So after buying a ps4 and upgrading it to a SSHD predominately for plex, I’m dismayed that the app for the most popular living room console is practically unusable and has been shamefully abandoned by the plex team.
I tried a spare firestick and had a lot of micro stuttering and freezing. I tried a spare android box with a rockchip 3188/2gb ram and had the same issue. It seems like android based TV peripherals are out of the question as well.
A little bit ago I repaired some old pentium laptop i had laying around and it seems to work fine but this obviously is not gonna work out.
I should mention it does this on a variety of videos of various formats and tried the same videos on all the devices. My internet is well above the minimum requirements and the server should be able to easily handle 2/3 concurrent streams but I can’t manage a single.
The server specs are :
AMD FX 8320
8GB 1666mhz DDR3
64gb SSD boot drive
3x 8TB WD Red drives
GTX 1060 6GB
I’m kinda at a loss here. What are you guys using?
Your internet speed means absolutely nothing - until you go outside the local network - then it means everything.
Fire TV/Stick(s) - a joke - not all that funny.
Roku - by far the best - but getting worse with every ‘update’.
Plex Media Player (top of forum/downloads/get an app) - ‘updated’ into virtual uselessness, but you can use it providing you control it with a phone app.
Android Phone App - when sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, in the kitchen making dinner, using it to control PMP, etc.
Plexweb - comes bundled with all the shortcomings of trying to use Plex in your browser - plenty.
Windows Store App - a scam, a turkey, should be pulled, but apparently generates some revenue - avoid it like you would avoid an STD or Smallpox.
In short:
Plex Media Server - pretty good to great depending on how you rate things.
Plex Apps - magnum doses of SUCK and getting worse every day.
Apparently one Plex app/device isn’t enough - you’re going to need several so when an ‘update’ blows one out of the water, you can fall back to another one until you invent or discover a previously invented work-around.
Server AMD FX8350 , 16gb 1600 mhz ram, 1 x 120gb ssd, 1 x 512 gb ssd, 1 x 1tb HDD, 1 x 3tb HDD, RX480
Internet connection 350Mbps download , 20 Mbps upload
serving to 3 x LGTV’s using LG app, 3 x PS3/4 , 1 x sony Bravia and Also Android TV box as a backup player.
Only issues are films with higher bitrates stutter a lot, setting the player to 1080p @ 8mbit sorts it. This is over LAN 1gbit connection
Android box problems with some sound codecs, Server disconnect message this seems a common fault. Using the app for Kodi on the same box and all play fine.
Most I’ve seen connected out of the above is 4 users
So all you guys did was definitely reinforce what I was already hoping to not be the case - Plex apps are trash.
I really just want the ps4 app to work without kicking back the error pertaining to subtitles all the time. But fvck me right?
So as it currently stands I have a panasonic plasma and don’t want to get an LG Oled yet Cuz I just bought a house. Is there really nothing else I can do but grab a roku? I hate the little buggers lol
You have got the idea about the apps. Unfortunate as it is. I don’t know what genius is heading up app design, but I do know they either need one, or need a new one. The current one is clueless.
You can install an HDMI cable from Server to TV and employ the PMP/Phone App combo. My heart was shattered when I saw that most recent ‘Improvement’ to PMP that flushed usability right down the crapper, but the apps are such a disaster I have to make do.
My Roku 3 - the last of the great Rokus - apparently - is the final hold out. A few more ‘updates’ on that app and we’ll be a PMP household - until Plex puts the final bullet to the head of that once trusty mare. It’s only a matter of time.
The apps are so bad that if Emby was ANY better Plex City would be dusty ghost town with tumbleweeds in the streets. The problem is twofold:
Emby sucks
Plex knows it
Plex has us by the short ones and can do whatever they want - and what they’re doing ain’t pretty.
I use a Roku3. I find it okay. Far better than the newer Roku POS. They are so damn slow. The android is alright, i guess… The three TV apps I have used sucked bad.
Not sure about the FireStick but if it’s anything like the Roku Express then it will suck just as bad.
@JuiceWSA said:
My Roku 3 - the last of the great Rokus - apparently - is the final hold out.
You are so right. I have no idea what I’m going to do when it dies. Guess I’ll just buy a used one when that happens.
@JuiceWSA said:
My Roku 3 - the last of the great Rokus - apparently - is the final hold out.
You are so right. I have no idea what I’m going to do when it dies. Guess I’ll just buy a used one when that happens.
I am continuing and increasingly happy that my old ears and eyes do not need any “advanced” video or audio feature to completely enjoy my media. That means that I do not need the advanced settings that render some Roku unreliable.
