Streaming from Plex

Love4sound

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Dear Fm's

I want to stream movies and tv shows that i download in my shield using plex. Its working but the performance is not up to the mark. If i want to scroll forward or backwards it takes time and not smooth as well. How can i make it fast and smooth.
 
what is your server and client? is the stream in direct play or transcode?
I am streaming from my pc. What do you mean from direct play or transcode? Could you please explain? I have installed plex server in my pc and the plex app in shield. Is there any other way?
 
There are couple of items that could impact your plex streaming. I dont use shield, I use FireTV with a server running in the network. So dont know your exact setup. But you could check these things.
1) when you are streaming from your PC, are you connected via wifi or Ethernet ? make sure that the connection speed is good from your PC to network switch and to the client. Wired is best with a gigabit switch.
2) performance of the PC. Open the task manager and check the performance of CPU, Mem etc. do the scroll and check if its choking.
3) Like EthenHunt was mentioning, sometimes file will be trancoded. This is heavy process. Refer the below link to see when it will trancode and how you could avoid that. in summary, if the file format that can be played by the client is same as file format in server, trancode will not happen.
https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-not-to-transcode/296110
4) Not familiar with sheild. But you should check if that chokes for any reason.
 
There are couple of items that could impact your plex streaming. I dont use shield, I use FireTV with a server running in the network. So dont know your exact setup. But you could check these things.
1) when you are streaming from your PC, are you connected via wifi or Ethernet ? make sure that the connection speed is good from your PC to network switch and to the client. Wired is best with a gigabit switch.
2) performance of the PC. Open the task manager and check the performance of CPU, Mem etc. do the scroll and check if its choking.
3) Like EthenHunt was mentioning, sometimes file will be trancoded. This is heavy process. Refer the below link to see when it will trancode and how you could avoid that. in summary, if the file format that can be played by the client is same as file format in server, trancode will not happen.
https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-not-to-transcode/296110
4) Not familiar with sheild. But you should check if that chokes for any reason.
I am using Ethernet connection only. Download and upload speed for my network is 90mb/ps
 
I am streaming from my pc. What do you mean from direct play or transcode? Could you please explain? I have installed plex server in my pc and the plex app in shield. Is there any other way?

Select Shield to run at original audio and video quality. If the PC is trans coding the video and if you dont have hardware transcoding enabled and/or if your PC is not powerful enough to transcode the video the stream may lag. Transcoding means your server is converting the source from one format to another.

During the playback, go to Plex webclient on PC, go to Status -> it will show the stream that is being played, and if you hover over it it will show whether it is direct play or transcoding. Else, you can enable 'Show playback information' in your shield plex settings. It should show whether the stream is in direct play or transcoding. Shield should be able to direct play most of the content.

If you don't have hardware transcoding ability on the PC, you can use Shield as server as well.
 
Select Shield to run at original audio and video quality. If the PC is trans coding the video and if you dont have hardware transcoding enabled and/or if your PC is not powerful enough to transcode the video the stream may lag. Transcoding means your server is converting the source from one format to another.

During the playback, go to Plex webclient on PC, go to Status -> it will show the stream that is being played, and if you hover over it it will show whether it is direct play or transcoding. Else, you can enable 'Show playback information' in your shield plex settings. It should show whether the stream is in direct play or transcoding. Shield should be able to direct play most of the content.

If you don't have hardware transcoding ability on the PC, you can use Shield as server as well.

There is no lag in the streaming. It is smooth and plays well. Only when i rewind and forward it is laggy and wont scroll back and forward. If i press back or forward instead of sliding through the scene it pauses for a while and the next or previous scene plays. And in shield if i select plex as the server the movies stored in my pc will disappear. How to use shield as a server and stream movies?
 
It may due to network delay or your PC not able to handle these request. In order to use Shield as server and movies from your PC, you need to share the movies stored on PC and add these shared folder as a network location in Shield.
 
It may due to network delay or your PC not able to handle these request. In order to use Shield as server and movies from your PC, you need to share the movies stored on PC and add these shared folder as a network location in Shield.
Ok in shield how to add the shared folder as a network location?
 
Ok so this happens to the blu ray discs as the movie is in m2ts format within subfolders with the movie file named as 052.m2ts and similar.
 
Ok so this happens to the blu ray discs as the movie is in m2ts format within subfolders with the movie file named as 052.m2ts and similar.
yes it depends upon the name of the file..remember u can always change the poster and cover image to your choice by editing individual photo..
by reading the above thread i came to know there are multiple factors in your case...
1)your PC may not be powerful enough
check whether its direct play or transcoding(pause a movie while playing and top left corner u can see its transcoding or direct play)
2)your local network speed not your internet speed should be good try to upgrade gigabit router check the throughput sometime crappy wire may be the cluprit.
3)File size matters i have a copy of interstellar 33gb 4k although i have full hd tv i get direct play from my sheild and it takes sometimes to load when u fast forward or rewind..
 
yes it depends upon the name of the file..remember u can always change the poster and cover image to your choice by editing individual photo..
by reading the above thread i came to know there are multiple factors in your case...
1)your PC may not be powerful enough
check whether its direct play or transcoding(pause a movie while playing and top left corner u can see its transcoding or direct play)
2)your local network speed not your internet speed should be good try to upgrade gigabit router check the throughput sometime crappy wire may be the cluprit.
3)File size matters i have a copy of interstellar 33gb 4k although i have full hd tv i get direct play from my sheild and it takes sometimes to load when u fast forward or rewind..
Well i think pc is fast and powerful enough
 

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Dear Fm's

I want to stream movies and tv shows that i download in my shield using plex. Its working but the performance is not up to the mark. If i want to scroll forward or backwards it takes time and not smooth as well. How can i make it fast and smooth.
Plex is good if you have top end wi-fi router, wi-fi fiendly home and a powerful PC. And you do not stream hirez movies (>= 1080p). I used it for a while and gave up in the end. Now a days I copy the movie to a pend drive and play it on TV. If the format is not supported then probably you can hookup a small RPi htpc to your TV and play it thru VLC via android remote (or choose from various other cheap solutions). Indian home concrete walls hate 5GHz wifi band :-(
 
For me its actually good just not that lighting fast. I do not use wifi. Using lan cable. If i press forward or backward it takes 2-3seconds and plays the video without any issues. Kodi sucks so many problems so using plex alone for watching movies in shield
 
There is no lag in the streaming. It is smooth and plays well. Only when i rewind and forward it is laggy and wont scroll back and forward. If i press back or forward instead of sliding through the scene it pauses for a while and the next or previous scene plays. And in shield if i select plex as the server the movies stored in my pc will disappear. How to use shield as a server and stream movies?

The FF and REW functions on Shield jump 10 seconds at a time. They do not smoothly forward or rewind like other devices (DVD player etc.). The way to FF long durations is to press the FF button many times. Sometimes keeping it pressed will cause continuous forwarding.
 
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