Hi, first post here, so hi to all 
(and sorry for my English, I live in South America).
Spoiler: long post ahead.
A LITTLE INTRO:
I’m running a Linux Mint headless server for both creating 24/7 backups of my family’s devices (using Syncthing for that, I highly recommend it) and having a movie library using Plex for both local and remote use (mostly local). The server is located at my parents, since the Plex part is meant to be mostly for them to use.
I’m using it since like a couple of years without major issues, but since some months ago (or perhaps more, maybe a year or so) I’m starting to get movies that stop playing, randomly. It’s been more noticeable on the last couple of months or so, I even had one movie stop like 20 times, but always randomly.
BASIC INFO:
Server Version#: 1.32.4.7195-7c8f9d3b6
Player Version#: LG C1 official app, updated to latest version (can’t find the number, sorry)
SERVER:
Plex Server CPU: Intel i7-5930K, stock, no overclocking.
Storage: Samsung 860 Pro 512 GB for OS and programs, two 8 TB WD Red Pro Nas drives for content (Plex library and backups). No Raid.
Graphic card (for troubleshooting purposes, the server is headless): Nvidia Geforce GT-710
MSI motherboard.
850W 80 Plus Gold Corsair power supply.
NIC: Realtek 2.5 Gb/s
SO: Linux Mint 21.1, always updated. 32400 port opened at ufw, and at the router for remote connection.
Plex folder owned by user and group plex (using chown, recursively) and permissions correctly applied (using setfacl) for plex user and plex group to be able to read the library, and also to write in the transcode folder.
*Sorry, I don’t have any logs yet, I’ll post them when I’m able to get them.
CLIENT:
Main (and by far the most used) client: LG C1 SmartTV, with its official Plex app. Updated to its latest version.
NETWORK:
Main router (gateway, auto dhcp enabled at WAN, disabled at LAN, only static local IPs): Asus-AC5300, flashed with the last DD-WRT build reported as stable for this router. Works like a charm.
Port forwarding towards the 32400 port of the server’s local static IP (port opened in ufw too).
Server connected to the router via two Devolo Magic 2 Gigabit Powerlines (which work pretty good, with high and stable bandwidth. Better than wifi), using cat6 hight quality cables.
CONNECTION:
Client connected to the router vía wifi 2.4Ghz, static ip, fixed channel 1 (less noise in my area), 20Mhz, wpa2-psk, no dhcp, using 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and 1.1.1.1 as dns.
Very good signal, client and router are fairly near to each other (but not that much to use a cabled solution). No bottleneck on this front, throughput is like 10x the constant bitrate of the files used.
Router, server and client all in the same subnet, of course.
PLEX CLIENT SETTINGS:
Using original quality for local streaming (for the record, the LG native app apparently doesn’t let you select an automatic setting, you can only set fixed bitrates, or original quality. I’ve set it to original). Direct play and Direct stream enabled. Pointed directly at my server’s fixed IP/port.
LIBRARY FILES (the ones used for testing/troubleshoot this):
To take this factor out of the equation, I transcoded some movies to the most compatible format I could think of (not that far from how my library is, anyway):
MP4 container, H264 both 8 and 10 bit versions, 1080p, main, high and high10 profile, abr (to avoid bitrate spikes that could bottleneck the connection), relatively low bitrate (and certainly lower than any point in my network, so no bottleneck in any place), and aac stereo audio (384 kb/s). Transcoding software: Handbrake (latest version). Also tried FFMPEG.
BEHAVIOR:
The random movie stops started some months ago (or maybe a year), sadly I can’t pinpoint a particular PMS update when it started, but anyway it’s still slowly getting worse.
It doesn’t matter the movie container/codec. If supported, it plays, but regardless of those factors I get the same behavior (random movie stops/freezes). Even with very low bitrate and compatible files.
PMS web interface doesn’t drop when this happens, and I can start the movie again without issues (until it drops again).
