Plex HTPC feedback

Plex Players Desktop Players
852

Plex HTPC for Mac and Windows v1.7.0 has been released.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are running Plex HTPC for Mac and Windows v1.4.1 or earlier you will need to manually update to v1.7.0 and higher. There was a bug in our updater code present in that release that will prevent the application from updating automatically.

Here are the release notes for this release:

NEW:

  • Moved update check to its own thread

FIXED:

  • Fixed Auto Play setting not being respected sometimes
  • Fixed truncation of long server names in sidebar
  • Fixed New source indicator shown when sidebar is collapsed
  • Fixed sidebar source text color on initial load
  • Fixed stream details not updating when focusing an episode on episodes screen
4 Likes
853

I’m loving HTPC! I really like how it’s progressing and what you’ve done with the UI, but I have one request.

Please let me choose which pinned sources are used when using the “Entertainment” screensaver! I have an Anime pinned source that has some, well, anime in it and some of the title covers are obscene, because well, anime. I don’t want to unpin Anime every time I have a guest over, or turn off the TV when someone knocks on my door for fear of having big anime titty’s up on the screen. I really like having the entertainment screensaver, but it’s unusable for me for this reason. My wife who loves anime, hates it just as much as me. Like what if our parents come over and I forget to unpin the source? Big anime titty’s every time.

If you could make a checkbox on the burger menu next to the source that is “Include in Screensaver” or something similar, that would be fantastic. I know I can’t be the only person with this problem.

854

I’m having 2 issues right now, first one is the Loading of “actors” information when selecting a movie, it takes a long time, seems to Timeout according to the log, and then they just pop up. Everything else “loading”-related works fine. Here is the log when this happens:

Nov 05, 2021 09:23:57.413 [13224] INFO - [Web] 10/05/2021 09:23:57:405 [redacted] INFO Navigated to screen: PreplayScreen
Nov 05, 2021 09:24:27.594 [13224] INFO - [Web] 10/05/2021 09:24:27:594 [redacted] INFO [Server Retry] Starting connection retries to Plex Server (ready)
Nov 05, 2021 09:24:27.595 [13224] ERROR - [Web] 10/05/2021 09:24:27:594 [redacted] WARN [PreplayScreenViewModel] Failed to get extended item data, Http request failed: https://[redacted].plex.direct:32400/hubs/metadata/9108/related?excludeElements=Actor%2CCollection%2CCountry%2CLabel%2CMood%2CPart%2CProducer%2CSimilar%2CPhoto%2CVast%2CTopic&excludeFields=file%2Ctagline&includeAugmentations=1&includeExternalMetadata=1&includeMeta=1&wait=1, status: timeout of 30000ms exceeded
Nov 05, 2021 09:24:29.596 [13224] INFO - [Web] 10/05/2021 09:24:29:595 [redacted] INFO [Server Retry] Retrying connection to Plex Server (ready)

Next thing is a problem that has been buggning me ever since i first installed Plex HTPC, think it was version 1.3, and has continued to 1.7 and this one is real deal breaker.

So I’m getting quite severe stuttering in all movies, It starts of fine, and then at a seeming random interval start to stutter for a couple of minutes and then stops. Sometimes i can trigger it about the same place in some movies but not always.
I have tried disabling Hardware Decoder and there was still this random stuttering. Pausing the video and playing again most often fixes it, until the next time, a random amount of minutes later starts to stutter again. I have refresh rate sync set and also se this problem if i manually set refresh rate in windows, no change.

I have a GTX1650 GPU and an old Core-i7 CPU, this can handle 4k 60FPS with madVR and MediaPlayerClassic without a problem.
I even went so far as to download binaries of MPV from mpv . io just to see if there is a problem with the player itself, and unfortunately no, it works great out of the box, no stuttering at all.

I have check the Plex_HTPC.log after every run, and there is nothing there indicating any problems related to playback. Only this I noted is that sometimes i get “Frame drop count: X” but other times its zero and I still have the stuttering. CPU tops of at 10% and GPU at 30% during playback according the the graphs in task manager so I doubt there is a bottle neck in the hardware.
I’m a ta loss, I don’t know what to do any more except go back to Kodi and MPC player.

