Server Version#:1.20.1.3876
Player Version#: 4.47.3
I’ve been using Plex on and off for a number of years. I keep coming back because it seems to be the best player -WHEN IT WORKS! It’s quirks keep driving me away.
I’m running Plex on Mint 20 and some days it works some days it doesn’t. My server computer runs 24/7, rarely gets rebooted and is perfectly stable. Yesterday I watched hours and hours of content stored on my server via Plex on my TV using my firestick. Today I go to watch content and all I get is Content Unavailable - even on the stuff I watched less than 24 hours ago. All files are showing on the menu screen. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. Content will play on my computer - this time, often that is not the case.
I’ve logged out and back in on the firestick with no change. I’ve used Emby, Jellyfin, Gerbera and a number of others - all have issues I don’t care for. If Plex simply worked -all the time- I’d be happy. Do not even know where the issue lies this time.
Change the OS. Mint has a history of being unstable / quirky.
Of all the complaints I’ve seen involving Mint , the complaints vanish when Mint (which isn’t a supported distro) is replaced with either Debian or Ubuntu.
I have been running Plex for years myself and yes there are bugs here and there but when I did have issues it was always the cheap streaming devices I was using (mostly fire TV devices). I finally broke down and spent the money on a Nvidia Shield and never looked back. I no longer have any issues with any movie playing including high bit rate movies 80mbit+.
My setup is as follows:
Plex server is running in a docker container on a Unraid box which is running a B450 TOMAHAWK, AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core @ 3200 MHz, with 16 GiB DDR4. My shield is plugged in to my AV receiver which is an Yamaha RX-A770. My TV is an older Samsung UN65MU800D.
Tried on another display and Plex worked fine. Today I tried the Firestick 4K that was problematic yesterday and it worked fine. I don’t know what to think. The FS is fine on all other sources.
On thing to keep in mind is that other streaming sources have optimized all there video, audio, and containers to formats to work with their apps. With plex video, audio, and containers can very so there are a lot more variables to deal with. In all reality when ripping your movies they should be ripped for the equipment you have and what the devices supports or if you are ripping movies beyond what your device supports, make at least optimized versions of the movies for your device. Not saying that there can’t be issues with Plex but I have not had any playback issues.
I’ve narrowed the issue down to some issue with the FireStick 4k device. I also have the TiVo 4K Streamer and my Roku tv in the same setup. Others worked but the FS choked for awhile then works again. Issue seems to arise especially after downloading subtitles.
