I have tried to go through the forums and adjust various settings and tweaks that other users have posted to no avail. Most of my videos are buffering and stopping so much that it is pretty much unusable and a completely frustrating experience. My videos are setup on a Synology NAS through a full Ubiquiti network system using premium solid copper CAT6a cables. There should be absolutely nothing wrong with my hardware.
This buffering and stopping situation happens regardless of file size or location. I have four nvidia shields in the house. They used to work perfectly but obviously some update has caused this issue. Since it used to work perfectly, I am using high quality network components and it happens on all four of my devices I am ruling out cabling and hardware.
Is there going to be a fix or has Plex staff realized there is an issue? If anyone has had similar issues and using the same type of gear but have had success in fixing please post your solution. Right now I am doing a work around using VLC player which isn’t ideal but at least there is zero buffering issue.
In Plex client on Shield, set Display Information = On.
During playback pull up on-screen controls (tap select button, bottom of ring, etc on remote).
What does it show in upper left corner of screen - Direct Play / Direct Stream / Transcode? If one of latter two, it should provide a reason.
I’m having the same Problem like Canuckz. But only if I use the Shield as server. In the upper corner shows direct play.
I’m having PlexMediaServer on my Synology NAS and there are no problems with shield as client.
I’ve got an Nvidia Shield TV I use for streaming, and I’ve recently started using Plex on it. Unfortunately every single file I try to watch tells me “Your connection to the server is not fast enough”. I know this to be horse poop because I direct play all of my stuff through Kodi on it just fine.
I have the Plex server configured for Maximum quality and the client to play in Maximum or Original quality. I’ve tried it hard wired on a 1Gbps network. It always gives this error, even though the files are encoded at 2500kbps at 1080p.
My Plex server is hosted on a Synology (v1.14 as of this writing) and the PS4 Pro client works fine (latest version as of this date), as does the web client. Only the Android TV on the shield doesn’t work (latest version as of this date). I just bought a Sony TV and will be testing it on that Android TV as well once it arrives, and it really better work when I get it.
It doesn’t seem to be trying to transcode. I’m only getting 8% CPU usage on the Synology while it’s “playing”. The “Now Playing” section shows Direct Play.
Can we please get some feedback on this issue? I like Kodi and all, but Plex has less maintenance and am leaning towards using it if I can.
Same thing happening to me. It doesn’t seem to occur on the Mac player app so maybe it’s an android problem. I basically can’t get through a movie without getting this multiple times. The lack of acknowledgement is very frustrating too.
Mine is saying direct play with ExoPlayer V2. Same experience as others - this and other files have worked before, and now stop playing. I can only get the file to play again if I back out and resume where it stopped playback (froze).
All Android devices in my house throw this error within 10 seconds of starting a movie, and also take 30 seconds to start playinf in the first place (1080p or less). 2 phones, a Shield, and a Sony x900f
My ps4 and xbox one start playing immediately, and never give the error. Always direct play.
Kodi all devices plays immediately with no issues.
Fix your Android client Plex! Or give me a refund for my Plex pass.
I’m sure like everyone, we want everything to “direct play,” and that worked flawlessly until November (give or take a couple weeks).
I then told the client to “convert automatically” and that didn’t do anything either. My only working band-aid is, when the video freezes, is to convert it to 4Mbps, 720p.
I had several videos that would have this issue as well. Seems to be an issue with the android version of Plex, not just the Shield, as I could replicate it on the app on the android TV built into my TV
I ended up getting around it by remuxing the files into MKVs from MP4 or M4Vs.
I have the same issue with the Plex client on my Nvidia Shield TV playing on my local network. (Shield experience version 7.2.1) If I uninstall all of the updates for the Plex client to roll it back to the version that the shield originally shipped with (Settings > Apps > Plex > Uninstall Updates) everything plays back without issue. As another test I setup an Emby server, (same system as the Plex server so there were no hardware differences) linked it to the same files, and have no issues with playback on my Shield. All files in Emby showed direct playback with ExoPlayer. (didnt say V2 like the Plex app does with the latest client) Havent tried Kodi with the Plex add-on. At this point if Plex cant get this fixed soon ill just have to jump ship and switch to Emby.
It appears that there are certain h.264 files where the plex client dose not build a buffer. You can see this when you FF. Some files build a buffer, and play without pausing. Others show no buffer at all ( darker shade line during FF ahead of current position ), and those videos “stutter”.
Shield TV hard wired to Windows PC. “Server not fast enough” error for me as well. Not sure exactly when it started. In November I believe. Emby plays the same files just fine for me too. Very frustrating! Is it Plex or Nvidia?
Getting the same thing with my Nvidia Shield (2017) after the 7.2.2 update. Play would pause, message would come up about connection speed but if I stopped and then resumed movie would play another 10 mins before happening again.
The best way to help get these types of issues resolved is to include pertinent information such as:
PMS server version & platform
Client version & Platform (including OS version)
Attach PMS log files
Etc.
You will be much more likely to get assistance and provide information that can be used to help try and determine if the issue is an environment/configuration issue or a code bug.
I am having the same issue on my Nvidia Shield but it only happens with 4K content and seems to be also limited to the Plex addon for Kodi. Everything is direct play and was working perfectly until at least a few weeks ago ( could have been longer as I haven’t watched a ton of 4K content lately). The files play perfectly if I just play them in Kodi or the plex app (sometimes buffering issues) but when I try the plex addon for kodi it has to stop and buffer all the time. This is all on a wired local connection where everything was working perfectly before.
PMS version 1.14.1.5488
Nvidia Shield Experience 7.2.2
Plex addon for Kodi version 0.1.6
Kodi Version 17.6