1 Like
855

Flinging content to HTPC via Plexamp appears to be broken now, it did work a couple of versions ago when I last tried it.
Plex HTPC appears under the ‘Select device’ in Plexamp but when selected times out with a ‘Could not switch to player’ error.
Tried on two different android devices both running latest Plexamp, version 3.8.0
HTPC is running 1.7.0.
Also tried restarting devices.
Anyone else confirm?

856

Similar issues with playback on my end as well with testing the past few versions. so you are not alone in regards to the playback stutter with the app compared to other methods you have mentioned.

857

Post the issue in the Plexamp section as the new version 3.8 has had a few bugs pop up

Was a major update.

I believe 3.8.2 is out

858

Hi there

I must be one of the lucky ones as none of my media is stuttering on the current version

4K, h265, MKV.

1 Like
859

How are you connected to your server, WiFi or ethernet? What is your server installed on? Any tips would be appreciated

860

My PMS is in a Ryzen 2700x Win 10 machine

That also hosts Plex HTPC that plays to our main TV

I also have Plex HTPC on a really old Asus i5 laptop that connects via wifi to the PMS.

Our daughter uses Plex HTPC on her HP i5 that connects remote to our PMS

None show any noticeable stutter on content

The daughters stream are transcoded to 720p.

1 Like
861

Nice. All of my content is in 265 and not 264 and I have a suspicion that may be causing a problem. As much as possible I have everything set for direct stream so no transcoding but not sure just how well HTPOC supports 265 playback

862

As I mentioned earlier. I play h265 without issue ?

My 2700x has never had issues playing h265 files through Plex HTPC.

It only has 8GB ram and a modest video card.

Standard Win 10 install.

1 Like
863

I’m assuming you have refresh rate matching disabled if you’re not getting any sort of stutter. The problem is more likely to occur with it enabled. I have it enabled to eliminate judder and have a 1:1 consistent playback.

I have a simple, older system (i5 6600k, GT1030, 8GB RAM) for my HTPC PLEX client and a reasonably decent server as a separate system (TR 2950x, GT1050ti for HW transcoding remote users, 64GB RAM, 78TB storage).

PLEX Media Player (PMP 2.58) had perfect playback for everything I threw at it, high bitrate, 4k x265, Atmos/DTSX etc when using direct play.

On the other hand though, for me and PLEX HTPC, I have the first issue outline in this message: Plex HTPC feedback - #775 by gbooker02 and have been following this thread closely for a fix to the stutter.

864

I tried off and on and not seeing issues.

No stuttering.

865

I would consider you an outlier case then as quite a few other people are getting the stutter issue. Your display may not actually be switching down to 24hz as well or you’re not playing a video for long enough to actually see the stutter occur.

I can go through a whole episode of a show and not see it stutter once, but subsequent episodes will stutter within a few minutes and be intermittent throughout at random intervals.

You may also not be noticing it, similar to how people are more susceptible than others to the rainbow effect on DLP based projectors.

What I’m ultimately getting at is, there are quite a few variables at play here (hardware etc). There is an issue that has been acknowledged by the PLEX devs here and are working towards a fix, which is great. I’m looking forward to it being fixed as opposed to simply buying a nVidia Shield (or similar) and calling it a day.

2 Likes
866

Fair enough.

I’m an outlier on many things :slight_smile:

Just hope when Plex does fix this issue it doesn’t mess up my setup :slight_smile:

1 Like
867

beg pardon, yes you did

1 Like
868

Something I am getting with Plex HTPC is a blue screen for a very brief time (1/2 a second) at startup of a media file.

Not a BSOD. Just a blue screen.

Only on my Windows 10 machine connected to our main TV

Looks to be a display sync issue

Never saw that with PMP nor with the web player.

1 Like
869

Haha, yea, nothing worse when you get something set up perfectly and an update comes in and disrupts it.

870

I tried PHTPC for the first time today and noticed that by default it does not request a tone mapped stream when playing HDR content on an SDR display. Every other Plex client I have used knows to try tone mapping automatically so I assume this is not intended?

871

Plexamp on Android does seem broken in that respect but if I use Plexamp from another windows PC I can connect to other devices running plex but not PlexHTPC so may still be something specific to HTPC.