19 replies to this topic

[jHannes]

Hi,
im new to Streaming with Plex but it works pretty well for me. I have a Synology DS412+ with Plex Media Server on it. I got a BluRay where i extracted the largest m2ts. So i got an untouched BluRay which works fine when i use the Plex Client on my Mac. But when i try to watch the Movie its realoading every like 5seconds. I changed the Buffer settings to 25/50 and 100/100 whatever. its not working :/

I have read about stuttering in this Forum a lot is it a Problem of my TV? Its working fine on my mac so it should be something with my tv. I got the Samsung UE46D6500.
1080p mkvs work fine. Did anyone manage to Stream a untouched BluRay? Or is it just to much data for the Samsung Plex app?

[Peter911]

Hi,

for me it works very well on a es-TV. Try to enable Transcoding, if your NAS has enough power. Otherwise try to use your Mac for the PMS and the transcoding option.

[Skar]

How are you playing it? Wi fi or wired lan connection? How big is the file?

[jHannes]

im playing it over wired lan. I dont want to transcode i want to keep the good quality. File is around 35GB (Untouched Bluray)
My nas is fast enough i can play that exact file on my mac without any stuttering while im watching a 1080p movie on my tv AND doing backup with Time Machine. But im not able to watch that bluray on tv i also tried other blurray m2ts files. Even a smaller one around 20GB is stuttering and needs reloading when watching via samsung plex app.
So i guess it has to be something with my tv / plex client on my tv.

Are you sure you are playing untouched bluray m2ts files like i try? (around 35-40GB per movie)

[Orca]

im playing it over wired lan. I dont want to transcode i want to keep the good quality. File is around 35GB (Untouched Bluray)My nas is fast enough i can play that exact file on my mac without any stuttering while im watching a 1080p movie on my tv AND doing backup with Time Machine. But im not able to watch that bluray on tv i also tried other blurray m2ts files. Even a smaller one around 20GB is stuttering and needs reloading when watching via samsung plex app. So i guess it has to be something with my tv / plex client on my tv. Are you sure you are playing untouched bluray m2ts files like i try? (around 35-40GB per movie)

We can only play what the TV supports. While that movie could be played straight from disc without a problem, streaming it over a network is something different.
It could also be an issue with the current bitrate, container or codecs you are using. Please check the 'From the developers' thread.
There you can find a list with all formats supported by Samsung. Usually re-encoding the file to a suitable supported format, fixes the stuttering.

[alex334]

Ok, so I am having a very similar problem. I also keep my Blu Ray files in native format. I've tried converting them to multiple formats and always notice a quality difference! Im crazy picky about video quality. I would rather have a 40 gig file than lose ANY quality....lol. Until I tried Plex I had no problem playing these files over my network on my 2010 Samsung BD player. I have an old pc with windows 7 serving my files and it has always done fine. In fact, I can watch movies in multiple rooms with no problems, it never skips or freezes. When I found Plex I was so excited to finally have cover art and the meta data instead of the default boring folders. I can get my files to play in Plex as long as I change the extension on the files to .mpg but they lock up about 10 secs in and just says loading. It never seems to "load" so I just exit out. If I didn't already know the player could handle the files I would say the BD player was the problem. Of course, this can't be since they worked fine through the Blu Ray players native interface. My guess is that the BD player can't handle the combination of running the app and playing the video at the same time. (maybe a lack of memory) I am open to any suggestions that anyone may have. If all else fails I'll try a new BD player but I would rather avoid that.

[Orca]

Ok, so I am having a very similar problem. I also keep my Blu Ray files in native format. I've tried converting them to multiple formats and always notice a quality difference! Im crazy picky about video quality. I would rather have a 40 gig file than lose ANY quality....lol. Until I tried Plex I had no problem playing these files over my network on my 2010 Samsung BD player. I have an old pc with windows 7 serving my files and it has always done fine. In fact, I can watch movies in multiple rooms with no problems, it never skips or freezes. When I found Plex I was so excited to finally have cover art and the meta data instead of the default boring folders. I can get my files to play in Plex as long as I change the extension on the files to .mpg but they lock up about 10 secs in and just says loading. It never seems to "load" so I just exit out. If I didn't already know the player could handle the files I would say the BD player was the problem. Of course, this can't be since they worked fine through the Blu Ray players native interface. My guess is that the BD player can't handle the combination of running the app and playing the video at the same time. (maybe a lack of memory) I am open to any suggestions that anyone may have. If all else fails I'll try a new BD player but I would rather avoid that.

