Server Version#: 1.19.5.3112
Player Version#: 8.4.2 / 8.3.1 / 8.3.0
Plex client downloaded from Fire TV Appstore no longer works for Internet Streaming from plex server. Browsing content is fine, also public domain videos are fine, but streaming from a Internet hosted plex server never starts, endless buffering. Server side looks fine, server thinks client is able to stream. Tried with both direct play and transcoding video. In both cases client buffers forever, never playback video. Server thinks player is working fine. No errors logged on server side.
Downgrading FireTV client to 8.2.1 fixes the problem. 8.3.0 and above (8.3.0, 8.3.1 and 8.4.2 tested), cache and data cleaned, uninstalled and installed different version sideload directly from Plex forum page.
Note that client experimental player on/off, DNS change, IP Address change, router reset, UPNP reset. Many things tested nothing can fix the problem. Only 8.2.1 version client and below works fine. 8.3.0 and above breaks the playback and introduces endless buffering problem.
I also tested to run VPN on the firetv. After VPN is established (to any place including same country) problem is fixed. This could indicate the new player on Android is somehow impacted from the Double NAT on client side. (ISP Router + Home Wifi Router cascaded) This should not be the case normally, right? Double NAT on server side is a well-known problem but why would FireTV client get impacted by Double NAT on client side?
And why would 8.2.1 and earlier versions work and not 8.3.0 and above stops working in my home setup?
Note that server is in cloud (over Internet) and client is in a home network with double NAT.
No problems with newest version clients on Apple TV. Problem is experienced only on FireTV Stick 4K (Arm7)
I was looking at release notes from 3.8.0 since it is the version that started breaking of streaming on my firetv. I suspect one of these new network functions introduced in 3.8.0 causing it. possibly It is also cause of similar issues on other streamer clients (LG, Roku)
Player: improve startup speed by removing unncessary network request.
Player: improve playback on networks with DNS rebinding protection.
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The latest version of the Android client 8.4.2 (and 8.3.1) has broken Live TV & DVR on all my Android devices including phones and Fire 4K stick. Have tested with Apple iPhone client which is still working and also the Browser client which is fine too.
All I get is that the server is currently unavailable, whilst all other content continues to work.
Just found that the Live TV & DVR I had pinned is the one that isn’t working, but going into the full list I can see two Live TV & DVRs, one greyed out. Clicking the non-greyed out one gives access to the service again. Weird stuff! Somehow a duplicate had appeared.
I have another friend who uses the same Plex server and FireTV combination, he has the same problem as well. Once we downgraded to 8.2.X streaming works. Whatever was changed in 8.3.0 and above breaks the video playback / streaming. It buffers forever not showing even a single frame of video while on server side logs no errors are captured.
I took two logs. One from FireTV with 8.2.1 which works.
Second one from FireTV with Plex app version 8.4.2 from Amazon App Store. Still not working.
I tried transcoding on/off, new player on/off. None of it worked.
I am also attaching Server logs (they are not time sync) while verbose logging enabled on server I tried macOS client app ( 1.16.0.1364-da192ff7 , July 30, 2020) and FireTV client app (8.4.2 from Amazon App Store on fireTV) tested both new player enabled and old player. All of them not working. I can see in server some TLS errors. so whatever changed in the recent code may have broken the TLS handshake for MacOS and Android TV versions when they run over Double NAT.
Just to remind you my server works fine. It is hosted in the cloud and I reach over Internet. Apple TV and mobile apps working fine. MacOS home theatre app and using over Chrome browser works as well. I also know Samsung TV player also work from a friend using my server. FireTV client app any version above 8.2.1 stopped working. MacOS new client software also not working as I explained.
I would like to see a proper troubleshooting and root cause analysis done by Plex Employee. throwing new version of player will only complicate things in my opinion. Since they didnt change the player version from 8.2.1 to 8.4.2 the problem should be related to something else. I would assume problem lies in more likely in the network stack as they mentioned in release notes straightening up some code related to DNS and Server request messages. If not it could be related to buffering parameter changes for AndroidTV app which isn’t compatible with the FireTV I am using.
I provided the logs so I hope that they have everything they need to pinpoint the problem.
Sadly the logs don’t seem to indicate any issue, playback seems to connect and then a few minutes later its stopped. I would assume this isn’t a networking issue as the connection appears to be open correctly without any errors.
Would you be able to turn off refresh rate and resolution switching in the Plex client settings and seeing if this resolves playback? If it does, could you grab the logs for me and let me know.
As expected they can’t ‘find’ the issue. Use the newest version of exoplayer or something much better and you won’t have any of these issues. The problem? PLEX APP uses a version of exoplayer several years old which they then modified. They have not updated the core exoplayer at all nor fixed its inherent issues. An update of the exoplayer (not the plex app but the actual exoplayer being used in the app) would fix everyone’s issues!
It’s very clearly the players incompatibility with 90% of the video formats used today. Plex needlessly transcodes because of the players inability to play whats thrown at it!!!
I also noticed some issues with the new app version on Fire TV and the handling of network requests.
I lose internet connectivity yesterday, and the Plex app simply couldn’t connect to the PMS on the same LAN, lost the config in some recent update somehow, and found no way to configure the direct internal PMS IP to enjoy my media library.
An unsupported 3rd party app in a old Samsung TV had no issues at all, neither web player from different devices, just the Fire TV official app.
Anyone suffered anything like that? Thx.
