(My Plex server has the most recent updates as of 2.16.22)
I have been absolutely struggling the last few months to stream anything at all using Plex. I have my Plex server on my own, custom built PC which is located inside my home office. This computer is using an ethernet connection to connect to my internet service while I am using wifi to connect my TV’s in the house as well as everything else (tablets, phones, etc). My wifi speed is 190mbps download / 11.22mbps upload.
I have a TV located in my living room which is just a dining room away from my PC, a TV upstairs from the living room in our bedroom and another TV upstairs in a room we use for our treadmill and exercise equipment. Each TV is now using a Roku device for wifi connection.
Now, when I play a movie on my PC, it works perfectly fine and I have zero troubles. But, when I move onto any of the TVs in my home, after about 2-4 seconds, the movie lags for 30 seconds and starts again then lags again before failing entirely with an “Unable To Play” error code. I have zero idea what is wrong at this point as I have been using Plex for 5-6 years and although I have had issues here and there, this problem has never really taken over. I have tried numerous movies, tv shows, and stand up comedies and each one is problematic.
As a paying customer of Plex, I was hoping to hear from someone directly there who could help me fix this but it seems like this community is my only route for help. What am I doing wrong here? Can someone help me fix this issue?
its on the roku or network side of the house. i’d search google for roku plex streaming issues. seems like there are a lot of threads with troubleshoot of people who ran into similar issues to you. also make sure the plex app in roku is fully up to date. Good luck.
That looks like your internet speed which has nothing to do with local network. What sort of wifi do you have. If all running off your ISP provided modem/router then what model is it. What model Roku’s. If you try to play on your smart phone over wifi does it do the same?
If you want anything high resolution, wire it. Do not rely on wireless. I even wired my bedroom TV.
Wireless is a shared medium meaning everything on that wireless access point shares the bandwidth. Think of a crowded room where people are all trying to talk at once. Switched networks are like taking that same group of crowded people and placing them behind cubicles where each person has a phone to pick up to talk to others.
I get why people like wireless…it is a lot less work than running wires. But, as is other tradeoffs in life, you sacrifice dedicated bandwidth.
I recommend wiring everything you can wire in a house and leave wireless just for mobile devices or devices that do not have wired connections. For instance, with me, my Ring cameras, Ecobee Thermostat, Smoke Detectors, irrigation controller, a couple wireless outlets and then my phone and if I am running around the house with my laptop or tablets. Everything else is wired. But, I also have 4 access points with wired Ethernet backbones to my switch (which is also supplying their power with Power over Ethernet). I am NOT a fan of mesh wireless backbones and wireless only networks. And, this is coming from a network architect from a fortune 500 company.
Hell, I am thinking about installing outdoor RJ-45 jacks so when I watch Plex outside on my patio, I can wire it up.
And even if you wire things up, there still might be problems. For instance, I thought I could get away with just my living room TV being smart…well, I had problems with 4K HDR movies buffering. Turns out in the infinite wisdom on display at smart TV manufacturers, not opting for the 10/100/1000MB network cards, they went with 10/100MB so, you cannot get the 142MB/s stream I get watching Gemini Man in 4K. I had to opt for a Shield Pro with the 1GB Network card connected to my switch to fix it.
