Plex & regular issue with it.

Uptown_Boy

The TV app (or rather the player that it uses) can't process the original source so it needs the server to transcode it. Likewise for the native Plex client on the Firestick. The Plex app within Kodi can handle the original source (possibly to do with the player used within Kodi having the right codecs installed) so doesn't need the server to transcode.

JustAnotherSaver

Well i suppose the only thing to do now then is to see whether playing it through Plex on Kodi is a smooth and flawless experience or not.

Uptown_Boy

Left-field thought ... is your PC overheating having to do all the transcoding so the CPU goes into "limp" mode and throttles the performance?

Might be worth running a CPU temperature monitoring app and see what's happening.

JustAnotherSaver

Perhaps something to look at. What is a safe temperature range? 

The PC is 10 years old now (was fairly quick in its time but won't be by todays standards). I was going to build another but there's always something else coming up that wants to empty my wallet instead. 

Sandtree

JustAnotherSaver said:

Nope, i haven't tried watching a movie on a phone. Bit too small a screen for me i'm afraid. I have tried through other means (on the TV) though. I tried it on the fire stick (as in the official app on the fire stick, not through Kodi on the fire stick). I didn't actually watch a full movie through it, i just tried it out to see what it was like as i noticed each player is different in some way.

Plex may not list Panasonic as a supported brand and IIRC i contacted Panasonic who IIRC also said there was no Plex app yet one day when I was scrolling through the poor offering of apps on my TV i noticed the Plex app was actually listed - so i installed it and that is what i mostly use.

As a side note, is Emby better than Plex in any way?

It would be sensible to at least leave it running on a mobile or the Fire Stick even if you aren’t watching it so you can determine if this is an issue with your server or your client.

The fact that Plex themselves still say it isnt supported suggests its a third party effort to get it onto the Panasonic TV. Whilst Samsung is now supported our old TV had a third party Plex client and it was buggy compared to running on our AppleTV.

We now have an LG TV and still all the streaming services like Netflix, Plex, iPlayer etc all run more reliably on our AppleTV 4k than on the LG’s apps. 

Uptown_Boy

JustAnotherSaver said:

1) Perhaps something to look at. What is a safe temperature range? 

2) The PC is 10 years old now (was fairly quick in its time but won't be by todays standards). I was going to build another but there's always something else coming up that wants to empty my wallet instead. 

1) Anything above 70°C and I'd be looking at it - especially for a desktop PC. (Laptops CPUs tend to run hotter anyway than desktops ... where a desktop may normally run at 40°C a laptop doing exactly the same may run nearer 50°C)

2) When was the last time you cleaned it out? (Fans, CPU heatsink, etc.)

dan958

Have you checked your plex debug logs?

CoastingHatbox

Uptown_Boy said:

Left-field thought ... is your PC overheating having to do all the transcoding so the CPU goes into "limp" mode and throttles the performance?

Might be worth running a CPU temperature monitoring app and see what's happening.

Hence I keep saying, check windows logs with event viewer and look for events that correlate with the streaming disruption

JustAnotherSaver

Uptown_Boy said:

2) When was the last time you cleaned it out? (Fans, CPU heatsink, etc.)

Lockdown.

The original one that is where people did as they were told. Not this second paper lockdown/mockdown thing we just had.

Some fans out (what i could) wiped down. Compressed air in to the CPU (stopped blades from turning). Same with the graphics card and drives. Memory modules out and all that blown out. PSU out and blown out.

I'm sure you can go much much more detailed but i did the best i could.

dan958 said:

Have you checked your plex debug logs?

Whoa, easy tiger!

What??

What are they when they're at home, how do i check them and when would i check them?

Sandtree said:

It would be sensible to at least leave it running on a mobile or the Fire Stick even if you aren’t watching it so you can determine if this is an issue with your server or your client.

How would i know if it has buffered then?

Will there be a detailed description somewhere to say error? As i wont be watching the movie in my phone or whatever. I'd just leave it running and go about my business some time. I wont know if it's finished playing the movie or if it's 'tripped out' will I?

Sandtree

JustAnotherSaver said:
How would i know if it has buffered then?

Will there be a detailed description somewhere to say error? As i wont be watching the movie in my phone or whatever. I'd just leave it running and go about my business some time. I wont know if it's finished playing the movie or if it's 'tripped out' will I?

JustAnotherSaver said:

The movie plays perfectly fine but then it seems once it's about 20-40 mins from the end (or since most movies are roughly the same length, give or take, it's more than likely a certain amount of time in) i get the 3 yellow dots, the movie stops for a while and then exits.

Given you say its happen at the same time roughly you can just pop back at the point it becomes a problem and double check... else do watch it on your Fire Stick next time you want to watch a movie and then it will be self evident if it gets to the end or cuts out.

As a random thought, if you reset the movie to Unwatched and watch a film until it crashes does Plex mark it as Part Watched or Watched? Assuming its the former then there’d be another way to see if it got to the end without crashing or not if the idea of checking at the appropriate time sounds like too much hassle.