I constantly get the “your server is not powerful enough” message when playing some larger or odd format videos, especially through any Plex app and it isn’t needed. The device should be able to play the video as it is. For example, if I use Plex DVR to record a show, I can’t play it through the PS4 Plex app but I can go to my server through the PS4 media player and it plays fine. Same with my computer, obviously my computer is powerful enough to play the file but it won’t play though Plex. Is there a plan to fix this?
I’m having this same problem. I know my computer isn’t super powerful but it has been working fine as a Plex server for a few years. Lately it seems like at almost the halfway point of a movie, it stops and says it can’t play. If I let it buffer a bit it will go ahead but usually it will keep happening after that.
I had recently watched a 3 hour movie and at almost the exact mid-point it started doing this. Never once during the first half.
Then, on a 2-hour movie the same thing happened. About an hour in it started giving me the error.
I keep getting this error, and I know my server isn’t the problem. I installed VLC Player and found out immediately how fast and stable playback could be from a Plex server. VLC Player vastly outperforms Plex every time on multiple local setups I have at home.
Apple TV Setup - Western Digital PR2100 NAS as Plex server, Apple TV (direct ethernet connected), ASUS RT-N66U router. Plex FREQUENTLY stutters, gives me that incorrect “server not powerful enough” error. VLC Player works every time and smokes Plex. I’ve tried various formats as well, but mostly MKV and MP4, with and without subtitles. VLC loads/plays immediately and does not stutter or freeze at all.
PC Setup. WD NAS, PC wifi connected to ASUS router. Same result. VLC outperforms Plex by a mile.
iPad Pro Setup. Same thing.
I can’t figure out for the life of me what Plex is doing to be so problematic. Until I started using VLC Player, I thought there might be a bottleneck because of my hardware or my network connections. Now I can say positively that it’s Plex. I’ve tinkered, reset, reinstalled and every time, no improvement. Direct Play, Direct Streaming, adjusting image quality… etc. after painful etc. Any ideas?
All I can figure is that Plex believes it MUST transcode under lower connection speeds or larger file sizes because that is when I see it the most. Especially with the larger files like what you get with an MPG2. There should be a way to force it to stream despite the file size.
The reason VLC works so well is because VLC has no need to transcode, it plays nearly all video formats at any size and it doesn’t bother to check the size of the file or the connection speed, it just plays the file.
If I am correct, which I might not be, the computer running VLC is playing doing the hardwork and not the Plex server.
I’m running an older Dell server with dual Xeon processors. The server is running Ubuntu 16.04.3 with 4GB of ram. When it idles, only 557MB of ram is in use. Transcoding, barely any more is in use. A standard 1080P MKV movie rarely uses more than 30% of the CPU, to any of my devices.
Keep in mind, some devices require Plex to transcode and other devices can do the transcoding, not requiring your server to transcode.
Now, I use to use an old Dell laptop for my Plex server and it did work great for a few years. I had to retire it because it began having trouble transcoding one stream. As computers age the hardware does degrade.
@seidler82 said:
If I am correct, which I might not be, the computer running VLC is playing doing the hardwork and not the Plex server.I’m running an older Dell server with dual Xeon processors. The server is running Ubuntu 16.04.3 with 4GB of ram. When it idles, only 557MB of ram is in use. Transcoding, barely any more is in use. A standard 1080P MKV movie rarely uses more than 30% of the CPU, to any of my devices.
Keep in mind, some devices require Plex to transcode and other devices can do the transcoding, not requiring your server to transcode.
Now, I use to use an old Dell laptop for my Plex server and it did work great for a few years. I had to retire it because it began having trouble transcoding one stream. As computers age the hardware does degrade.
I my case I tried it using VLC on my Apple TV and it plays fine. I don’t know that the Apple TV is capable of transcoding something my PC isn’t.
My problem always happens about halfway through a movie. It starts out playing perfectly. So it can transcode for an hour or so just fine.
It happen to me also when playing 4k movies but not always is there a fix , do I need another or a second router Im with Telus and I do have a
second ASUS router
