Hi there - I’m using PMS on an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) as a central media player, for the second time in 2 years. I say second because PMS starts off quite good then after a few weeks becomes basically unplayable, especially with a direct stream, when playing plex on a browser, using my 2015 MacBook pro. The first time I switched to emby, which was ok but started giving issues. I’ve recently gone back to plex, but the last few days the media will play, then 10 seconds later will buffer and not play at all. to confound the issue I will open the plex dashboard and it will say that the video is playing - I can see that the video time is ticking over and the progress bar (on the dashboard) is advancing, but no playback on the MBP.
Does anybody have similar issues? please help because this is the one reason why I’m reluctant to go paid plex subscriber.
I’ve moved your post in its own thread. Please don’t hijack other threads that cover a completely different topic → (a) to avoid messing up the conversation in that thread and (b) to actually give others the chance to see/find your issue and react to it.
As for the issue at hand… can you shed some more light on your setup? e.g. (but not limited to):
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What version of macOS do you have installed on this device?
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What version of Plex Media Server do you have installed on your Mac?
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What kind of media are you trying to play and how is it streamed? → you can find an overview about the technical details of the media files inside Plex (Investigate Media Information and Formats | Plex Support) and find information on how it’s streaming in the “now playing” section of the server’s dashboard (Server Status and Dashboard | Plex Support).
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Do you experience the same issue if you’re playing the same file from a more capable player (e.g. Plex for Mac, Plex HTPC) or a different device (phone, tablet, Apple TV)? Keep in mind that browsers are very limited in their playback capabilities and will often depend on your server to transcode its media (which is highly demanding to your server machine)
Hi Tom, sorry for “hijacking” but the thread I used was an issue for mac playback, but anyway.
to your questions:
OSX10.14.16
I have PMS for Mac on the server computer (old iMac 2010 with latest PMS version with updates), I use the web interface on my MacBook pro.
In terms of a “more capable player” - I’m not sure what you mean exactly - I could only download and install PMS - the other versions you mention sound legacy and arent readily downloadable from the plex sites?
media streamed are 1080 resolution .mkv files, mostly, and the default stream setup was direct play/native. I used to have it streamed perfectly on the home network but recently I can only get it to stream if i set the home network to transcode to 3Mbps. Most of my files are 7-10Mbps playback rate, except movies that are in the region of 2.2-2.7. Annoyingly my lower bitrate movie files also don’t play on the browser unless I transcode them. I went to your media information page and nothing jumps out obviously to me there.
yes, I do experience the same issues if I use another device - I have a dell work laptop - and only some of the same issues - definitely worse with my MacBook pro. I will say that activating it on my phone I get an issue that says my connection is not fast enough, which is weird because I have 50Mbps download and regularly have 15-20 Mbps upload
I’ve formatted the MacBook pro and that helped for a bit, but in the last 2 weeks I’m tearing my hair out. please help
Wich version of the Plex Media Server do you have installed on that old iMac?
The browser app is very limited in its playback capabilities – while modern browsers support some level of video playback, it’s restricted to very specific combinations of file formats and codecs. Your server will then have to transcode all other formats so the web app can deal with it.
I suppose the Plex Media Player app is closest to be a legacy app – all the other clients are perfectly up-to-date and (most importantly) deliver a much better playback capability. Using them will give you a better quality playback and put less load on your server.
If you’re going to this on your MacBook, try either “Plex for Mac” (regular desktop client) or “Plex HTPC” (HTPC version; about to succeed Plex Media Player).
The capability of your iMac to transcode videos will highly depend on which exact model / CPU you’ve got… I’ve just run some comparison based on the specs listed on Wikipedia:
| CPU | Passmark Score | 720p transcodes | 1080p transcodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-core i3 @ 3.06 GHz | 1500 | ~1 | no |
| 2-core i3 @ 3.20 GHz | 1560 | 1 | no |
| 2-core i5 @ 3.60 GHz | 2590 | 1 | 1 |
| 4-core i5 @ 2.80 GHz | 2575 | 1 | 1 |
| 4-core i7 @ 2.93 GHz | 3000 | 1-2 | 1 |
The long story short: with that server, try to avoid transcoding at all cost (e.g. by not using the browser as your player).
PS: playback issues are quite different from a server that’s not even starting
Thanks, Tom - installed and running plex for mac - seems to be doing the business so holding thumbs. must say I wasn’t aware this app existed - getting to it on the downloads wasn’t too intuitive for me (but I am getting on in years now!).
Cheers Nick
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