Plex freezes?

Plex Media Center bridges the gap between your NAS and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media.

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twofingertyper
Posts: 26
youtube meble na wymiar Warszawa
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 8:48 pm

Plex freezes?

Post by twofingertyper »

Hi all,

So, I've switched from XBMC to Plex in order to try to keep my faith in the ASUSTOR NAS I bought - however, even after following the guide, using handbrake to encode videos, etc - I still get points of playback where the video 'hangs' - there's a much better performance than there used to be on XBMC, but still the freezing isn't great for the solution I was hoping this would be.

Is this a known issue with a simple fix?

I have an AS-302T, and I am beginning to think that it's rather under-powered for movie playback... Which is very odd as it comes with a HDMI port!

Cheers,
TFT
MikeG.6.5
Posts: 917
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:56 am

Re: Plex freezes?

Post by MikeG.6.5 »

I would have to know a little bit more in order to try helping you with this. by "freezing" is it that the video stutters, like it's buffering? Or is it that the video freezes, and then sudden jumps ahead a ways?

If it's the later it's probably due to a bad encode. If it's the former, could it be transcoding? The way to determine this is to start a video on your player, and then log into the Plex Web App on your PC and look at the heartbeat looking thing in the top right corner. It should show a 1 and be orange. Click on that and it should show a bit of details on the streaming session.

If you click on the little "I" in the circle there, it's going to tell you if it's Direct Play or Transcode or Direct Stream. (The later two situations are ones we want to prevent on your NAS. It hasn't got the power to do the job.)

It's also helpful to know what client you are playing on? It's possible that the app itself might be a part of the problem, especially if it's not a full blown Plex Client app. I NEVER ever use DLNA so if this is what you are using, it's entirely possible this is causing the problems. DLNA is an issue for a lot of apps, and networks. If there is some sort of network congestion DLNA is going to be one of the first things to experience problems.

I can provide a bit more help after you answer these questions. If you reply, send me a PM so I know it's here. HTH!
twofingertyper
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 8:48 pm

Re: Plex freezes?

Post by twofingertyper »

Sorry - I realised later that I hadn't given the whole story but couldn't get back online to update my post.

Essentially, I have Plex on the iPad and on the TV (via the PS3 app) - on the iPad it works okay most of the time, very few freezes but just the odd one on occasion; however, when playing via the PS3 every movie will freeze - there's no set time interval (it only tends to happen once) but the movie will stop entirely for a few minutes (and be unresponsive to any commands) before starting up again.

I'll follow your suggestions on the Plex Web App and update as soon as I've had the time!

Many thanks again for your help
MikeG.6.5
Posts: 917
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:56 am

Re: Plex freezes?

Post by MikeG.6.5 »

This might be worth reading: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articl ... supported-

It's interesting to note that the PS3/4 does NOT support DTS pass through, so if you have a lot of media with DTS audio, the likely cuases of any stuttering or buffering is from that needing to be transcoded to AC3 or AAC.
twofingertyper
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 8:48 pm

Re: Plex freezes?

Post by twofingertyper »

Thanks for that - annoying to read! I wonder if I'd be better off getting a Roku stick - the other option is that I have a smart TV, so could give that a go as well (Sony HDTV, if it makes any difference)

Have checked the streaming to the iPad, and it's 'direct play' - home wireless is good and strong, and nothing else has issues with file transfers - there's less issues on the iPad, but it still happens...
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