My Ultra is absolutely stable and without major flaw. If you are playing video at 1080p or less and only using stereo audio you will not find a better device for Plex playback. The Roku 3 is also as good. I have an Ultra and two Roku 3s.
I also have a Shield TV and a Fire TV and, by choice, I never use any of those, except for testing at times, for Plex playback.
The only device I own that rivals my Rokus for Plex is my Raspberry PI running PMP. (I do not like RasPlex on any device) However the Raspberry PI is slower in navigation and slower to respond to remote presses using any of the ten or so remotes I have tested.
The bottom line is that the Roku is head and shoulders better than anything I have tested for my use.
True enough, Elijah, but (most) Ultra Owners will be sucked into the accretion disk surrounding that void in space-time, try to use some advanced video with super-duper audio and Roku’s shortcomings with keeping the lips and the sounds of the words in the same zip code will burst into existence.
Savvy Roku Owners stick with a Roku 3 - to mitigate temptation…
@Elijah_Baley;
Is the Roku Ultra fast? I ask because that’s my only beef with the few Roku Express, Express+, and Streaming Stick I’ve tested were painfully slow to navigate and stream PLEX. I was told the Roku 4 might be good but some complain about the FAN going out.
@NewPlaza said: @Elijah_Baley;
Is the Roku Ultra fast? I ask because that’s my only beef with the few Roku Express, Express+, and Streaming Stick I’ve tested were painfully slow to navigate and stream PLEX. I was told the Roku 4 might be good but some complain about the FAN going out.
The Roku 4 is the great failed Roku experiment, that was in the process of being replaced before it was ever introduced. It is the fore runner of every failed box Roku has introduced since. Roku has learned norhing.
As Elijah has discovered, if you use standard, non super duper material you might have a good experience, but step it up at you own peril.
I may buy another Roku 3, out of necessity, but the 7.7 firmware debacle has guaranteed ill never buy a new model.
One need only read Roku Forums and witness the years of unsolved issues to know Roku is a troubled device.
See emby is Lacking apps and support for ps4 as well as most of the things I care about. I was considering just rebuilding my gaming htpc since I have everything but the Cpu and mobo but you guys are saying the windows app is trash? Because I have the harmony hub and remote and it was my next move.
@NewPlaza said: @Elijah_Baley;
Is the Roku Ultra fast? I ask because that’s my only beef with the few Roku Express, Express+, and Streaming Stick I’ve tested were painfully slow to navigate and stream PLEX. I was told the Roku 4 might be good but some complain about the FAN going out.
First: Avoid the Roku 4 at all costs. Also avoid any wireless devices if possible.
Of all the devices I own the Roku’s interface is the snappiest. The Android devices appear as quick but their interfaces are jerky and they often miss keypresses which translates into apparent sluggishness.
Just as a point of info I need to say that all my devices are connected wired so I cannot comment on the sticks and expresses and other wireless devices. To me connecting a streaming device wirelessly is just asking for problems at some point. I have tested a Fire stick and I have to say that it makes the regular Fire TV look like the best streaming device in the world and really the Fire TV falls well short of that. In fact it is well outside the top 10 or 20.
BTW: There is no fan in any Roku except the Roku 4.
If you want the visually best streamer get a Shield TV but if you want the greatest reliability and the best interface get a Roku 3 or the Roku Ultra.
@“LUN4R.TRIGGER” said:
See emby is Lacking apps and support for ps4 as well as most of the things I care about. I was considering just rebuilding my gaming htpc since I have everything but the Cpu and mobo but you guys are saying the windows app is trash? Because I have the harmony hub and remote and it was my next move.
The Windows store app isnt free and it’s trash. Plex Media Player is free, was trashed with an upgrade, but works providing you control it with a phone app. A 10’ remote system may work, i can’t say for certain.
So I just set up an Asus transformer(Intel atom/2gb ram) with openpht since as per usual plex is on some bullsh*t and doesn’t support 32bit and lo and behold it struggles on this too. So the consensus is that I need at least a pentium w/ 4gb of ram or a roku 3.
So emby is complete trash? It seems Less and less worth it to continue on with plex since they apparently don’t want their server working with like…any device.
@“LUN4R.TRIGGER” said:
So I just set up an Asus transformer(Intel atom/2gb ram) with openpht since as per usual plex is on some bullsh*t and doesn’t support 32bit and lo and behold it struggles on this too. So the consensus is that I need at least a pentium w/ 4gb of ram or a roku 3.
So emby is complete trash? It seems Less and less worth it to continue on with plex since they apparently don’t want their server working with like…any device.
So, you can’t get an HDMI cable from the server to the TV?
You can try Emby - but yea… it’s pretty bad.
