This behavior is weird as any other app (Plex Desktop, Plex Media Player, iOS App, Android TV App, Plex Web) is almost instant in loading the movie screen on all files, only Plex HTPC takes ages sometimes.° It only affects some files. I especially noticed this behavior on newly added movies. Movie cover loading while browsing the library is an instant loading experience. It only happens when clicking on a movie/file.
The plex media server metadata is stored on a fast nvme drive, so the server shouldn´t be an issue.
° => please have a look at post 36 in this thread.
Madness. It appears to spin when it’s trying to add your Watch the Trailer button.
Power cycle the HTPC computer and all your network hardware. Restart PMS.
Start your HTPC, demonstrate the problem, quit out of HTPC, zip and attach the Plex HTPC.log
Use the hosted web app to get us Settings → Troubleshooting → Download Logs
Drop the zip file it gives you into your reply also. Realistically in the server zip file you only need to include the files with timestamp on or after the PMS restart.
Tell us if you have your PMS and/or your HTPC set to play trailers. Also please describe your network addressing, DNS, and anything about your network or docker that’s special, VPNs, security, firewalls.
Maybe the database isn’t optimized, maybe there’s a networking issue. I don’t see this behavior fwiw on a Mac HTPC and Starlink.
Same issue, and I don’t have a “Watch the Trailer” button on this server
An i7 desktop with an i5 client (500mbps ethernet) HTPC loads slower than the same i5 used as the server and an outdated firestick with a 100mbps ethernet or 50mbps wi-fi
If you enter a movie and click play even with the spinning wheel going the movie starts to play immediately anyway just like you’d expect. I don’t think info page should take 5 times longer to load than the actual movies takes to start playing
Also, if you hit the play button directly from the library hovering over the movie poster bypassing the information page it also plays immediately
This doesn’t seem network specific if you aren’t getting an error in tv shows or so many other app/server combos inside the same network
I looked through my logs and don’t see anything odd. If Dane22 comes by I will pm
Good catch! I didn´t noticed that. I will have a look at the logs, maybe I can find something there, although I think Trailers are not the root cause of this one. Any other app loads fine, also the trailer button, that’s why I also think it has nothing to do with my network/server/firewall setup. Even on my workstation that’s hooked up with a 10G link to the same switch as my server, it’s slow.
Exactly, also on my system, it plays the file immediately, when bypassing the info page.
Yes, every movie has its own (sub)directory. For example for Doctor Strange 2 as seen in the gif the path is like /mnt/array/Filme/4K/MCU/Doctor Strange 2/Doctor_Strange_2_4K.mkv
Rename the directory and file exactly like this:
dir → Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
file → Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - 4K.mkv
Move the directory with film back into place.
Scan Library Files and
You should end up with this
/mnt/array/Filme/4K/MCU/Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)/Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - 4K.mkv
For the first movie or collection you enter it takes extra long to load the page. 6-8 seconds. Every movie or collection you enter after that is a little faster (essentially identical to the .gif above)
But no, they all take the same amount of time with the spinning wheel no matter how many times you enter or exit the same one
Collections take longer in general which makes sense since there’s more info to load but it doesn’t seem to matter if the collection has 2 movies or 100. The delay is the same for all
Simply loading the library with the poster miniatures requires only access to the Plex data folder.
As soon as you enter the preplay page of a movie or a collection, the actual media in its storage location is accessed. Re-establishing a network connection to the media storage can somethimes take a long time. Particularly if media is stored non-locally.
Well, the actual path the movie is stored on my server is this one =>
/mnt/array/Filme/4K/MCU/Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness/Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)_4K.mkv
I didn´t remember it correctly yesterday and the actual unnecessary long title of doctor strange 2 wasn´t worth it in my opinion, to explain how it is stored on my server. ;)(/mnt/array/Filme/Resolution/Universe/TitleAsFolder/ActualMovieFile_Year_Resolution.mkv)
Simple answer, no unfortunately not. Whenever I re-enter the info screen a few seconds later it is still slow and takes the same amount of time it used when I first clicked on the movie/item.
I am also seeing a noticeable delay when selecting a movie from either the home screen or the library screen.
However this delay only seems to be for movies that are in a collection.
I select the movie, it firstly loads the title, info and play buttons in the top left, with the spinning circle dead centre, then after a few seconds it loads the actors and everything below.
This doesn’t happen with TV shows or music libraries.
Well, I want to add something to this. Reanalyzing and redownloading the metadata of an item that loads slowly in Plex HTPC could help make it fast again. This also makes loading the actual file faster. I have absolutely no idea why this helps as any other app loads the info screen and plays the file immediately regardless of refreshing metadata or reanalyzing it.
For example, the Doctor Strange movie in the gif in my first post always needs 2,5 loading circle spins to start playback, whereas on the Nvidia shield it is an immediate play. Also directly opening the file in windows explorer is an immediate play, so I don’t think my storage is too slow. It tried reanalyzing and redownloading the metadata on a different (newly added!!) movie that was also painfully slow in Plex HTPC (as slow as Doctor Strange 2)… Now it loads and plays immediately.
Cleaning up the database doesn´t do anything, unfortunately.
Nothing I do improves the speed. Refreshing metadata, reanalyzing, redownloading, optimizing database. Spinning circle for all movies, and a longer spinning circle for collections
Same, Nvidia Shield, same TV, same ethernet switch, same HDMI.
Other computers, Plex for Windows, Plex Web.
Other TV’s with Fire TV’s have no problems.
Same behavior accessing a Windows based or Asustor Nas server inside the same network
I even turned the wi-fi off on my phone. I accessed my server with my vpn on causing an indirect relay connection and the movies load faster than on HTPC
My friend who lives 2,000 miles away has no delay opening movies on my server with a 20mbps wi-fi
I thought this was just a Windows problem but Massaguana is on Chrome OS which sounds like it might be worse. I believe Chrome OS is Linux based? Not sure what everybody else is using
I realize the first logical suspects are the server/player/network but I think the process of elimination has told a different story
The only common denominator I see at this point is HTPC
You should look at the PMS logs during this period (tail the logs, enter the preplay, and see what shows up in the logs during that time). Likely what is happening is that HTPC makes a request of PMS and is waiting on PMS’s reply. When making a request for metadata, a client can request that PMS ensure the files exist on disk, the analysis is up to date, and other things. Different clients may request different operations which could explain why it is only with certain clients. Anyway, this can take a while under the right circumstances. The cases you are describing where it is slow and the remedies which appear to fix it are consistent with my guess as to where the issue could be.