No changes on my setup/files since before this started happening. Only change made was updating the system and Plex version on a regular basis.
The tv is permanently connected to my router via 2.4 ghz, and all the other apps that depend on heavy wifi use (Netflix, YouTube, etc) work without any issues. The signal is good, the router is near the tv, and DD-WRT logs don’t show any problem on that front (so it shouldn’t be because of random wifi disconnections or low throughput). Doesn’t seem to be an issue related to latency either, since VoIP and other latency sensitive apps seem to work ok.
MY USE CASE:
The thing is, I made this big movie/documentaries library for my parents, my dad is handicapped and mostly stays at home, and I barely have time to troubleshoot this because of my job, let alone watch an entire movie just to check if it freezes or not at their place. What I mean is that my father is the one that tells me every time this happens, but he only uses the one client mentioned before: a LG C1 SmartTV. It’s practically the only client that’s currently using my Plex server, so I haven’t tested on other clients yet (but there are reports of the same kind of behavior on Plex web since like 2021).
THOUGHTS:
This setup hasn’t changed since before the issues started, nor the type of encoding used (which is, in fact, almost as compatible as it gets), so probably it’s something that has to do with PMS (or perhaps an automatic update of the LG app that’s faulty. Anyway, it seems to be Plex related). No other program is behaving weirdly or anything, so I doubt it’s a hardware problem.
I’ve read other people with the same kind of behavior on forums and it seems that Plex hasn’t solved it yet (if it’s in fact a bug), but almost all those threads talk about Plex web, not a specific client from other types of devices, like the app on the LG C1 (which internally may be web based, idk).
And since I still don’t have the time to watch a movie on another client, I can’t say if the same happens with them. But since there are already some other (and old) threads regarding Plex web, perhaps it’s useful to have one about other type of clients. In this case, I don’t know if it’s failing because of a PMS issue that’s common for other clients too, or if it’s only LG app related.
THINGS ALREADY DONE:
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Flashed the last DD-WRT version which was known to not have an apparent bug that randomly disconnects the wifi clients for a couple of seconds, bug that persists in current versions (but it may only be a little noticeable on latency sensitive apps, so there’s no much complaining about it). This version has been proved to be stable on that regard. Issue persists.
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Updated PMS to its latest version, same behavior (perhaps a little worse). Client app is also up to date.
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Like mentioned, transcoded some movies to different friendly (compatibility wise) containers/codecs, and it happens even with low bitrate mp4 h264 and acc stereo files.
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Imo, high bitrate or bitrate spikes can’t be the issue. There’s no significant bottleneck between the server and the client that’s remotely near the movie bitrate (which is a lot lower. And also, since it’s two pass abr, there are no significant bitrate spikes). I checked and transcoded movies with like 1/10 of that bitrate, and the issue still happens.
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Tried with FFMPEG (same container/codec settings) instead of Handbrake, same result.
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Tried with the latest stable version of DD-WRT too, just in case. No changes.
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Updated Devolo Powerlines firmwares, and set their IPs to static. Very stable and high throughput. Same.
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All RJ45 cables are cat6, with no more than a year of use. Checked them anyway, all good on that front.
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Server’s motherboard Bios updated to the latest stable version. Conservative settings (no overclocking), no Raid, Ahci. No change.
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All drives set at SO level not to fall asleep.
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I even did a complete fresh install (I mean the complete server, formatted the thing and setup and configured everything from scratch, from creating the partition table to installing the last peace of irrelevant software. Same behavior.
A POSSIBLE WORKAROUND (not ideal, but still):
- Revert PMS to version 1.24.x. Apparently, and according to some posts, 1.25.x introduced a bug that produces this type of behavior on Plex web (not sure about other clients), and that it hasn’t been fixed yet (it’s been like 2 years since those posts
):
STEPS:
- Uninstall existing PMS (you’ll lose your configurations, custom metadata, etc. You’ll start the Plex server from scratch. No media is lost however):
Command line:
sudo systemctl stop plexmediaserver
sudo systemctl disable plexmediaserver
sudo dpkg -P plexmediaserver (may also work with sudo dpkg -r plexmediaserver)
sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_1.24.5.5173-8dcc73a59_amd64.deb
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver
sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver
For good measure, after the previous steps check plexmediaserver service status with:
sudo systemctl status plexmediaserver
It should say active.
