which settings he tweaked). Bottom line is said it is now working as expected… Weird!
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
