Plex & Nvidia Shield Streaming Issues

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 4.92.0
Player Version#: 1.25.3.5448

Hi Everyone,

I have a Nvidia Shield with Plex server running on it.

My Nvidia shield is hard wired to my router (Netgear Nighthawk R7000). My shield is directly connected to an external HDD - Ironwolf NAS 8TB harddrive.

All movies/tv shows are stored on the ironwolf harddrive, which is connected directly to the shield as mentioned. The hard drive is also accessible over the home network.

Unfortunately I have a lot of issues with buffering - to the point nearly every show or movie won’t even load anymore. I feel this became worse when I actually bought the Plex Pass. Nearly everything I try to play just buffers indefinitely and never loads.

I’ve tried googling countless things to get it to work, tried hardware acceration on, off, and just about every other setting combination google/youtube vids recommends having on/off etc. Still no luck. Videos not loading seems worse with higher quality content, e.g. 4K, but also happens with lower quality, e.g. 1080p/720p.

Strangely enough, I can access the harddrive through my pc in another room, via the network, and play any tv show or movie perfectly fine via VLC from the same external hard drive which is connected to Plex, but whenever I try play via Plex is when the issues happen. So doesn’t seem to be an issue with the content or hard drive itself, but as soon as Plex acts as the middle ground, it has issues.

What further information do you need form me? Or any suggested changes to help improve? As mentioned since buying Plex Pass (for no features in particular, just to support the platform), the issues seem much worse than ever. In the past only the occasional 4k vid that was a huge file size wouldn’t play, but now its almost everything. Unsure if related to plex pass, or convenient timing.

Thanks,
Brandon

2

In general, the usual request is to upload your logs after you reproduce a failure

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/

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Plex Media Server Logs_2022-10-10_16-08-07.zip (4.1 MB)
Thanks, please see attached. As an example, before generating the log files, I loaded a tv show which took quite some time to begin playing, only to pause and rebuffer after a few seconds.

4

Turn off Verbose logging and stop your server. In the web app go to Settings > General uncheck “Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging”. May need to click the Advanced button to show the option.

Before starting it, check the Play store for an upgrade, you are several versions behind. The upgrade may take 15 - 30 minutes when you restart before it is ready so don’t stop or reboot.

The transcoder is failing which should be fixed when you upgrade.

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Hi,

Thanks for your advice!

I’ve turned off Verbose logging.

I’ve also now updated to the latest version on Play store.

Unfortunately, I’m still having the same issues - see fresh logs attached. Hopefully this helps find a cause.

Thanks,
Brandon
Plex Media Server Logs_2022-10-11_08-39-34.zip (3.1 MB)

6

Are you using the Shield as both the server and client?

Check you client settings, they are limiting the playback to 20 Mbps so forcing a transcode which causing the buffering. The upgrade did fix the HW not being fully utilized for the process but I did catch the client disconnecting from the server which is puzzling if they are one and the same. You might have to uninstall/install the client again to clear things up.

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Hi Tiebierius,

Excuse my ignorance, by ‘client’ are you referring to the device I’m using to try stream it? If so, yes the most recent test was the shield. However, I experience the same issue across all my devices, whether it be my LG TV Plex App, web browser on PC, Fire Stick 4k Max, and Nvidia Shield directly. All have the same problem.

You mentioned 20 Mbps, and I did have the ‘upload’ speed limited to 20mbps in server settings, which I’ve now removed to be safe. Being on LAN i wouldn’t think this would come into play, but removed anyway.

Any other suggestions to try? Thanks again

Cheers

8

Hi everyone, anyone have any suggestions I could try please? :slight_smile: Thanks!

9

Issue is still ongoing unfortunately.

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It’s tough with the Shield OS , Plex server and Plex client being updated to have real stability.

Let’s start with level setting the Playback settings on the Shield Plex client, although these should be set on every client if it is an option.

VIDEO QUALITY
Adjust Automatically: OFF
Home Streaming: Maximum
Remote Streaming: Maximum
Play Smaller videos at original: ON
VIDEO
Burn Subtitles: Only Image Formats
ADVANCED
Refresh Rate Switching: OFF
Resolution Switching: OFF

If that doesn’t work it is :
Attach a screenshot of the dashboard during playback.
Logs downloaded after 3 minutes playback of video.
XML text file of the video.

11

Thanks Tiebierius, tried those settings, no luck, see attached.

Graph looks concerning with the spikes and dips in local rather than consistent..

Wasn’t able to get the XML file, but screenshot details page of video file in case this helps at all.

Thanks!

pic2
pic2361×423 12.1 KB

pic
pic840×595 92.6 KB

Plex Media Server Logs_2022-11-06_01-27-12.zip (4.4 MB)

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Starting with the dashboard, the hamburger menu on the right side will expand the detail to give the media playback specifics. Any transcoding needs to be avoided.

Use the web app to get the xml by hovering over an item, 3 vertical dots in lower right. Get Info and View XML in the lower left box that pops up.

All this to say you are probably expecting a little too much out of the Nvidia Shield. You could reprocess your files so that playback is smoother. Stay away from 4K HEVC + HDR material especially if using subtitles. Shutting the Shield off or putting it to sleep creates a backlog in housekeeping tasks then when you restart it which will make things sluggish till it completes.

To be sure the file is in streaming format you could use the optimize feature to create a copy or run it through the Plex Transcoder “/path/to/PlexTranscoder -i YOURFILE.mkv -c copy OUTPUTFILE.MKV”.

14

Hi Tiebierius, xml info attached.
New Text Document.txt (16.6 KB)

The shield is powered on 24/7, never is turned off!

Does the graph i sent previously look a bit abnormal? It seems to spike up and down rather than a consistent line, maybe something else causing this?

Could it be any settings in my router or anything? Thanks!

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Any other ideas? :slight_smile:

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