If you haven’t, check that the 34200 port (or the one you assigned in the PMS GUI) is opened in your router and pointing to your server’s ip, and also opened (port 32400) in your SO Firewall (in my case, ufw).
- Also, use this command so pms is not automatically updated when you update the system or programs with apt (until this is fixed on a future release, hopefully):
sudo apt-mark hold plexmediaserver
I reverted to 1.24.x yesterday, so my dad was able to watch the entire movie without freezes, but it’s only one movie. A good sign, but lets see if it doesn’t fail with another one (but this one was the one that stopped like 20 times previously, so it’s clearly an improve). Regardless, not an ideal solution being stuck with a 2 years old PMS version with no signs of this issue getting fixed, but at least PMS seems to be usable again for my parents. If it stays like this, that’s good enough for me.
On a side note: I disabled direct play at the client and only kept direct stream enabled, with original quality, since I read that maybe it could be a bug regarding the managing of the containers by the client’s app. I did that before reverting to 1.24.x and my dad only watched like a half of a movie then, but at least it didn’t stop. So I can’t be sure if it’s a solution, but I guess it’s worth a try if reverting doesn’t work. Or trying that first before doing all the reverting.
BOTTOM LINE:
The only factor that changed since the issue started and kept getting worse, besides obviously time passing by (but all seems to work ok besides this issue, so a hardware/SO/Network problem is unlikely), it’s the PMS version.
I haven’t changed any settings so that can’t be a factor, neither can be the encoding settings used for the library. And the issue started all of sudden, perhaps after an update and its getting worse instead of improving, with almost universally compatible video files (h264, cbr, low bitrate, acc stereo) sometimes taking 1-2 drops per movie, sometimes as high as 20. And I can’t see a pattern, it happens with any file, bitrate doesn’t seem to make a difference, and it happens at any time during a movie.
I’ll try to get the logs when the issue occurs again and when I’m there, my house is a little far from my parent’s, and I have very little spare time now. I was stupid enough to not install Teamviewer or Google Remote Desktop for situations like this. I’ll surely install one of those when I get there.
Well, after some initial frustration and before seeking for help (I kinda try to solve these things by myself, but this one I’m not sure I can’t fix it without staying with the old PMS version. And it’s yet to be proven that PMS is indeed the problem), I found a thread that talked about a very similar issue, that was solved by reverting to 1.24.x. I did that and at least a movie played entirely without freezes.
It needs more testing obviously. Still, not an ideal solution to stay with a 2 year old PMS version for maybe some months/years. But if it works, it works . Fingers crossed.
BACKUP PLANS:
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If the above doesn’t work, I’ll try disabling direct play at client side and leave direct stream enabled, so the app doesn’t have to mess with the container and only play the streams directly and without transcoding (to preserve quality and to not stress the cpu. Bandwidth is high enough for that). I read that for some, modifying that setting helped.
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If the above also doesn’t work, I’ll try with a different client for the LG. I read that there’s a client for LG WebOS called XPlay (I think it’s free) that works with Plex. It’s supposedly even more stable and faster than the official app. The downside is that it doesn’t look so nice, the interface is not that polished. It’s what I’ve read though, never used it.
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And if the above doesn’t work (and it happens to be a bug of PMS that doesn’t have a workaround for my use case), I guess I’ll have to go for another solution instead of Plex (unless anyone has another idea, of course).
