I just signed up for Plex Pass because I was having some bugginess with utilizing DLNA access to Plex from both my Xbox 360 and my smart TV and wanted to see if the app would improve things. It definitely seems to have improved my issues, since I'm no longer kicked out of videos in the middle, but now I'm seeing the playback halt with the spinner showing up for about a second before resuming every 10-20 seconds.
Any ideas?
What kind of server are you running on? It is very possible that the media is getting transcoded and the server is having trouble keeping up.
But to make a better assessment we would need to see your Plex Media Server.log while attempting to play one of the videos that is pausing/buffering.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200250417-Plex-Media-Server-Log-Files
My server is a little underpowered. I'm running Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS on a box with 1GB RAM and Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz.
I can't get a log file at the moment, since my Xbox is in use, but I'll grab one later.
Is there a file format that might work better if I convert? The files I was using were mp4s.
I'd say your more than a little underpowered with any P4, but really unless you are using subtitles then it should direct play the mp4. With your processor audio transcoding could also be an issue if you are playing a file with dts.
As stated above, logs will tell us if your server is transcoding and not keeping up. The full xml file info would be helpful as well.
Some further information, if it helps. I have no issue using the web interface to watch the same things on multiple computers and frequently use the DLNA feature to stream to my tablet (haven't tried the android app yet), using BubbleUPNP and MXPlayer.
Yeah, it's an old machine that I had laying around unused.
...
The full xml file info would be helpful as well.
Where can I get the xml?
When in the info screen for the video you want click on the ellipses (...) on the left bottom, then click info. Click "View XML" and upload here as an attachment (don't post it directly).
I've attached a zip with the requested log and xml files.
Looking at the logs the file is transcoding.
So I'm getting a transcode because my output screen is above a certain size, right? Any good suggestions for how to fix this? Do I need to convert my video files to handle this better?
So I'm getting a transcode because my output screen is above a certain size, right?
Yes and no. Your current video size should be good. I forwarded the logs to the developers because even though we know why it is requesting the transcode, it really shouldn't be. Your video is 1280x720 but for some reason the client is setting a max of 1279x720.
You could try temporarily setting the transcode level down to 480p to see if it gives the extra push for the transcoding to smooth out for now. Personally, I wouldn't try and manually convert things down as the current resolution you have is correct and converting down will result in quality loss.
I tried 480 already, and, while it does resolve the problem, the quality makes it nearly unwatchable, even for a kids cartoon.
Thanks for the help. Do you know if the devs will reach out to me if the find a resolution, or will I likely just have to wait for an update?
Thanks for the help. Do you know if the devs will reach out to me if the find a resolution, or will I likely just have to wait for an update?
Unfortunately because of the nature of the problem I believe the only resolution is an update to the client as that's where the problem looks to be. I could be wrong though, but won't know for sure until they let us know.
Any update on this? I’m likely to end my subscription until it’s fixed, since it’s interfering with my main reason for having it.