Go to preferences and change the buffer settings. Start with 1-1-1, if it still stutters on big files try a bit higher like 5-5-10, see if that helps.

[alex334]

Go to preferences and change the buffer settings. Start with 1-1-1, if it still stutters on big files try a bit higher like 5-5-10, see if that helps.

Thank you so much for your quick response! I have tried these settings (and others) and unfortunately they did not help. It seems like, regardless of the setting, the videos still freeze within seconds. Some of them do work, like Bolt or UP. The higher bitrate movies like Avatar however do not. I decided to try a 2012 Blu Ray player. The 2012 BD players do not play these files correctly, and the Plex app crashes, a lot. However, the 2012 player did play the files in the Plex app as well as they do natively. So it seems Samsung did something in their new players that fixed one problem but caused another. I assume these new players have more memory so they can buffer these files correctly to get them to play but they don't seem to be decoding them as well as the 2010 models. (go figure) I just can't seem to win!!!! Its funny that the 2011 and 2012 smart tvs handle these files flawlessly but only a 2010 BD player will. Unless you have another suggestion I might be out of luck until I can upgrade my TV.

[Orca]

I have an BD-ES6000 2012 model, but it works fine, I can play all the movies that work on my D7000 TV. Even Avatar in 3D, so something is not right on your end.
Did you try to uninstall the app, restart the device and then re-install? (don't forget to reset the buffers after that)

[alex334]

I have an BD-ES6000 2012 model, but it works fine, I can play all the movies that work on my D7000 TV. Even Avatar in 3D, so something is not right on your end.
Did you try to uninstall the app, restart the device and then re-install? (don't forget to reset the buffers after that)

I did indeed, and I have since returned the 2012 BD player out of frustration. It was a ES5900. (the highest model my local Best Buy carried) Is there a hardware difference between the 5900 and 6000? Im going to check that out. What type of files exactly are you using? I take the files direct from the disc. I do not convert the files, although I do demux them to remove the HD audio. They play beautifully on my 2010 BD player just not through Plex, its very frustrating because I do love the software. Thanks again for your suggestions.

[alex334]

Update: I bought an BD-ES6000 and it solved most of the issues. The PLEX app does not crash at all on this one. The videos play just as well through the PLEX app as they do through the native allshare software. The only problem is even this player seems to be having a little bit of an issue with these files. They play and never freeze up like on my 2010 model when using plex,but they do stutter. Not enough to make the audio go out of sync (like on the es5900) but enough to be distracting. Also, for some reason, they don't look as good as on my 2010. On my 2010 there is no noticeable difference when I play the file or when I insert the disc. On this player I do notice a sharpness/digital difference. I could maybe live with that if it not for the stutters. I guess I have no choice but to go back to my old one and not use PLEX. They look so good and play so smooth on "old faithful" that I could not get along with anything less. I just wish I could use the PLEX app and get that kind of playback.

[jHannes]

Ok so i made the same experience.
In my case i can play the Bluray files (m2ts) untouched when i put them on an externel drive and use the native Samsung player.
When i use the Plex app from Smart Hub and the exact file streamed its stuttering. Im wondering why because i can stream that file to a pc/mac without any trouble.
So i guess its some problem with the plex app for my Samsung tv

[Orca]

The stuttering comes from the fact that m2ts is not really suited for streaming and also not one of the supported types.
If you buy a diesel car, you have to put in diesel, it will not magically run on water if you put that in. Same thing here
Convert them to mp4 or any of the other supported formats and I'm pretty it will not stutter. Just give it try.

[alex334]

The stuttering comes from the fact that m2ts is not really suited for streaming and also not one of the supported types.
If you buy a diesel car, you have to put in diesel, it will not magically run on water if you put that in. Same thing here
Convert them to mp4 or any of the other supported formats and I'm pretty it will not stutter. Just give it try.

