No artwork in plexconnect, just grey boxes

Dev Community Apps & Creations
1

Hi,

 

Sorry, hopefully I've just overlooked something simple, but I recently installed plexconnect and got it working ok, with the exception of any artwork from Movies and TV Shows and Home Movies.  I can see the metadata for all of the movies/shows, and I'm able to watch them as well, just fine.

 

Some details on the setup:

 

I followed the instructions for using the WSJ app instead of the Trailer app with the SSL cert, etc.  I don't believe that this is the problem given that the metadata is visible and I'm able to stream the movies/shows without a problem.

 

The AppleTV is v3 and it's running OS 6.0.   (192.168.32.103)

The PMS Server is a Windows 7 64bit system, running PMS 0.9.8.6, and is running on 192.168.32.210.

The plexconnect services are on the same system as the PMS server, 192.168.32.210.

Plexconnect is version v0.2 that iBaa released 14 days ago.   (I tried the most current version and it had the same issue, so most likely something I'm doing wrong).

 

The PMS Server does have 2 interfaces, the 192.168.32.210 (with is the public/external side), and 10.10.10.2, which is a private network (no routing) with a directly connected NAS behind it providing content to the PMS server.  I've disabled the backside interface on the PMS  but that didn't have any effect on plexconnect.

 

I can see the artwork/thumbnails/etc on the PMS server AppData/Local/Plex Media Server/  directory structure.

 

Plex/Web and iOS clients to the PMS server work perfectly fine (including artwork).

 

 

The settings.cfg:

[PlexConnect]
port_pms = 32400
port_webserver = 80
ip_plexconnect = 192.168.32.210
certfile = ./assets/certificates/trailers.pem
ip_dnsmaster = 192.168.32.1
loglevel = High
enable_dnsserver = True
logpath = .
ip_pms = 192.168.32.210
enable_plexgdm = False
port_ssl = 443
enable_webserver_ssl = True
ip_webserver = 192.168.32.210
prevent_atv_update = True
port_dnsserver = 53
enable_plexconnect_autodetect = True
 
 
The log data run plexconnect.  This simply shows launching the WSJ, and navigating to Movies, just showing the on deck and recently added sections.
http://pastebin.com/PZvLYY0U
 
 
 
Appreciate any help.
 
Thanks,
  Erick
 
 
2

[PlexConnect]

enable_webserver_ssl = True

logpath = .

enable_dnsserver = True

prevent_atv_update = True

port_dnsserver = 53

enable_plexconnect_autodetect = True

port_pms = 32400

port_webserver = 80

ip_plexconnect = 0.0.0.0

certfile = ./assets/certificates/trailers.pem

ip_dnsmaster = 8.8.8.8

loglevel = Normal

ip_pms = 192.168.178.10

enable_plexgdm = True

port_ssl = 443



This is my settings.cfg, I think your issue is you should not have your ip pms set as your machines ip address. My machines ip is 192.168.2.11 but its not in my settings.cfg whatsoever. I would leave that file mostly default it should populate itself and work. Try it without editing this file and post your results. Everything else is working because its not releated to plexconnect. Your pms should be serving anything besides plexconnect properly.

3

krueger: What's 10.10.10.1? The NAS?

wahlman: he has "enable_plexgdm=False"...

4

wahlman,  I tried you suggestion, but had to change both:

enable_plexgdm to True and then

ip_pms to 0.0.0.0

That didn't change any of the behavior.

Baa, yes, 10.10.10.1 is the NAS

So, you have:

NAS (10.10.10.1) --------   (10.10.10.2) PMS Server / Plexconnect (192.168.32.210) --------  (192.168.32.103) appletv

192.168.32.1/24 is the primary network is the one that is routed/NAT'd to the Internet.

10.10.10.0/24 is a private network that is entirely behind the PMS Server 

Do note that shutting down the 10.10.10.2 interface on the PMS server (while that would keep videos from streaming), didn't affect the ability to display the artwork/thumbnails/etc that are stored on the PMS Server AppData/   directory structure.    I had seen the posts regarding odd networking in VMs and such, and thought I'd see if this was the problem, but it doesn't appear to be so.

Thanks for taking a look.

5

FWIW, I also reconfigured to use the standard Apple Trailer method of seeing the Plex server.

I get the same behavior, I can connect successfully via plexconnect, and can play any of the media I have, however, the thumbnails/artwork are not displayed, but instead are just grey boxes.

