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When I play a 20gb movie from my NAS through Plex (NAS is hardwired) it will not play.(stops every 30 seconds to continue loading). However, when I play the same movie directly from my NAS to my smart tv, it plays just fine. That leads me to conclude that the transcoding that Plex does is too slow. Any one else having this problem, or any solutions out there?
Is that on the Fire TV client by any chance?
Roku 3
Which model Netgear do you have?
Why is the movie transcoding?
Netgear ReadyNAs RN-214. Maybe transcoding is the wrong term. Playing it, maybe
Whatever happens between the NAS and the Roku
And this is why I don’t have 4K movies.
So I typed up the below which is my standard starting of troubleshooting buffering on Rokus, but then looked up the Roku 3 and changed direction. I’ll leave the information in the collapsible it just for information, but I think the problem may be your Roku 3.
According to this article the Roku 3 can’t support 4k playback, which means your Plex server is going to be forced to transcode. Transcoding 4k is very demanding, and many devices just simply don’t have the horsepower to do it. (I admit I haven’t looked up the specs for your NAS.)
You can look at my collapsible to see how to verify if your Plex Server is transcoding. My guess is that it is transcoding since the Roku 3 can’t do 4k, and some resource is getting pegged. You indicate it works if you play directly to your smart TV. I’m guessing this is not using the Roku 3? If so then your smart TV is capable of 4k playback, but your Roku 3 isn’t.
Possibly useless info
To play 4k you are most likely going to have to be direct stream or direct play. I haven’t looked at specs for your NAS, but transcoding 4k creates very high resource demand that many platforms can’t meet without buffering. So let’s see if it is transcoding or direct play/direct stream. Go into Plex Web for your server when playing an item with the problem, and go to the Dashboard. In the “Now Playing” section you should see an entry for the playing item. Make sure “Show Details” (
) is clicked so you get additional information. Is it showing direct play, direct stream, or transcoding? Look at and try the suggestions below for your Roku settings. If you have done this and it is still transcoding, then post a screen snapshot of the “Now Playing” item.
In your Roku Plex client press up on your remote to highlight your Plex name in the upper left, then click the “OK” button on your remote. Go to “Settings”, then “Video”. Set “Local Quality” to “Orginal”, Direct Play to “Auto”, make sure “Allow Direct Stream” is checked, and just for grins make sure “Allow MPEG2” is checked. (Is this a HEVC file?) If this doesn’t work then try setting “Direct Play” to “Forced”.
See the Plex NAS Compatitility List and Guide.
Your NAS has very limited transcoding capability. It will struggle with 1080p and has no chance of transcoding 4K material.
Building on what @hokierulz says, if you want to play 4K material you will need 4K clients. This means devices such as a Nvidia Shield Pro, Apple TV 4K, Roku Ultra, or Amazon FireStick 4K.
To further reduce the load on your NAS, you should choose audio streams that direct play instead of transcode whenever possible. For example, if your audio system does not support TrueHD audio, then choose the Dolby Digital/AC3 audio stream instead.
You can monitor playback with Plex Dashboard -> Now Playing to see if your media is direct playing or transcoding.
Just ordered a Roku Ultra…hopefully that solves the problem. Thanks FordGuy61 and all respondents!
Readynas doesn’t have a cpu powerful enough to transcode. Get a real server and use it for storage only.
A real server?
Honestly, Ive built 2 servers in the last 12 years and I try not to transcode. I use Infuse on my AppleTV that will use direct play on my devices(no transcoding). I also get better sound quality for my Sonos speakers. I’m hoping Plex doesn’t keep building such a bulky desktop app. I wishing they would migrate towards the client apps for better direct play.
Using this combination my server is barely 40db in the house. I hope Plex will put there development here because direct play is the key to faster processing.
Make sure you have your libraries updating after 1am. The resources from sql databases can lead to system lag too.
Whether Plex moves towards this model or not, I think this is the best solution to get speed over your pc, network and home entertainment devices. I use Plex as a database server only on the PC that I have. Other than that an edge router helps too.
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