Hey im new to plex so any help would be really great. ive been running it fine for about 6 months on a nvidia shield, decided to get a synology DS218 to connect upto it for file storage. Lately i get a 30 second buffer before the file starts or sometimes get a plex reboot any ideas what i can do to sort this? was previously hosting the files on an Usb 3.0 SSD which ran fine but since adding the NAS getting these problems ive attached.
You had previously hosted media on a USB disk attached to the Shield and playback was fine then
You are now hosting the media on a NAS device and the Shield is mounting this via SMB and now you see a 30 second delay before playback
If this is what I think it is you will also see:
The 30 second delay is on Direct Play only; you will not see the delay on a transcode nor direct stream
If the file can be played in a linear download, you will not see the 30 second delay even on DP. To my knowledge the only format that supports this is MOV/MP4 where the index is inserted at the beginning (HTTP Fast Start sticks in my mind as the term for this)
I had previously looked into this and the only conclusion I can come to is that it is the SMB client in the Shield which is the problem. There is a subtle difference in how the media is accessed between a Direct Play and a transcode where the DP can result in the same file open 2 or more times for a time period. This is an entirely legal thing to do and it appears the SMB client in the Shield doesn’t handle this situation properly.
So, if the above is correct, you can work around it by using DS instead of DP and wait for the fix to the SMB client in the Shield, use a computer as your PMS server, or change your access mechanism to the media from SMB to something else.
I think JamieB2019 is facing the same issue that I’m currently facing.
Nvidia Shield with last update 7.2 really make plex media server react like this.
I’m also connected (wired) to a NAS where all are my movies/series. Since this update the launch of a video take ages… and sometimes just failed and restart plex.
I didn’t have this issue before as I’m using plex and nivia since 2 years.
I have to say that I’m very frustrated because it looks like “Plex” support don’t do anything. We are lot of people with exactly the same issue and no solution.
On my side, I have reset to default factory my shield, I have reinstall plex and it “works” few days but now it so “buggy” that I’m considering to stop using Plex Media Server on the Shield as it’s not usable like that.
I have even spent my afternoon to reinstall Plex Media Server without any update as well as the player on the shield but even that didn’t work.
Now I’m unable to play movies as it says that a codec is missing.
I don’t know what to do but for sure Plex Media Server on a Nvidia Shield doesnt work since the update 7.2.
So as a workaround/test try setting your Synology to only use maximum of SMB 1 and see if that “fixes” it.
My Synology is an older unit still on DSM 6.0.3, but for me it was under:-
Control Panel | File Services | and then the Advanced Settings button for the Windows File Services. I then set Max Protocol For Windows File Service to “Enable SMB 1”. Not sure if the menus/options are the same for later versions of DSM but I’m sure you’ll find the equivalent.
This immediately brought back “no delay” Direct Play functionality for me using Enhanced Video Player and my Shield as the Server.
Note - This is not a good long term option as SMB 1 is now considered insecure and has been deprecated. Setting your Synology to SMB 1 may also “break” other machines being able to access your NAS shares as well, so tread cautiously.
Another option would be to (permanently) use NFS from the Shield to access Shares on the NAS rather than SMB, but I haven’t gotten around exploring how to do that yet at both the Synology or Shield end. Can anyone point me to a good guide?
