Hello, I’m brand new to Plex and trying to evaluate this vs. Infuse on my Apple TV.
Here is my setup:
Ubiquiti USG router with several VLANs
Synology DS1821+ running DSM 7 on main VLAN
Laptops on main VLAN
Apple TVs on IoT VLAN
PiHole/Unbound on management VLAN
All connections are ethernet
I downloaded the latest Plex install for synology from the Plex website and was able to install it and point it towards my media. I added the
private-domain: plex.direct
line to my PiHole config. I created my libraries and can see them in PMS.
So far so good. I downloaded the Plex app for Apple TV and was able to find my PMS and everything seemed to be working…until I started to play something.
I tested out a Blu-ray rip of Cars. This was a direct rip from a Blu-ray using MakeMKV. I didn’t use Handbrake or anything to get the file size down, so it is a direct 1:1 copy of the disk.
When I played this, the quality was horrible and it was being transcoded down to 320p. So I turned off transcoding and now it won’t play at all.
In contrast, I also have Infuse on my Apple TV and it plays this flawlessly.
From the looks of it, Plex considers the connection to be remote due to the VLANs.
This will apply a number of restrictions to your stream (e.g. the server remote stream bitrate limit or your client’s remote streaming quality settings). While you can remove those, that’s probably not fixing the underlying “problem”.
Another potential issue could be a bad remote access setup (again… considering all the VLANs) – this can cause those “remote” streams to be relayed through a server of Plex; those “indirect” streams are restricted to 1 Mbps (2 Mbps for Plex Pass members).
To address the root cause you could check your network setup in general.
You might be able to tell Plex that the IoT VLAN is part of your local network (see Settings > [Server Name] > Network > LAN networks; IIRC this is a Plex Pass feature). https://support.plex.tv/articles/200430283-network/
Yep, this was my thought as well. I am pretty amazed that changing network settings is a Plex Pass feature, though. I shouldn’t have to subscribe to something just to get it to work!
You can change tons of network settings – some however are subject to a Plex Pass membership. I suppose it comes down to Plex being a business and giving their stuff away for free will not cover their expenses/wages/… TL;DR: their product, their rules as for what they make a paid feature
You could try giving your NAS a connection to your IoT VLAN as well. The Plex app on the Apple TV should be able to reach it directly then, without crossing VLANs. Just ensure that the main VLAN interface is the primary.
This has configuration implications. Plex Media Server isn’t able to use any interface without a default gateway configured, so you’ll have to ensure that’s done for the NAS’ IoT VLAN interface. You may also need to then take special care to restrict inbound traffic to your NAS via its IoT VLAN interface to Plex (block everything else). Probably other things as well. But you should be able to make this work.
