I have gone through the many posts about this but cannot seem to find an answer that fits my issue so I have created another thread.
I have multiple vlans, they can all route to each other. Web clients on a separate local subnet show the server as remote. TV on the same subnet as the server is fine.
I have added my local subnets to the local lan and no auth sections in the app/preferences.xml
I have done an nslookup as per the dns rebinding issues and it comes up with the correct local IPs.
I have turned on multicasting with no benefit.
I am not sure what to test further. Any advice would be appreciated. Full specs below.
Latest plex (linux) with plex pass.
Plex running on an esx host on subnet 1
TV on subnet 1
Webclients on subnet 2
Browsers tried:
Firefox
Chrome
Vivaldi
Opera
Hard wired over cat 6
Routed via Dell Sonicwall TZ400
DNS served by win 2k12 domain controller tested nslookup with google too
Are you hung up on the fact the clients says “Remote” vs “Local”? That could be client based that no server setting will change.
Are you seeing any downsides or problems due to this? As long as you have those entries on the server then the server knows they are local clients and will treat them that way.
Carlo
PS just re-read the thread and see the issue is the authentication correct? I’m not sure that is controlled by the local networks field.
Can you be a bit more specific in what you are trying to accomplish at the client level just to make sure we fully understand?
The issue is that it transcodes things it doesn’t need to. I know I can override this either at a server level or per item, each option is not ideal.
There is no issue with authentication, I just added the subnets to that as it resolved issues with some TVs across vlans. I have since removed that as it was reducing performance (might be a clue?).
Something doesn’t sound right. Can you post the setting you have in settings/server/network/LAN Networks?
On a web client that is transcoding. Login as a user then go to /settings/web/web player
What are the settings for:
Local Quality
Remote Quality
Change both to Original if not set that way currently (for each user) and test again. If it still transcodes the file then post the View XML of the file and the log ZIP file (I believe you know how to do both) so we can read the server logs to figure out what the server is seeing when asked to play the file.
Sort of off topic, but being a compulsive Plex tweaker, I just followed those instructions above and noticed an error in wording (in bold):
Comma separated list of IP addresses or IP/netmask entries for networks that will be considered to be on the local network when enforcing bandwidth restrictions. If set, all other IP addresses will be considered to be on the external network and and will be subject to external network bandwidth restrictions. If left blank, only the server’s subnet is considered to be on the local network.
Could this be a DNS rebind issue? I remember adding “plex.direct” as an allowed domain for DNSmasq in DD-WRT. Worth a shot. See here for Sonicwall configuration: support.sonicwall.com/kb/sw11903. Bottom of the page in the screenshot under “Allowed Domains”.
Remote settings were 720p, local was original.
Forcing the client to original has it play in original format but still transcodes. Attached are excerpts of the log playing from the web client on the different subnet and the TV playing the same file on the same subnet as the server. Also included are the settings page and corresponding preferences.xml line.
Webclient 172.10.10.0 subnet = diffsubnet.txt
TV 172.10.11.0 subnet (same as server) = samesubnet.txt
Please note for the webclient direct play is enabled.
For the settings I have tried the subnets in the authentication area (which corresponds to the allowednetworks in preferences)
In both I have also tried the long format, eg 172.10.10.0/255.255.255.0 .
@VBB DNS rebinding is working fine. I had previously turned on the settings you linked and added the plex.direct domain with no change.
Why are you using 172.10.x.x address space? You’re trying to setup your Plex server on routeable address. Don’t know if this is causing an issue or not but it’s not a standard to use this address space internally. This could be confusing the Plex server.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following addresses for private use:
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 or 10.0.0.0/8
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 or 172.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 or 192.168.0.0/16
Like it or not like it the 172.16.0.0/12 should probably be your last choice. There are quirks with it. Definitely change your environment to use the IANA approved private addresses. If possible switch to 10,0,0,0/8 as that will give you the greatest range of IPs for personal use
@cayars
Well crap. Didn’t even consider that. I have moved everything over to private standards in line with the rest of my network and the server is now showing as nearby which is great. There is a noticeable improvement in performance.
Media files are now all playing in original format but it is still transcoding. Could this be web client issue? All files, even low quality ones say direct play is not available. I tried on the same machine on the server subnet as well. Same files played from the TV direct play fine.
log Excerpt:
Solace (2016): Direct Play is disabled
Solace (2016): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Solace (2016): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Solace (2016): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/aac
Solace (2016): selected media 0 / 173858
Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7f167f4431a0:qc6jsi8yj3ngp0jds7eonoat
Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=148118 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=173858 part=(id=180213 decision=transcode container=mpegts protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=273430 decision=copy width=1280 height=528) Audio=(id=273431 decision=copy channels=2 rate=48000))))
As long as your clients are set to play original and you have direct play as well as direct stream enabled it basically comes down to the container and codecs used in the specific files you are trying to stream.
If you want the greatest chance of of having files that will direct play on any device (as long as it’s not overridden on the client) then you want to standardize and convert your media to MP4 with h.264 video, first audio track is 2 channel AAC audio set as the default followed by other audio tracks such as 5.1, 7.1 atmos. I typically pull subs from the file and make them external. The MP4 files should use a level of 4.0 or 4.1 (depends on your needs) with 4 or 5 reference frames and have the MOOV atom at the front of the file.
Sounds complicated but I provide scripts that have been optimized to do this in my SIG. The scripts can use hardware such as QuickSync or Nvidia GPUs if you have them to speed up the process.
With that said if you want help trying to figure out why specific files won’t play on a particular device then upload the file’s XML info and tell us what client you are trying to play it back on. Without specifics on the file we can’t do much except talk in generalities. That’s why I mentioned about the preferred format (at least my preferred format) above.
