Selfhosted

39966 readers

574 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
No spam posting.
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
No trolling.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

HybridSarcasm@lemmy.world

HybridSarcasm@lemmy.hybridsarcasm.xyz

Plex remote access - low quality even with gigabit fiber (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by triptrapper@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey all, I'm very new to self-hosting and have no background in anything computer-related. I'll explain in as much detail as I can. I'm running Plex on a Synology DS220+. I'm using the Plex app, i.e. not using Docker (see note below).

The issue: I can watch Plex on my local network in 4K, but outside my local network it barely makes it to 720p. I thought it was an issue with my upload speed, but I got gigabit last week and it hasn't fixed the issue. I have remote access enabled in Plex through a manually-specified port. The issue persists with my own account and any friends who have access to my library.

I appreciate any advice, links or questions you can offer!

NOTE: I understand the benefits of Docker and I promise to transition in the future. I spent many hours learning and troubleshooting, and it was even functional at times, but eventually I needed something that just worked.

EDIT: You all have been so helpful and supportive. Thanks for meeting me where I'm at and sharing some potential issues.

EDIT2: I found the culprit by accident. I had UPnP enabled on my router. I turned it off and my local speeds increased significantly, and my Plex library is available remotely. I don't know how or why UPnP is related, but that's what the solution was for me. Thanks again for all your input and support.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 24 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I have three hypotheses.

There's a setting for remote streaming quality. It may be set to 720p.
The port isn't open on your router and Plex streams via a Plex relay server which limits the quality.
The CPU might not be fast enough to transcode beyond 720p and Plex might be transcoding for remote streaming.

[–] i_am_tired_boss@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Even if the port is open, Plex can sometimes use the relay server. You might want to explicitly disable that.

Also, you can check if the video is being transcoded on-the-fly by going to quality settings and seeing if it's showing up as transcoded or directplay. Sometimes you might have to force the directplay on your client device (Playback might fail if your device doesn't support the specific format).

[–] triptrapper@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the concise reply!

-Streaming quality is set to original on every device I use to access Plex.

-I still get confused about open ports, but I'll check again and make sure it's not running through relay.

-I believe the hardware should be fast enough to transcode at least a couple streams, but I'll check again.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I was talking about a server side setting under Remote Access. Check there.

[–] triptrapper@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification.

[–] c0smokram3r@midwest.social 3 points 4 months ago

The second one! That was also my issue when first setting up Plex. Found some good info on Plex forums & all is well now.