Hi all,
I’ve been trying to get ahold of someone to report this issue, and It seems like coming to Plex directly is the right solution here.
Here is the situation:
I run Plex Media Server on a late 2015 27" iMac with a quad core i5 (Skylake ), 32 GB RAM, 2TB Fusion drive, with Plex media on a 6TB drive connected by USB 3. The iMac is hard-wired by a gigabit connection to the network, with 80211ac being the standard for wireless connections.
I have several devices on the network including:
2 Apple TVs 4th gen, and 4K models (4k also hard wired on a gigabit connection)
4th generation connected by wireless to the network at 80211ac speeds
2 Sony disc players 1 hard wired, and one wireless.
2 Rokus 1 wireless, and 1 hard wired.
The problems described in this thread seem to only apply to the ROKU Plex channel, everything else works fine.
When playing an mkv file of a blu-ray with a bitrate of 40 Mbps, and above, when I try to direct play, the Roku can’t seem to keep a constant stream going. The stream will re-buffer at varying intervals.
Usually When I do this, I want to listen to DTS audio, so I’ll go into the Plex settings for the title, I set Video to original, and I set audio to the standard DTS track, so (HD lossless audio isn’t in play here.)
If I let the file play transcoded at 20 Mbps all is good, but no direct play, if I play a lower bitrate file direct play is fine. I’m leaning toward this being a Roku specific issue with Plex, and here is why.
The Plex app on Apple TV can play the same files at full quality, even though the audio is transcoded. (no DTS support for Apple TV)
I also have Infuse Pro for Apple TV, and that has a direct share via SMB to the same media, and movies play at full quality there as well without issues.
The third example is using a DLNA solution with the Sony players, either Plex, or Serviio Media Server, Files typically play without issue there as well.
All devices used are on the same network, and have the same amount of bandwidth available to them.
One other thing I want to add just to help someone who may ask, It doesn’t matter if the Roku is hard wired, or wireless, this problem still is consistent with the Plex channel.
Other notes:
My MKV files are direct rips from disc using MakeMKV, so all codecs inside the MKV container are the original structure that’s on the disc.
One last thing I’ll add before closing this post:
according to the Plex support page regarding buffering issues, some devices have a memory limitation
that might cause playback issues, while the Roku isn’t listed, this is the impression I’m drawing, that it’s not my network, but it’s the Roku specifically.
Specific Roku model info:
Roku Premiere+ (2016 model)
Roku Ultra (2017 model)
both are on ROKU OS 8.1.0 build 4137 with the latest available Plex channel .
Thanks all, looking forward to feedback and getting this issue sorted out for good.
