Ubuntu Plex, Rasplex Pi2b Players, Playback freezing

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1

I am working to deploy a Plex server and Rasplex players at each of our campuses for delivery of video curriculum into classrooms. When I go to playback any resolution video file, they are hanging up and having a hard even playing 1-2 seconds without it freezing. Wondering what directions I can go down to figure out exactly what might be causing the lockdown. These devices are on wifi, and I realize that this isn’t perfect, but for most of the rooms this is our only option right now.

Are there ways to look at connection strength/speed on the Rasplex players? Is there a way to set an amount that needs to be pre-buffered before playing?

Thanks for any help!

2

What type of RPi’s are you using, what codec are the videos using, more information is required.

[Edit]: Just noticed they are RPi2’s, sorry. The more info you provide the more we may be able to help.

Regards

3

Files we are testing with and currcilum is delivered in is h.264, ACC audio. 720p video. They seem to average at 3 Mbps bit rate. Largest file is 100 MB.

Testing again today with 5 players all looping video and unable to re-create the issue. We did at one point have some stuttering, move the Edimax USB Wifi device to a different port and that has fixed the issue. Still testing and trying to find out what is causing the issue.

The only devices we have connected are the Edimax Wifi dongle and an IR remote receiver. Is there an optimal spot to put these? It seems odd to me that this could cause an issue, but just looking at all of the angles.

4

Glad you seem OK at the moment, max number of concurrent users is determined by the power in your server.

What a ampage are your power supplies? 2A should be the minimum, using 2 USB devices might need something higher, is there anyway you could use Ethernet or power line adapters.

Regards

5

Unfortunately there are a few locations that cannot use ethernet. Some can, but at one campus we are bringing the players in each week and have to use the wireless that they let us install. The power supply on the kit I have been purchasing is a 2000 mA (2 amps). Is there harm in going higher so I can use that to test? We tested again the next day and saw the same “freezing” from before. The low amount of power could possibly be an issue. A few reviews quickly reading showed that it may need a little more power, or possibly a powered hub to power it. Could a higher amperage power supply solve that for me?

6

You could try adding an advancedsettings.xml file to /storage/.plexht/userdata with the following content:

 <advancedsettings>
 <network>
 <cachemembuffersize>20971520</cachemembuffersize>
 </network>
 </advancedsettings>

You could also try a different wifi adapter, which is rated at 300Mbps rather than 150Mbps which is the norm for ‘nano’ adapters, something like the Edimax EW-7811UTC.

Regards