Limited Quality Remote Playback on Roku — New Plex User, Need Advice

Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156

Hi all,

I’m fairly new to Plex and recently added several media libraries to my server. Locally, everything works fine — full-quality playback on PC, phone, Apple TV 4K, and Roku at home.

The issue:
When I try to stream remotely at another residence on a Roku (2020ish model), playback is very low quality (~1 Mbps), and the Roku shows: “A direct connection to the server is not available.”

Plex settings (on the remote location’s Roku):

  • Direct Play: Auto

  • Maximum quality: Unlimited

  • Secure Connections: Preferred

  • Allow Direct Stream: On

  • H.264 level: 4.1 (recommended)

  • Quality suggestion: Checked

Server observations:

  • Remote Access shows fully accessible (green) via manually specified port (TCP 32400)

  • Streaming to my phone remotely works at full quality (~22 Mbps)

  • Local playback on all devices at home is fine at original quality

Roku playback notes:

  • Shows “Server has decided this cannot Direct Play. Transcoding: Video bitrate is greater than allowed quality setting. Format: H.264”

  • Limited quality highlighted in yellow, despite server allowing original quality

  • Transcoder speed indicates it could transcode fast enough

From what I’ve researched, this usually happens when the Plex server doesn’t have a fixed IP / port forwarding set up, so remote devices fall back to Relay streaming (which caps quality at ~1–2 Mbps). My Plex server currently has a dynamic IP

Questions for experienced users:

  1. Has anyone seen this “limited quality / no direct connection” issue on Roku or Google TV?

  2. Did reserving a static IP and port forwarding TCP 32400 fix it reliably?

  3. Are there any pitfalls or things a new Plex user should be aware of before making these changes?

  4. Any idea why my phone can stream full quality remotely, but Roku still defaults to limited quality?

I want to make sure I understand the issue before making router changes. Any guidance, tips, or experiences would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance!

Peruse The Basics of Remote Access Troubleshooting

Thanks for the info. I just want to make sure I understand what to do next. I nned to set my Plex server so the router always gives it the same local IP address and open the port TCP 32400 for it. Then I’ll test streaming from outside my home?

I’m not very experienced with making any changes to my server/IP settings, so I want to be sure I’m doing it safely. Can you confirm this won’t create any security risks to my home network?

Thanks!