Problems Using The Free Plex App on Amazon Firestick Lite

mobileron

True no 4k on lite, go to firestick settings, video resolution, 1080p 50 hz if dont work drop to 720p.
The reason people say firestick no good is because its not quite plug and play,got to do some homework,lots of help on you tube

And reset router and clear cache weekly search for that..

Jenni_D

Can you explain why you say "reset router" please? (And I presume you actually mean reboot). I rarely reboot my router, and have never done so in relation to streaming.

scoot65

OK, so here's an update. 

I've cleared the Plex app cache twice, deleted Plex and re-installed the app a couple of times, restarted the Fire stick twice and also done a full factory reset........ the problem still persists.

Just to recap.

When I first got the Fire Stick Lite I downloaded the Plex app and used this for several weeks without any issues. Then I used another app for several weeks before returning to Plex. Now.....

I can run the Plex app, play a film and after anything from 5 mins to 30 mins into the film the picture will become scrambled and unwatchable, however the audio continues to play without problems.

If I press the back button and then select 'resume' (where I left off) the film will play without problem...... and then the issue returns.

This is particularly frustrating as my elderly father likes to watch the old cowboy / Western films and there's a lot on Plex which now are not good to watch.

All other apps play without problem so I doubt it's my actual internet connection / speed (10MB down / 1MB up).

Any ideas what else I can try to resolve the Plex issue? 

    

 

   

  

[Deleted User]

TLDR: Faulty hardware, overheating, power supply problems, low bandwidth are possible problems. Try the stick in a different house on a faster connection to eliminate the bandwidth issue. Check it is not getting too hot, check power supply adequate (fed from original charger not TV USB port).

Green block artefacts can be an indication of several different things - they are a symptom of an encoder or decoder being unable to process the video compression / decompression due to errors in the data, software or hardware.

I know that doesn't help you much but bear with me.

Compressed video divides the screen up into squares and performs mathematical calculation on each square to reduce the size of the data for streaming. If there is a problem with the calculations, the video decoder doesn't know what to do and it can end up being a solid block of colour. 

Here are some extreme examples





The reason it is usually green is an even longer story for another post if you are interested but is related to the YUV / YCbCr colour space used in video / photo production. Sometimes you get pink, red and blue artefacts - the corners of this square.



So here is where the errors can occur:

Encoding: When video is streamed from an online source, it is encoded at the source into a compressed format which requires powerful mathematical computations, sometimes, especially when being encoded for a low bandwidth transmission, errors occur in the calculations leaving a corrupt part of the data stream which is unable to be properly decoded by the receiver.

Transmission: This is more typical in over the air transmission such as aerial / satellite based broadcasts. Sometimes during transmission, the data becomes partially corrupted, maybe due to weather or interference. The device receiving the data make the best of what it receives but ends up showing artefacts such as the green blocks. 

Decoding: At the receiver end, in your case the Amazon Firestick, the device needs to perform mathematical calculations to reconstruct the stream of numbers into an image you see on screen - again errors can cause those artefacts. This errors can be due to software or hardware not coping with the complexity of the decoding.

So why would it be happening on your Plex / Amazon Firestick Lite:

1. The stream from Plex is not encoding correctly in unlikely given they are a reputable streaming company but possible your slow bandwidth is pushing the encoding to extremes that are just simply too much for it.

2. Errors in the data transmission are possible, usually a video stream is sent via UDP protocol which means any dropped packets of data are lost forever. Some streaming apps will negotiate retransmission of the packets if it is significant, but ignore anything below a certain threshold - eg up to 2.5% can be lost without much issue. They will also alter the streaming quality to compensate - maybe Plex isn't doing this as well as other services. Maybe the slow bandwidth is limiting the ability to do this.

3. Errors in the decoding - possible but could be software problems with the Plex app or the codecs used, but I'd expect you would see it consistently throughout the movie, however with your bandwidth being so low, it is possible Plex are using some really extreme compression that the Firestick is struggling to decode - it requires more CPU power to decode a heavily compressed stream.

