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CRACK FIRE BEATS
Sep 11, 2001

Colt Cannon posted:

Well, I figured out part of my problem with Chromecast. I had my server setup via WIFI, because I wanted to have it in a room that no one really used, so that it wouldn't randomly spin up when I wanted to watch/download/whatever something. Turns out the card I was using would randomly drop down to 5 Mbits speed, and that is right when whatever I was playing would start skipping.

Ran some wire to it, and now have it hardwired into my router, and it works like a charm.

If your server is connecting to Chromecast via WIFI, you may want to check it out, and try to hard wire that poo poo in. I never realized just how lovely my cheapo depo wifi card was till now.

Same situation, I have my file server in a spare bedroom so I don't have to see or hear it. I'm using an ethernet over power solution from WD and I haven't had any buffering issues with Chromecast and Plex.

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Pudgygiant
Apr 8, 2004

Garnet and black? More like gold and blue or whatever the fuck colors these are
Any idea if Plex recreates the BIF files every time I force analyze a library? I've been removing poo poo like Italian and Polish subs with mkvmerge and analyzing the library after. This Plex New Transcode process has been running for 8 days now but I'm not sure if it really does take that long for an initial run or if it starts over every time I analyze the library. I suppose I can troll through the million line logfile to find out if nobody knows off the top of their head.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

Added a new hard drive to my Plex server. Now up to 8TB. Aww yeah.

eddiewalker
Apr 28, 2004

Arrrr ye landlubber
I'm getting a lot of video skips and loud audio glitches direct-playing from Plex to my Roku3. They seem to be reproducible in the same spots in the same files, but it isn't happening when playing to an iPad, or when transcoding to the Roku.

I found at least one similar complaint on the Plex forums, but the answer was just "force transcoding." The audio glitches are so loud and disturbing and playback doesn't look nearly as good transcoded, it's really making me want to trade in the Roku. Maybe for a FireTV? I haven't heard much about it since the week it launched.

Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

eddiewalker posted:

Maybe for a FireTV? I haven't heard much about it since the week it launched.

FireTV runs plex well, I'm not sure if my setup transcodes or not however.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008

Stick100 posted:

FireTV runs plex well, I'm not sure if my setup transcodes or not however.

i just picked one up myself. Did you side load or use the (outdated?) amazon app store version ?

porktree
Mar 23, 2002

You just fucked with the wrong Mexican.
I'm trying to connect to my in home Plex server from the internet. I've got port fowarding to 32400 on to the mac address of the Plex server but I still can't hit it from outside my network. Is there some setting on the Plex server I need to make so that it allows external connections?

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

I'm trying to connect to my in home Plex server from the internet. I've got port fowarding to 32400 on to the mac address of the Plex server but I still can't hit it from outside my network. Is there some setting on the Plex server I need to make so that it allows external connections?

Should just be an option to make sure is checkmarked in the server settings. This help desk article goes into a bit more detail though, regarding router configuration and what not: https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200289506

Stick100
Mar 18, 2003

Roundboy posted:

i just picked one up myself. Did you side load or use the (outdated?) amazon app store version ?

Amazon app store version. It was on sale for $1 and I had a couple of dollars in amazon coins, it seemed to make sense to pick it up for free.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008

Stick100 posted:

Amazon app store version. It was on sale for $1 and I had a couple of dollars in amazon coins, it seemed to make sense to pick it up for free.

i agree, $1 is no brainer.. but its back to $5 (a whopping $5!!!) that i dont feel like spending especially since i bought this app multiple times via google play store and roku. having a seperate amazon app store annoys the hell out of me

porktree
Mar 23, 2002

You just fucked with the wrong Mexican.

teagone posted:

Should just be an option to make sure is checkmarked in the server settings. This help desk article goes into a bit more detail though, regarding router configuration and what not: https://plexapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200289506
Ya, I'm missing something somewhere; I'm signed into Plex on the server, and on my iPad, but when I'm not on my home network, and try to add the server I get an 'unable to add connection The server returned an unexpected response'. I'm forcing the server to the port in the settings and don't see much of anything else. I can run Air Video fine.

Do I need a plex pass for this to work? That would make sense I guess.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

Ya, I'm missing something somewhere; I'm signed into Plex on the server, and on my iPad, but when I'm not on my home network, and try to add the server I get an 'unable to add connection The server returned an unexpected response'. I'm forcing the server to the port in the settings and don't see much of anything else. I can run Air Video fine.

Do I need a plex pass for this to work? That would make sense I guess.

Plex Pass isn't required to stream remotely. The only thing I can think of is your router doing some weird things whenever you make a request to your Plex Server from like a cell network or another wifi network on another device. Have you tried manually specifying a different port to forward instead of the default one?