As mentioned, my dad is handicapped and also has a mood disorder, he lives with my mom and both have health issues, and I hardly make enough money for the medical expenses and also to keep them as comfortable as I can. Since I’m no millionaire, I work as hard as I can for that, but I can’t have the luxury to leave my job on a regular basis to see them (so my troubleshooting moments are few and short, that’s why I decided to ask for help).
And well, since my dad loves cinema (my mom, not that much, but still I built a library with the movies I know she likes and with some documentaries too), Plex has been a great help to keep them with a better mood since I can’t be with them as often as I wanted because of my job. Well, that’s life. Not trying to generate sympathy or anything, it’s just to give you an idea that, for me, it’s not just the “damn, I won’t be able to watch the 13384th episode this night” kind of problem, it’s a little more significant than that. Hence the extremely detailed post, so hopefully this could be fixed.
Anyway, I just told you the above so you can understand that (and why) this is kinda important to me, Plex staying functional is almost a health related matter in this case, they practically stay 24/7 at home and all those old and classic films from their times I got for them really make a difference. And this issues is making Plex a little unusable for them lately.
And also, my parents know nothing about tech stuff, so they can’t do anything but resume the app/movie when it happens (and it has happened more than 20 times on a single movie, as mentioned). They struggle with their Iphones and while sending an email from a Windows 10 notebook, I highly doubt they’ll be able to manage a headless Linux server
TO SUM UP:
The obvious question: does anyone have or experienced the same issue with a LG client? Is this a bug that hasn’t been solved yet, or am I missing something? Plex worked like a charm with the same setup and files a couple of years ago, and now reverting to 1.24.x seems (so far, only one movie tested) to fix the issue. If that’s the case, it would be an important bug to get crushed (and if it’s the same bug, it’s been posted since 2 years ago, or maybe more ), but I may be mistaken and perhaps the issue is between my keyboard and my chair (it usually happens). After all, the threads I’ve read talk about a similar issue but while using Plex web, I haven’t found one regarding the LG client app yet.
MY ADVICE:
If some are experiencing the same issue (and after checking that everything is ok, like the router, Plex installation, Firewall configuration, updated client app, etc), I would try with the commands I provided above if your running Plex on Linux (Ubuntu/Linux Mint), to see if downgrading is the way to go for now.
And before that (because it’s simpler to check if it’s not the issue, at least simpler than downgrading and starting from scratch), I would try disabling Direct Play, keep Direct Stream enabled, and select original quality if the client is local and if that there’s no bottleneck on your network that’s narrower than your files bitrate.
To check that, you can go to speedtest.net at your SmartTV’s browser and watch your max download speed (which should be less than your actual internal network bandwith, unless your server’s NIC is really, really slow). Encode a movie with mp4 container, h264 codec with main or high profile, cbr, abr with bitrate lower than the one you obtained at speedtest (with two pass encoding), preset slow, and audio with AAC codec, stereo, 384 kb/s. With a file like that, you take bandwidth and compatibility issues out of the picture, and you can check if disabling Direct Play makes a difference before downgrading.
LITTLE ADVICE (ENCODING):
In my experience, both Handbrake and FFMPEG produce the same results when talking about compatibility and regarding Plex. Output quality, that’s a hot debate that’s not the purpose of this thread. But for this, I suggest Handbrake, since it’s easier to use for testing purposes.
For your final files, that’s a matter of personal taste (I personally prefer FFPMEG, without GUI. Much more customizable and powerful). Also, I transcode my files at my pc, which has an AMD Threadripper AW2990X, and with that cpu Handbrake only manages to use up to 30% of the cpu, FFMPEG takes it up to 100% (and the room feels like Venus when that happens, so a good cooling solution is a must).
Well, that’s it. I’ll report back if this solved the issue or if I’ll have to go with my plan b or c. But if it’s solved, that means I’m stuck with an old PMS version, and that’s going to be a little splinter in my mind, I know myself (but still, it would be a better situation than being unable to see the movies properly).
Hope someone can tell if there’s a fix for this, and also that the info provided could be of help for others with the same problem.
Thanks for reading