I appreciate all the help and I love the PLEX software, that is why I am trying so hard to get this to work. My files are actually .ts, which are supported. When I demux them,I remove the HD audio and it changes the container to ts. These files are actually mpeg4 or VC1 in a ts container, either of which are supported and play perfectly on any connected TV (from 2011 or 12)I've tried as well as my 2010 BD player (as long as I don't use PLEX) with no skipping. Samsung must be doing something different in their newer BD players than they did previously. That being said I am sure your right that an MP4 probably won't stutter but I am worried about quality. The idea of what I do is to get disc quality without the disc. I own the discs but I hate having to track a disc down to watch a movie. I want them available at the push of a button in any room, with no loss of quality. Fortunately, I can already do this with my 2010 players I just don't have the nice PLEX interface. :.(

[hd1080]

I appreciate all the help and I love the PLEX software, that is why I am trying so hard to get this to work. My files are actually .ts, which are supported. When I demux them,I remove the HD audio and it changes the container to ts. These files are actually mpeg4 or VC1 in a ts container, either of which are supported and play perfectly on any connected TV (from 2011 or 12)I've tried as well as my 2010 BD player (as long as I don't use PLEX) with no skipping. Samsung must be doing something different in their newer BD players than they did previously. That being said I am sure your right that an MP4 probably won't stutter but I am worried about quality. The idea of what I do is to get disc quality without the disc. I own the discs but I hate having to track a disc down to watch a movie. I want them available at the push of a button in any room, with no loss of quality. Fortunately, I can already do this with my 2010 players I just don't have the nice PLEX interface. :.(

Why are you worried about quality? MP4 is also only a container. Did you try to put the video and audio file in a mkv container?

[jHannes]

I will try to mux some movies to .ts
But im pretty sure it wont help as i got the same problem with some high quality mkvs as i see the supported audio codecs DTS-HD is nut supported. Maybe its because of the audio codec...
Im still wondering why the Samsung can play these files from an external Hard drive when they say its not supported..

But well i really love Plex too and i wanna say thank you for your help!

[jHannes]

Well i tried some movies and its acutally working much better after changing the Container to .ts ..
There is still some stuttering sometimes .. sound is going off and on every now und then at some movies. So still not going well with ts but way better then m2ts..

[Nepenthe]

I also keep it in its natural format. I rip it to an .iso on a NAS drive. I have een running both XBMC and Plex for over a year now. XBMC runs the movies perfectly. I also have a WD Live Hub( this thing I hate), but it still plays the Blu-ray files Ok. I have not been able to play any Blu-Ray's on Plex. I would love to, because of the ease of the menu system I could put these in the kids room and they could run them. Especially if the Raspberry Pi ever gets Plex.
I hope I am not post stealing to bad, it is just I would love to figure this out.

Thanks Nepenthe

[dane22]

I also keep it in its natural format. I rip it to an .iso on a NAS drive. I have een running both XBMC and Plex for over a year now. XBMC runs the movies perfectly. I also have a WD Live Hub( this thing I hate), but it still plays the Blu-ray files Ok. I have not been able to play any Blu-Ray's on Plex. I would love to, because of the ease of the menu system I could put these in the kids room and they could run them. Especially if the Raspberry Pi ever gets Plex.
I hope I am not post stealing to bad, it is just I would love to figure this out.

Thanks Nepenthe

When using WD Live, you can connect to the shares of your NAS, and as such, WD Live will consider media as been local.
Same goes with XBMC, AFAIK

For Plex, however, it's another story, and link below is from their media guide, so I strongly suggest a conversion from ts files into a nother format, and then put into a container, like MKV or siml.

Note: ISO, IMG, VIDEO_TS, and other "disc image" formats are not currently compatible with streaming over the network. They'll typically only work in a desktop Plex client on the same machine as the Plex Media Server.

/Tommy

[Skar]

I will try to mux some movies to .ts
But im pretty sure it wont help as i got the same problem with some high quality mkvs as i see the supported audio codecs DTS-HD is nut supported. Maybe its because of the audio codec...
Im still wondering why the Samsung can play these files from an external Hard drive when they say its not supported..

But well i really love Plex too and i wanna say thank you for your help!

I think you need to bare in mind the bit rate of the files. Remember there are limits to bit rates for different codecs, so H.264 is limited 25Mbs. So if you are looking at MKVs with embbed DTS-HD, how big is the actual file?

So keep in mind the container, the codec and it's bit rate, not it's average bitrate, but any spikes in the bit rate. If you are storing a lot of media, it's important to keep the containter constant and be able of any limitations for the various target devices. As Dane22 pointed out, just because a device supports a plex client, that doesn't mean that their media playback capabilities are the same.

Now if I roughly correct, if you have 25MBits codec, then for a 2 hour movie, that would be 25 * 60 sec * 60 minutes * 2 hours = 180,000Mbits / 8 = 22500MB (Megabytes) = so in theory a max filesize of 22.5GB. However the problem isn't when the bit rate is under 25Mbs, it's when it spikes over 25Mbs. So you may have a movie less than 22.5GB but you may find the spikes over 25Mbs are causing you a problem.