Plex has really gone downhill for me lately. I have a fairly weak server, so transcoding on the fly isn’t an option. This shouldn’t be a problem because I converted all of my remuxes into 2 files: 1.) 1080p averaging 8Mbps w/ AC3 audio and 2.) 720p averaging 2Mbps w/ AAC audio.
My test setup is:
- Latest PMS running on Syno DS2415+ (only thing I use the server for is Plex)
- Spectrum max internet (300 down/20 up)
- Latest Airport Extreme router (802.11ac)
- Playing on Apple TV 4 connected to 5Ghz band of router with full signal strength
Everything plays great on my test setup. However a few people I share my server with can’t seem to get anything to direct play (and I experience the same outside of my home). I’ve gone through settings with them on multiple occasions and everything should work, but it just doesn’t. They can stream 1080p content from netflix, youtube, etc. perfectly but can’t direct play my 2Mbps 720p files that are web optimized with 160kbps AAC audio.
Is Plex just not smart enough for me to store multiple versions of files? Is this what’s causing all the issues? I’m tempted to move the higher quality files to a different folder outside of Plex’s view and just stick with the low quality ones but that just takes Plex down about 5 pegs in my book, as one of the coolest concepts about plex (IMO) was the ability for it to behave almost Netflix-like regarding quality. I know the best solution is to get a flame-trowing PC/server to run Plex on (so it can transcode almost everything on the fly without buffering), but this is out of the question for me right now ($$$).
It’s my understanding that when you have multiple versions of one file stored on plex, it will attempt to play the original file and if it’s not able to direct play, it will attempt to play the next file… then if that one can’t play it goes to the next, until there are no more files to try and it’s forced to transcode. Is this incorrect?
I’ve seen people mention editing the client profiles. Is this something that could help my issue?
I will greatly appreciate any input on this issue as I’ve spent quite a bit of time on this setup and it just doesn’t work…
