First off love the potential of this App but really struggling to get it working properly. Also very new to Plex so just consider you are talking to a 7 year old when you respond and I should be able to understand.
Managed to get Plex working initially but then ran into some issues that I believe are due to fundamental issues with my configuration so have explained several tests below. Ideally I want to get Plex working with the default media player and then see whether potential transcoding problems still exist.
Basically my Android device plays the movies fine if I use the standard Android Movie Player or equivalent like MX but fail playing the same media via Plex.
Plex Server version 1.1.4.2757 running on Macbook with OS 10.11.16
4 devices running Plex Apps:
- 2 IOS (iPad Pro and iPhone 6+) both running IOS 9.3.5 and Plex 4.2
- 2 Android Movie Boxes (equivalent of the Matrices G-Box MX2 but direct from China running android ver 4.2.2 And plex app ver 4.32.1.498 (758d1672).
I need to run a VPN to connect to Plex from my Media Server as Plex.tv is blocked in my location (ridiculous I know!!).
- Most of the media files have subtitles via manual SRT files - usually one but sometimes two although I have tried non subtitled files and still had issues;
- All of my media is stored on an external Hard Disk connected to the Macbook via Thunderbolt cable;
- Wifi is Apple Airport Extreme across a relatively small area so shouldn’t be any issues there.
I’ve largely focused my testing on the Android boxes as that is where the main problem exists.
1. Initial Plex App configuration - Default Media Player:
Video:
- Video quality over wifi 8.0 Mbps
- Audio boost - no
- Device supports Dolby digital, plus, & DTs - no
- Burn subtitles - automatic
- Advanced - use android media player - no
Advanced:
- Player:
- Direct stream - yes
- Direct play - auto
- H264 max - 5.1
- Use external player - no
- Player:
**With the above setup whenever I try to play anything I get a message “An error occurred while attempting to play this video. Please try restarting both the Plex Media Server and this App”. Restarting does nothing. This happens with all different movie formats. Tried several different file formats and same issue every time. **
The same files play on IOS and on the Macbook although the MKV file had some issues on IOS with the Audio due to transcoding. The Android device also plays the same media files without an issue directly using other players outside of Plex.
Note also that it takes around 10 times longer to start trying to play the files on Android as opposed to IOS which is very quick.
>>> Media server and App logs attached. The timing may be a bit different between them as getting the App logs off the Android device is hell as my the Android email treats the Zip attachment as malware and won’t send them.
2. Changed Plex App Options to use Android Media Player
One step forward - sample AVI and MP4 files run ok although they still take a few minutes to start as opposed to 15 secs on IOS.
My MKV file communicated with the server - did not error but also did not start playing. If I Display Info Overlay I see video and Audio transcode. Size 1920 x 808, transcode reason container MKV not supported. The screen goes blank and nothing changes even if left for several hours.
3. Keep Android Media Player and lower quality over wifi setting to 4 Mbps 720p
MKVs now start running after a few minutes but it runs as if in Preview Fast Forward and I can't understood Audio and video not worth watching. Transcode 1276 x 536. Container not supported.
MP4 sample worked fine but info said it was direct play. The AVI showed same Transcode message but was watchable but not perfect (slight stutter every minute or two only).
4. Used external media player (MX Player)
Once I did this I could watch all the problem movies that failed above. As a temporary work around I’m okay with this but I don’t want it as a permanent solution as I lose some Plex functionality and I believe its hiding other issues that will arise later on as I extend my use of Plex.