first of all let me thank the entire community here. I set up plex on a raspberry pi 4 linked to my NAS and it works great, thanks to all the super usefull posts here.
I have a more general quetsion that I haven’t been able to solve yet.
I was wondering how data routing works with plex. Let me explain.
I have a NAS in my storage room connected via high speed WLAN bridge to my router in the halllway.
All clients are connected via WiFi to the router or respective Mesh repeaters.
Now my question. When I play a file from the NAS through plex, does data scream pass first through plex server and then to client or is plex allowing for direct routing NAS to client without the server given I don’t use transcoding?
Thanks a ton for your help and sorry if I missed this being already explained somewhere else.
Thanks a ton for the swift answer and clarification. Really helpful.
One more question. Could it be, that the plex server transcodes only audio when needed? I have a few files in OPUS and my tv doesn’t support it, but plays it with sound through plex… Is there anywhere I can see if and when plex transcodes?
Agree that the network config makes no difference. Important for me as I need to ideally put the server on the same wifi access point as the NAS to avoid unnecessary wifi traffic.
In the Plex client app settings, there may be, and their settings should be:
Direct Play - Auto
Direct Stream - Enabled
We hope, if those settings don’t exist - Plex does it anyway.
It’s what Plex does after all.
Some Apps are more ‘informative’ than others - what are you watching on?
A sure general check would be to simply open another Plexweb - and go to the Dashboard details to see the state of the current streams.
Stop:
Server/Network: Preferred - NOT Required or Disabled
Client Players: Fallback to insecure on local network only
Full Stop. Go Directly To Jail. Do NOT collect $200.
The Server needs to be the wired component… some way… some how.
Devices/Players/Clients ‘may’ be fine on WiFi. <—investigate channel changes in congested areas and for uncooperative units - plan a wire.
Network ‘Zones’ can be tricky, but lots of help exists (from others - I’m useless), if local skills aren’t already in play. It can be done, in other words, maybe not right off the bat.
I am watching on a Shield and LG TV. Interestingly enough, some movies play flawlessly on LG but with error message on Shield. Will check the logs why.
To be sure, when I am in direct play, the data still transits through plex server but isn’t changed, correct?
I will change my setup so the server is connect directly to the mesh node to which the NAS is wired to. I don’t have any bandwidth problems, but wan’t to avoid lags from data going back and forth over wifi.
The server directs all the traffic.
If a Direct Play is possible the server just hands it over from storage.
If a transcode is required, the server transcodes, then delivers it to the client.
The server MUST be on, 24/7 to, as you might imagine, serve.
All of my devices can not connect to my server, there was no problem 3 days ago, this morning I tried to connect my server from my i pad, server was looking offline but it was online and I tried sony tv and apple tv , server was looking offline. I rebooted my router and I reinstall plex media server, I reset my plex library , change all library name and server name but no solution. I couldn’t find out to myself. My devices shows server name but don’t show my library and files. I need someone help.