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
First, try one of those open port checkers to see if 32400 is -really- open

I had a similar issue where I set up a new router and forwarding, but Plex.TV could not see it. Reboot the router and restart the pkexmediaserver.

If you STILL have issues, we can try adding someone to your library to see if its a local issue or what.

FogHelmut
Dec 18, 2003

I don't know if this is a plex issue or a chromecast issue - when I play things that have 5.1 audio, Plex only plays the 5.1 audio. I have no choice to use stereo instead. Why would I want stereo? Because Plex over Chromecast only sends the surround channels. I get none of the center channels. I could select stereo on my receiver, but that doesn't make a difference.

So I don't know if I'm locked into this because of Plex, or if its my setup. I do know that if I plug the Chromecast direct into my TV, Plex will play stereo. I don't know if its detecting that my receiver has surround and my TV doesn't. It seems that way.

I mean stereo isn't really important if the 5.1 actually worked.

Is there a setting in Plex that I can force some kind of audio to work?

FogHelmut fucked around with this message at 14:01 on May 7, 2014

Chin Strap
Nov 24, 2002

I failed my TFLC Toxx, but I no longer need a double chin strap :buddy:
Pillbug
How do I get Plex to use the genre tags and the like from my mp3s directly instead of going through last.fm or whatever it does? It seems to ignore GENRE from a lot of things.


Also, is there a way in folders view mode to say "play this folder"? I liked plex because I liked being able to just view my drat folder structure, but it doesn't seem to like me using that mode very much.

Poopinstein
Apr 1, 2003

Yeah you did it!
I love Plex, but I've ran into an issue. I've got a TV series, it's roughly 23 seasons and around 125gb on disk. Playing on disk is fine, however the android plex client completely shits every time you try and load the entry for this show. So, for instance, you see "Prisoner of Cell Block H - Season 1" on Plex, hit it and it tries to load all of the episodes in the 26 Prisoner folders.

I'm guessing the plex client is just choking when it's loading that many episodes in one spot since it's somewhere in the range of 368 episodes.

My folder structure is Prisoner of Cell Block H (that I created) -> Prisoner of Cell Block H (that the download created) -> Individual folders for each season.

Would be the best way to sort my folders so I can get Plex to see them 1 season at a time and avoid the client taking a dump upon trying to load? Any guesses?

notwithoutmyanus
Mar 17, 2009
Fix your naming structure as per Plex's own naming conventions. Google Plex naming TV shows and you'll see their page on this. Folder name rules are:

Show name->show name- season number->episodes of that season.

Having a download folder in the middle is the problem, because it is looking for a folder with a season name and not finding it.

notwithoutmyanus fucked around with this message at 14:51 on May 7, 2014

Grumpwagon
May 6, 2007
I am a giant assfuck who needs to harden the fuck up.

porktree posted:

I'm trying to connect to my in home Plex server from the internet. I've got port fowarding to 32400 on to the mac address of the Plex server but I still can't hit it from outside my network. Is there some setting on the Plex server I need to make so that it allows external connections?

Check in settings>server>connect if port 32400 is actually the external port. It's 25something for me, and I've never changed it.

Congobongo
Feb 6, 2004
i break for dinosaurs


Smellrose

FogHelmut posted:

I don't know if this is a plex issue or a chromecast issue - when I play things that have 5.1 audio, Plex only plays the 5.1 audio. I have no choice to use stereo instead. Why would I want stereo? Because Plex over Chromecast only sends the surround channels. I get none of the center channels. I could select stereo on my receiver, but that doesn't make a difference.

So I don't know if I'm locked into this because of Plex, or if its my setup. I do know that if I plug the Chromecast direct into my TV, Plex will play stereo. I don't know if its detecting that my receiver has surround and my TV doesn't. It seems that way.

I mean stereo isn't really important if the 5.1 actually worked.

Is there a setting in Plex that I can force some kind of audio to work?

I sort of have the same issue. My receiver is setup as a 2.1 with a center channel speaker. Over Chromecast it wants to play the 5.1 stream and the dialog audio is super quiet for me, if I use my PS3 I get the correct audio feed.

I've also noticed that my PS3 will have a higher quality feed from my PMS over Chromecast. I think this issue is because my PS3 is connected to my network over cat5.