So, this isn't specific to my doing something with the WSJ interface on the appletv.

Admitted surprised given that the metadata is displayed correctly and the media streams successfully.  I would have thought the artwork would have been in the same transport as the metadata, but apparently not ?

6

They are on different subnets so the PMS sees them as different networks.

PlexConnect is not yet MyPlex enabled but you can allow remote networks to connect without authentication in the PMS advanced settings.

7

foob4r, the appletv is on 192.168.32.103.  The plexconnect service is at 192.168.32.210.  The PMS is on 192.168.32.210.

Those are all on the same subnet.   Just because the PMS gets data from a NAS behind it shouldn't be any different than having a SAN or having lots of local disk.  The way I understand it, is plexconnect is requesting the PMS contents via an interface and isn't directly accessing those files....hence why plexconnect can run on one system and PMS on a separate one.

These are connected/permitted without authentication in PMS, and can be demonstrated because the appletv connects successfully via plexconnect and can stream any content I want.  I can also see the metadata for all media as well, just not the artwork associated with them.

So, when I highlight one of those "gray boxes", it displays the movie name/info below it, and when selected, I see the name, artist, and other info...just not the graphic associated with the movie.  And of course, "play" works just fine as well and I can watch the show.

Thanks

8

foob4r,  while you were off about being different subnets, you were right to the cause itself.

I had permitted individual hosts within PMS for use without myplex auth.   When I changed that from the individual hosts to the entire /24, the art work started appearing as expected.   I'd argue there is a bug somewhere within the PMS code, but I'm thrilled to have this working again.

I do see a new problem occurring where plexconnect/atv isn't navigating/playing media correctly from my Home Movie section that is designed to follow season/episode format....the other home video section that is a flat directory is fine.   I'll mess with that more tomorrow and ensure that the videos are indeed ok to play, but seeing alot of messages about 'trailers not available' when trying to navigate/play some of the files in that section.

Thanks again,

Erick

9

Weird im getting a similar issue that im also now trying to debug is it plexconnect or pms? Its almost like when plexgdm is set to false plexconnect and pms dont want to play nice together anymore as in no metadata, some things work others do not.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/82687-plexconnect-on-the-go-using-ddns-ios-5x-and-jailbreak-required/

10

Yeah, it was weird in the sense that everything else was working perfectly.....the rest of the metadata was intact,and I could even play the movie, so hence I didn't really think that the local auth subnet thing could be an issue since it seemed like it was already working.  However, by only changing that, it suddenly 'just worked'.

I saw your posts previously and noticed it was similar...or at least seems like it.   Perhaps you need to add /24's for all three networks involved...

1. where plexconnect sits

2. the WAN network coming into your home/site

3.  the local network of the PMS.

it'd definitely be worthy of an experiment.   Sorry, only have 1 atv box to work with right now, and it's local, so hard to try stuff for you.

11

Glad you got it working.
From looking at your post I thought one of the devices was on 10.x.x.x and I recognised the symptoms as being the same as a multi network config error.

12

Kruger you are the man you fixed it, thank you good sir! Still weird why it doesnt work without entering in all 3 ip’s into pms.

13

Glad I could help.  Not sure I like the idea of adding an a public internet /24 or greater unauthenticated to PMS, but it at least proves that the auth code was the issue at hand.  You'd have to experiment to see if you can shrink the usage of the address block or not.  I still believe there is some weirdness with that auth code in PMS.  Pretty exciting to see all that can be done between the folks writing the code and people like yourself pushing the envelope.

14

Ya if I try to do it any other way it breaks it. Seems to need all three ip’s:


24.x.x.x/255.255.255.0,24.x.x.x/255.255.255.128,192.168.2.11/255.255.255.128


I wonder if you can use dyndns instead that would make things easier for the wan’s


15

I realize that all 3 permits are required. My comment wasn’t meant to mean try w/o the public ip permission, but just to see how small of a range you could use successfully. I wouldn’t be a huge fan of a large public side block if addresses being permitted without auth since any of the could use plex/web and muck with the pms. Glad you got it working though.

16

Gotcha, I tried to use dyndns names no luck, I was able to get it down to my lan ip and the remote wan only, no need for my wan ip :slight_smile: (at least in my case)

17

very cool, 'grats.  Wasn't sure if the WAN IP was required or not, just concerned that with NAT being used and PMS is able to determine it's real internet based IP, that it might somehow get confused if/when it saw it.

Love all the work and updates, look forward to seeing more..... :)

18

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