Server Version#: 1.25.3.5409-7000 (Synology 220+ running DSM7)
Player Version#: 8.29.0.30433 (b3774acd) (Amazon Firestick)
Long story short. It’s up and running, but playback is intermittent. I can sum up the behavior in one sentence: “It looks like it forgets to buffer.”.
I can play the same file 10 times in a row and get a different result each time. Sometimes it starts, buffers a few seconds worth, then stops playing when it reaches the buffer limit and never recovers. Sometimes it buffers 5 minutes worth or more. Sometimes it continues to buffer as it plays then “forgets to buffer” mid-video. Sometimes it won’t start the video at all. Sometimes it complains about color depth, the need to transcode, or network quality. It’s quite random. Very rarely will it play a video longer than 10 minutes duration without stopping never to recover.
Another strange and annoying behavior. If you try to open the plex server from within the Synology DSM7, it successfully opens about 1 in 3 tries. Usually it gets as far as displaying the large PLEX logo, but sometimes it doesn’t even get that far. Yes, I’ve reinstalled it 3 times.
Before you assume I haven’t tried anything, please know I’ve read the FAQ line by line, scoured this forum, followed tips on youtube, and I’ve been trying to get this to work for a week of evenings. I did try to the best of my ability, which is more than novice. I’m a 30yr veteran embedded systems engineer.
And lastly, before you think there’s something wrong with my Synology system, please note that I recently discovered a competing product called Emby, installed the server and client, and with no other settings, all videos play fine from start to finish without an issue. So, I doubt it’s my NAS or Network.
I’ve been a PLEX user for more than 5 years using an old laptop and linux as a server. I like PLEX better, wished it worked, and am taking the time to let you guys know there’s something going on here with this NAS version. I’ll help if I can, but right now…I’m out of ideas.