Also anyone have issues of playing full episodes of Colbert and TDS? If I use the web client on a PC, full episodes show up but I can only play up to the first commercial break. On my handheld devices or consoles only segments of the show will appear.

porktree
Mar 23, 2002

You just fucked with the wrong Mexican.

teagone posted:

Plex Pass isn't required to stream remotely. The only thing I can think of is your router doing some weird things whenever you make a request to your Plex Server from like a cell network or another wifi network on another device. Have you tried manually specifying a different port to forward instead of the default one?
Good - I'm at work, and I ran an open port checker against my home ip, on port 32400 and it is open. If I use a browser to go to <myip>:32400/web I get the charcoal plex background and a message in the side panel giving my server name, and telling me 'We're sorry, but we can't reach the server'.

Grumpwagon posted:

Check in settings>server>connect if port 32400 is actually the external port. It's 25something for me, and I've never changed it.
Yup, just remoted into my home server and it's Manually Specified to be port 32400.

If I use the Plex ios client (remotely) when I try to add the server by ip/port it tells me "The server returned an unexpected response".

Several other things that are port forwarded to the same computer work fine (including Air Video). And of course Plex works perfect locally.

edit: Turned on debug logs and got the message ""message": "Unknown is unavailable at [url]http://[/url]<remoteip>:32400/ (Status 406)","

porktree fucked around with this message at 19:59 on May 7, 2014

Poopinstein
Apr 1, 2003

Yeah you did it!

notwithoutmyanus posted:

Fix your naming structure as per Plex's own naming conventions. Google Plex naming TV shows and you'll see their page on this. Folder name rules are:

Show name->show name- season number->episodes of that season.

Having a download folder in the middle is the problem, because it is looking for a folder with a season name and not finding it.

Success! Thanks a bunch!

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
That seems a little weird, as the only time I ever use the server ip directly was during setup. Then I entered myplex I'd, and from then on, all interaction with the server was done via http://plex.tv/web

Plex for android also uses the myplex I'd, and I did have issues until I opened that port

One thing during setup I had to manually specify to run on port x, the default was 32400. If I let Plex manage that itself, I could not see it.

porkface
Dec 29, 2000

porktree posted:

edit: Turned on debug logs and got the message ""message": "Unknown is unavailable at [url]http://[/url]<remoteip>:32400/ (Status 406)","
You've probably already tried this but...

1. Update server and all clients to latest.
2. Configure server to login to your Plex account
3. Visit http://plex.tv/web and see if you get an interface.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

porktree posted:

Good - I'm at work, and I ran an open port checker against my home ip, on port 32400 and it is open. If I use a browser to go to <myip>:32400/web I get the charcoal plex background and a message in the side panel giving my server name, and telling me 'We're sorry, but we can't reach the server'.

Yup, just remoted into my home server and it's Manually Specified to be port 32400.

If I use the Plex ios client (remotely) when I try to add the server by ip/port it tells me "The server returned an unexpected response".

Several other things that are port forwarded to the same computer work fine (including Air Video). And of course Plex works perfect locally.

edit: Turned on debug logs and got the message ""message": "Unknown is unavailable at [url]http://[/url]<remoteip>:32400/ (Status 406)","

I'm really not trying to sound like a dick, but gotta ask everything. Your Plex Server is set to stay on right? Assuming it's a PC, it's not set to go to sleep after a certain amount of time is it? Have you tried remote playback in-home with your smartphone's cell/data connection?

GutBomb
Jun 15, 2005

Dude?

Poopinstein posted:

Prisoner of Cell Block H

Is that the Australian women's prison soap opera?

ZHamburglar
Aug 24, 2006
I have a penis.
So I'm looking to build a computer that will function as a full time Plex Server. I plan on putting it in my living room on top of my TIVO and next to my modem. I wanted to place it next to the modem that way it'll have faster speed by ethernet than by wifi. My current plan is to transfer my current hard drive onto that computer and use that computer as solely a Plex server and Usenet computer that uses my TV as the monitor. I was wondering what the best option would be as far as a single tower to buy or build. It doesn't matter what whether the operating system, but the cheapest that will be able to stream 1080p quality videos would be ideal. Thanks in advance.

Poopinstein
Apr 1, 2003

Yeah you did it!

GutBomb posted:

Is that the Australian women's prison soap opera?

It is!

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008

ZHamburglar posted:

So I'm looking to build a computer that will function as a full time Plex Server. I plan on putting it in my living room on top of my TIVO and next to my modem. I wanted to place it next to the modem that way it'll have faster speed by ethernet than by wifi. My current plan is to transfer my current hard drive onto that computer and use that computer as solely a Plex server and Usenet computer that uses my TV as the monitor. I was wondering what the best option would be as far as a single tower to buy or build. It doesn't matter what whether the operating system, but the cheapest that will be able to stream 1080p quality videos would be ideal. Thanks in advance.

