I have been struggling with the Plex app running on a Firestick for a couple of years now waiting for an update to come along that fixes the problem of the Plex app crashing all the time. The instability seems to mostly be with the use of fast forwarding and rewind. The latest app update seems to be working a little better but if I try to go back to far or click on the fast Forward too often, that will still lock the app up and then close. It now also seems to be flaky with using other functions with the newest update. All the other apps like Amazon Prime, Netflix, All Access, YouTube, Starz, AMC, and a bunch other apps run without this problem in the Firestick. Can you please fix this?
The latest Plex server update has made fire TV unworkable for me. Really regretting Plex pass now.
Have had to switch back to homerunhd app.
Between the horrendous TV guide issues and the broken apps, I’m in utter shock at the state of the plex ecosystem right now.
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I’ve gone through about a half dozen Plex upgrades now and have always had this instability problem in my FireTV Stick. I think that Plex developers need to get some help from the Amazon FireTV OS developers with this problem of constantly crashing while using the Forward/Back controls.
It’s no good for Live TV either. Plays for a few minutes then craps out back to the guide. No issues on iOS or Roku.
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Still no resolution to this issue; started early Nov for me. Live TV is unusable.
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found this in the log:
Got a request to stop a transcode session without a session GUID (or with an invalid one).
followed by
[Transcode] downloadContainer: expected MediaContainer element, found html
looks like plex is losing track of itself, then self destructing in house-cleaning.
same here, fire stick app is broken since 2017. on the normal FTV sticks it stutters regularly even on low bitrate HEVC files with the exoplayer v2.
so I bought the 4K version only to find out it has a mem leak and I have to restart the app every time I want to use it. very annoying.
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ok I’ve got it working…
If you start streamlining on an HD channels and then switch to SD it works.
If you start on an SD channel the session is not logged properly and gets killed.
You can check in your dashboard, if the session is logged there, you’re good. If not, it’ll get killed.
tho it’s worth noting the quality is awful.
A quick summary for folks searching this particular issue:
Issue: Live TV playback on Fire TV Stick drops out after a few minutes.
Solutions:
Fire TV Stick 4K (Fix)
- On the Fire TV Stick Plex app go to Settings
- Scroll down to “Advanced”
- Set “Interlaced Live TV Transcoding” to “OFF”
Fire TV Stick 2020 (Work-Around)
When you wish to watch Live TV, you MUST start it on an HD channel, and then change down to the channel you want to watch. Note that you can only change channel ONCE before Plex crashes out and you have to start over. You also need to make the configuration change noted below:
- On the Fire TV Stick Plex app go to Settings
- Scroll down to “Video Quality”
- Set “Adjust Automatically” to “ON”
This is not a fix for the Fire Stick 4k. It causes major audio sync issues on SD channels. See my bug report here:
I can confirm that @mvheath is correct. I have tested on my two Fire Stick 4k’s and turning off “Live TV Transcoding” in the advanced features absolutely makes live TV viewing rock solid. The interesting fact is that I had experimented with this setting months ago with no success.
It is my observation that this setting in conjunction with a recent point release of the Fire TV 4k Plex client are responsible for solving this issue. I hope others come to this posting for the solution since this should be a common issue amongst Fire TV 4k Live TV watchers on the Fire TV 4k Plex client. All my recordings on Live TV were always rock solid. The one remaining issue was watching live TV realtime. My sincerest thanks to @mvheath for his discovery and posting to the community.
This isn’t a fix. At best it’s a workaround. Plex should be able to transcode, it’s a core part of what it does. And @jg121212 is right, it causes other bugs to rear their head.
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I do not find “Interlaced Live TV Transcoding” in the advanced settings in my Plex app version. I did, however find a setting to auto adjust the picture to the screen size but I don’t think that this would be transcoding that your advanced adjustment speaks to.
I didn’t upgrade to the latest update because the screen showed the reason for upgrade was to facilitate in-app purchasing and I do not want my accounts compromised this way. It’s ashamed that Plex spends so much of it’s energy on enhancing the apps for more profit and so little time on updating the apps to fix problems that repeat update after update.
Also, I was appalled at Plex when I clicked on an on-line movie that they had in the “suggested for you” category. I started it and with the first scene that was shown was a fully engaged “XXX” rated sex scene. They know nothing about me so I am really insulted that they would throw pornography at me. Since they are not paying any attention to the content that they stream and rating it, be vary cautious of anything that they recommend.
Think about this. Live ATSC V1 broadcasts are 1080i (interlaced). Plex Live TV recording does a lot of processing to record the signal as 1080p, which plays back great. When playing live, if transcoding is off, it plays the native 1080i as 1080i. That’s what other plays do. It’s not really a workaround. It’s a configuration setting.
@vmsman except it doesn’t work. You’re fundamentally ignoring the fact that configuration or not, it doesn’t work for users with certain SD channels
Just because it works for you doesn’t mean it works for everyone. Different regions have different networks. Different networks have different channels. Some channels have the above sync issue
The only universal truth is that the new player causes issues, and that Plex has removed the option of reverting to the old player. They have also not acknowledged these issues, engaged with the users, or indicated they intend to fix them.
Users such as myself and @jg121212 who want to watch Live TV on our Fire Stick 4k’s are forced to side load older versions. This is absurd.
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Hi Ancient,
I too am left “in the dark” about the settings/advanced/“interlaced live tv transcoding” switch as it just ain’t there. I have the lastest android app update as of Dec 4., but I’ve been looking for this setting for a while before that.
My android live TV hasn’t worked since October. So either it works for some, or they just don’t look at the forum.
Roku Live TV works ok. Can’t complain there. 2020-12-16T05:00:00Z(File removed) (File removed)
Another workaround for the Fire TV 2020 (non 4k).
- Select the live TV SD channel you with to view
- Press the hamburger (three lines) button on the Amazon remote
- Press the HD icon
- flip between play original quality and convert automatically (or vice versa)
The key is to check if your session is recorded on the plex dashboard… If it’s there, you’re good. If it’s not, your stream will get killed.
That option is ONLY present on the latest version on Fire TV stick 4k edition.
