For those of us who only want to use Plex for movies and TV with no changes made to the software itself, is there a stable working version? I personally don’t care about your advancements in VR, 4K, live TV, music, or anything else. I just want to watch files from my libraries and that’s it. It seems every so often I’ll upgrade only to find each newer version worse than the last one. From frequent disconnects, unexplained crashes, Plex unavailable to to connect internally or externally to my home network (Plex pass member), and now annoyingly the dreaded constant transcoder conversion failure that appears to have never truly been fixed as I am seeing posts about this issue from four or more years ago. Just give me what I paid for and leave me a stable version. If you want logs, shoot me a link on how to do it because frankly as a customer I am getting tired of this.
I use Plex for Movies & TV every single day. From Plex Media Player, the web client, iOS clients and the Roku client. Works fine. No buffering, no transcoder errors, I can sync to my iOS devices and Remote Access works fine. DVR/Live TV was a train wreck so I switched to Channels DVR and it works great (and WITH Plex!)
I purchase and add new content almost every two weeks. Plex fetches the metadata automatically and generates thumbnails. I don’t use subtitles and it does seem that using them can cause Plex a ton of problems. But I’m running on a 2012 Mac Mini as a server. Not exactly big iron.
I think a lot of the problems that people have with Plex comes from poor curation. Until a buddy and I squared that away it was a little rough. Everything goes through Handbrake on the “HQ 1080p30 Surround” preset. That allows Direct Play on all my clients. And I mean EVERYTHING. I just finished running old web downloaded Apple Commercials through Handbrake. Probably didn’t need to but did it anyway.
And the metadata was a circus until I renamed every file & folder to comply with the Plex Naming Conventions. Now it’s pretty rare to not get a match.
It’s far from perfect. I mean the “Plex Dance” SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!? But it is functional if you work within the software.
Not even sure what you mean by poor curation, unless you mean how files are named along with file types or audio/video support and codecs used in said files. Same with handbrake. Where I get my files comes from a very finite list of sources, should I run my entire catalog of files through handbrake to fix these issues? My complaint is not the media matching, my issues is the constant crashing or inability to work as intended.
I’d try it with a set of files (one from each source for instance) and see what the results are. One thing that has helped me with Plex is to setup “Test Movies” and “Test TV” libraries where I can play around with things. You could do the same, run a few select files through Handbrake and see if the problems go away with those files. Then using those files, start playing with settings on the client end. I’d start by trying to get these test files to play Direct instead of transcoding.
In the LG webos app, the settings only allow to check/uncheck direct play and direct stream but I do not remember anything about transcoding. Seeing as how the lg app has not been updated in a few years, should I simply buy more amazon fire sticks to see if that works?
I’d probably try Direct Play & Stream with no subtitles first. That plus the newly Handbrake files will be an interesting test before outlaying $$ again.
I don’t have any experience with the Fire products. I’d probably read up on them in the forums to see what the experience is like for folks.
Is there more than one LG app?
I only purchased my LG TV about 3 or 4 weeks ago and there has been three updates in that time?
I’m not being snarky… just curious if LG change OS in the same way that Samung do.
It was last updated 7 days ago Plex for Smart TVs & TiVo - #70 by markus101
I personally stay away from Fire devices but some of my colleagues use them without issue. If you use/count on surround sound I would not use them.
We bought an LG smart TV less than two years ago ourselves but the webos Plex app only shows a version from like 2016 or something like that. I have tried deleting it and reinstalling it as LG webos in an effort to update it but nothing, it appears to only be some September 2016 version.
Very strange.
I was kinda blown away seeing it update so often.
Sorry I have no idea what’s happening at your end.
Are you looking at version number in the app settings?
My LG TV read that I have Plex app version 2.1.0 which was updated on 09/07/2016. There is no option to delete the app, or update the app. When I hover over the app, there is an X as listed above, however all it does it remove the app from the hotbar (of sorts, I do not know what else to call it) but nothing else. I have just now gone as far as to reset the TV back to it’s factory settings, and again there is no updated version from the one I listed in the first sentence of this reply…
When you in the app itself and go into Settings>About what version does show there.
Okay I see the issue, of sorts, at least with the version of the plex app I have on this god awful LG TV (should have stuck with Samsung…). The version show outside of the app reads 2.1.0. with last update on 09/07/2016. While actually in the Plex app, I go to settings below my account name, and at the bottom in about it actually reads the proper plex version I am currently running or rather just re-installed (3.13.23).
What version of Web OS is on it?
While the version I am using has been solved, it still leaves me with the transcoding issue, which annoyingly enough will not replicate itself. Over two decades in IT and replicating issues always helps find its source. I currently have the following settings that came default with the new install:
Audio Dolby Digital (AC3) checked, Dolby Digital Plus (EAC3) checked, Dolby TrueHD not checked, DTS (DCA) checked, no volume boost.
Allow Direct Play checked, and Allow Direct Stream checked.
Fingers crossed I guess.
2.1.0 is what Plex is telling me.
You can enabled logging in the app which writes it logs to your Plex Media Server logs on your computer. then you should be able to see in the logs why the server decided it needed to transcode a file to stream to your TV.
Sorry I mean the version of operating system of your TV itself regardless of Plex. If you don’t know can probably figure it out if you tell me the model number of the TV
I have the same situation with my TV. For some reason that version doesn’t support Live TV or DVR Plex functionality, which kind of sucks (for me). I have been getting around that by using the screen share and wirelessly sharing my notebook screen while using the Plex client on the notebook.