I went with the latest gen i7 and the cheapest mobo that would support it. 8gb of ram. This is my dedicated server so I use it for other things, but its transcoded like a champ with multiple streams.

You can get away with less, but I would not cheap out on the CPU since it will be in use a long time.

The Plex FAQ SAS 1080p streams need a CPU score on that benchmark site of at least 2000, so there is a wide range of things to choose. Just remember that cores are key, you can get away with an i3, but you don't want to skimp too much here

porktree
Mar 23, 2002

You just fucked with the wrong Mexican.

porkface posted:

You've probably already tried this but...

1. Update server and all clients to latest.
2. Configure server to login to your Plex account
3. Visit http://plex.tv/web and see if you get an interface.
Done, done and done - I checked it all again to be sure; going to the url gives me the same message " chimp We're sorry, but we can't reach this server." (Chimp is the server name).

edit: doh - remoted into my home PC, checked the settings to make sure I was 'Signed in' then noticed the giant loving orange button saying connect to Plex. Wellll, that allowed me to browse the url and see my library from the http://plex.tv/web url. Again doh. Which in turn allowed me to successfully connect at http:<myip>/web. So that's all working.

teagone posted:

I'm really not trying to sound like a dick, but gotta ask everything. Your Plex Server is set to stay on right? Assuming it's a PC, it's not set to go to sleep after a certain amount of time is it? Have you tried remote playback in-home with your smartphone's cell/data connection?
Ha, no issue - I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong or stupid. The server stays on; it get's used by the wife/kids throughout the day. I get the same issues using the cell/data connection. See my edit - I was doing something wrong and stupid :)

Thank for your help everyone.

porktree fucked around with this message at 15:00 on May 9, 2014

GutBomb
Jun 15, 2005

Dude?

When I used to live in Sweden I would watch that really late at night when I was trying to sleep. What a weird show.

It was called kvinnorfangelset there (the women's prison)

jonathan
Jul 3, 2005

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
I have a plex server running and a TV upstairs in the living room connected to the network via WiFi. Bandwidth is not good enough for 1080p streaming.

I'm confused about how to force plex server to reduce the bitrate so the TV can stream it fine. It's a 55" 1080p TV but it's across the living room so 720p is fine.

eddiewalker
Apr 28, 2004

Arrrr ye landlubber

jonathan posted:

I have a plex server running and a TV upstairs in the living room connected to the network via WiFi. Bandwidth is not good enough for 1080p streaming.

I'm confused about how to force plex server to reduce the bitrate so the TV can stream it fine. It's a 55" 1080p TV but it's across the living room so 720p is fine.

You should be able to force transcoding with bitrate limits in the player app itself.

I know the Roku and iOS apps can.

Roundboy
Oct 21, 2008
every layer has it in settings to throttle everything. when you are playing the stream you can also throttle the speed for that stream alone.

plex.tv/web server settings to can also throttle the maximum internal / external limit that any player can get up to.

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
Roku tells me that my plex trial has ended and I can't play stuff any more. :gonk: I wasn't aware that I was on trial.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

withak posted:

Roku tells me that my plex trial has ended and I can't play stuff any more. :gonk: I wasn't aware that I was on trial.

Yeah, they started charging for the app recently. Unless you installed before a specific cut-off date (not sure what it was) your app wouldn't be grandfathered in for free. If you have a Plex Pass account though, you get the Roku app for free.

TraderStav
May 19, 2006

It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

withak posted:

Roku tells me that my plex trial has ended and I can't play stuff any more. :gonk: I wasn't aware that I was on trial.

That pissed me off as well. I think I've paid Plex about $25 at this point. Id be mad but it's awesome.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

withak posted:

Roku tells me that my plex trial has ended and I can't play stuff any more. :gonk: I wasn't aware that I was on trial.

You can either sign up for a plex pass monthly/yearly/lifetime sub, pay the one-time $5 fee, or download the alternate plex player RARFlix which works just as well and has new features that eventually get rolled into the regular plex app anyways.

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe
I deleted and reinstalled the app and it works now. What was the cutoff for when they started charging? I've been using this for ~1.5 years.

teagone
Jun 10, 2003

That was pretty intense, huh?

withak posted:

I deleted and reinstalled the app and it works now. What was the cutoff for when they started charging? I've been using this for ~1.5 years.

Oh weird. No idea. Maybe an update just broke the grandfathered accounts for a bit?

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eddiewalker
Apr 28, 2004

Arrrr ye landlubber
Seriously, just ditch the official Roku app and install RarFlix. It's like two clicks from your laptop to install it. Same interface, a few extra features, free.

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