4. Hardware issues that occur after a period of time - possible could be something like overheating in the Firestick causing it to throttle the decoder and therefore skip some parts of the image in an attempt to keep the movie flowing. Power supply problems could cause this as well.

Now I know you said it is ok on other streaming services, but each provider does things slightly differently when it comes to all the above and it is possible the Plex stream is putting more strain on the device. Plex free is 720p only so the Firestick might be working harder to upscale to 1080p for your TV's native resolution than other streaming services - maybe try on 720p setting to see if it eliminates the problem.

Whenever the green artefacts issue comes up with PC related problems - the solution is often to switch off hardware acceleration for video decoding - it happens sometimes with Youtube video - which again is pointing towards the way the decoding is performing.

Also try in another HDMI port just to eliminate that as well - are you using the extender for example? Check connections nice and tight. 

As per my first comment at the start of the thread - did you check system updates?

Failing all the above being helpful, try the Plex forums for help, try Amazon support and maybe return as faulty and try a replacement.

mobileron

why dont u delete Plex and reinstall again,also try reset on firestick settings and turn of router for 2 minutes once a week, to clear router cache.

debitcardmayhem

mobileron said:

why dont u delete Plex and reinstall again,also try reset on firestick settings and turn of router for 2 minutes once a week, to clear router cache.

Why ? what cache

Jenni_D

I'm glad it's not just me wondering about this 😎

scoot65

Many thanks for the replies and especially for the detailed response from tallmansix.
I'll digest that information and will do as suggested.

To answer some questions:-

When the issues occurs, the picture looks very similar to the first example posted by tallmansix (maybe even more scrambled with green blocks).

As far as I'm aware the fire stick and Plex app are unto date. I've done a factory reset on the 'stick and re-downloaded Plex which I resume will have the lasted software version.

The fire stick is powered by the power cable plugged into a wall socket (not a USB on the TV)

I am using the small extender which cam with the firestick and i'm using another HDMI port on the TV.

Thanks again for the replies, all very much appreciated! 

  

[Deleted User]

debitcardmayhem said:

mobileron said:

why dont u delete Plex and reinstall again,also try reset on firestick settings and turn of router for 2 minutes once a week, to clear router cache.

Why ? what cache

Cache might be the wrong word for it but routers do have RAM which stores things like routing tables, DHCP records, DNS cache among other things.

They usually run a Linux based minimal operating system and like many OS's can run into memory issues with long uptimes if a process doesn't release memory.

I see the RAM usage on my router gradually creep up with long uptime, it is around 470MB straight after a reboot and is sitting at 510MB now with 12 days uptime - and that's for a powerful router with 1GB of RAM, cheap ISP ones probably don't have so much spare resources.

I have first hand experience of a router reboot solving problems, when working from home started last year, my helpdesk was swamped with calls about poor connectivity - at least half of them were resolved by asking the user to reboot their router. Some users said their router hadn't been power cycled for "years".

Weekly is probably not necessary though, I only reboot mine every few months for firmware updates or config changes.

debitcardmayhem

Deleted_User said:

Cache might be the wrong word for it but routers do have RAM which stores things like routing tables, DHCP records, DNS cache among other things.

They usually run a Linux based minimal operating system and like many OS's can run into memory issues with long uptimes if a process doesn't release memory.

I see the RAM usage on my router gradually creep up with long uptime, it is around 470MB straight after a reboot and is sitting at 510MB now with 12 days uptime - and that's for a powerful router with 1GB of RAM, cheap ISP ones probably don't have so much spare resources.

I have first hand experience of a router reboot solving problems, when working from home started last year, my helpdesk was swamped with calls about poor connectivity - at least half of them were resolved by asking the user to reboot their router. Some users said their router hadn't been power cycled for "years".

Weekly is probably not necessary though, I only reboot mine every few months for firmware updates or config changes.

Come on big boy you are running ASUS yes? Tell me which routers run windows or anything than linux based os's . Mine is running at 265 out of 512 . Tell me how a rebooting a router can help with a firestick? To be honest they are not the most user friendly pieces of kit , hiding behind the TV screen etc. Better solution is unplug the TV and wait 30 Secs. Just being a devil's advocate